UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 

Received  October,  1894.  •  \ 

Accessions  No,£l  S^O        Class  No. 

....,^..^.. 


HISTORY 


OF 


THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND, 


FROM  THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  CHRISTIANITY 


TO   THE 


PERIOD  OF  THE  DISRUPTION  IN  1843. 


BY  THE 

REV.  ¥.  1.  HETHERINGTON,  A.M., 

TORPHICHEN. 

AUTHOR   OF  THE   "MINISTER'S   FAMILY;"   "HISTORY   OF  THE  WESTMINSTER  ASSEMBLY 
OF   DIVINES,"   ETC.,  ETC.,   ETC. 


NEC  TAMEN  CONSUMES ATUR. 


NEW  YORK: 

ROB^ERT    CARTER   &    BROTHERS, 
No.    285    BROADWAY. 

1851 


CONTENTS. 


Page 
CHAPTER        I. — From  the  Introduction  of  Christianity  into  Scotland  to  the 

Commencement  of  the  Reformation, 7 

CHAPTER       II.— From  the  Beginning  of  the  Reformation  to  the  Meeting  of  the 

first  General  Assembly,        ...*...        22 

CHAPTER     III. — From  the  first  General  Assembly,  in  1560,  to  the  year  1592, 

and  the  Great  Charter  of  the  Church,         ....        52 

CHAPTER     IV.— From  the  Great  Charter  of  the  Church,  in  1592,  to  the  Rati- 
fication of  the  Five  Articles  of  Perth,  in  the  year  1621,        .        95 

CHAPTER      V. — From  the  Ratification  of  the  Five  Articles  of  Perth,  in  the  year 

1621,  to  the  National  Covenant,  in  1638,      ....      127 

CHAPTER     VI.— From  the  Subscribing  of  the  Covenant,  in  1638,  to  the  Resto- 
ration of  Charles  II.,  in  1660,        156 

CHAPTER  VII.— From  the  Restoration  of  Charles  II.  to  the  Revolution  of  1688,  205 
CHAPTER  VIII.— From  the  Revolution,  in  1688,  to  the  Treaty  of  Union,  in  1707,  294 
CHAPTER  IX. — From  the  Union  to  the  Rise  of  the  Second  Secession,  in  1752,  322 

CHAPTER      X. — From  the  Period  of  the  Second  Secession  till  the  Assembly 

of  1841, 362 

CHAPTER     XL— From  the  Assembly  of  1841  to  the  Disruption  in  1843,    .        .      421 
APPENDIX, 475 


PREFACE. 


THE  want  of  a  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  at  once  concise  and  entire,  has 
long  been  felt.  Separate  periods  have  been  very  fully  treated  of  by  several  authors, 
leaving  for  their  successors  Attle  to  do  but  to  compress  the  voluminous  records  which 
they  had  collected ;  and  ample  materials  exist  to  fill  up  the  intermediate  chasms,  and  to 
continue  the  narrative  down  to  the  present  times.  But  as  no  attempt  has  hitherto  been 
made  to  compress  the  histories  of  these  detached  periods,  to  fill  up  the  intermediate 
chasms,  and  to  continue  the  narrative,  it  is  a  matter  of  considerable  difficulty  for  any 
person  who  has  not  much  leisure  to  spend,  nor  ready  access  to  public  libraries,  to  ol> 
tain  a  connected  view  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  throughout  its  entire  history.  Seve- 
ral very  serious  disadvantages  have  resulted  from  the  want  of  such  a  work ;  a  great 
degree  of  ignorance  has  been  allowed  to  prevail  respecting  the  true  principles  and 
character  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  ;  her  enemies  have  availed  themselves  of  this  ig- 
lorance  to  misrepresent  her  past  conduct,  to  calumniate  the  characters  of  her  Reform- 
ers and  Martyrs,  and  to  assail  her  present  proceedings,  while  many  of  her  zealous 
friends  are  without  the  means  of  vindicating  the  past  and  defending  the  present ;  and 
numbers  are  remaining  in  a  state  of  neutrality,  liable  to  be  misled,  who  require  but 
accurate  information  to  induce  them  at  once  to  give  their  cordial  support  to  the  Church 
of  their  fathers.  Nor  can  there  be  a  doubt,  that  many  are  at  present  not  merely  neu- 
tral but  hostile,  who  would  become  her  strenuous  defenders,  if  they  possessed  sufficient 
Knowledge  of  her  past  and  present  history. 

Impelled  by  these  considerations,  and  by  the  strong  persuasion,  that  by  giving  to 
the  public  a  faithful  record  of  the  scriptural  principles  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  her 
sufferings  in  defence  of  the  Redeemer's  Headship  and  of  Gospel  truth  and  purity,  and 
the  mental,  moral,  and  religious  blessings  which  she  has  been  instrumental  in  confer- 
ring on  the  kingdom,  I  should  best  aid  in  her  vindication  and  defence,  I  have  endeav- 
oured to  supply  the  long-felt  want  of  a  concise,  continuous,  and  entire  History  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland.  I  have  not  the  presumption  to  imagine  that  my  work  will  ade- 
quately supply  the  want.  For  reasons  which  seemed  to  me  imperative,  I  have  re- 
stricted myself  within  the  limits  which  prevent  the  possibility  of  giving  more  than  a 
tolerably  full  outline  of  a  subject  requiring  several  volumes  to  do  it  justice.  Much  pe- 
culiarly interesting  and  instructive  matter, — both  fitted  to  illustrate  great  principles,  and 
characteristic  of  the  interior  life  and  private  influence  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, — 
has  been  unavoidably,  and  very  reluctantly,  withheld,  that  the  continuity  of  the  main 
outline  might  not  be  broken,  nor  the  general  impression  weakened  by  minute  details. 

References  to  authorities  have  been  given  in  every  matter  of  chief  importance,  ex- 
cept where  these  are  already  well  known  and  universally  admitted.  It  would  have 
been  easy  to  have  adduced  very  many  more ;  but  while  a  superfluous  array  of  refer- 
ences appears  to  me  to  savour  of  ostentation,  and  can  be  of  little  consequence  to  the 
general  reader,  for  whom  chiefly  this  work  is  intended,  it  is  believed,  that  those  who 
wish  to  prosecute  their  acquaintance  with  the  subject,  will  find  enough  to  authenticate 
every  statement,  and  to  direct  them  to  sources  where  more  minute  details  may  be  ob- 
tained. I  have  preferred  to  quote  the  testimony  of  opponents  rather  than  that  of 
friends,  in  many  instances,  as  less  liable  to  be  disputed ;  and  when  several  authorities 
support  the  same  account,  I  have  given  the  one  most  generally  known,  rather  than  the 
rarer,  that  the  reader  might  the  more  easily  verify  my  statement,  if  so  disposed.  The 
edition  of  Knox's  History  of  the  Reformation  to  which  reference  is  made,  is  that  which 
Dr.  M'Crie  regarded  as  the  most  authentic.  No  pains  have  been  spared  in  the  investi-. 
gation  of  every  point  respecting  which  conflicting  opinions  have  been  entertained ;  and 
in  forming  my  own  judgment  I  have  been  guided  chiefly  by  the  testimony  of  those 
who  were  amply  acquainted  with  the  events  which  they  related,  and  whose  characters 
give  the  highest  value  to  their  evidence. 


vi  PREFACE. 

With  regard  to  the  sentiments  contained  in  the  work,  I  cannot  but  be  aware,  that 
while  stating  my  own  feelings  and  opinions,  what  I  have  written  will  not  be  equally 
agreeable  to  all.  I  have  no  wish  to  give  unnecessary  offence  to  any ;  but  in  my 
opinion,  no  person  ought  to  attempt  to  write  history,  who  has  not  both  an  honest  de- 
sire to  ascertain  the  truth,  and  sufficient  courage  to  state  it  freely  and  impartially  when 
ascertained.  And  it  is  perfectly  impossible  to  write  the  History  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  without  relating  events  which  cannot  fail  to  excite  strong  moral  indignation 
against  the  two  systems  by  which  that  Church  has,  at  different  periods,  been  perse- 
cuted and  oppressed.  It  has  been  my  desire  to  abstain  from  unnecessary  asperity  of 
language,  even  when  detailing  acts  of  perfidy  and  cruelty,  rarely  equalled  in  the  annals 
of  persecution ;  not  because  I  think  that  Scottish  Prelacy  has  any  peculiar  claim  to  be 
leniently  treated,  but  because  the  plain  and  simple  statement  of  the  truth  will  best  dis- 
play the  spirit  and  character  of  that  intolerant  system. 

Painful,  indeed,  has  been  the  task  of  tracing  the  course  of  worldly  policy  and  eccle- 
siastical corruption  and  despotism,  which  prevailed  throughout  the  last  century  and  the 
oeginning  of  the  present;  and  most  reluctantly  have  I  felt  myself  constrained  to  record 
the  deeds  which  were  done  in  Scotland  during  the  long  reign  of  Moderatism.  But  it 
was  felt  to  be  an  imperative  duty  to  do  so,  both  as  required  by  historical  fidelity,  and 
as  rendered  peculiarly  necessary  by  the  present  circumstances  of  the  Church.  It  would 
be  a  very  instructive  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  errors  which  the  spirit  of  the  world 
has  superinduced  upon  Christianity,  to  give  a  full  view  of  the  rise,  progress,  and  com- 
plete developement  of  the  system  which  has  been  called  Moderatism.  I  have  not, 
however,  sought  to  do  so,  further  than  appeared  absolutely  necessary  for  the  purpose 
of  displaying  so  much  of  its  real  essence  and  character  as  might  sufficiently  prove, 
that  the  true  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland  is  not  justly  chargeable  with  the  actions 
of  a  secular  system,  which  had  its  origin  in  hostile  elements,  which  gradually  usurped, 
and  long  exercised  over  her  the  most  cruel  and  oppressive  tyranny,  and  whose  whole 
procedure  was  one  continuous  endeavour  to  destroy  her  principles  and  subvert  her  con- 
stitution. 

To  those  Gentlemen  who  have  kindly  favoured  me  with  the  perusal  of  valuable 
books,  to  which  I  could  not  otherwise  have  easily  obtained  access,  I  take  this  oppor- 
tunity of  returning  my  grateful  thanks.  And  I  now  lay  my  work  before  the  public,  in 
the  hope,  that  what  was  undertaken  solely  from  a  strong  conviction  of  duty  to  the  Di- 
vine Head  of  the  Church,  to  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  to  my  countrymen  in  gen- 
eral, may,  through  the  blessing  of  God,  be  of  some  avail  in  removing  ignorance  and 
prejudice,  correcting  erroneou's  misrepresentations,  and  enabling  the  community  to 
form  an  accurate  conception  of  the  real  principles  and  character  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland. 

In  preparing  this  edition  of  the  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  it  has  been 
thought  expedient  to  continue  the  narrative  of  events  till  the  Disruption  which  took 
place  in  May  last,  and  resulted  in  the  formation  of  what  is  now  termed  THE  FREE 
CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND, — in  which  are  still  preserved  entire  the  constitutional  principles, 
the  unfettered  freedom,  the  vital  energy,  the  doctrinal  purity,  and  the  spiritual  fervency, 
that  have,  in  its  best  periods,  always  distinguished  the  testimony-bearing  Church  of 
our  fathers. 

W.  M.  H. 

FREE  MANSE,  TORPHICHEN, 
October  1843. 


HISTORY 


OF   THE 


CHURCH   OF   SCOTLAND. 


CHAPTER  I. 

TROM  THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  INTO 
SCOTLAND,  TO  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE 
REFORMATION. 

Introductory  Remarks— Statement  of  General  Princi- 
ples involved  in  all  Church  History — Divine  Truth 
infused  into  the  Social  System— Opposition  from 
Man's  Fallen  Nature— Characteristic  Principles  of 
different  Churches— Of  the  Church  of  Scotland— In- 
troduction of  Christianity  into  Scotland— The  Cul- 
dees—Peculiarities  of  their  System — Introduced  into 
England — Augustine  the  Monk— He  and  his  followers 
oppose  the  Culdees— They  retire  to  Scotland— The 
Prelatic  System  of  Rome  introduced — the  Culdees 
at  length  overborne  and  suppressed — The  leading 
Tenets  of  the  Culdees— Progress  of  Popery— Its 
Wealth  and  Power— State  of  Scotland  at  the  Com- 
mencement of  the  Reformation. 

THERE  are  certain  general  principles 
involved  in  all  Church  History,  greatly 
more  profound  in  their  character  and.im- 
portant  in  their  consequences  than  those 
which  appear  in,  or  can  be  deduced  from, 
the  records  of  Civil  History.  The  civil 
historian  has  to  deal  with  man  merely  as 
the  mortal  inhabitant  of  this  world ;  and, 
however  deeply  his  philosophical  know- 
ledge of  the  human  mind  may  enable 
him  to  penetrate  into  those  undeclared 
motives  by  which  sovereigns  and  states- 
men are  often  influenced,  and  the  affairs 
of  nations  controlled,  there  is  still  one  de- 
partment, and  that  the  mightiest  of  all, 
into  which  it  is  not  his  province  to  enter. 
He  may  unravel  the  twisted  intrigues  of 
mere  worldly  policy ;  he  may  detect  and 
confute  the  sophistries  of  worldly  wis- 
dom ;  but,  except  he  be  something  more 
than  a  philosophical  historian,  he  will 
remain  utterly  unable  to  understand  the 
meaning  and  the  power  of  conscience, 


influenced  by  religion,  and  impelling 
men  frequently  to  act  directly  contrary 
to  every  thing  which  he  would  deem 
politic  and  expedient.  Not  only  this 
class  of  motives,  but  the  course  of  events 
also,  will  often  be  found  to  lie  equally 
beyond  his  reach  adequately  to  compre- 
hend and  explain.  He  will  often  find 
means  and  arrangements  apparently  the 
wisest  and  most  sufficient,  utterly  fail  of 
accomplishing  the  proposed  end ;  while 
others,  which  seem  ill  advised  and  feeble, 
will  be  crowned  with  the  most  remarka- 
ble success.  Frequently,  therefore,  must 
he  content  himself  with  recording  the 
course  of  events,  of  which  the  impelling 
causes  and  controlling  agencies  are  to 
him  altogether  unknown.  Man  as  he 
is,  in  short,  impelled  by  the  passions  and 
allured  by  the  interests  of  his  known  and 
common  nature, — circumscribed,  as  he 
at  present  appears,  within  the  limits  of 
space  and  time,  of  his  earthly  pursuits 
and  mortal  life, — forms  the  object  of  the 
civil  historian's  important  yet  incomplete 
researches. 

But  Church  History  has  to  deal  with 
the  deeds  and  characters  of  men  in  that 
very  department  into  which  the  civil  his- 
torian cannot  enter.  It  views  man  as  a 
moral  and  spiritual  being,  fallen  from  his 
original  condition  of  purity  and  happi- 
ness, the  slave  of  guilty  passions,  degra- 
ded by  low  and  grovelling  pursuits,  and 
blindecr  by  inveterate  prejudices,  yet  ca- 
pable of  recovery  from  his  depraved  and 
miserable  condition,  and  at  present  under 
a  dispensation  divinely  fitted  to  restore 


8 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


him  to  more  than  the  purity  and  eleva- 
tion from  which  he  fell.  He  is  seen, 
therefore,  as  constantly  impelled  by  the 
one  or  the  other  of  two  contending  influ- 
ences, directly  hostile  to  each  other ; — 
the  one,  the  influence  of  his  fallen  and 
corrupt  nature,  striving  to  perpetuate  all  its 
own  evil  tendencies,  and  to  impede  and 
pervert  all  the  efforts  of  its  opponent ;  the 
other,  the  influence  of  revealed  religion, 
of  Christianity,  striving  to  expel  corrup- 
tion, remove  prejudices,  and  heal  the 
moral  maladies  of  the  soul,  by  the  infu- 
sion of  the  new  and  sacred  principles  of 
eternal  truth.  Church  History  has,  there- 
fore, for  its  peculiar  province,  the  infu- 
sion into  the  soul  of  fallen  man  of  the 
sacred  principles  of  divine  revealed  truth, 
— their  influence  in  the  social  system,  as 
they  strive  to  pervade  and  mould  it  anew, 
— the  opposition  which  they  meet  with 
from  the  inherent  depravity  of  the  heart, 
— the  struggles  of  these  contending  in- 
fluences of  good  and  evil,  of  the  world 
and  religion, — the  convulsions  occasion- 
ally thereby  produced, — and  the  changes 
which  take  place  in  the  aspect  and  struc- 
ture of  society,  as  the  one  or  the  other 
from  time  to  time  obtains  ascendency, 
puts  forth  its  power,  and  exhibits  its  na- 
tive character.  It  is  thus  evident  that  the 
history  of  the  Church  of  any  land  is  the 
history  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  life  of 
that  land  j  and  that  it  claims,  as  its  own 
peculiar  domain,  that  very  region  of 
moral  and  spiritual  principles  and  mo- 
tives into  which  the  secular  historian,  as 
such,  cannot  even  enter,  and  yet  without 
some  knowledge  of  which,  much  of  what 
is  most  important  in  the  history  of  every 
nation  can  never  be  understood  and  ex- 
plained. 

In  tracing  the  Church  History  of  any 
country,  we  must  expect  to  meet  with 
much  that  we  must  both  deplore  and 
condemn.  For  although  the  principles 
which  Christianity  introduces  into  the 
soul  of  man,  and  thereby  into  the  social 
system,  are  in  themselves  absolutely  per- 
fect, yet  they  are  rarely  perfectly  re- 
ceived, and  never  have  been  perfectly 
developed.  Divine  truth  does  not,  in- 
deed, contract  any  portion  of  human  error 
by  entering  into  the  mind  of  man  ;  but 
tlie  depraved  and  prejudiced  human  mind 
obtains  in  general  only  a  partial  recep- 
tion and  distorted  view  of  its  great  prin- 


ciples. The  inevitable  consequence  is, 
that  its  genuine  effects  are  very  greatly 
impaired  by  the  disturbing  influence  of 
human  depravity  and  prejudice.  Some 
of  the  most  important  religious  principles 
are  frequently  obscured,  because  they 
have  been  either  imperfectly  understood, 
or  are  so  opposed  to  the  natural  predilec- 
tions of  fallen  man  as  to  be  disliked,  and 
therefore  perverted.  They  do  indeed  re- 
appear from  time  to  time,  as  peculiar 
junctures,  under  the  guiding  of  Divine 
Providence,  call  them  forth ;  until  their 
true  character  and  value  being  thus  forced 
upon  the  perception  of  the  general  mind, 
they  are  at  length  received,  and  oppor- 
tunity thereby  given  for  the  similar  pro- 
cess of  developement  to  others,  which 
had  been  equally  neglected  or  opposed. 
This  is  the  case,  whether  such  principles 
have  direct  reference  to  the  government, 
the  doctrine,  or  the  discipline  of  the 
Christian  Church,  as  might  easily  be 
shown  from  the  general  records  of 
Church  History. 

There  is  also  a  necessary  continuity 
of  character,  as  of  being,  in  the  life  and 
history  of  any  Church ;  and  that  charac- 
ter can  never  be  rightly  understood,  how- 
ever familiar  we  may  be  with  the  details 
of  its  general  history,  unless  we  have  a 
clear  and  true  conception  of  those  lead- 
ing principles  which  have  always  formed 
the  master  element  of  its  essential  exist- 
ence. By  keeping  them  steadily  in  view, 
we  shall  be  able  to  trace  distinctly  all  the 
various  changes  and  alternations  of  its 
course,  marking  and  understanding  not 
merely  those  external  events  which  are 
manifest  to  the  world,  but  those  unseen 
influences  which  move,  and  mould,  and 
animate  the  whole.  Even  in  periods  of 
comparative  stagnation,  when  there  seems 
to  be  a  cessation  of  all  active  and  vital 
impulses,  the  knowledge  of  what  forms 
the  essential  characteristics  of  a  national 
Church  may  enable  us  to  detect  the 
otherwise  imperceptible  progress  of  a 
deep  and  calm  under-current,  preparing 
for  some  new  and  mighty  developement 
of  silently-ripened  energies,  by  which 
the  whole  structure  of  society  may  be 
convulsed,  and  constrained  to  assume  a 
new  aspect,  more  in  conformity  with  the 
character  of  its  inward  moral  and  reli- 
gious life. 

Every  person  who  has  paid  much  at- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


tention  to  Church  History  must  be  aware 
that,  of  the  great  leading  principles  of 
Christianity,  some  have  been  held  in  pe- 
culiar reverence,  and  defended  with  pe- 
culiar determination,  by  one  national 
Church,  and  some  by  another ;  and  from 
this  has  arisen  in  each  that  distinctive 
characteristic  by  which  the  various  por- 
tions of  the  Church  general  maintain 
their  individuality,  notwithstanding  their 
common  resemblance.  It  would  require 
too  wide  a  survey,  and  perhaps  involve  a 
discussion  too  vague,  to  point  out  the  dis- 
tinctive characteristics  of  the  chief  na- 
tional Churches  throughout  the  Christian 
world  ;  but  there  can  be  little  difficulty 
in  making  specific  mention  of  that  great 
Christian  principle  which  the  Church  of 
Scotland  has  always  striven  to  realize 
and  defend, — namely,  THAT  THE  LORD 
JESUS  CHRIST  is  THE  ONLY  HEAD  AND 
KING  OF  THE  CHURCH  ;  whence  it  fol- 
lows, by  necessary  consequence,  THAT 
ITS  GOVERNMENT  is  DERIVED  FROM  HIM 

ALONE,  AND  IS  DISTINCT  FROM,  AND  NOT 
SUBORDINATE  IN  ITS  OWN  PROVINCE  TO,  THE 

CIVIL  MAGISTRATE.  The  very  remote- 
ness of  Scotland  from  Rome,  the  seat  first 
of  imperial,  and  subsequently  of  ecclesi- 
astical power,  tended  to  allow  for  a  time 
a  more  free  developement  of  that  great 
principle,  and  of  its  legitimate  conse- 
quences, than  would  have  been  possible 
had  it  been  more  accessible  to  the  influ- 
ence of  Roman  supremacy.  It  might, 
perhaps,  be  thought  by  some,  that  the 
Presbyterian  form  of  church  government, 
rather  than  the  great  principle  of  the  sole 
Sovereignty  of  Christ,  has  been,  and  is, 
the  characteristic  tenet  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland.  But  it  requires  only  a  little 
deeper  investigation,  or  profounder 
thought,  to  enable  any  impartial  and  un- 
prejudiced person  to  see,  that  the  great 
principle  of  Christ's  sole  Sovereignty 
must  prohibit  the  Church  which  holds  it 
from  the  adoption  of  any  merely  human 
inventions  or  arrangements  in  that  form 
of  government  which  He  has  given  to 
the  Church,  his  free  spiritual  kingdom, 
of  which  the  Holy  Scriptures  contain  the 
only  authoritative  enactment  and  declara- 
tion. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  enter  here  into 
the  controversy  respecting  forms  of 
church  government,  farther  than  merely 
to  state  our  full  conviction,  that  it  can  be 


proved,  and  often  has  been  proved,  that 
the  Episcopalian,  or  rather  let  us  term  it 
now,  and  throughout  this  work,  the  Pre- 
latic  form  of  church  government,  is  one 
of  merely  human  invention ;  whilst  the 
Presbyterian  is  of  divine  origin  and  au- 
thority, and  consequently  is  that  which 
would  of  necessity  be  adopted  and  re- 
tained by  any  Church  which  held  as  its 
leading  principle  the  sole  headship  and 
kingly  dominion  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  But  it  is  enough  at  present 
merely  to  have  stated  these  general  prin- 
ciples, and  suggested  their  application. 
If  the  candid  reader  will  bear  them  in 
mind  during  his  perusal  of  the  following 
pages,  he  will  soon  be  able  to  decide  for 
himself  respecting  their  truth  and  their 
importance. 

The  first  introduction  of  Christianity 
into  Scotland  cannot,  it  appears,  be  now 
exactly  ascertained.  It  would  be  in  vain 
to  refer  to  the  legendary  records  of  an- 
cient Scottish  kings,  given  by  some  of 
our  historians,  as  furnishing  authoritative 
information  respecting  the  events  of  a  pe- 
riod so  far  beyond  the  boundaries  of  our 
nation's  authentic  annals.  Perhaps  the 
earliest  indication  that  the  light  of  Chris- 
tianity had  begun  to  dawn  upon  the  re- 
mote regions  of  Caledonia,  that  can  at 
all  be  depended  upon,  may  be  found  in 
the  words  of  Tertullian,  who  asserts,  that 
"  those  parts  of  Britain  which  were  inac- 
cessible to  the  Romans  had  become  sub- 
ject to  Christ."  And  although  we  are 
not  to  attach  to  the  fervid  language  of  a 
rhetorician  the  same  degree  of  credit 
which  we  yield  to  the  direct  statements 
of  a  historian,  yet,  remembering  the  ex- 
treme rapidity  with  which  Christianity 
was  propagated  throughout  the  Roman 
empire  in  the  apostolic  age,  it  is  by  no 
means  improbable  that  it  should  have 
reached  Britain,  and  even  penetrated  to 
the  mountains  of  Caledonia,  before  the 
close  of  the  second  century.  The  vio- 
lence of  the  persecutions  which  raged  in 
every  part  of  Rome's  dominion's  during 
the  third  century,  may  readily  be  sup- 
posed to  have  driven  many  of  the  Chris- 
tians beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  em- 
pire, and  thus  to  have  aided  indirectly  in 
the  diffusion  of  the  gospel,  and  especially 
to  have  promoted  its  introduction  into  the 
territories  of  unsubdued  nations.  Many 


10 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


of  those  persecuted  Christians  may  then 
have  found  a  refuge  among  the  uncon- 
quered  districts  of  Scotland  and  Ireland, 
where  they  would,  of  course,  endeavour 
to  instruct  the  rude  but  not  inhospitable 
natives  in  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  as 
it  is  in  Jesus. 

In  what  manner  these  early  Christian 
refugees  commenced  what  may  be  termed 
their  missionary  labours  among  the  Scots 
and  Picts, — and  whether,  as  some  authors 
assert,  the  greater  number  of  them  re- 
sorted to  Ireland,  and  there  assembling 
themselves  together,  resumed  the  form  of 
primitive  ecclesiastical  government  to 
which  they  had  been  accustomed, — are 
questions  into  which  it  would  be  fruitless 
to  inquire,  it  being  now  almost  impossi- 
ble to  arrive  at  any  certainty  on  these 
points.  The  records  of  those  remote 
times  are  so  obscure  and  contradictory, 
that  they  rather  furnish  material  for  con- 
jecture, than  data  from  which  any  satis- 
factory inferences  may  be  drawn.  There 
are,  however,  a  few  points  on  which  all 
ancient  records  seem  to  agree.  These, 
therefore,  we  may  assume  as  generally 
admitted  facts,  although  party-writers 
have  endeavoured  to  deduce  from  them 
the  most  opposite  conclusions ;  and  while 
we  do  not  venture  to  claim  for  ourselves 
absolute  impartiality  and  freedom  from 
all  biassing  predilections,  we  shall  do 
our  utmost  to  guard  against  the  influence 
of  prejudices, — to  state  nothing  but  what 
we  believe,  after  very  careful  investiga- 
tion, to  be  the  truth, — and  to  frame  no 
inferences  but  what  seem  to  us  to  be  nat- 
ural, direct,  and  inevitable. 

There  is  reason  to  believe,  as  has  been 
already  stated,  that  the  knowledge  of 
Christianity  was  to  some  extent  commu- 
nicated to  the  people  of  Scotland  and  Ire- 
land as  early  as  towards  the  close  of  the 
second,  and  more  especially  during  the 
third,  century  of  the  Christian  era,  in  the 
times  of  those  fierce  persecutions  which, 
while  they  were  meant  to  exterminate, 
were  actually  overruled  to  promote  the 
progress  of  the  Christian  religion.  There 
is  no  reason,  however,  to  think  that  those 
persecuted  and  banished  Christians  at- 
tempted at  that  early  period  to  construct 
any  distinct  frame  of  ecclesiastical  govern- 
ment. They  seem  rather  to  have  dwelt 
in  comparatively  isolated  solitude,  each 
m  his  own  retreat,  and  each  communica- 


ting to  his  own  immediate  neighbours  as 
much  instruction  as  he  could  impart 
or  they  could  be  persuaded  to  receive. 
If  any  dependence  may  be  placed  upon 
the  fabulous  records  of  those  ages,  there 
were  too  many  convulsions  and  semi-rev- 
olutions in  both  Scotland  and  Ireland, 
caused  by  the  contensions  of  rival  races 
and  petty  monarchies,  to  have  permitted 
the  construction  of  any  regular  form  of 
church  government ;  so  that  for  a  con- 
siderable period,  while  Christianity  was 
gradually  pervading  both  countries,  it 
was  doing  so  almost  imperceptibly, 
through  the  exertions  of  individuals, 
without  system  and  without  combination, 
farther  than  that  invisible  but  strong  har- 
mony which  is  caused  by  identity  of  prin- 
ciple and  aim.  In  this  manner  Chris- 
tianity might  have  been,  and  indeed 
appears  to  have  been  propagated  exten- 
sively throughout  the  British  Isles,  before 
it  began  to  assume  the  external  aspect  of 
a  Church,  with  a  regular  system  and 
form  of  government.  But  when  persecu- 
tion ceased,  in  consequence  of  the  fall  of 
Paganism  before  the  progress  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  Rome  began  to  be  regarded 
as  the  central  seat  of  ecclesiastical  gov- 
ernment, the  Bishop  of  Rome  very  early 
assumed  a  sort  of  supremacy  over  the 
whole  Christian  Church,  and  took  it 
upon  him  to  interfere  with  the  arrange- 
ments of  the  whole  Christian  world.  To 
this,  in  all  probability,  we  owe  the  visit 
of  Palladius,  about  the  object  and  conse- 
quences of  which  so  much  fruitless  con- 
troversy has  arisen. 

According  to  the  Archbishop  Ussher, 
Palladius  was  sent  from  Rome  to  "  the 
Scots  believing  on  Christ,"  in  the  year 
431,  by  Celestine,  at  that  time  Bishop  of 
Rome,  as  their  "first  bishop,"  (primus 
episcopus)*  Some  writers  assert,  that 
by  the  word  "  Scots"  we  are  to  under- 
stand the.  Irish  to  be  meant ;  and  are  fur- 
ther to  learn,  that  Palladius  was  sent  to 
be  Primate  of  Ireland  !  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  waste  space  in  the  discussion  of 
assertions  which  contain  their  own  refu- 
tation in  their  absurdity.  Whatever  else 
may  have  been  among  the  secret  objects 
of  the  Roman  Bishop  Celestine  in  the 
mission  of  Palladius,  it  appears  suffi- 
ciently evident  from  the  above-quoted  ex- 

*  ITssher,  Primord.,  p.  801.    See  also  Jamieson's  Hi* 
tory  of  the  Culdees,  pp.  7,  8. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


11 


pression,  that  the  chief  one  was  to  intro- 
duce Episcopal  government  among  the 
Scottish  and  Irish  Christians  ;  whence  it 
clearly  follows,  that  previously  no  such 
form  of  ecclesiastical  government  was 
known,  if  indeed  there  did  exist  pre- 
viously either  organization  or  govern- 
ment at  all,  beyond  the  mental  harmony 
which  subsisted  among  those  who  held 
one  faith,  were  animated  by  one  Spirit, 
trusted  in  one  Saviour,  and  worshipped 
one  God. 

Whether  the  mission  of  Palladius  were 
chiefly  to  Ireland  or  not,  it  may  not  now 
be  possible  to  determine  with  certainty ; 
but  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  he  not 
only  visited  Scotland,  but  that  he  died 
there,  at  Fordoun,  in  the  Mearns.*  The 
very  common  opinion  that  Palladius  was 
sent  expressly  to  refute  the  errors  of  Pe- 
lagius,  which  are  said  to  have  become 
prevalent  among  the  British  Christians, 
we  are  disposed  to  regard  as  without 
sufficient  foundation.  The  Pelagian 
heresy  was  scarcely  known  till  the  year 
412,  and  that  chiefly  among  the  African 
Churches  ;  and  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that 
it  had  even  reached,  much  less  made  ex- 
tensive progress  among,  the  simple- 
minded  Christians  of  Scotland  and  Ire- 
land, before  the  year  in  which  the  mis- 
sion of  Palladius  is  recorded  to  have  taken 
place. 

Nothing  certain  is  known  respecting 
the  direct  effects  produced  by  the  mission 
of  Palladius.  It  is  indeed  stated  by 
Mariarms  Scotus,  that  after  him  St.  Pat- 
rick was  consecrated  by  Celestine,  and 
sent  as  archbishop  to  Ireland,  where,  in 
the  course  of  forty  years,  he  converted 
the  whole  island  to  the  faith  ;t  but  this 
account  cannot  be  relied  on,  in  conse- 
quence of  its  opposition  to  other  and  more 
authentic  records.  There  is  no  proof 
whatever  that  St.  Patrick  had  any  con- 
nection with  Rome  ;  while  there  is  strong 
reason  to  believe  that  he  was  a  native  of 
Scotland,  and  that  the  Christianity  which 
he  communicated  to  Ireland  was,  both  in 
forms  and  doctrines,  what  he  had  him- 
self been  taught  by  his  Scottish  instruct- 
ors. What  the  form  of  church  govern- 
ment was  which  St.  Patrick  instituted  in 
Ireland,  appears  very  plainly,  even  from 
the  statement  of  Archbishop  Ussher. 
"  We  read,"  says  that  learned  and  candid 


•  Jamieson'e  Hist.  Culd.,  p.  9. 


t  Ibid.,  p.  8. 


prelate, — "we  read  in  Nennius,  that  at 
the  beginning  St.  Patrick  founded  365 
churches,  and  ordained  365  bishops, 
besides  3000  presbyters"  (or  elders).* 
What  kind  of  bishops  these  were,  is  suffi- 
ciently apparent  from  the  fact  that  there 
was  one  for  each  church,  and  also  from 
the  number  of  the  elders, — about  eight  to 
each  bishop.  It  was,  in  short,  manifestly 
the  same  institution  which  ultimately  be- 
came the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scot- 
land,— a  parish  minister,  with  his  session 
of  eMers,  in  each  church  and  parish  that 
had  received  the  gospel.  But  it  is  time 
to  quit  the  regions  of  dark  and  half-fabu- 
lous antiquity,  and  to  direct  our  attention 
to  what,  though  still  obscure,  has  been 
brought  into  somewhat  of  a  more  definite 
form,  by  those  writers  who  have  pre- 
served to  us  an  outline  of  the  aspect  of 
primitive  Christianity  in  Scotland,  in  the 
remarks  they  have  made  on  the  Culdees. 

It  is  not  our  intention  to  investigate  at 
any  length  the  questions  which  have 
been  so  long  agitated  respecting  the 
origin,  the  doctrines,  and  the  form  of 
church  government  of  the  Culdees,  but 
rather  to  state  briefly  and  consecutively 
all  that  is  clearly  known  concerning 
them. 

The  name  Culdees  appears  to  have 
been  given  to  those  Christians  who  fled 
from  persecution,  and  sought  refuge  in 
those  districts  of  Scotland  which  were  be- 
yond the  limits  of  the  Roman  empire. 
Different  explanations  have  been  sug- 
gested of  the  name  itself;  some  deriving 
it  from  Latin,  and  assuming  it  to  have 
been  an  abbreviation  of  Cultores  Dei, 
worshippers  of  God ;  others  from  the 
Gaelic  expression,  Gille  De,  servants  of 
God  ;  and  others  from  the  Gaelic  Cuil 
or  Ceal,  a  sheltered  place,  a  retreat.  We 
would  combine  the  two  latter  opinions, 
and  suppose  that  the  Culdees  derived 
their  name  from  the  union  of  these  two 
facts  in  their  early  history,  namely,  that 
they  were  refugees,  and  dwelt  generally 
in  comparatively  secret  retreats  and  hid- 
ing-places ;  and  that  chey«were  known  to 
be  in  a  peculiar  manner  servants  of  God. 
Their  early  possession  of  the  island  of 
lona,  and  concentration  there  as  their 
chief  seat,  we  would  regard  also  as  «4he 
result  of  a  combination  of  circumstances. 

*  Discourse  on  the  Religion  of  the  Irish  and  British 
p.  77. 


12 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


The  same  necessity  which  drove  them  to 
Scotland  would  impel  them  to  seek  some 
tolerably  secure  place  of  safety,  to  which 
they  could  at  all  times  retreat  from  dan- 
ger. The  marked  and  important  inter- 
course between  the  Dalriad  Scots  and  the 
Irish,  which  subsisted  at  that  period, 
would  point  out  some  interjacent  island 
as  affording  easy  access  to  either  country 
and  people.  For  these  reasons  lona 
would  readily  recommend  itself  to  them, 
as  at  once  a  safe  retreat,  even  from  its 
insignificance  in  point  of  size,  and  at  the 
same  time  allowing  free  and  convenient 
intercourse  with  Picts,  Scots,  and  Irish. 
It  thus  became  their  chief  residence; 
and  in  it  first  appeared  that  form  of  eccle- 
siastical government,  the  rudimental  prin- 
ciples of  which  they  had  either  brought 
with  them,  or  into  which  Christianity 
itself  naturally  tended  to  mould  a  society 
of  single-hearted  believers. 

The  first  definite  accounts  which  have 
reached  us  respecting  the  Culdees  are 
those  which  relate  to  Columba,  who  is 
said  to  have  been  a  native  of  Ireland,  and 
of  royal  extraction.  He  is  reported  to 
have  founded  the  monastery,  or  rather 
abbey,  of  lona,  in  the  year  563,  and  to 
have  been  himself  the  first  abbot.  He 
took  with  him,  we  are  told,  from  Ireland 
to  lona,  twelve  companions,  over  whom 
he  possessed  no  other  kind  of  superiority 
than  that  of  being  president  for  life. 
Neither  the  office  nor  the  designation  of 
bishop,  in  its  prelatical  sense,  appears  to 
have  been  known  among  them.  The 
institution  of  lona  formed,  in  truth,  a  re- 
gular presbytery,  as  it  has  long  existed 
in  Scotland,  with  this  slight  difference, 
that  the  presidency,  or  what  we  term  the 
moderatorship,  was  permanently  enjoyed 
by  the  abbot,  whom  even  Bede  terms  the 
"  Presbyter- Abbott."  Upon  the  death  of 
this  permanent  president,  or  presbyter- 
abbot,  the  remaining  presbyter-monks 
met  and  chose  a  successor  from  among 
themselves,  to  whom  was  accordingly 
given  the  permanent  presidency,  but 
without  any  such  rite  as  that  of  consecra- 
tion, or  any  thing  which  could  indicate 
elevation  to  an  office  essentially  superior 
in  itself.  He  was,  in  fact,  nothing  more 
than  "  the  first  among  equals,"  placed  so 
by  the  choice  of  his  brethren,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  maintaing  order  in  their  meetings 
together  for  deliberation  and  consultation 


This  peculiarity  was  well  known  to  the 

venerable  Bede,  who  terms  it  "  an  un- 

sual  constitution "     (ordo   insusitatus), 

as  indeed  it  must  have  appeared  to  one 

who  had  been  himself  accustomed  to  the 

onstitution  of  a  diocesan  and  prelatic 

Episcopacy. 

It  deserves  to  be  remarked,  that  the 
number  of  the  council  or  college  of 
presbyter-monks  of  lona  was  fixed  at 
;welve ;  and  that,  when  the  Culdees 
formed  new  settlements,  they  adhered  to 
the  same  number.  This  was,  in  all  pro- 
bability, caused  by  their  veneration  for 
the  primitive  apostolic  council  of  twelve ; 
and  indicates,  either  that  the  Culdees 
must  have  reached  Scotland  in  a  very 
early  age,  while  apostolic  forms  were 
still  uncorrupted  and  prelacy  unknown ; 
or  that  they  followed  the  sacred  Scrip- 
tures as  closely  as  possible,  regarding 
them  as  the  only  and  the  sufficient  stan- 
dard of  both  faith  and  ecclesiastical 
government.  We  find  them  also  appeal- 
ing to  the  authority  of  the  Apostle  John, 
in  their  controversy  with  the  Romanized 
English  clergy  respecting  Easter,  which 
indicates  both  the  earliness  of  their  origin 
and  the  quarter  whence  they  derived 
their  tenets  and  their  institutions.  An 
additional  proof  of  their  early  origin  and 
unperverted  belief  and  practice  appears 
in  the  fact,  that  though  generally  termed 
monks  by  ecclesiastical  writers  of  that 
age,  to  whom  the  term  had  become 
familiar,  they  did  not  hold  the  tenet  of 
monastic  celibacy,  but  were  married  men, 
and  were  even  frequently  succeeded  in 
their  official  station  and  duties  by  their 
own  sons.  From  this  we  can  scarcely 
avoid  drawing  the  conclusion,  that  those 
who  held  a  form  of  Christianity  so  pri- 
mitive, so  simple,  and  so  pure,  must  have 
branched  off  from  the  central  regions 
and  stem  of  the  Christian  Church  at  a 
very  early  period  indeed, — almost  before 
any  corruption  had  begun  to  disfigure 
the  institutions,  and  pollute  the  doctrines 
and  customs,  of  the  apostles.  For  these 
and  other  reasons  the  second  century 
seems  not  too  early  a  date  to  assign  to 
the  origin  of  Christianity  in  Scotland. 

Little  is  known  respecting  the  pro- 
gress made  by  the  Culdees  in  propagat- 
ing Christianity  among  the  Scots  and 
Picts,  impeded  as  their  efforts  must  have 
been  by  the  almost  incessant  hostilities  in 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


13 


which  these  tribes  were  engaged,  That 
they  did  make  some  progress,  however, 
is  certain,  from  the  various  semi-monas- 
tic settlements  which  they  formed  in  the 
districts  inhabited  by  each  people,  as  at 
Dunkeld,  Abernethy,  Arbroath,  Brechin, 
Monimusk,  &c.  It  deserves  to  be  noted 
also,  that  in  each  of  these  settlements  the 
Culdees  retained  the  institutions  of  lona 
already  specified,  namely,  a  council  of 
twelve  presbyter-monks,  with  a  life-pre- 
sident or  presbyter-abbot,  chosen  from 
among  their  own  number  by  themselves, 
and  continuing  of  the  same  order,  than 
which  they  acknowledged  no  higher. 

Although  the  intestine  feuds  of  the 
Scots  and  Picts  must  have  greatly  retard- 
ed the  progress  of  Christianity  among 
them,  yet  their  neighbours  of  the  south- 
ern part  of  the  island  were  in  a  much 
worse  condition.  It  is  well  known  that, 
on  the  final  departure  of  the  Romans 
from  Britain,  the  enfeebled  Britons  ap- 
plied to  the  Saxons  for  aid  against  the  in- 
vasions of  the  Scots  and  Picts  ;  and  were 
themselves,  after  a  protracted  and  bloody 
struggle,  completely  subdued  by  their 
faithless  auxiliaries.  The  effect  of  these 
devasting  wars  was  the  complete  ascen- 
dency of  the  Saxons  in  England,  and  the 
entire  extinction  of  Christianity  in  the 
territories  upon  which  they  had  seized ; 
the  remainder  of  the  British  race,  with 
what  of  Christianity  survived  among 
them,  being  driven  into  the  mountain 
fastnesses  of  Wales,  where,  accordingly, 
the  relics  of  the  primitive  Culdee  system 
continued  for  a  considerable  time  to 
exist.*  i 

At  length  there  came  a  period  of  com- 
parative tranquillity ;  and  the  Christianity 
which  had  been  preserved  in  the  north- 
ern regions  began  to  find  its  way  south- 
ward. Bede  informs  us,  that  Oswald, 
king  of  the  Northumbrian  Saxons,  had 
been  himself  educated  at  lona ;  and  im- 
mediately upon  his  obtaining  the  sove- 
reignty, he  sent  to  the  Scottish  elders 
(major es  natu),  requesting  them  to  send 
nim  what  would  now  be  termed  an  or- 
dained minister  (antistes),  by  whose  doc- 
trine and  ministry  his  subjects  might  be 
instructed  in  the  Christian  faith,  f  From 
this  period  and  downwards,  the  Culdees 

*  Keith,  Preface,  pp.  viii.  and  xv. ;  Jamieson's  Hist. 
Culd.,  pp.  35  and  259. 

t  Bede,  Hist.,  lib.  iii.  c.  17;  Jamieson'a  Hist.  Culd., 
pp.  36,  37. 


prosecuted  their  missionary  labours 
among  the  Saxons  with  great  activity. 
At  first  their  success  was  but  indifferent. 
Gorman,  their  first  missionary,  was  a 
man  of  austere  manners,  and  failed  to 
render  himself  and  his  ministry  accept- 
able to  the  rude  and  warlike  Saxons. 
They  next  sent  Aidan,  one  of  the  pres- 
byter-monks of  lona,  having  first  ordain- 
ed him  as  a  preaching  presbyter.  He 
formed  a  settlement  at  Lindisfarne, 
constructing  it  upon  the  model  of  that  of 
lona  ;  and  it  became  a  new  salient  point 
from  which  Christianity  might  make  its 
aggressive  movements  into  England. 
Such,  nevertheless,  was  the  veneration 
entertained  for  lona,  and  such  also,  in  all 
probability,  its  superiority  in  the  means 
of  instructing  aspirants  for  the  Christian 
ministry,  that  several  of  the  immediate 
successors  of  Aidan,  in  the  presbyter-ab- 
botship  of  Lindisfarne,  were  sent  thither 
from  the  primitive  seat  of  the  Culdees. 

But  while  the  simple  primitive  Chris- 
tianity of  the  Culdees  was  making  rapid 
progress  among  the  Pagan  Saxons,  a 
more  formidable  opposition  was  preparing 
to  meet  it.  The  attention  of  Pope  Greg- 
ory the  Great  was  accidentally  directed 
to  Britain;  and  he  sent  Augustine  the 
Monk,  with  forty  missionary  attendants, 
to  attempt  the  conversion  of  the  Saxons. 
The  imposing  pomp,  and  keen  subtilty 
and  artifice,  of  the  Italian  monk  and  his 
associates,  speedily  acquired  an  ascen- 
dency which  the  simple  Culdee  presby- 
ters could  not  gainstand.  The  contro- 
versy respecting  the  proper  time  for  ob- 
serving Easter,  and  other  points  of  form 
and  ceremony  in  which  the  Culdees  dif- 
fered from  the  Roman  Church,  was  for- 
mally begun  by  Augustine,  in  a  synod 
held  by  him  in  the  year  603.  This  was 
the  commencement  of  the  corruption  and 
tyranny  of  the  Romish  Church  in  Brit- 
ain. The  Romish  party  continued  to 
advance,  employing  all  the  craft  and  des- 
potism with  which  they  were  so  familiar, 
and  bearing  down  their  opponents ;  and 
in  a  synod  held  at  Whitby  in  the  year 
662,  for  the  purpose  of  deciding  the  con- 
troversy, Colman,  at  that  time  presbyter- 
abbot  (termed  also,  in  conformity  with 
the  names  then  become  prevalent,  bishop) 
of  Lindisfarne,  was  overborne  by  the  ar- 
rogant manner  and  confident  assertions 
which  his  opponent  Wilfrid  had  learned 


14 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


at  Rome ;  but  rather  than  abandon  the 
tenets  which  he  had  been  taught  by  his 
elders,  as  he  termed  them,  he  relinquish- 
ed his  position  at  Lindisfarne,  and  re- 
turned to  lona. 

.  From  this  time  forward  the  Romish  in- 
fluence made  rapid  aggressive  progress. 
The  adaptation  of  the  Romish  system  to 
the  natural  pride  and  ambition  of  man, 
lent  it  a  mighty  impulse  :  and  the  Culdees 
were  either  allured  to  exchange  their 
presbyter-abbot  for  a  prelatic  and  dioce- 
san bishop,  or  compelled  to  abandon  their 
settlements  and  return  to  Scotland.  In- 
deed the  name  bishop  was  often  applied 
to  the  presbyter-abbot  of  the  Culdees  by 
the  writers  of  that  period  ;  and  so  far  as 
it  was  applied  in  its  primitive  sense,  it 
was  his  due,  there  being  no  distinction 
between  an  ordained  presbyter  and  a 
scriptural  bishop.  Still,  their  difference 
from  the  Romish  diocesan  bishop,  or  pre- 
late, was  marked  even  by  those  writers, 
in  the  peculiar  appellation,  "bishops  of 
the  Scots,"  by  which  they  were  desig- 
nated. 

It  is  not  our  intention  to  trace  minutely 
the  encroachments  of  the  prelatic  Romish 
party,  as  they  not  only  expelled  the  Cul- 
dees from  England,  but  also,  following 
up  the  ever-intolerant  policy  of  Rome,  as- 
sailed them  in  Scotland  itself,  and  ceased 
not  their  hostile  efforts  till  they  procured 
their  final  suppression.  It  deserves,  how- 
ever, to  be  peculiarly  observed,  that  what 
chiefly  excited  the  hostility  of  the  Romish 
party  was  the  want  of  Prelacy  among 
the  Culdees,  even  more  than  their  differ- 
ing in  other  points  from  the  superstitious 
rites  and  ceremonies  of  Popery ;  and  that 
the  introduction  of  Prelacy  was  the  di- 
rect means  by  which  the  pure  scriptural 
system  of  worship  and  government  held 
by  the  early  Scottish  Church  was  at  last 
overthrown.  Nor  let  it  pass  unmarked, 
that  England's  influence  and  example 
were  the  direct  causes  of  the  corruption 
and  subversion  of  Scotland's  more  an- 
cient and  purer  faith.  This  might  be 
rendered  evident,  beyond  the  possibility 
of  contradiction,  did  our  limits  permit  us 
to  trace  minutely  the  successive  events 
which  led  to  this  disastrous  result ;  such 
as  the  residence  for  a  time  in  England 
of  some  of  our  most  powerful  kings,  es- 
pecially Malcolm  Canmore,  and  David  I, 
who,  returning  to  Scotland  with  their 


minds  filled  with  prejudices  in  behalf  of 
the  pomp  and  splendour  of  the  English 
Prelacy,  made  it  their  most  strenuous  en- 
deavour to  erect  buildings,  and  organize 
and  endow  a  hierarchy,  which  might  vie 
in  dignity  and  grandeur  with  those  of 
their  more  wealthy  neighbours.  The 
ruinous  effects  were  soon  apparent.  In 
vain  did  the  best  of  the  Scottish  clergy 
oppose  these  innovations ;  their  more  am- 
bitious brethren  were  but  too  ready  to 
grasp  at  the  proffered  wealth  and  honour ; 
and  at  length,  to  save  themselves  from 
the  usurpations  of  the  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, who  strove  to  assert  supremacy 
over  the  Scottish  Church,  they  yielded 
up  their  spiritual  liberty  to  the  Roman 
pontiff,  in  the  year  1176. 

It  can  scarcely  fail  to  strike  every 
thoughtful  reader,  that  the  history  of  the 
Culdees  presents,  in  its  main  outline,  a 
very  close  resemblance  to  the  general  as- 
pect and  characteristic  incidents  subse- 
quently exhibited  in  the  history  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  at  and  since  the 
time  of  the  Reformation.  When  left  to 
itself,  and  free  from  external  influence, 
the  Scottish  Church  has  always  been  re- 
markable for  its  simplicity  of  forms  and 
purity  of  doctrine,  taking  the  word  of 
God  as  its  sole  rule  and  guide  in  both ; 
the  wealthier  and  more  worldly  Church 
of  England  has  always  hated  and 
sought  to  overthrow  a  Church  which 
contrasted  so  -strongly  with  its  own  ex- 
ternal pomp  and  internal  corruption  and 
inefficacy :  and  the  monarchs  and  nobil- 
ity of  Scotland,  being  Anglicised,  have 
striven  to  introduce  forms  of  worship, 
and  a  system  of  despotic  ecclesiastical 
government  and  corrupt  doctrine,  equally 
opposed  to  the  simplicity  and  purity  of 
the  Scriptures,  and  to  the  grave,  manly, 
and  free  spirit  of  the  Scottish  people. 

It  is  at  all  times  a  melancholy  task  to 
trace  the  progress  of  a  persecuted,  op- 
pressed, and  falling  cause,  whether  that 
cause  be  of  religious  or  of  civil  liberty, 
which,  indeed,  suffer  together  and  alike. 
We  shall,  therefore,  very  briefly  state  the 
most  marked  incidents  in  the  suppression 
and  extinction  of  the  Culdees.  After 
the  Synod  of  Whitby,  in  the  year  662, 
the  Culdees  generally  either  retired  from 
England,  or  submitted  to  the  institutions 
and  doctrines  of  Rome,  which  from  that 
time  forward  held  supreme  ascendency 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


15 


among  the  English.  Soon  after  that  pe- 
riod arose  the  furious  contests  between 
the  Scots  and  Picts,  which  ended  in  the 
complete  overthrow  of  the  latter,  and 
their  entire  national  extinction,  the  con- 
quered and  the  conquerors  becoming  so 
thoroughly  blended  together,  that  the 
Picts  ceased  to  be  known  as  a  separate 
people. 

It  appears  that  during  these  wars  the 
Culdees  suffered  severely.  The  annals 
of  Ulster  state  that,  in  the  year  716,  "the 
family  of  lona  was  expelled  beyond 
Drum-Albin,  by  Nectan,  king  of  the 
Picts."  This  seems  to  have  been  con- 
nected with  an  attempt  by  Nectan  to  intro- 
duce the  form  of  the  Anglican  Church 
into  his  dominions ;  as  we  find  that  a 
Saxon  priest,  Ecgberht,  was  at  the  same 
time  placed  in  lona;  while  the  Pictish 
king  applied  to  Ceolfrid,  abbot  of  Gir- 
vey,  for  architects  to  erect  a  church  after 
the  Roman  manner.  It  was  probably  his 
intention  to  transfer  the  chief  seat  of  ec- 
clesiastical government  from  lona  to 
Abernethy,  his  own  capital,  whereby  he 
might  expect  that  his  personal  influence 
would  enable  him  to  accomplish  his  in- 
tended religious  innovations. 

The  premature  death  of  Nectan  put 
an  end  to  these  attempts  ;  and  lona  re- 
covered its  shaken  supremacy,  and  en- 
joyed about  sixty  years  of  comparative 
tranquillity.  But  a  more  terrible  enemy 
appeared.  The  Danes  and  Norwegians 
began  their  piratical  invasions  of  the 
Western  Isles ;  and  in  801,  lona  itself 
was  burned,  and  a  great  number  of  the 
Culdees  slain,  by  these  fierce  invaders. 
About  the  year  877,  the  Culdees  of  lona 
fled  from  another  Danish  invasion  to 
Ireland,  carrying  with  them  the  relics  of 
Columba.  Still  a  considerable  number 
of  the  Culdees  continued  to  cleave  to  the 
long-hallowed  abode  of  their  ancestors, 
though  now  sadly  shorn  of  its  ancient 
splendour.  But  their  perils  and  suffer- 
ings continued  ;  and  in  905,  the  Danes 
again  pillaged  the  monastery,  and  killed 
the  abbot,  with  fifteen  of  his  presbyters. 
In  1059,  the  monastery  was  destroyed 
by  fire ;  but  still  the  devoted  Culdees 
lingered  among  the  scathed  ruins  of 
their  venerated  lona.  A  large  body  of 
them,  indeed,  appear  to  have  sought 
refuge  in  Dunkeld,  where  they  endeav- 
oured to  perpetuate  their  simple  scriptu- 


ral institutions ;  but  lona  continued  to  be 
inhabited  by  Culdees  till  the  year  1203, 
when  "  Ceallach  built  a  monastery,  in 
opposition  to  the  learned  of  the  place."* 
Thus  the  Romish  usurping  power  seized 
upon  the  very  citadel  ;  and  this  seems 
effectually  to  have  driven  the  remains  ef 
the  persecuted  Culdees  from  lona,  which 
they  never  again  recovered.  The  only 
further  accounts  of  them  which  can  be 
gleaned  from  the  incidental  notices,  re- 
present them  as  scattered  throughout  the 
districts  of  the  western  counties  of  Scot- 
land, especially  in  Kyle  and  Cunning- 
ham ;  where,  though  their  name  soon 
became  extinct,  their  tenets  were  pre- 
served in  a  great  measure  pure  from  pa- 
pal corruption,  till  about  the  time  that  the 
Lollards,  the  followers  of  Jerome  and 
Huss,  and  of  Wickliffe,  appeared  like 
the  faint  day-break  of  the  Reformation. 

Although  we  have  traced  chiefly  the 
fortunes  of  the  original  settlement  of  the 
Culdees  at  lona,  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  there  were  many  other  similar  settle- 
ments of  them  in  Scotland  ;  and  that  in 
latter  times  some  of  these  were  even 
more  prominently  the  scenes  of  contest 
with  the  encroaching  Anglo-Roman 
Church  than  was  lona,  and  maintained 
the  conflict  for  a  longer  period.  In  the 
year  1176,  the  abbot  of  Dunkeld  per- 
mitted himself  to  be  made  a  diocesan 
bishop.  It  was  not  till  the  year  1230,  or 
about  that  time,  that  tthe  Culdees  of  Mo- 
nimusk  were  deprived  of  their  peculiar 
privileges;  and  in  the  year  1297,  the 
Culdees  of  St.  Andrews  made  the  last  at- 
tempt at  resisting  the  usurpations  of  the 
bishop  of  that  see,  by  an  effectual  appeal 
to  Rome.  This,  therefore,  may  be  taken 
as  the  date  of  the  final  suppression,  *by 
prelatic  and  papal  fraud  and  tyranny, 
of  the  primitive,  scriptural  and  presby- 
terian  Church  of  Scotland. 

Before  concluding  this  brief  sketch  of 
the  Culdees,  it  may  be  expedient  to  state 
the  main  points  of  doctrine  and  ritual,  as 
of  ecclesiastical  government,  in  which 
they  differed  from  the  corrupt  Church  of 
Rome.  For  although  Bede  and  other 
writers  make  most  mention  of  the  dis- 
putes and  controversies  respecting  the 
celebration  of  Easter,  and  the  peculiar 
form  of  the  clerical  tonsure,  and  such 
like  idle  fooleries,  from  which  some 

•  Jarnieson's  Hist.  Culd.,  p.  301. 


16 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


have  hastily  concluded  that  there  was, 
after  all,  nothing  but  the  most  trifling 
and  unessential  distinctions  between  the 
Culdees  and  their  Anglo-Roman  oppo- 
nents; yet  a  closer  examination  may 
enable  us  to  discover,  what  a  little  more 
reflection  would  have  led  us  to  conjecture, 
that  they  differed  in  some  points  of  vital 
importance,  although  the  popish  and  pre- 
latic  party,  with  their  usual  cunning,  con- 
trived to  make  the  public  aspect  of  the 
controversy  one  of  mere  rites  and  cere- 
monies. It  may,  indeed,  be  here  stated, 
as  an  axiomatic  principle,  which  we  shall 
have  frequent  occasion  of  applying  and 
verifying,  that  the  opposers  of  pure  re- 
ligion never  venture  to  assail  what  is 
manifestly  sacred,  if  they  can  obtain  the 
slightest  hold  of  what  is  merely  ritual  or 
civil.  From  incidental  notices,  however, 
it  may  be  gathered  that  the  Culdees  were 
opposed  to  the  Church  of  Rome  in  such 
essential  doctrines  as  the  following: — 

They  rejected  that  dark  and  tyranni- 
cal tenet  of  Popery,  auricular  confession, 
and  also  its  natural  sequents,  penance, 
and  authoritative  absolution  ;  confessing 
their  sins  to  God  alone,  as  believing  that 
He  alone  could  forgive  sins. 

They  opposed  the  idolatrous  doctrine 
of  the  real  presence,  or  transubstantia- 
tion ;  holding  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  to  be  indeed  a  healing  or- 
dinance and  an  appointed  means  of  grace 
to  all  faithful  receivers,  but  at  the  same 
time  in  its  own  nature  essentially  com- 
memorative. 

They  rejected  and  opposed  the  idola- 
trous worship  of  angels,  and  saints,  and 
relics,  and  all  these  peculiar  superstitious 
practices  by  means  of  which  the  Roman 
Church  so  grossly  imposed  upon  credu- 
lous ignorance,  and  promoted  its  own 
wealth  and  influence ;  and  so  sensible 
do  they  appear  to  have  been  in  their  ap- 
prehension of  the  danger  lest  idolatry 
should  creep  into  their  pure  system,  that 
they  would  not  permit  any  of  their 
churches  to  be  dedicated  to,  or  designated 
by  the  name  of,  any  saint  or  angel. 

They  neither  admitted  praying  to 
saints  for  their  intercession,  nor  prayers 
for  the  dead.  For  they  were  persuaded, 
that  while  we  are  in  the  present  world, 
we  may  help  each  other  either  by  our 
prayers  or  by  our  counsels ;  but  when 
we  come  before  the  tribunal  of  Christ, 


"  neither  Job,  nor  Daniel,  nor  Noah,  can 
intercede  for  any  one,  but  every  one 
must  bear  his  own  burden ;" — so  scrip- 
tural were  their  views  on  these  points. 

They  strenuously  denied  the  popish 
doctrine  of  works  of  supererogation  ;  ut- 
terly disclaiming  all  merit  of  their  own, 
and  hoping  for  salvation  solely  from  the 
mercy  of  God,  through  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ ;  stating  as  their  view  of  that  es- 
sential point  of  Christian  doctrine,  "  That 
the  faithful  man  does  not  live  by  right- 
eousness, but  the  righteous  man  by 
faith." 

It  has  been  already  shown  that  the  ec- 
clesiastical constitution  and  government 
of  the  Culdees  was  diametrically  op- 
posed to  prelatic  Episcopacy ;  and  it 
ought  to  be  stated,  both  as  a  consequence 
and  as  an  additional  proof,  that  they  were 
unacquainted  with  the  episcopalian  rite 
of  confirmation. 

And,  as  an  additional  proof  of  their 
freedom  from  superstitious  usages  of 
merely  human  invention,  they,  in  the  sa- 
crament of  baptism,  made  use  of  any 
water  that  was  conveniently  at  hand,  as 
did  the  apostles,  rejecting  the  "  conse- 
crated chrism"  introduced  by  the  Roman- 
ists, and  still  retained  wherever  popish 
and  prelatic  institutions  prevail.* 

When  to  the  preceding  doctrinal  tenets 
of  the  Culdees  we  add  their  freedom  from 
the  pernicious  system  of  an  unmarried 
priesthood,  their  repugnance  to  the  lordly 
rule  of  a  disocesan  Prelacy,  and  the 
scriptural  simplicity  of  their  presbyterial 
form  of  church  government,  we  cannot 
fail  to  be  struck  with  the  close  resem- 
blance which  they  bear  to  the  authorita- 
tive doctrines  and  institutions  of  the 
Word  of  God ;  to  the  opinions  and  de- 
sires of  the  great  men  of  the  Reforma- 
tion,— of  Luther  and  Melancthon.  Calvin 
and  Beza,  Cranmer  and  Ridley,  Knox 
and  Melville;  and  to  the  constitutional 
confession  and  government  of  the  Pres- 
byterian  Church  of  Scotland.  And  we 
have  been  at  some  pains  to  oxtricate,  as 
far  as  may  now  be  done,  the  tenets  of  our 
old  ancestral  faith  from  the  confused  and, 
faded  records  of  bygono  ages,  because' 
we  regarded  that  as  tho  best  method  of 
ascertaining  what  were  the  actual  life- 
germs  and  essential  principles  of  that 

*  For  authorities  in  proof  of  the  preceding  state- 
ment of  the  differences  between  the  Culdees  and  the 
Romish  Churches,  see  Jamieson's  Hist.  Culd.,  chap.  X. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


17 


primitive,  apostolic,  and  scriptural  form 
of  Christianity  which  was  so  eaply  en- 
joyed by  our  fathers  ;  and  because  we 
are  persuaded  that,  however  much  ex- 
ternally overborne  by  the  corrupt  prelatic 
Church  of  Rome,  its  influence  never  per- 
ished, but,  after  having  for  a  season  lain 
concealed,  yet  not  unfelt,  within  the 
strong  and  independent  heart  of  Scot- 
land, while  the  fierce  storms  of  English 
invasion  and  civil  broils  were  sweeping 
over  and  devastating  the  land,  it  sprang 
again  into  energetic  action,  when  the 
voice  of  reformation  went  forth,  awaken- 
ing Europe,  and  became  the  moving  and 
moulding  life-power  of  our  reformed,  or 
rather  resuscitated,  national  Church. 

We  have  given  the  outline  of  all  that 
is  with  any  degree  of  certainty  known 
respecting  the  Culdees,  in  one  continued 
narrative,  for  the  purpose  of  presenting 
it  to  the  reader  in  the  most  intelligible 
form,  unbroken  by  reference  to  contem- 
poraneous events.  But  some  of  these 
demand  a  portion  of  our  attention,  before 
proceeding  with  the  main  course  of  our 
narrative.  The  chief  of  these  we  shall 
now  proceed  to  state  with  all  practical 
brevity. 

It  has  been  already  stated,  that  the 
Christianizing  labours  of  the  Culdees 
were  met  and  borne  back  from  England 
by  the  efforts  of  the  Romish  Church, 
which  even  then  was  greatly  corrupted  ; 
and  also,  that  the  system  established  in 
England  speedily  began  to  be  imitated 
by  our  own  somewhat  Anglicised  sove- 
reigifs  and  clergy.  But  it  must  be  ob- 
served, that  neither  king  nor  clergy  had 
the  slightest  intention  of  subjecting  the 
Church  of  Scotland  to  that  ef  England. 
Indeed,  there  occur  some  noble  instances 
of  the  determined  manner  in  which  the 
Scottish  kings  repelled  the  aggressions 
of  the  archbishops  of  Canterbury  and 
York,  when  endeavouring  to  extend  their 
supremacy  over  the  Church  of  Scotland  ; 
in  particular,  the  conduct  of  Alexander 
I.,  in  the  contest  which  arose  in  1109,  is 
deserving  of  the  highest  approbation^ 
Yet  this  monarch  was,  in  these  attempts 
at  usurpation  by  the  English  archbishops, 
only  reaping;-  the  fruits  of  his  own  inno- 
vations, as  it  was  by  him  chiefly  that 
bishoprics  were  first  erected  in  Scotland. 

During  the  reign  of  his  successor, 
David  I.,  Popery  obtained  complete  foot- 
3 


ing  in  Scotland,  by  the  erection  of  an  im- 
mense number  of  monasteries  arid  ab« 
beys,  and  the  vast  wealth  which  these 
scenes  of  corruption  speedily  acquired. 
Still,  however,  the  Churcli  of  Scotland 
maintained  its  independence,  refusing  to 
submit  to  the  dictation  of  that  of  England 
Even  after  that  unfortunate  defeat  which 
threw  William  the  Lion  into  the  power 
of  the  English  monarch,  and  after  he 
had  consented  to  surrender  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  kingdom,  that  he  might  re- 
gain his  personal  liberty,  the  Scottish 
clergy  refused  to  submit  to  equal  degra- 
dation. The  archbishop  of  York  was 
now  the  claimant  for  this  supremacy  ; 
and  in  the  year  1 176,  an  assembly  of  the 
English  and  Scottish  clergy  was  held  at 
Northampton,  on  a  citation  for  that  pur- 
pose by  the  Pope's  legate.  It  would  ap- 
pear that  Prelacy  had  already  begun  to 
do  its  work,  in  producing  a  mean  spirit 
of  subserviency ;  for  not  one  of  the  Scot- 
tish prelates  ventured  to  oppose  the  arro- 
gant claim  of  the  archbishop  of  York 
But  a  young  canon,  named  Gilbert  Mur- 
ray, rose  and  addressed  the  assembled 
dignitaries,  in  a  tone  of  bold  and  manly 
independence  worthy  of  his  country  and 
his  cause,  repelling  the  arrogant  preten- 
sions of  the  arch-prelate,  and  asserting 
the  freedom  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.* 
The  result  was  an  appeal  to  Rome,  and 
the  declaration,  by  a  papal  bull,  of  the 
independence  of  Scotland,  in  all  matters 
ecclesiastical,  of  any  other  power  than 
the  Pope  or  his  legate.  Although  this 
incident  proves  that  the  national  spirit  of 
a  Scot  was  still  stronger  in  some  than 
the  unnationalising  spirit  of  Popery,  yet 
the  result  was  productive  to  the  country 
of  an  evil  scarcely,  if  at  all,  less  than  that 
which  it  was  intended  to  repel.  It  un- 
questionably tended  to  increase  the  inter- 
course between  the  Scottish  ecclesiastics 
and  Rome,  and  thereby  to  introduce 
more  rapidly,  and  to  diffuse  more  wide- 
ly, the  pernicious  errors  of  Popery. 

That  the  Romish  system,  thus  unhap- 
pily introduced,  made  rapid  progress, 
and  speedily  became  prevalent  through- 
out the  kingdom,  cannot  be  doubted  ;  but 
the  records  of  these  things  are  so  meagre, 
that  no  specific  details  can  be  giveo 
During  the  fierce  wars  by  which  Scot- 

*  Jamieson's  Hist.  Culd.,  pp.  240-244 ;  Spotswood, 
p.  38. 


18 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


.and  was  devastated,  in  consequence  of 
the  attempts  of  Edward  I.  of  England  to 
annex  it  to  his  own  dominions,  it  may  be 
well  suppose4  that  little  opportunity  ex- 
isted for  either  the  improvement  of  reli- 
gious institutions,  or  their  temporal  ag- 
grandizement. But  soon  after  Scotland 
had  secured  its  national  independence, 
we  find  fresh  indications  of  the  growing 
power,  wealth,  and  profligacy  of  the 
clergy.  So  early,  indeed,  as  the  reign 
of  Malcolm  II.,  which  began  in  1(04, 
the  ecclesiastical  courts  had  obtained  the 
sole  right  of  judging  in  all  matters  per- 
taining to  dowries  and  testaments ;  and 
also,  the  passing  of  a  law,  that  all  men 
might  bequeath  property  to  the  Church.* 
This  soon  became  a  fertile  source  of  gain, 
ignorant  people  being  persuaded  by  the 
wily  priests,  that  by  such  bequests  they 
might  secure  the  salvation  of  their  souls, 
whatever  might  have  been  the  criminality 
of  their  course  of  life.  Besides,  while 
the  priesthood  were  by  these  means  ac- 
quiring great  wealth,  they  possessed  the 
only  education  which  existed  in  the  coun- 
try, and  were  by  no  means  desirous  of 
communicating  it  to  either  the  nobility  or 
the  common  people.  They  thus  became 
indispensable  in  the  management  of  all 
public  matters,  and  soon  engrossed  the 
chief  official  stations  in  the  kingdom. 
That  some  of  them  discharged  the  duties 
of  these  stations  with  decided  ability,  need 
not  be  denied  ;  but  that  they  at  the  same 
time  neglected  their  sacred  duties,  and 
allowed  the  country  to  remain  in  a  state 
of  great  ignorance  and  barbarism,  is 
equally  certain. 

In  the  meantime  the  social  structure  of 
Scotland  had  gradually  reached  the  last 
stage  of  developement  of  which  such  a 
system  was  capable.  The  feudal  system 
had  been  superinduced  upon  the  patriar- 
chal or  clan  system.  Those  of  the  great 
barons  who  were  of  Norman  extraction, 
comprising  nearly  all  the  Lowland  no- 
bility, maintained  the  feudal  system  in  all 
its  stern  inflexible  despotism.  The  sove- 
reign they  regarded  as  but  the  highest  of 
their  own  order,  to  whom  they  owed  a 
merely  nominal  or  formal  allegiance; 
each  other  they  viewed  as  rivals,  against 
whom  they  might  wage  open  war  or 
frame  machinations,  as  seemed  the  safest 
policy ;  and  the  people  they  considered 

*  Regiam  Majestatem,  pp.  11  and  66. 


as  mere  serfs,  born  to  obey,  and  toil,  and 
bleed,  as  each  haughty  tyrant  might  be 
pleased  to  command.  In  the  Highlands 
the  system  of  clanship  prevailed  ;  in 
which,  though  the  system  itself  was  per- 
fectly despotic,  yet  it  was  somewhat  mit- 
igated by  the  idea  essential  to  it,  that 
there  subsisted  a  family  relationship  be- 
tween the  chief  and  every  clansman  ;  so 
that,  in  theory  at  least,  the  tie  was  one  of 
nature's  formation,  the  authority  that  of  a 
'father,  and  the  obedience  that  of  children. 
In  both  the  feudal  and  the  clan  systems 
the  tendency  was  to  divide  the  nation,  or 
to  keep  it  divided,  into  a  number  of  jeal- 
ous and  conflicting  sections^  and  to  ren- 
der it  a  constant  scene  of  strife,  anarchy, 
and  blood,  such  as  neither  the  power  of 
the  king,  which  was  little  more  than 
nominal,  nor  the  supremacy  of  the  laws, 
which  was  scarcely  recognised  except  in 
theory,  was  able  to  restrain.  The  con- 
dition of  the  body  of  the  people,  exposed 
to  the  wild  violence  of  factious  and  im- 
placable nobles,  may  be  more  easily  im- 
agined than  described.  Nor  is  it  our 
purpose  to  do  more  than  merely  suggest 
the  public  aspect  of  affairs  in  Scotland 
previous  to  the  Reformation,  leaving  its 
minuter  delineation  to  the  professedly 
civil  historian,  to  whom  that  province  be 
longs. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to 
the  excessive  grants  of  land  and  othei 
wealth  bestowed  upon  the  Romanized 
clergy  by  several  of  the  Scottigh  kings, 
especially  by  David  I.,  and  the  encour- 
agement thereby  given  to  that  avaricious 
class  of  men.  We  have  also  seen  that 
the  ruin  of  the  more  ancient  and  purer 
faith  and  discipline  of  the  Culdees  was 
effected  by  the  same  instrumentality, — 
prelates,  abbots,  and  church  dignitaries 
of  every  name  and  order,  alike  detesting 
a  system,  the  simplicity  and  purity  of 
which  formed  a  strong  and  manifest  con- 
demnation of  their  own.  At  the  same 
time,  we  are  not  unaware,  that  although 
the  encouragement  given  to  the  popish 
system  may  have  at  first  arisen  in  a  great 
measure  from  religious  motives  operating 
on  minds  comparatively  ignorant,  there 
may  have  been  not  a  little  of  an  influence 
very  different  in  character,  by  which  the 
Scottish  kings  were  induced  to  promote 
the  wealth  and  power  of  the  clergy. 
They  may  have  regarded  the  ecclesiasti- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


19 


cal  body  as  the  most  likely  counterbal- 
ance to  the  exorbitant  power  of  the  feudal 
nobility,  which  could  be  organized.  And 
it  must  be  admitted,  that  in  many  in- 
stances the  prelates  of  the  Church  did 
lend  important  assistance  to  the  sovereign, 
and  also  exercised  some  influence  in  im- 
parting civilization  to  the  community. 
Let  it  be  observed  also,  that  to  whatever 
extent  the  prelates  did  counteract  the  no- 
bility, to  that  extent  they  provoked  the 
jealousy  of  these  proud  and  overbearing 
men,  who  were  not  unlikely  to  remem- 
ber past  hostilities  in  a  day  of  retribution, 
even  though  that  retribution  had  begun 
on  far  other  and  holier  grounds.  The 
enormous  wealth  which  the  all-grasping 
Romish  Church  had  acquired,  while  it 
confirmed  the  influence  of  that  Church, 
tended  equally  to  increase  the  bitter  ha- 
tred of  the  nobility,  who  both  envied  and 
scorned  the  wealth  and  the  luxurious  in- 
dulgence of  the  pampered  priesthood. 
The  existence  of  this  feeling,  and  its 
baneful  consequences,  we  shall  have  am- 
ple occasion  hereafter  to  display. 

But  instead  of  continuing  our  own  ob- 
servations, we  cannot  better  conclude 
this  introductory  chapter  than  by  copy- 
ing, from  Dr  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  the 
following  account  of  the  state  of  religion 
in  Scotland  before  the  Reformation. 

"  The  corruptions  by  which  the  Chris- 
tian religion  was  universally  disfigured 
before  the  Reformation,  had  grown  to  a 
greater  height  in  Scotland  than  in  any 
other  nation  within  the  pale  of  the 
Western  Church.  Superstition  and  re- 
ligious imposture,  in  their  grossest  forms, 
gained  an  easy  admission  among  the 
rude  and  ignorant  people.  By  means  of 
these,  the  clergy  attained  to  an  exorbi- 
tant degree  of  opulence  and  power,  which 
were  accompanied,  as  they  always  have 
been,  with  the  corruption  of  their  order, 
and  of  the  whole  system  of  religion. 

"  The  full  half  of  the  wealth  of  the 
nation  belonged  to  the  clergy ;  and  the 
greater  part  of  this  was  in  the  hands  of 
a  few  individuals,  who  had  the  command 
of  the  whole  body.  Avarice,  ambition, 
and  the  love  of  seculiar  pomp,  reigned 
among  the  superior  orders.  Bishops 
and  abbots  rivalled  the  first  nobility  in 
magnificence,  and  preceded  them  in 
honours ;  they  were  privy-councillors, 
and  lords  of  session  as  well  as  of  parlia- 


ment, and  had  long  engrossed  the 
principal  offices  of  state.  A  vacant  bis- 
hopric or  abbacy  called  forth  powerful 
competitors,  who  contended  for  it  as  for 
a  principality  or  petty  kingdom :  it  was 
obtained  by  similar  arts,  and  not  unfre- 
quently  taken  possession  of  by  the  same 
weapons.  Inferior  benefices  were  open- 
ly put  to  sale,  or  bestowed  on  the  illite- 
rate and  unworthy  minions  of  courtiers, 
on  dice-players,  strolling  bards,  and  the 
bastards  of  bishops.  Pluralities  were 
multiplied  without  bounds;  and  benefi- 
ces, given  in  commendam,  were  kept  va- 
cant during  the  life  of  the  commendator, 
nay,  sometimes  during  several  lives  ;  so 
that  extensive  parishes  were  frequently 
deprived,  for  a  long  course  of  years,  of 
all  religious  service, — if  a  deprivation  it 
could  be  called,  at  a  time  when  the  cure 
of  souls  was  no  longer  regarded  as  at- 
tached to  livings  originally  endowed  for 
that  pupose.  The  bishops  never  on  any 
occasion  condescended  to  preach ;  in- 
deed, I  scarcely  recollect  an  instance  of 
it  mentioned  in  history,  from  the  erection 
of  the  regular  Scottish  Episcopacy,  down 
to  the  Era  of  the  Reformation.  The 
practice  had  even  gone  into  desuetude 
among  all  the  secular  clergy,  and  was 
devolved  wholly  on  the  mendicant  monks, 
who  employed  it  for  the  most  mercenary 
purposes. 

"  The  lives  of  the  clergy,  exempted 
from  secular  jurisdiction,  and  corrupted 
by  wealth  and  idleness,  were  become  a 
scandal  to  religion,  and  an  outrage  on 
decency.  While  they  professed  chastity, 
and  prohibited,  under  the  severest  penal- 
ties, any  of  the  ecclesiastical  order  from 
contracting  lawful  wedlock,  the  bishops  set 
an  example  of  the  most  shameless  pro- 
fligacy before  the  inferior  clergy, — avow- 
edly kept  their  harlots,  provided  their 
natural  sons  with  benefices,  and  gave 
their  daughters  in  marriage  to  the  sons 
of  the  nobility  and  principal  gentry, 
many  of  whom  were  so  mean  as  to  con- 
taminate the  blood  of  their  families  by 
such  base  alliances,  for  the  sake  of  the 
rich  dowries  which  they  brought. 

"  Through  the  blind  devotion  and  mu- 
nificence of  princes  and  nobles,  monas- 
teries, those  nurseries  of  superstition  and 
idleness,  had  greatly  multiplied  in  the  na- 
tion ;  and  though  they  had  universally 
degenerated,  and  were  notoriously  be- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH   OF    SCOTLAND. 


come  the  haunts  of  lewdness  and  de- 
bauchery, it  was  deemed  impious  and 
sacrilegious  to  reduce  their  number, 
abridge  their  privileges,  or  alienate  their 
funds.  The  kingdom  was  swarmed  with 
ignorant,  idle,  luxurious  monks,  who, 
like  locusts,  devoured  the  fruits  of  the 
earth,  and  filled  the  air  with  pestilential 
infection  ;  with  friars,  white,  black,  and 
gray  ;  canons  regular  and  of  St  Anthony, 
Carmelites,  Carthusians.  Cordeliers,  Do- 
micians,  Franciscan  Conventuals  and 
Observantines,  Jacobins,  Premonstraten- 
sians,  Monks  of  Tyrone  and  of  Vail  is 
Caulium,  and  Hospitallers  or  Holy 
Knights  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem ;  nuns 
of  St.  Austin,  St.  Clair,  St.  Scholastica, 
and  St.  Catharine  of  Sienna ;  with  can- 
onesses  of  various  classes. 

"  The  ignorance  of  the  clergy  respect- 
ing religion  was  as  gross  as  the  disso- 
luteness of  their  morals.  Even  bishops 
were  not  ashamed  to  confess  that  they 
were  unacquainted  with  the  canon  of 
their  faith,  and  had  never  read  any  part 
of  the  sacred  Scriptures,  except  what  they 
met  with  in  their  missals.  Under  such 
masters  the  people  perished  for  lack  of 
knowledge.  That  book  which  was  able 
to  make  them  wise  unto  salvation,  and 
intended  to  be  equally  accessible  to  '  Jew 
and  Greek,  Barbarian  and  Scythian, 
bond  and  free,'  was  locked  up  from  them, 
and  the  use  of  it  in  their  own  tongue 
prohibited  under  the  heaviest  penalties. 
The  religious  service  was  mumbled  over 
in  a  dead  language,  which  many  of  the 
priests  did  not  understand,  and  some  of 
them  could  scarcely  read  ;  and  the  great- 
est care  was  taken  to  prevent  even  cate- 
chisms, composed  and  approved  by  the 
clergy,  from  coming  into  the  hands  of 
the  laity. 

"  Scotland,  from  her  local  situation, 
had  been  less  exposed  to  disturbance 
from  the  encroaching  ambition,  the  vex- 
atious exactions,  and  fulminating  anathe- 
mas of  the  Vatican  court,  than  the  coun- 
tries in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Rome. 
But  from  the  same  cause,  it  was  more 
easy  for  the  domestic  clergy  to  keep  up 
on  the  minds  of  the  people  that  excessive 
veneration  for  the  holy  see,  which  could 
not  be  long  felt  by  those  who  had  the 
opportunity  of  witnessing  its  vices  and 
worldly  politics.  The  burdens  wkjch 
attended  a  state  of  depen&jBiec  upon  a  re- 


mote foreign  jurisdiction  was  severel) 
felt,  Though  the  popes  did  not  enjoy 
the  power  of  presenting  to  the  Scottish 
prelacies,  they  wanted  riot  numerous  pre- 
texts for  interfering  with  them.  The 
most  important  causes  of  a  civil  nature 
which  the  ecclesiastical  courts  had  con- 
trived to  bring  within  their  jurisdiction, 
were  frequently  carried  to  Rome.  Large 
sums  of  money  were  annually  exported 
out  of  the  kingdom,  for  the  confirmation 
of  benefices,  the  conducting  of  appeals, 
and  many  other  purposes ;  in  exchange 
for  which  were  received  leaden  bulls, 
woollen  palls,  wooden  images,  old  bones, 
and  similar  articles  of  precious  consecra- 
ted mummery. 

"  Of  the  doctrine  of  Christianity  almost 
nothing  remained  but  the  name.  Instead 
of  being  directed  to  offer  up  their  adora- 
tions to  one  God,  the  people  were  taught 
to  divide  them  among  an  innumerable 
company  of  inferior  divinities.  A  plu- 
rality of  mediators  shared  the  honour  of 
procuring  the  Divine  favour  with  the 
'  one  Mediator  between  God  and  man  j' 
and  more  petitions  were  presented  to  the 
Virgin  Mary,  and  other  saints,  than  to 
'  Him  whom  the  Father  heareth  always.' 
The  sacrifice  of  the  mass  was  repre- 
sented as  procuring  forgiveness  of  sins 
to  the  living  and  the  dead,  to  the  infinite 
disparagement  of  the  sacrifice  by  which 
Jesus  Christ  expiated  sin  and  procured 
everlasting  redemption  ;  and  the  con- 
sciences of  men  were  withdrawn  from 
faith  in  the  merits  of  their  Saviour,  to  a 
delusive  reliance  upon  priestly  absolu- 
tions, papal  pardons,  and  voluntary  pen- 
ances. Instead  of  being  instructed  to  de- 
monstrate the  sincerity  of  their  faith  and 
repentance  by  forsaking  their  sins,  and 
to  testify  their  love  to  God  and  man  by 
practising  the  duties  of  morality,  and  ob- 
serving the  ordinances  of  worship  author- 
ised by  Scripture,  they  were  taught  that 
if  they  regularly  said  their  ave.s  and  cre- 
dos, confessed  themselves  to  a  priest, 
punctually  paid  their  tithes  and  church- 
offerings,  purchased  a  mass,  went  in  pil- 
grimage to  the  shrine  of  some  celebrated 
saint,  refrained  from  flesh  on  Fridays,  or 
performed  some  other  prescribed  act  of 
bodily  mortification,  their  salvation  was 
infallibly  secured  in  due  time ;  while 
those  who  were  so  rich  and  pious  as  to 
build  a  chapel  or  a:i  altar,  and  to  endow 


: 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


21 


it  for  the  support  of  a  priest,  to  perform 
masses,  obits,  and  dirges,. procured  a  re- 
laxation of  the  pains  of  purgatory  for 
themselves  or  their  relations,  in  propor- 
tion to  the  extent  of  their  liberality.  It  is 
difficult  for  us  to  conceive  how  empty, 
ridiculous,  and  wretched  those  harangues 
were  which  the  monks  delivered  for  ser- 
mons. Legendary  tales  concerning  the 
founder  of  some  religious  order,  his  won- 
derful sanctity,  the  miracles  which  he 
performed,  his  combats  with  the  devil, 
his  watchings,  fastings,  flagellations  ;  the 
virtues  of  holy  water,  chrism,  crossing, 
and  exorcism  ;  the  horrors  of  purgatory, 
and  the  numbers  released  from  it  by  the 
intercession  of  some  powerful  saint, — 
these,  with  low  jests,  table-talk,  and  fire- 
side scandal,  formed  the  favourite  topics 
of  the  preachers,  and  were  served  up  to 
the  people  instead  of  the  pure,  salutary, 
and  sublime  doctrines  of  the  Bible. 

"  The  beds  of  the  dying  were  besieged, 
and  their  last  moments  disturbed,  by  ava- 
ricious priests,  who  laboured  to  extort  be- 
quests to  themselves  or  to  the  Church. 
Not  satisfied  with  exacting  tithes  from  the 
living,  a  demand  was  made  upon  the 
dead :  no  sooner  had  the  poor  husband- 
man breathed  his  last,  than  the  rapacious 
vicar  came  and  carried  off  his  corpse- 
present,  which  he  repeated  as  often  as 
death  visifed  the  family.  Ecclesiastical 
censures  were  fulminated  against  those 
who  were  reluctant  in  making  these  pay- 
ments, or  who  showed  themselves  diso- 
bedient to  the  clergy;  and  for  a  little 
money  they  were  prostituted  on  the  most 
trifling  occasions.  Divine  service  was 
neglected  ;  and,  except  on  festival  days, 
the  churches,  in  many  parts  of  the  coun- 
try were  no  longer  employed  for  sacred 
purposes,  but  served  as  sanctuaries  for 
malefactors,  places  of  traffic,  or  resorts  for 
pasflme. 

"  Persecution,  and  the  suppression  of 
free  inquiry,  were  the  only  weapons  by 
which  its  interested  supporters  were  able 
to  defend  this  system  of  corruption  and 
imposture.  Every  avenue  by  which 
truth  might  enter  was  carefully  guarded. 
Learning  was  branded  as  the  parent  of 
heresy.  The  most  frightful  pictures  were 
drawn  of  those  who  had  separated  from 
the  Romish  Church,  and  held  up  before 
the  eyes  of  the  people,  to  deter  them  from 
imitating  their  example.  If  any  person, 


who  had  attained  a  degree  of  illumina- 
tion amidst  the  general  darkness,  began 
to  hint  dissatisfaction  with  the  conduct 
of  churchmen,  and  to  propose  the  cor- 
rection of  abuses,  he  was  immediately 
stigmatized  as  a  heretic,  and  if  he  did  not 
secure  his  safety  by  flight,  was  immured 
in  a  dungeon,  or  committed  to  the  flames. 
And  when  at  last,  in  spite  of  all  their  per- 
secutions, the  light  which  was  shining 
around  did  break  in  and  spread  through 
the  nation,  the  clergy  prepared  to  adopt 
the  most  desperate  and  bloody  measures 
for  its  extinction. 

"  From  this  imperfect  sketch  of  the 
state  of  religion  in  this  country,  we  may 
see  how  false  the  representation  is  which 
some  persons  would  impose  on  us  ;  as  if 
Popery  were  a  system,  erroneous,  indeed, 
but  purely  speculative, — superstitious,  but 
harmless,  provided  it  had  not  been  acci- 
dentally accompanied  with  intolerance 
and  cruelty.  The  very  reverse  is  the 
truth.  It  may  be  safely  said,  that  there 
is  not  one  of  its  erroneous  tenets,  or  of  its 
superstitious  practices,  which  was  not 
either  originally  contrived,  or  afterwards 
accommodated,  to  advance  and  support 
some  practical  abuse,  to  aggrandize  the 
ecclesiastical  order,  secure  to  them  im- 
munity from  civil  jurisdiction,  sanctify 
their  encroachments  upon  secular  author- 
ities, vindicate  their  usurpations  upon  the 
consciences  of  men,  cherish  implicit  obe- 
dience to  the  decisions  of  the  Church, 
and  extinguish  free  inquiry  and  liberal 
science."* 

To  this  very  masterly  summary  of 
the  state  of  religion  in  Scotland  before 
the  Reformation  nothing  need  be  added ; 
and  it  must  convince  every  reflecting 
reader,  that  such  a  state  of  matters  could 
not  be  much  longer  endured  by  a  people 
like  the  Scottish,  who,  though  held  in 
deep  ignorance,  were  naturally  shrewd 
and  sagacious,  despisers  of  idleness  and 
luxury,  and  filled  with  an  indestructable 
love  of  liberty,  which  even  their  civil 
feuds  and  public  wars  served  in  no  incon- 
siderable degree  to  stimulate  and  con- 
firm. And  the  more  protracted  and  se- 
vere that  the  burden  of  spiritual  despot- 
ism had  been,  it  was  to  be  expected  that 
it  would  be  followed  by  a  correspond- 
ingly mighty  and  extensive  revulsion 
and  recoil.  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten, 

•  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  pp.  9-15,  6th  edit. 


22 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


.CHAP.  II. 


that  widely  as  Popery  had  shed  its  bale- 
ful influence,  it  had  not  been  able  wholly 
to  exterminate  the  purer  faith  and  simpler 
system  of  the  ancient  Culdees,  especially 
in  Ayrshire,  and  perhaps  also  in  Fife, — 
the  districts  adjacent  to  St.  Andrews  and 
lona, — the  earliest  abodes  and  the  latest 
retreats  of  primitive  Christianity  in  Scot- 
land. 


CHAPTER  II. 


FROM  THE  BEGINNING  OP  THE  REFORMATION 
TO  THE  MEETING  OF  THE  FIRST  GENERAL  AS- 
SEMBLY. 

From  the  Beginning  of  the  Reformation  to  the  Meeting 
of  the  first  General  Assembly  in  1560— State  of  Affairs 
in  Rome— Introduction  of  Wickliffe's  Opinions- 
Patronages— Lollards  of  Kyle— Patrick  Hamilton  the 
first  Scottish  Martyr— Persecutions  in  St.  Andrews, 
Edinburgh,  and  Glasgow— Cardinal  Beaton— Barba- 
rous Persecution  at  Perth— George  Wishart— His 
Preaching,— and  Martyrdom— Death  of  Cardinal  Bea- 
ton— John  Knox  in  the  Castle  of  St.  Andrews — His 
Confinement  in  the  Galleys— Returns  to  Scotland — 
Proceedings  of  the  Queen-Regent  and  the  Reformers 
— The  First  Covenant — The  Lords  of  the  Congrega- 
tion— Martyrdom  of  Walter  Mill — Political  Intrigues 
— Final  Return  of  Knox — Destruction  of  the  Monas- 
teries at  Perth — Knox  at  St.  Andrews — Growing 
Strength  of  the  Reformers— Conventions  of  Estates 
— Siege  of  Leith — Death  of  the  Queen-Regent — 
— Meeting  of  Parliament  and  Treaty  of  Peace — 
First  Confession  of  Faith — First  General  Assembly 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 

[N  the  preceding  chapter  a  brief  sketch 
has  been  presented  to  the  reader  of  the 
usurpations  of  the  prelatic  and  corrupt 
Church  of  Rome,  and  the  final  suppres- 
sion of  the  Culdees,  which  we  may  re- 
gard as  having  been  accomplished  in  the 
year  1297,  that  being  the  date  of  the  last 
documents  signed  by  them  as  a  public 
body.  But  though  from  that  time  the 
Culdee  form  of  church  government  and 
discipline  may  be  regarded  as  extinct, 
there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  their  re- 
ligious tenets  were  consigned  to  oblivion 
at  the  same  instant.  Indeed,  such  a  re- 
sult may  be  regarded  as  absolutely  im- 
possible. All  forcible  attempts  to  sup- 
press religion  but  compel  it  to  burn  with 
increased  intensity,  and  to  be  retained 
with  increased  pertinacity,  within  the  se- 
cret heart ;  unless,  indeed,  such  attempts 
be  carried  to  the  extreme  of  utterly  ex- 
terminating the  adherents  of  the  perse- 
cuted faith, — a  dire  result  which  has 
been  several  times  produced  in  different 
nations.  There  is,  besides,  evidence,  al- 
though but  slight,  to  prove  that  the  doc- 


trine of  the  Culdees  continued  to  survive 
long  after  the  suppression  of  their  forms 
of  church  government.  Sir  Jarnes  Dal- 
rymple  refers  us  to  a  clause  in  the  bull 
of  Pope  John  XXII.  in  1324,  conced- 
ing to  Robert  Bruce  the  title  of  King 
of  Scotland,  and  removing  the  ex- 
communication ;  in  which  clause  that 
pontiff  makes  mention  of  many  heretics, 
whom  he  enjoins  the  king  to  suppress.* 
There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that 
these  were  the  adherents  of  the  Culdees, 
against  whom  some  of  the  Scottish  Ro- 
manized clergy  had  complained  to  the 
pope. 

The  great  schism  which  happened  in 
the  Church  of  Rome,  through  the  con- 
tentions of  rival  popes,  gave  occasion,  as 
is  well  known,  to  those  who  had  secretly 
disapproved  of  papal  corruption,  of  as- 
sailing Popery  more  openly  than  before, 
and  more  boldly  demanding  some  mea- 
sure of  reformation.  Wickliffe,  the 
morning  star  of  the  Reformation,  began 
then  openly  both  to  censure  the  abuses 
of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  to  proclaim 
those  great  doctrines  of  Christianity 
which  it  had  been  the  policy  of  that  cor- 
rupt Church  to  conceal.  It  might  have 
been  expected  that  his  doctrines  would 
find  a  ready  reception  among  the  adhe- 
rents of  the  Culdees  of  Scotland,  if  any 
were  still  remaining ;  and  accordingly 
we  find,  that  John  Resby,  an  English- 
man, and  a  scholar  of  Wickliffe's,  was 
condemned  for  maintaining  that  the  pope 
was  not  the  vicar  of  Christ,  and  that  no 
man  of  a  wicked  life  ought  to  be  ac- 
knowledged pope.f  For  holding  and 
teaching  these  opinions,  with  certain 
others  deemed  also  heretical,  he  was 
burned  to  death*  in  the  year  1407.  It 
would  appear  that  this  cruel  deed  had  for 
a  time  prevented  at  least  the  open 
avowal  of  similar  doctrines  in  Scotland  ; 
as  the  next  victim  of  popish  tyranny  was 
found  at  the  distance  of  twenty-five  years. 
This  victim  was  Paul  Craw,  a  Bohe- 
mian, and  a  follower  of  John  Huss.  It 
does  not  appear  on  what  account  he  had 
come  to  Scotland  ;  but  having  begun  to 
disseminate  the  opinions  of  the  Bohemian 
reformer,  he  was  laid  hold  of  by  the  in- 
stigation of  Henry  Wardlaw,  bishop  of 
St.  Andrews,  convicted  of  denying  the 

*  Sir  J.  Dalrymple's  Historical  Collections,  p.  52. 
t  Spotswood,  p.  56, 


A.  D.  1525.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


doctrines  of  transubstantiation,  auricular 
confession,  and  praying  to  saints,  then 
handed  over  to  the  secular  powers,  and 
by  them  committed  to  the  flames,  at  St. 
Andrews,  in  the  year  1432.  That  he 
might  not  at  the  stake  promulgate  his 
opinions  among  the  spectators  by  his  last 
dying  declaration,  his  destroyers  adopted 
the  barbarous  policy  of  forcing  a  ball  of 
brass  into  his  mouth,  then  gazing,  as 
they  thought,  in  safety,  on  the  agonies  of 
the  voiceless  sufferer. 

The  popish  clergy  seem  to  have 
thought  their  triumph  complete,  and  them- 
selves at  liberty  to  prosecute  with  even 
increased  energy  their  schemes  of  ag- 
grandisement. One  method  in  which 
this  was  prosecuted  deserves  to  be  par- 
ticularly noticed,  as  intimately  connected 
with  a  subject  to  which  we  shall  have 
repeated  occasion  to  refer  in  the  course 
of  this  work,  viz.,  the  subject  of  patron- 
age. It  has  not  been  exactly  ascertained 
at  what  time  the  system  of  lay  patronage 
was  introduced  in  Scotland. 

The  Late  Dr.  Mc'Crie,  whose  opinions 
on  all  matters  of  church  history  are  of 
the  very  highest  authority,  held  that  it 
could  not  have  been  introduced  before 
the  tenth  century.  The  first  mention  of 
Scottish  patronages  and  presentations 
with  which  we  are  acquainted  occurs  in 
the  Book  of  Laws  of  Malcolm  II, 
who  ascended  the  throne  in  the  year 
1004;*  and  although  the  critical  acu- 
men of  Lord  Hailes  has  succeeded  in 
casting  considerable  doubt  upon  the 
genuine  antiquity  of  these  laws,  this 
much  may  at  least  be  said,  that  no  claim 
more  ancient  can  be  pretended  for  the 
asumed  right  of  patronage  in  Scotland,  at 
the  same  time  that  by  these  laws  the 
right  of  deciding  respecting  "the  advo- 
cation  of  kirks  and  the  right  of  patron- 
age," pertains  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Church.  For  a  time,  it  would  appear, 
the  Scottish  clergy  followed  the  usual 
policy  of  the  papal  Church,  holding  out 
every  inducement  to  men  to  bequeath 
large  sums  for  the  erection  and  endow- 
ment of  churches,  monasteries,  &c.,  as 
the  best  mode  of  securing  their  salvation ; 
and  allowing  to  such  donors  and  subse- 
quently to  their  heirs,  the  right  of  pre- 
senting to  the  benefices  thus  bequeathed. 
But  when  they  had  obtained  a  very  large 

*  Regiam  Majestatem,  pp.  2, 11. 


proportion  of  the  wealth  of  the  kingdom 
into  their  own  possession,  these  crafty 
churchmen  became  anxious  to  resume 
the  patronages  into  their  own  hands; 
and  putting  the  same  machinery  of  super- 
stition again  to  work,  they  prevailed  on 
the  lay  patrons  to  resign  the  right  of 
presentation  to  the  Church,  by  annexing 
it,  as  it  was  called,  to  bishoprics,  abbacies, 
priories,  and  other  religious  houses. 
The  benefices  thus  annexed  or  appro- 
priated were  termed  patrimonial,  and 
were  not  longer  subject  to  the  patronage 
of  laymen.  The  civil  power  became  at 
length  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  the 
lands  and  wealth  of  the  kingdom  being 
thus  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  body  of  men 
who  were  not  only  beyond  the  control 
of  the  civil  law,  but  were  in  fact  the  sub- 
jects of  a  foreign  power.  An  attempt 
was  therefore  made  to  check  this  practice 
of  annexation,  by  a  statute  in  the  reign 
of  James  III.,  in  the  year  1471  ;  but  so 
effectual  had  the  schemes  of  the  clergy 
been,  that  at  the  period  of  the  Reforma- 
tion there  were  in  Scotland  only  two 
hundred  and  sixty-two  non-appropriated 
benefices  out  of  the  whole  number,  con- 
sisting of  about  nine  hundred  and  forty. 
Even  of  these  two  hundred  and  sixty-two 
a  considerable  number,  though  not  annex- 
ed, were  in  the  hands  of  bishops,  abbots, 
and  the  heads  of  other  religious  houses  ; 
so  that  the  crafty  and  avaricious  popish 
clergy  might  deem  themselves  secure, 
being  possessed  of  more  than  half  the 
wealth  of  the  kingdom,  and  that,  too, 
placed  beyond  the  power  of  any  control, 
except  that  of  an  appeal  to  Rome, — a 
danger  which  they  might  well  regard  as 
not  very  formidable. 

[1494.]  But  while  the  priesthood 
were  thus  strenuously  endeavouring  to 
consolidate  their  power,  and  to  increase 
their  splendour,  obtaining  the  erection  of 
an  archbishopric,  first  at  St.  Andrews, 
and  then  at  Glasgow,  they  did  not  seem 
to  be  aware  that  the  spirit  of  religious  re- 
formation was  diffusing  itself  silently  but 
rapidly  throughout  the  kingdom,  especial- 
ly in  the  western  districts  of  Kyle,  Car- 
rick,  and  Cunningham.  At  length  they 
began  to  take  alarm,  and  shaking  off 
their  golden  dreams,  they  prepared  to 
crush  their  hated  antagonists.  Robert 
Blacater,  the  first  archbishop  of  Glasgow, 
prevailed  on  James  IV.  to  summon  be- 


24 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  II 


fore  the  great  council  about  thirty  per- 
sons, male  ind  female,  natives  mostly  of 
the  above-named  western  districts  ;  the 
chief  of  whom  was  George  Campbell  of 
Cessnock,  Adam  Reid  of  Barskimming, 
John  Campbell  of  New-mills,  Andrew 
Schaw  of  Polkemmet,  and  the  Ladies  of, 
Stair  and  Polkellie.*  This  memorable 
trial  of  the  Lollards  of  Kyle,  as  they 
were  opprobiously  termed,  took  place  in 
the  year  1594.  The  articles  which 
they  were  accused  of  holding  have  been 
recorded  both  by  Knox  and  Spotswood 
with  little  variation,  except  that  Knox's 
account  is  rather  more  full  than  the  other. 
Their  main  tenor  is  chiefly  in  condem- 
nation of  the  worship  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
of  saints,  reliques,  images,  and  the  mass  ; 
and  also  of  the  various  arrogant  preten- 
sions and  licentious  abuses  of  the  pre- 
lates and  the  priesthood,  without  any 
very  clear  statement  of  the  leading  doc- 
trines of  pure  Christianity.  It  appears, 
indeed,  exceedingly  probable,  that  the 
Lollards  of  Kyle  did  little^nore  than  re- 
vive the  old  contest  between  the  Culdees 
and  the  prelates  ;  and  that  the  designa- 
tion given  to  them  by  their  /  popish  ene- 
mies was  not  in  consequence  of  their  hav- 
ing actually  imbibed  the  tenets  of  Lollard 
the  Waldensian,  but  that  it  was  applied 
to  them  partly  as  a  term  of  reproach,  and 
partly  with  a  view  to  prejudge  their 
cause.  For  it  has  always  been  the  policy 
of  those  who  were  engaged  in  persecut- 
ing religion,  to  slander,  misrepresent, 
and  affix  to  it  a  calumnious  name,  and 
then  to  assail  it  under  this  maliciously- 
imposed  disguise.  Few  men  have  ever 
persecuted  religion  avowedly  as  such  ; 
but  how  often  have  they  called  religion 
fanaticism,  and  then  persecuted  its  ad- 
herents under  the  calumnious  designation 
of  fanatics ! 

Providentially  for  the  Lollards  of 
Kyle,  James  IV.  himself  presided  at  the 
trial, — a  monarch  who,  with  all  his 
faults,  had  yet  too  much  of  manliness 
and  candour  to  permit  his  judgment  to 
be  greatly  swayed  by  the  malignity  of 
the  prelates.  Adam  Reid  appears  to 
have  taken  the  chief  part  in  the  defence, 
and  to  have  answered  with  such  spirit, 
point,  and  humour,  as  to  amuse  James, 
and  baffle  the  bishop  completely.  The 

*  Knox's  History  of  the  Reformation,  p.  2;  Sjota- 
wood,  p.  60. 


result  was,  that  they  were  dismissed, 
with  an  admonition  to  beware  of  new 
doctrines,  and  to  content  themselves  with 
the  faith  of  the  Church. 

No  new  persecutions  for  heresy  oc- 
curred during  the  reign  of  James  IV., 
and  after  his  death  on  the  fatal  field  of 
Flodden,  the  attention  of  the  nobility  and 
the  clerical  dignitaries  was  too  much  oc- 
cupied with  the  prosecution  of  their  own 
selfish  and  factious  designs,  to  bestow 
much  regard  upon  the  progress  of  reli- 
gious opinions.  James  Beaton  had  been 
translated  from  Glasgow  to  the  arch- 
bishopric  of  St.  Andrews,  and,  in  con- 
junction with  the  Douglas  faction,  ruled 
the  kingdom  with  considerable  ability 
during  the  minority  of  the  young  king, 
James  V.  According  to  Spotswood,  Bea- 
ton "  was  neither  violently  set,  nor  much 
solicitous,  as  it  was  thought,  how  matters 
went  in  the  Church."  Still,  notwith- 
standing their  political  cares,  the  clergy 
were  aware  that  the  writings  of  the  Con- 
tinental Protestant  divines  were  begin- 
ning to  be  introduced,  as  appears  from 
an  act  of  parliament  passed  in  1525, 
strictly  prohibiting  the  importation  of  all 
such  writings,  and  also  forbidding  all 
public  "  disputations  about  the  heresies 
of  Luther,  except  it  be  to  the  confusion 
thereof,  and  that  by  clerks  in  the  schools 
alenarlie"  [alone.]*  Nor  was  their  anxi- 
ety unfounded.  There  is  great  reason 
to  think  that  some  of  these  Protestant 
writings  had  about  this  time  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  a  youth  whose  rank  and 
talents  shed  lustre  on  the  cause  which  he 
espoused. 

Patrick  Hamilton,  a  youth  of  royal 
lineage,  and  not  less  distinguished  by  the 
possession  of  high  mental  endowments, 
was  the  chosen  instrument  by  means  of 
whom  "  the  Father  of  lights"  rekindled 
in  Scotland  the  smouldering  beacon  of 
eternal  truth. 

Being  designed  by  his  relations  for  the 
Church,  there  had  been  conferred  on  him, 
even  in  infancy,  the  abbacy  of  Feme, — 
a  foretaste  of  the  wealth  and  honours  to 
which  he  might  aspire,  and  a  stimulus  to 
quicken  his  ambition.  But  while  his 
friends  were  anticipating  for  him  a  splen- 
did career  of  worldly  pomp  and  power,  a 
very  different  path  was  preparing  for  him. 
The  ambitious  and  worldly,  yet  ignorant 

*  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  p.  23,  6th  edit. 


A.  D.  1528.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


25 


priesthood,  by  whom  he  was  surrounded, 
began  to  mark  with  jealous  eye  his  al- 
tered manner,  to  note  suspiciously  the 
praise  he  gave  to  the  study  of  ancient  lit- 
erature in  preference  to  the  dry  logic  of 
the  schools,  and  the  severe  terms  in  which 
he  condemned  the  abounding  corruptions 
of  the  Church.  Partly,  perhaps,  to  avoid 
the  danger  to  which  he  was  thus  expos- 
ing himself,  but  chiefly  to  obtain  a  more 
'complete  knowledge  of  the  doctrines  of 
the  Reformation,  he  resolved  to  visit  the 
Continent  in  1526.  With  this  view  he 
naturally  directed  his  course  to  Wittem- 
berg,  where  he  was  speedily  honoured 
with  the  friendship  and  esteem  of  Luther 
and  Melancthon.  After  enjoying  the  bene- 
fit of  their  society  for  a  short  time,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  the  University  of  Marbourg, 
where  he  obtained  the  instructions  of  the 
celebrated  Francis  Lambert.  But  the 
more  that  his  own  mind  acquired  of  the 
knowledge  of  divine  truth,  the  more  ear- 
nestly did  he  long  to  return  and  commu- 
nicate that  knowledge  to  his  beloved  coun- 
trymen. 

The  return  to  Scotland  of  this  noble 
youth  at  once  attracted  all  eyes,  as  if  a 
new  star  had  appeared  in  the  heavens. 
His  instructions  were  listened  to  with  the 
deepest  attention,  and  the  doctrines  which 
he  taught  began  to  spread  rapidly  through- 
out the  kingdom.  His  high  birth,  repu- 
tation for  learning,  the  attractive  elegance 
of  his  youthful  aspect,  and  the  persuasive 
graces  of  his  courteous  demeanour,  ren- 
dered his  influence  almost  irresistible  ; 
and  the  popish  clergy  saw  no  safety  to 
their  cause  but  in  his  destruction.  They 
framed  their  murderous  plans  with  fiend- 
like  ingenuity.  Being  apprehensive  that 
the  young  king  might  not  readily  be  per- 
suaded to  sanction  the  death  of  one  who 
stood  to  him  in  the  near  relationship  of 
cousin,  they  contrived  to  send  him  on  a 
pilgrimage  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Dothess, 
or  Duthack,  in  Ross-shire.  They  next 
decoyed  Patrick  Hamilton  to  St.  An- 
drews, on  the  pretence  of  wishing  to  have 
a  free  conference  with  him  on  religious 
subjects.  Pursuing  their  perfidious  plot, 
they  caused  Alexander  Campbell,  prior 
of  the  Blackfriars,  to  hold  several  inter- 
views with  him,  and  even  to  seem  to  con- 
cede to  his  opinions  so  far  as  to  draw  from 
him  a  full  avowal  of  them.  Their  meas- 
ures being  now  ripe  for  execution,  they 
4 


caused   him   to   be   apprehended  under 
night,  and  committed  to  the  Castle. 

The  very  next  day  he  was  brought  be- 
fore the  archbishop,  and  a  large  conven- 
tion of  bishops,  abbots,  priors,  and  other 
dignitaries  and  doctors  of  the  Church,  and 


there  charged  with  maintaining  and  pro- 
pagating certain  heretical  opinions.  Johr 
Knox  declares,  that  the  articles  for  which 
he  was  condemned  were  merely  those  of 
"  pilgrimage,  purgatory,  prayers  to 
saints,  and  prayers  for  the  dead"  al- 
though matters  of  greater  importance  had 
been  in  question.  Spotswood,  on  the 
other  hand,  specifies  thirteen  distinct  arti- 
cles, of  much  graver  character,  which 
were  condemned  as  heretical,  and  he  con- 
demned for  holding  them.  The  proba- 
bility is,  that  both  statements  are  true ; 
that  the  articles  specified  by  Spotswood 
are  those  "matters  of  greater  importance" 
to  which  Knox  alludes ;  but  that  in  de- 
claring the  sentence  publicly,  no  mention 
was  made  of  any  but  the  four  topics  stated 
by  Knox,  because  for  his  accusers  to  have 
done  otherwise  would  have  been  to  have 
published  tenets  themselves,  which  they 
wished  to  consign  to  oblivion.  Such,  in- 
deed, has  been  the  policy  of  persecutors 
in  all  ages, — to  fix  the  attention  of  the 
public,  as  far  as  possible,  on  the  external 
aspect  and  the  nonessentials  of  the  sub- 
ject in  dispute,  thereby  to  conceal  the 
truth,  while  they  are  destroying  its  de- 
fenders. So  acted  the  Romanized  Eng- 
lish prelates  towards  the  Culdees,  as  we 
have  already  seen ;  and  so,  as  we  shall 
afterwards  see,  acted  the  persecutors  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  in  different  peri- 
ods of  her  history. 

[1528.]  The  sentence  of  condemna- 
tion was  pronounced  ;  and,  to  give  it  all 
the  weight  of  authority,  every  person  of 
name  and  rank,  civil  and  ecclesiastical, 
was  induced  to  sign  it ;  amongst  whom 
was  the  Earl  of  Cassilis,  a  boy  of  thir- 
teen years  of  age.  Arrangements  were 
then  made  to  carry  it  into  effect,  that  very 
day.  The  pile  was  erected  in  front  of 
the  College  of  St.  Salvador,  and  the  youth- 
ful martyr  hurried  to  the  stake.  Before 
being  bound  to  the  stake,  he  divested 
himself  of  his  outer  garments,  and 
gave  them  to  his  servant,  who  had  attend- 
ed him  faithfully  and  affectionately  for  a 
number  of  years,  accompanying  the  gift 
with  these  tender  and  pathetic  words : — 


26 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  II, 


"  This  stuff  will  not  help  me  in  the  fire, 
and  will  profit  thee.  After  this  you  can 
receive  from  me  no  more  good,  but  the 
example  of  my  death,  which,  I  pray  thee, 
keep  in  mind  ;  for,  albeit  it  be  bitter  to 
the  flesh,  and  fearful  in  man's  judgment, 
yet  it  is  the  entrance  into  eternal  life, 
which  none  shall  possess  that  denies 
Christ  Jesus  before  this  wicked  genera- 
tion." A  train  of  gunpowder,  laid  for 
the  purpose  of  setting  fire  to  the  pile,  ex- 
ploded ineffectually,  scorching  his  left 
side  and  face,  but  leaving  the  mass  un- 
kindled.  While  they  were  procuring 
materials  of  a  more  combustible  nature, 
the  calm  spirit  of  the  scorched  sufferer 
poured  itself  forth  in  earnest  exhortations 
and  instructions  to  the  pitying  spectators. 
The  treacherous  Friar  Campbell  attempt- 
ed to  disturb  him  by  calling  on  him  to  re- 
cant, and  pray  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  which 
drew  from  the  dyingf  martyr  a  severely 
solemn  reproof,  ending  with  an  appeal 
and  citation  to  the  judgment-seat  of  the 
Lord  Jesus.  The  pile  was  then  effectu- 
ally kindled ;  and  as  the  flames  blazed  up 
around  him,  his  voice  rose  calm  and 
clear, — "  How  long,  O  Lord,  shall  dark- 
ness cover  this  realm  ?  How  long  wilt 
thou  suffer  this  tyranny  of  man  ?  Lord 
Jesus,  receive  my  spirit!" — and  with 
these  words  his  spirit  returned  to  God 
who  gave  it.* 

Thus  died  Patrick  Hamilton,  the  first 
Scottish  martyr,  on  the  last  day  of  Feb- 
ruary 1528,  and  in  the  twenty-fourth  year 
of  his  age.  He  died  a  victim  to  the  mal- 
ice and  the  treachery  of  the  popish  priest- 
hood ;  but  his  death  did  more  to  recom- 
mend the  cause  for  which  he  suffered  to 
the  heart  of  Scotland,  than  could  have 
•been  accomplished  by  a  lengthened  life, 
— as  a  sudden  flash  of  lightning  at  once 
rends  the  gnarled  oak  of  a  thousand 
years,  and  yields  a  glimpse  of  the  strong 
glories  of  heaven. 

[1529.]  The  report  of  the  martyrdom 
of  this  noble  youth  spread  rapidly  through- 
out the  kingdom,  and  men  began  to  in- 
quire why  Patrick  Hamilton  was  burned, 
and  what  were  the  opinions  he  had  held 
and  maintained  to  the  death.  When 
these  opinions  were  related,  the  public 
mind  was  not  only  excited,  but  enlighten- 
ed also  ;  and  many  began  to  call  in  ques- 
tion much  which  they  had  never  before 

,  p.  6  ;  Spotswood,  p.  65. 


doubted,  and  to  admit  sacred  truths  with 
which  they  had  till  then  been  utterly  un- 
acquainted. Several  even  of  the  friars 
began  to  preach  and  defend  doctrines 
savouring  strongly  of  the  Reformation, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  to  declaim  loudly 
against  the  licentious  and  ungodly  lives 
of  the  bishops  and  the  chief  men  of  the 
ecclesiastical  body. 

The  archbishop  and  his  familiars, 
alarmed  and  irritated,  spoke  of  burning 
some,  in  order  to  terrify  and  silence  oth- 
ers ;  but  a  bystander,  with  a  mixture  of 
shrewdness  and  mockery,  warned  the 
archbishop  to  act  warily,  and  if  he  burned 
any  more,  to  burn  them  in  cellars  ;  "  for 
the  smoke,"  said  he,  "  of  Mr.  Patrick 
Hamilton  hath  infected  as  many  as  it 
blew  upon."  So  rapidly,  indeed,  did 
these  reforming  doctrines  spread,  that  in 
a  short  time  Alexander  Seaton,  a  Domin- 
ican friar,  and  confessor  to  the  king,  pub- 
licly preached  in  a  strain  directly  sub- 
versive of  the  very  essence  of  Popery. 
The  following  were  his  leading  proposi- 
tions : — That  Christ  Jesus  is  the  end  and 
perfection  of  the  law, — that  there  is  no 
sin  where  God's  law  is  not  violated, — 
and  that  to  satisfy  for  sins  lies  not  in 
man's  power,  but  the  remission  thereof 
cometh  by  unfeigned  repentance,  and  by 
faith  apprehending  God  the  Father,  mer- 
ciful in  Jesus  Christ  his  Son.*  Such 
doctrines,  publicly  preached  by  a  bold 
and  eloquent  man,  occupying  an  influen^ 
tial  position,  gave  dire  offence  to  the  cor- 
rupt priesthood,  who  accordingly  called 
him  to  account  for  certain  heretical  opin- 
ions which  he  was  accused  of  holding. 
His  able  defence,  and  the  favourable  re- 
gard of  the  king,  which  he  then  enjoyed, 
saved  him  for  that  time ;  but  the  arch- 
bishop secretly  influenced  the  young  and 
licentious  monarch  against  a  man  who 
was  too  faithful  and  severe  a  monitor ; 
and  Seaton,  becoming  aware  of  the  secret 
machinations  against  him,  fled  to  Ber- 
wick, and  wrote  to  the  king  a  remarka- 
ble letter,  defending  himself,  retorting  the 
charge  against  his  enemies,  and  demand- 
ing the  protection  of  just  and  impartial 
laws.  This  letter  is  given  at  length  in 
Knox's  History  of  the  Reformation,  and 
is  well  deserving  of  an  attentive  perusal, 
as  coptaining  the  first  attempt,  by  a  Scot- 
tish reformer,  to  point  out  the  duty  of  the 

*  Knox,  Historic,  p.  16. 


A.  D.  1534.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


27 


civil  magistrate  respecting-  religious  mat- 
ters ;  asserting  it  to  be  the  duty  of  the 
king,  to  which  he  is  "  bound  by  the  law 
of  God,  to  cause  every  man,  in  any  case 
accused  of  his  life,  to  have  just  defence, 
and  his  accusers  produced  conform,  to 
their  own  law."  It  will  be  observed, 
that  while  this  asserts  the  power  and  the 
duty  of  the  sovereign  in  what  regards  the 
life,  and  by  consequence  the  property,  of 
the  subject,  it  leaves  the  accused  person 
to  be  tried  by  the  laws  of  that  court 
which  he  is  assumed  to  have  offended, 
and  by  consequence  to  suffer,  if  convicted, 
the  punishments  which  such  court  may 
be  competent  to  inflict.  To  this  letter, 
and  the  principle  very  ably  stated  in  it, 
we  direct  the  reader's  attention  the  more, 
in  consequence  of  the  misrepresentations 
of  party  writers,  who  refer  to  it  as  admit- 
ting the  right  of  the  king  to  judge  directly 
in  matters  of  doctrine. 

[1534.]  The  fierce  persecuting  zeal  of 
the  Archbishop  Beaton,  and  his  counsel 
of  prelates,  abbots,  priors,  &c.,  was  in- 
effectual. Many  learned  men,  especially 
Gawin  Logie,  principal  of  St.  Leonard's, 
and  John  Winram,  the  sub-prior,  either 
directly  taught  or  secretly  connived  at 
the  teaching  of  the  reformed  doctrines  ; 
while  considerable  numbers  of  the  infe- 
rior orders  of  the  clergy  abandoned  the 
errors  of  Popery,  cast  aside  the  impure 
and  extravagant  legends  of  saints,  and 
became  earnest  preachers  of  the  gospel. 
Fear  and  rage  inflamed  the  hearts  of  the 
persecutors,  and  increased  their  cruelty. 
Norman  Gourlay  and  David  Straiten 
were  condemned  at  Edinburgh ;  and, 
after  being  half-strangled,  were  cast  into 
the  flames,  at  Greenside,  on  the  17th 
August,  1534.  Henry  Forrest  was 
burnedatSt.  Andrews  about  the  same  time. 

In  February  1538,  Robert  Forrester, 
gentleman,  Duncan  Simpson,  priest, 
Friar  Kyllor,  Friar  Beveridge,  and  Dean 
Thomas  Forrest,  were  condemned  to 
death,  and  burned  in  one  huge  pile  on 
the  Castle  Hill  of  Edinburgh.  There  is 
an  incident  connected  with  the  last-named 
person,  which  deserves  attention,  as  ex- 
hibiting the  ignorance  of  the  bishops. 
We  give  it  in  the  words  of  Archbishop 
Spotswood : — "  This  poor  man,  not  long 
before,  had  been  called  before  the  bishop 
of  Dunkeld,  his  ordinary,  for  preaching 
every  Sunday  to  his  parishioners  upon 


the  epistles  and  gospels  of  the  day,  and 
desired  to  forbear,  seeing  his  diligence 
that  way  brought  him  in  suspicion  of 
heresie.  If  he  could  find  a  good  gospel 
or  a  good  epistle,  that  made  for  the  liberty 
of  the  holy  Church,  the  bishop  willed 
him  to  preach  that  to  his  people,  and  let 
the  rest  be.  The  honest  man  replying, 
that  he  had  read  both  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  the  Old,  and  that  he  had  never 
found  an  ill  epistle  or  an  ill  gospel  in 
any  of  them.  The  bishop  said,  /  thank 
God  I  have  lived  well  these  many  years, 
and  never  knew  either  the  Old  or  the 
New :  I  content  me  with  my  portuise  and 
pontificall ;  and  if  you,  Dean  Thomas, 
leave  not  these  fantasies,  you  will  repent 
when  you  cannot  mend  it.  Dean  Thomas 
answered,  that  he  believed  it  was  his 
duty  to  do  what  he  did,  and  that  he  had 
laid  his  account  with  any  danger  that 
might  follow."* 

In  the  course  of  the  same  year,  (1538) 
Jerom  Russell,  a  friar,  and  a  young  man 
named  Kennedy,  of  Ayr,  were  both 
burned  at  the  same  stake  in  Glasgow. 
At  first,  the  heart  of  Kennedy,  glowing 
with  all  the  fresh  feelings  of  youth, 
shrunk  from  the  prospect  of  such  an 
early  and  fearful  death ;  but  spiritual 
strength  being  graciously  imparted  to 
him  in  his  hour  of  weakness,  he  fell  on 
his  knees,  breathed  forth  his  fervent 
thanks  to  God  for  the  heavenly  comfort 
he  had  received,  and  then  exclaimed, 
"  Now  I  defy  death !  Do  what  you  please ; 
I  praise  God,  I  am  ready  !"  This  scene 
made  such  an  impression  upon  the  arch- 
bishop of  Glasgow,  that  he  would  have 
spared  the  lives  of  the  heroic  martyrs, 
had  he  not  been  urged  on  to  the  dreadful 
deed  by  the  bloody  brotherhood  around 
him.  The  two  young  sufferers  perished 
together  at  the  stake,  exhorting  each 
other  to  endure  patiently  their  short  ago- 
nies, for  the  sake  of  Him  who  died  to 
destroy  death,  and  to  purchase  for  his 
followers  eternal  life ;  and  their  calm 
Christian  fortitude  awoke  the  deep  sym- 
pathies of  the  pitying  and  admiring  spec- 
tators. 

Hitherto  the  persecution  of  the  reform- 
ers had  been  carried  on  nominally  under 
the  authority  of  James  Beaton,  archbishop 
of  St.  Andrews,  who,  however,  was  in 
his  latter  years  greatly  under  the  in  flu- 

•  Spotswood,  pp.  66,  67. 


28 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND, 


[CHAP.  II. 


ence  of  his  nephew,  David  Beaton,  a 
man  of  great  talents,  still  greater  ambi- 
tion, and  immitigable  cruelty  of  disposi- 
tion. He  had  been  educated  in  France; 
and  after  his  return  to  Scotland,  he  was 
sent  by  the  king  to  negotiate  respecting 
the  marriage  of  his  own  sovereign  with 
a  French  princess.  This  was  an  object 
on  which  the  hearts  of  the  Scottish  clergy 
were  most  earnestly  bent,  being  appre- 
hensive lest  James  should  comply  with 
the  proposal  of  Henry  VIII.  of  England 
to  give  to  the  Scottish  monarch  his  own 
daughter  in  marriage.  The  deep  designs 
of  the  clergy  were  successful.  The  minds 
of  Henry  and  James  were  estranged 
from  each  other ;  and  first  a  daughter  of 
the  French  king,  and,  upon  her  early 
death,  Mary  of  Guise,  became  succes- 
sively united  in  marriage  to  the  Scottish 
king.  For  these  services  the  King  of 
France  prevailed  upon  the  pope  to  raise 
David  Beaton  to  the  rank  of  a  cardinal, 
by  which  title  he  is  hereafter  to  be  desig- 
nated. 

Upon  the  death  of  James  Beaton,  in 
the  year  1539,  the  cardinal  succeeded 
him  in  the  archbishopric  of  St.  Andrews, 
and  very  speedily  gave  proof  of  his  de- 
termination to  employ  still  sharper  mea- 
sures for  the  extermination  of  the  reform- 
ers and  their  tenets.  He  called  together 
all  his  adherents  of  the  clerical  body,  to- 
gether with  a  considerable  number  of  the 
nobility,  to  St.  Andrews  ;  and  there,  pre- 
siding in  state,  proceeded  to  declare  the 
dangers  to  which  the  Church  was  ex- 
posed from  the  prevalence  of  heresy, 
which,  he  said,  found  too  much  counte- 
nance even  at  court,  and  the  necessity  of 
instituting  still  more  rigorous  measures 
for  the  suppression  of  heresy.  He  then 
named  Sir  John  Borthwick  as  infected 
with  heretical  opinions,  and  cited  him  to 
appear  and  answer  to  the  charge.  But 
Borthwick,  having  been  aware  of  his 
danger,  had  fled  to  England  ;  and  not 
appearing  when  summoned,  was  con- 
demned in  absence,  and  burnt  in  effigy, 
in  May  1540,  both  at  St.  Andrews  arid 
Edinburgh.  The  king  was  at  that  time 
thought  to  be  favourably  disposed  to- 
wards the  reformers,  influenced,  proba- 
bly, by  his  friendship  for  Sir  David 
Lindsay,  whose  poetical  genius  attracted 
the  admiration  of  the  youthful  monarch, 
himself  possessing  a  taste  and  somewhat 


of  a  talent  for  poetry.  But  matters  of 
grave  political  importance  and  civil  dis- 
sensions intervened,  turning  aside  the 
king's  favour,  and  directing  the  active 
energies  of  the  cardinal  into  another 
channel. 

Allusion  has  been  already  made  to  the 
wish  of  Henry  VIII.  to  form  an  alliance 
with  James  V.,  by  offering  to  him  his 
daughter  in  marriage.  Against  this  the 
cardinal  and  whole  clergy  of  the  king- 
dom remonstrated  in  the  strongest  terms. 
They  were  afraid  that  the  influence  and 
example  of  Henry  might  induce  James 
to  favour  the  Reformation,  in  which  case 
their  power  and  their  wealth  must  inevit- 
ably perish.  They  pointed  out  to  James 
the  danger  of  his  being  imprisoned,  as  his 
ancestor  James  I.  had  been  should  he 
venture  into  England  ;  and  they  offered 
to  provide  him  funds  for  the  support  of  an 
army,  should  war  arise  in  consequence 
of  his  refusing  to  hold  an  inter  view  with 
Henry.  The  reader  of  Scottish  history 
must  be  well  aware  that  the  reign  of 
James  V.  was  one  continued  contest  be- 
tween the  king  and  the  nobility.  His 
first  great  conflict  was  with  the  house  of 
Douglas,  which  he  succeeded  in  over- 
throwing, after  a  protracted  and  dubious 
struggle.  Pursuing  what  had  been  the 
policy  of  the  race  of  Stuart,  especially 
since  the  time  of  James  I.,  the  king  strove 
to  reduce  the  power  of  the  great  feudal 
barons;  and  this  induced  him  to  yield 
more  readily  to  the  persuasions  of  the 
clergy  than  he  might  otherwise  have 
done,  and  also  to  promote  unworthy  fa- 
vourites to  those  stations  of  dignity  and 
power  which  the  nobility  were  accus- 
tomed to  regard  as  their  birthright.  But 
though  the  intrigues  of  the  clergy  might 
sway  the  councils  of  the  king,  they  could 
do  him  little  service  in*the  field.  The 
wars  with  England  produced  but  a  series 
of  disgraceful  defeats,  the  nobles  allow- 
ing themselves  to  be  routed  and  taken 
prisoners  by  mere  handfuls  of  their  an- 
tagonists. These  disastrous  events  broke 
the  heart  of  the  unhappy  monarch,  who 
died  at  Falkland  on  the  14th  day  of  De- 
cember 1542,  leaving  the  shattered  sove- 
reignty to  his  infant  daughter,  the  ill-fated 
Mary,  who  was  born  seven  days  before 
his  death. 

Both  Knox  and  Spotswood  assert  that 
Cardinal  Beaton  suborned  a  priest,  called 


A.  D.  1513.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


29 


Henry  Balfour,  to  forge  a  document  pur- 
jorting  to  be  the  will  of  the  king,  in 
'.vhich  the  cardinal,  and  the  Earls  of 
Huntly,  Argyle,  and  Murray,  were  ap- 
pointed governors  of  the  kingdom  during 
the  minority  of  the  infant  queen.  But 
this  daring  attempt  was  defeated  in  a 
meeting  of  the  chief  nobility  at  Edin- 
burgh ;  and  James  Hamilton,  earl  of 
Arran,  next  heir  to  the  crown,  was  ap- 
pointed regent  and  governor  of  the  king- 
dom. 

The  defeat  of  the  cardinal,  and  the  ap- 
pointment of  Arran  to  the  regency,  were 
productive  of  great  advantage  to  the  cause 
of  the  Reformation.  After  the  king's 
death,  there  was  found  a  list  which  had 
been  furnished  to  him  by  the  cardinal, 
containing  the  names  of  some  hundreds  of 
persons  of  various  ranks,  and  possessed  of 
property  and  wealth,  whom  they  denounc- 
ed as  heretics,  and  by  whose  forfeited 
riches  the  coffers  of  the  king  might,  ac- 
cording to  their  suggestions,  be  easily  re- 
plenished. The  knowledge  of  this  ne- 
farious scheme  tended  not  a  little  to  bring 
odium  on  the  cardinal  and  his  party,  and 
to  strengthen  the  cause  of  their  opponents. 
The  regent  Arran  had  also  been  for  some 
time  favourable  to  the  Reformation,  to 
which  the  lamented  death  of  his  relative, 
die  martyr  Patrick  Hamilton,  may  easily 
be  thought  to  have  greatly  contributed. 
In  a  parliament  held  the  same  year,  1542, 
an  act  was  passed,  declaring  it  lawful  for 
all  to  read  the  Scriptures  in  their  native 
language.  Against  the  passing  of  this 
act  the  cardinal  and  the  bishops  strove 
with  all  the  energy  of  fury  and  despair, 
but  strove  in  vain.  The  effect  was  in- 
stantaneous and  great.  Copies  of  the  sa- 
cred volume,  which  had  been  most  care- 
fully concealed,  and  perused  with  secrecy 
and  fear,  were  now  to  be  seen,  as  Knox 
says,  lying  on  every  gentleman's  table, 
and  the  New  Testament,  especially,  borne 
about  in  almost  every  person's  hands.* 
For  a  time  the  regent  gave  direct  encour- 
agement to  the  Reformation,  and  employ- 
ed as  his  own  chaplains  Thomas  Guil- 
laume  or  Williams,  and  John  Rough, 
both  zealous  and  faithful  preachers  of  the 
reformed  doctrines.  And,  as  if  for  the 
pur  pose  of  settling  the  Reformation  upon 
a  firm  and  extensive  basis,  a  treaty  was 
concluded  with  Henry  VIII.  for  a  con- 


Knox,  p.  34. 


tract  of  marriage  between  his  son  Ed- 
ward and  the  infant  queen  of  Scotland. 

So  far  all  seemed  prosperous ;  but  a 
great  reverse  was  at  hand.  The  regent, 
hough  a  plausible,  was  a  weak  and  fickle 
man,  liable  at  all  times  to  be  wrought 
upon  and  biassed  by  those  of  greater  de- 
cision and  energy  of  character.  With 
this,  his  constitutional  failing,  the  wily 
cardinal  was  well  acquainted  ;  and,  to 
avail  himself  of  it,  invited  from  France, 
John  Hamilton,  abbot  of  Paisley,  the 
regent's  own  illegitimate  brother,  and 
David  Panter,  afterwards  bishop  of  Ross, 
two  able  and  designing  men,  by  whose 
influence  he  hoped  to  accomplish  his  de- 
sign. Too  well  did  they  succeed  in  their 
subtile  enterprise.  In  a  short  time  the 
regent's  mind  became  so  much  alienated 
from  the  reformers,  that  his  chaplains 
were  under  the  necessity  of  withdrawing 
from  court  to  save  their  lives ;  Williams 
retiring  to  England,  and  Rough  to  Kyle. 
Sir  David  Lindsay,  Kirkaldy  of  Grange, 
and  other  gentlemen  who  favoured  the 
reforming  party,  were  also  obliged  to  re- 
tire ;  and  the  regent  became  completely 
the  tool  of  the  cardinal  and  the  popish 
faction.  He  accordingly  broke  off  the 
agreement  with  England,  abjured  the  re- 
formed religion,  and  entered  heartily  into 
the  great  master-scheme  of  the  cardinal, 
to  give  the  young  queen  in  marriage  to 
the  Dauphin  of  France. 

[1543.]  Cardinal  Beaton  having  thus 
recovered  his  ascendency  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  kingdom,  renewed  his  efforts 
to  suppress  the  Reformation,  by  means  of 
the  most  merciless  and  exterminating  per- 
secution. He  began  his  barbarous  career 
at  Perth,  where  five  men  and  one  woman 
were  brought  before  him,  accused  of 
heresy.  They  were  tried,  condemned, 
and  sentence  of  death  passed  upon  them, 
— the  men  to  be  hanged,  the  woman  to 
be  drowned.  The  case  of  the  poor  wo- 
man, named  Helen  Stark,  deserves  to  be 
more  particularly  recorded.  She  was  the 
wife  of  one  of  the  above-mentioned  men, 
and  had  recently  given  birth  to  a  child. 
During  the  anguish  of  her  travail,  she 
had  been  u'rged  by  her  female  assistant  to 
pray  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  had  an- 
swered that  she  would  only  pray  to  God, 
in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  For  this 
she  was  accused  of  heresy,  and  con- 
demned to  die.  On  the  day  of  execution 


30 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP  II. 


she  earnestly  requested  that  she  might  die 
along  with  her  husband.  Her  pathetic 
appeal  was  harshly  refused  ;  but  she  ac- 
companied him  to  the  fatal  spot,  bearing 
her  infant  in  her  arms,  and  exhorting  her 
husband  to  patience  and  constancy  in  the 
cause  of  Christ.  He  was  murdered  be- 
fore her  eyes ;  and  as  soon  as  life  had 


left  his  quivering  frame,  she  was  dragged 
to  a  pool  of  water  c 


water  close  at  hand,  with  her 
babe  still  clinging  to  her  bosom.  When 
she  had  withdrawn  her  precious  infant 
from  its  last  enjoyment  of  nature's  resting 
place  and  nature's  nourishment,  and  con- 
signed it  to  the  charge  of  a  pitying  neigh- 
bour, and  to  the  care  of  Him  who  is  the 
orphan's  stay,  she  felt  that  for  her  the  bit- 
terness of  death  was  past,  and  being  cast 
into  the  whelming  waters,  died  without  a 
struggle,  full  of  the  steady  fortitude  and 
the  heavenly  comfort  of  a  Christian 
martyr.* 

Not  satisfied  with  these  victims,  the 
cardinal  pursued  his  bloody  circuit 
through  Angus  and  Mearns,  inflicting 
upon  some  fines,  upon  others  imprison- 
ment, and  persecuting  others  to  the  death, 
taking  with  him  the  feeble  regent,  that 
he  might  have  the  appearance  of  his 
sanction  to  the  perpetration  of  these  cruel 
deeds. 

[1544.]  He  was  soon  to  stain  his  soul 
with  the  blood  of  a  more  distinguished 
victim.  This  was  the  celebrated  George 
Wishart,  brother  of  the  Laird  of  Pittar- 
row,  in  Mearns.  He  had  been  banished 
by  the  instigation  of  the  bishop  of  Bre- 
chin,  for  teaching  the  Greek  language  in 
Montrose,  and  had  resided  for  some 
years  at  the  University  of  Cambridge. 
In  the  year  1544,  he  returned  to  his  na- 
tive country  in  the  company  of  the  com- 
missioners who  had  been  sent  to  negoti- 
ate a  treaty  with  Henry  VIII.  of  En- 
gland. Immediately  upon  his  arrival  in 
Scotland,  he  began  to  preach  the  doc- 
trines of  evangelical  truth,  with  such 
warm  and  persuasive  eloquence  as  at 
once  to  attract,  and  soften,  and  convince 
the  crowding  audiences,  who  wept,  and 
glowed,  and  trembled  as  he  preached. 
In  the  accounts  transmitted  by  cotempo- 
rary  writers  of  this  eminent  Christian 
martyr,  we  seem  to  trace  the  features  of 
a  character  of  surpassing  loveliness,  bear- 
ing a  close  resemblance  in  its  chief  line- 

*  Spotswood,  p.  75. 


aments  to  that  of  the  beloved  Apostle 
John, — so  mild,  gentle,  patient,  and  un- 
resisting,— his  lips  touched  with  a  live 
coal  from  off  the  altar,  and  his  heart  over- 
flowing with  holy  love  to  God,  and  corn- 
passionate  affection  to  mankind.  The 
citizens  of  Montrose,  and  especially  of 
Dundee,  felt  and  owned  the  power  of  his 
heavenly  eloquence;  and  much  of  his 
time  and  labours  were  spent  in  the  latter 
city. 

[1545.]  The  cardinal  was  soon  in- 
formed of  Wishart's  preaching,  and  of 
the  deep  impression  it  was  producing  in 
Dundee.  Instigated  by  him,  Robert 
Mill,  a  man  of  great  authority  in  the 
town,  openly  commanded  him  to  leave 
the  place,  and  trouble  them  no  more  with 
his  sermons.  Expressing  his  pity  and 
regret  that  they  were  thus  refusing  to 
listen  to  the  message  of  salvation,  he  took 
his  departure,  along  with  some  of  his 
friends,  to  Ayrshire.  There  his  preach- 
ing was  attended  with  equal  success,  and, 
of  course,  excited  equal  hostility  in  the 
breasts  of  the  bishops  and  clergy.  The 
archbishop  of  Glasgow  hastened  to  the 
town  of  Ayr,  to  prevent  Wishart  from 
preaching  in  the  church  ;  and  the  sheriff 
of  the  county  prevented  him  from  preach- 
ing in  the  church  of  Mauchline.  But 
this  was  a  small  hindrance  to  the  zeal- 
ous martyr.  He  could  preach  in  the 
market-place,  in  the  fields,  or  on  the  hill- 
side, with  equal  readiness,  and  with  equal 
success  in  convincing  his  hearers. 

Hearing  that  the  plague  had  visited 
Dundee,  he  hastened  to  return  thither, 
that  he  might  bring  the  hopes  and  con- 
solations of  the  gospel  to  perishing  men 
in  their  hour  of  extreme  need.  There 
he  braved  the  horrors  of  the  plague,  min- 
istering comfort  to  the  miserable  surfer 
ers,  both  speaking  to  their  souls,  and  sup- 
plying their  temporal  necessities.  Even 
when  engaged  in  this  work  of  mercy,  an 
attempt  was  made  upon  his  life  by  a 
priest ;  and  he  escaped  narrowly  from  a 
plot  laid  to  get  him  into  the  power  of  the 
cardinal.  Soon  afterwards  he  proceeded 
to  Edinburgh,  and  from  thence  to  Had- 
dington,  beset  by  enemies,  yet  for  a  time 
delivered  from  their  snares.  During  his  j 
abode  in  that  neighbourhood  he  was  very  \ 
constantly  attended  by  John  Knox,  who  ;; 
was  at  that  time  residing  as  tutor  in  the 
family  of  Douglas  of  Langniddrie,  and 


4.  D.  1546.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


31 


who  scrupled  not  to  wear  a  sword  for  the 
defence  of  his  beloved  friend,  the  gentle 
and  unresisting  Wishart. 

[1546.]  But  the  time  of  his  martyrdom 
was  at  hand.  After  preaching  at  Had- 
dington,  he  went  to  Ormiston,  accompa- 
nied by  the  proprietor,  and  by  Crichton 
of  Brunston  and  Sandilands  of  Calder. 
John  Knox  wished  to  have  accompanied 
him  also,  but  Wishart  refused  to  permit 
him,  saying,  "  Go  back  to  your  pupils  : 
one  is  sufficient  for  one  sacrifice."  Dur- 
ing the  night,  the  house  was  beset  by 
armed  horsemen,  headed  by  the  Earl  of 
Bothwell ;  while  the  regent  and  the  car- 
dinal were  but  a  short  way  distant  with 
a  larger  force,  so  that  resistance  was  in 
vain.  Ormiston,  however,  refused  to 
yield  up  Wishart,  till  Bothwell  pledged 
his  honour  to  protect  his  life  from  the 
cardinal's  hatred ;  or,  if  he  should  find 
that  to  be  impracticable,  to  restore  him 
again  to  the  protection  of  his  friends. 
But  the  cardinal  and  the  queen-dowager 
persuaded  Bothwell  to  violate  his  pledge  ; 
and  Wishart  was  carried  to  St.  Andrews, 
and  left  there  a  prisoner,  in  Uae  power  of 
his  deadly  foe. 

While  the  cardinal  was  summoning 
together  his  prelatic  council,  that  he 
might  with  the  utmost  pomp  and  ostenta- 
tion proceed  to  the  destruction  of  his  vic- 
tim, David  Hamilton  of  Preston  endea- 
voured to  persuade  the  regent  not  to  con- 
sent to  the  death  of  so  distinguished  a 
servant  of  God.  The  regent  yielded  so 
far  as  to  write  to  the  cardinal  not  to  pre- 
cipitate the  trial  of  Wishart  till  he  should 
himself  come  to  St.  Andrews.  The  car- 
dinal haughtily  returned  this  answer: 
"  That  he  wrote  not  to  the  governor  as 
though  he  depended  in  any  measure  upon 
his  authority,  but  out  of  a  desire  he  had 
that  the  heretic's  condemnation  might 
proceed  with  a  show  of  public  consent, 
which,  since  he  could  not  obtain,  he 
would  himself  do  that  which  he  held 
most  fitting."* 

He  proceeded  accordingly  to  the  exe- 
cution of  his  bloody  purpose ;  gave  or- 
ders that  Wishart  should  be  summoned 
to  trial ;  and  marched  in  state  to  the 
Abbey  Church,  accompanied  by  the 
archbishop  of  Glasgow,  and  a  great 
number  of  bishops,  abbots,  and  other 
clerical  dignitaries,  and  attended  by  a 

•  Spotiwood,  p.  79. 


large  body  of  retainers  in  military  array. 
The  sub-prior,  John  Winram,  by  the  car- 
dinal's command,  preached  a  sermon  on 
the  nature  of  heresy,  but  expressed  in 
such  guarded  terms,  that  it  gave  no  coun- 
tenance to  the  ruthless  deed  about  to  be 
perpetrated.  Then  rose  up  John  Lauder, 
a  priest,  and  entering  fully  into  the  spirit 
of  the  cardinal,  began,  in  a  strain  of  the 
coarsest  and  most  ferocious  invective,  to 
enumerate  eighteen  articles  of  accusation 
against  Wishart.  He  answered  them  all 
calmly  and  mildly,  but  with  great  strength 
of  reasoning,  and  full  proof  of  all  his 
opinions  from  the  Scriptures.  He  was 
nevertheless  condemned  by  the  unani- 
mous voice  of  the  assembled  popish  pre- 
lates and  clergy,  and  sentence  passed  ad- 
judging him  to  be  burned  to  death,  as  a 
heretic,  on  the  following  day. 

Wishart  passed  the  intervening  night 
in  the  chamber  of  the  captain  of  the  cas- 
tle, occupying  the  greater  part  of  it  in 
prayer.  Early  next  morning,  the  2d 
day  of  March,  1546,  after  refusing  to 
hold  intercourse  with  two  friars  who  had 
been  sent  to  hear  his  confession,  he  re- 
quested to  converse  with  Winram,  the 
sub-prior.  Winram  came  immediately, 
and  after  some  private  conversation,  re- 
turned to  the  cardinal,  to  request  that  the 
sacrament  might  be  given  to  the  prisoner. 
This  was  refused  ;  but  being  invited  by 
the  captain  to  breakfast  with  him,  Wis- 
hart prayed,  exhorted,  and  distributed 
bread  and  wine  to  those  who  were  pre- 
sent,— thus  commemorating,  as  fully  as 
circumstances  would  permit,  the  dying 
love  of  Him  for  whose  sake  he  was  him- 
self so  soon  to  die.  He  then  retired  to 
his  private  apartment,  and  remained  in 
prayer  till  those  came  who  were  appointed 
to  take  him  to  the  place  of  execution. 
They  divested  him  of  his  usual  attire, 
clad  him  with  a  loose  garment  of  black 
linen,  and  fastened  bags  of  gunpowder  to 
various  parts  of  his  body ;  and  when 
thus  arrayed,  he  was  conducted  to  an 
outer  room  near  the  gate  of  the  castle,  to 
wait  there  till  the  rest  of  the  hideous  pre- 
parations should  be  completed. 

The  cardinal,  in  the  meantime,  had 
commanded  a  stake  to  be  fixed  in  the 
ground,  and  combustible  materials  to  be 
piled  around  it,  in  front  of  one  of  the 
castle-gates,  near  the  priory  ;  and,  lest 
the  friends  of  Wishart  should  attempt  a 


32 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  II. 


rescue,  he  had  also  given  directions  that 
all  the  cannons  and  other  ordnance  of 
the  castle  should  be  pointed  to  the  place 
of  execution.  The  battlements  and  win- 
dows of  the  fore-tower  of  the  castle  were 
hung  with  tapestry  and  spread  with  rich 
cushions,  that  the  cardinal  and  the  pre- 
lates might,  in  state,  and  at  their  ease, 
feast  their  eyes  upon  the  torments  of  the 
martyred  servant  of  the  Lord. 

All  things  being  now  prepared,  Wish- 
art  was  led  to  the  stake,  with  his  hands 
bound  behind  his  back,  a  rope  round  his 
neck,  and  an  iron  chain  about  his  waist. 
When  he  reached  the  spot,  he  kneeled 
down  and  prayed  aloud  saying  thrice, "  O, 
thou  Saviour  of  the  world,  have  mercy  on 
me  !  Father  of  heaven,  I  commend  my 
spirit  into  thy  holy  hands!"  He  then 
rose  and  addressed  the  people,  exhorting 
them  not  to  be  offended  with  the  Word 
of  God,  notwithstanding  the  torments 
which  they  saw  prepared  for  him  ;  en- 
treated them  to  accept,  believe  and  obey 
the  Word  of  God ;  and  expressed  entire 
forgiveness  of  his  enemies  and  persecu- 
tors. Then  the  executioner,  casting  him- 
self upon  his  knees,  before  the  martyr, 
begged  to  be  forgiven  for  the  deed  he 
was  about  unwillingly  to  do.  Wishart 
desiring  him  to  draw  near  him,  kissed 
his  cheek,  saying,  "  Lo,  here  is  a  token 
that  I  forgive  thee  ;  my  heart,  do  thine 
officet"  The  sounding  of  a  trumpet 
gave  the  signal ;  the  martyr  was  tied  to 
the  stake,  and  the  fire  was  kindled  around 
him,  exploding  the  gunpowder,  but  not 
putting  an  end  to  his  sufferings.  The 
captain  perceiving  him  still  alive,  drew 
near  the  pile,  and  bade  him  be  of  good 
courage.  Wishart  replied  with  unfalter- 
ing voice,  "  This  fire  torments  my  body, 
but  no  way  abates  my  spirit."  Then 
looking  towards  the  cardinal,  he  said, 
"  He  who  in  such  state  from  that  high 
place  feedeth  his  eyes  with  my  torments, 
within  few  days  shall  be  hanged  out  at 
the  same  window,  to  be  seen  with  as 
much  ignominy  as  he  now  leaneth  there 
in  pride."  As  he  ended  these  words, 
the  executioner  tightened  the  rope  that 
was  about  his  neck ;  and  the  fire  now 
blazing  fiercely,  he  was  speedily  con- 
sumed to  ashes.* 

Thus  died  George  Wishart,  one  of  the 

*  For  a  more  full  account,  see  Spotswood,  pp.  75-82 ; 
Knox,  Historic,  pp.  43-63 ;  Foxe,  Martyrology. 


most  amiable,  eloquent,  and  truly  pious 
men  that  ever  endured  the  tortures  and 
obtained  the  crown  of  Christian  martyr- 
dom. But  his  death,  while  it  seemed 
the  triumph  of  the  cardinal's  power, 
proved  to  be  the  consummation  of  his 
guilt,  and  the  knell  summoning  him  to 
judgment.  While  the  fierce  popish  fac- 
tion extolled  the  zeal  and  the  courage  of 
the  cardinal,  in  thus,  by  his  own  author- 
ity exterminating  heretics,  and  avenging 
the  cause  of  holy  mother  Church,  a  great 
body  of  the  people  were  stirred  with  in- 
dignation against  the  shedders  of  inno- 
cent blood,  and  several  men  of  birth 
and  influence  began  to  talk  openly 
of  the  necessity  of  putting  an  end  to 
the  bloodthirsty  career  of  the  cardi- 
nal, unless  they  were  willing  tamely  to 
yield  themselves  up  to  be  butchered  at 
his  pleasure.  Of  those  who  thus  talked, 
the  chief  were  John  Lesly,  brother  to  the 
Earl  of  Rothes ;  Norman  Lesly,  son  to 
the  same  Earl ;  William  Kircaldy  of 
Grange,  who  afterwards  acted  a  distin- 
guished part  in  the  Reformation ;  Peter 
Carmichael^  and  James  Melville,  of  the 
family  of  Carnbee.  To  these  were 
joined  several  other  men  of  less  note,  but 
equally  determined  ;  and  they  began  to 
plot  how  they  might  best  succeed  in  their 
determination  to  put  the  cardinal  to  death. 
The  cardinal  was  not  unaware  of  the 
indignation  which  his  cruelties  had  ex- 
cited ;  but  his  haughty  spirit  determined 
him  to  brave  the  hostility  which  he  had 
provoked.  For  this  purpose  he  gave 
his  illegitimate  daughter  in  marriage  to 
the  Earl  of  Crawford,  thereby  to  confirm 
his  personal  influence  ;  and  began  to  for- 
tify more  strongly  his  archiepiscopal 
palace,  or  castle,  at  St.  Andrews.  This 
latter  scheme,  from  which  he  hoped  se- 
curity, prepared  the  way  of  his  death. 
The  conspirators  came  privately,  and  se- 
parate from  each  other,  so  as  to  avoid 
causing  suspicion,  to  St.  Andrews,  on  the 
evening  of  the  28th  of  May.  Next 
morning,  as  the  workmen  employed  in 
fortifying  the  castle  were  assembling, 
they  entered  separately,  till  the  whole 
number,  sixteen  in  all,  had  obtained  ad- 
mission. They  then  seized  the  porter, 
took  possession  of  the  keys,  and  secured" 
the  gates ;  and  going  from  room  to  room, 
either  put  out  the  domestics,  or  locked 
them  up.  Having  thus  mastered  the 


A.  D.  1516.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND, 


castle,  they  proceeded  to  the  apartment 
occupied  by  the  cardinal,  who  was  still 
asleep, — so  quietly  had  the  whole  affair 
been  conducted.  Starting  at  length  out 
of  his  slumbers,  the  cardinal  demanded 
the  cause  of  the  noise  ;  and  learning  that 
the  castle  was  in  the  hands  of  his  ene- 
mies, he  at  first  attempted  to  escape,  and 
finding  that  to  be  impracticable,  he  barri- 
caded his  chamber  door,  and  then  held 
parley  with  those  by  whom  it  was  as- 
sailed. The  assailants  refused  to  prom- 
ise him  his  life ;  and,  as  the  door  re- 
sisted their  efforts  to  force  it,  they  called 
for  a  fire  to  burn  it  open.  Upon  this  the 
door  was .  opened,  and  the  cardinal 
throwing  himself  despairingly  into  a 
chair,  cried  out,  "  I  am  a  priest,  I  am  a 
priest;  ye  will  not  slay  me!"  John 
Lesly  and  Peter  Carmichael  struck  him 
hastily  with  their  daggers,  but  James 
Melville  interposed,  and  putting  them 
aside,  said,  "  This  work  and  judgment  of 
God,  although  it  be  secret,  yet  ought  to 
be  done  with  greater  gravity."  Then 
turning  to  the  cardinal,  and  presenting 
the  point  of  his  sword  to  his  breast,  he 
continued,  "  Repent  thee  of  thy  former 
wicked  life,  but  especially  of  the  shed- 
ding of  the  blood  of  that  notable  instru- 
ment of  God,  Mr.  George  Wishart ; 
which,  albeit,  the  flame  of  fife  consumed 
before  men,  yet  cries  it  for  vengeance 
upon  thee,  and  we  from  God  are  sent  to 
avenge  it.  For  here,  before  my  God,  I 
protest,  that  neither  the  hatred  of  thy 
person,-  the  love  of  thy  riches,  nor  the 
lear  of  any  trouble  thou  couldest  have 
done  to  me  in  particular,  moved  or  mov- 
eth  me  to  strike  thee,  but  only  because 
thou  hast  been,  and  remainest,  an  obsti- 
nate enemy  against  Christ  Jesus  and  his 
holy  evangel."  With  these  words  he 
struck  the  wretched  and  trembling  man 
twice  or  thrice  through  the  body  ;  whose 
expiring  breath  was  spent  in  crying,  "  I 
am  a  priest,  I  am  a  priest !  fy,  fy  1  all  is 
gone  !"  Thus  died  David  Beaton,  car- 
dinal, and  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews, 
without  uttering  one  word  of  repentance 
or  of  prayer,  on  the  29th  day  of  May, 
1546,  leaving  behind  him  a  name  unri- 
valled in  Scottish  annals  for  the  fearful 
combination  of  evil  qualities  of  which 
his  character  was  composed, — unscrupu- 
lous ambition,  far-reaching  treachery,  de- 
5 


liberate  malice,  gross  licentiousness,  and 
relentless  cruelty.* 

Scarcely  was  the  Cardinal  dead  when 
a  tumult  arose  in  the  town,  caused  by 
those  who  had  been  expelled  from  the 
castle  ;  and  a  large  body  of  the  populace 
collected  and  began  loudly  to  demand  to 
see  the  cardinal,  or  to  know  what  was  be- 
come of  him.  To  allay  the  tumult,  the 
conspirators  exposed  the  dead  body  from 
the  s<jme  window,  or  over  the  same  part 
of  the  battlements,  where  the  cardinal  had, 
a  short  time  before,  reclined  in  haughty 
state,  gazing  on  the  martyrdom  of  Wishart. 
Thus  were  the  prophetic  dying  words  of 
the  martyr  fulfilled;  and  many  of  the  peo- 
ple, when  they  beheld  the  strange  specta- 
cle, remembering  at  the  same  time  the 
previous  prediction,  began  to  regard  the 
event  as  a  signal  instance  of  the  just  judg- 
ment of  God,  and,  abandoning  all  thought 
of  tumultuary  revenge,  returned  quietly 
to  their  homes: 

That  the  death  of  Cardinal  Beaton  was 
an  act  of  deliberate  murder,  and  therefore 
in  itself  highly  criminal,  no  right-think- 
ing man  will  deny.  At  the  same  time  it 
ought  to  be  kept  in  mind,  that  such  actions 
bear  in  our  eyes  a  much  blacker  aspect 
than  they  did  in  the  estimation  of  men  of 
that  period.  Some  of  the  conspirators 
may  also  have  been  excited  by  resentment 
for  private  injuries,  others  by  motives  of 
state  policy  and  the  influence  of  English 
gold  ;  but  a  desire  to  deliver  their  country 
from  his  oppression,  and  especially  to 
avenge  the  death  of  Wishart,  seems  to 
have  been  unquestionably  the  predominat- 
ing feeling  by  which  they  were  impelled 
to  the  deed.  The  attempt  which  has  been 
recently  made,  by  a  modern  historian,  to 
blacken  the  characters  of  all  parties  con- 
cerned, and  even  to  implicate  the  martyr 
Wishart  himself,  deserves  no  other  an- 
swer than  to  be  at  once  indignantly  re- 
pelled, or,  if  an  answer,  not  more  than 
may  be  contained  in  a  brief  appended 
note.f  To  every  reader  accustomed  to 
investigate  moral  evidence,  the  true  na- 
ture of  the  transaction  will  at  once  be 
manifest ;  and  by  all  such,  a  fair  estimate 
of  the  moral  delinquency  of  men  who 
thought  themselves  called  upon  to  avenge 
the  wrongs  of  their  country  and  the  mur- 
der of  their  friend,  by  committing  a  deed 

*  Knox,  Historic,  pp.  64,  65.       t  See  N:  te  in  Appendix 


34 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  II. 


of  lawless  justice  on  the  person  of  a  crimi- 
nal too  high  for  the  reach  of  law,  will, 
without  difficulty,  be  formed  ;  and  with 
these  remarks  we  quit  the  subject. 

Soon  after  the  death  of  Cardinal  Bea- 
ton, a  number  of  gentlemen  of  Fife,  who 
favoured  the  reforming  party,  entered  into 
the  castle  of  St.  Andrews,  thus  both  giving 
countenance  to  the  deed  of  the  conspira- 
tors, and  securing  a  place  of  strength  in 
which  they  could  defend  themselves  while 
they  were  endeavouring  to  make  their 
peace  with  the  regent.  This,  however, 
it  was  not  so  easy  to  accomplish,  insti- 
gated as  he  was  by  the  clergy  to  avenge 
in  the  most  exemplary  manner  the  4eath 
of  their  leader.  The  regent  laid  siege  to 
the  castle  in  August ;  but  it  was  by  this 
time  so  well  garrisoned  and  supplied  with 
both  provisions  and  ammunitions  from 
England,  that  the  besiegers  could  make 
no  impression  upon  it,  and  at'  length  en- 
tered into  terms  of  agreement  and  a  sus- 
pension of  hostilities  with  the  defenders. 
John  Rough,  formerly  chaplain  to  the 
regent  before  his  relapse  into  Popery,  had 
entered  into  the  castle  of  St.  Andrews, 
along  with  the  Fifeshire  gentlemen,  pre- 
vious to  the  commencement  of  the  siege ; 
but  upon  the  suspension  of  hostilities  he 
extended  his  preaching  to  the  town,  to 
which  he  then  gained  ready  access.  He 
was  there  encountered  by  John  Annan,  a 
popish  priest  and  dean,  and  being  inferior 
to  his  antagonist  in  learning,  made  ap- 
plication for  aid  to  one  who  was  destined 
to  become  the  MAN  of  the  age. 

[1547.]  This  was  JOHN  KNOX,  the 
great  SCOTTISH  REFORMER.  He  had  been 
educated  for  the  Romish  Church  ;  but  his 
bold  and  penetrating  mind  could  not  be 
held  in  the  trammels  of  mere  priestly  and 
scholastic  authority,  and  at  a  very  early 
period  <  of  his  public  life  he  showed  his 
disposition  to  disregard  antiquated  dog- 
matism, and  to  walk  freely  on  the  paths 
of  light  and  liberty  pointed  out  by  the 
Word  of  God.  His  mind  had  received 
some  benefit  in  its  early  researches  by  the 
teaching  of  the  regent's  two  chaplains, 
Guillaume  and  Rough*;  but  the  clear 
doctrines,  the  heart-warm  love,  and  the 
heavenly  piety  of  the  martyr  Wishart, 
completed  his  conversion  to  the  reformed 
faith.  About  the  beginning  of  April 
1547,  he  entered  the  castle  of  St.  An- 
drews, partly  drawn  by  respect  to  those 


by  whom  it  was  held,  and  partly  induced 
Io  seek  an  asylum  within  it  from  the  hos- 
tility of  the  popish  clergy,  who  seemed 
already  to  have  marked  him  out  as  a  dan-   i 
gerous  opponent,  and  therefore  to  be  cut   | 
off  as  soon  as  possible  ;  but  chiefly  to  aid    i 
Rough  in  the  controversy  with  Annan. 
Soon  after  his  arrival,  the  people  of  the 
place,  together  with  Rough,  resolved  to    ! 
give  John  Knox  a  solemn  and  public  call 
to  be  their  minister.     He  was  at  first  over-    j 
whelmed  with  anxiety  when  he  thought 
of  the  awful  responsibility  of  the  ministe- 
rial office,  but  durst  not  refuse  the  call ; 
and  from  that  hour  manifestly  regarded 
himself  as  devoted,  with  all  his  energies 
of  mind  and  body,  to  the  preaching  of  the 
everlasting  gospel* 

Knox  being  thus  publicly  called  to  his  " 
great   work,   proceeded   immediately  to  j 
place  the  controversy  between  the  Reform-  I 
ers  and  the  Papists  on  its  proper  basis,   j 
Instead  of  waging  a  skirmishing  warfare 
of  outposts,  he  directed  his  efforts  against   < 
the  very  heart  of  the  enemy's  position,  j 
Instead  of  contending  about  rites  and  cere-  | 
monies,  the  licentious  lives  of  the  priest-    ; 
hood,  and  minor  errors  and  perversions 
of  doctrine,  he  boldly  stated,  and  offered    j 
to  maintain,  the  proposition,  that  the  papal 
Church  of  Rome  is  Antichrist.     From 
the  hour  when  that  proposition  was  boldly    ; 
announced,  are  we  disposed  to  date  the 
real  beginning   of  the   Reformation   in    : 
Scotland  ;  because  from  that  hour  it  was 
manifest  that  there  could  be  no  compro- 
mise,— no  retaining  of  anything  in  form, 
government,  or  doctrine,  which  had  no 
other  authority  than  what  was  derived 
from  the  practice  or  the  teaching  of  an 
apostate  and  antichristian  body, — no  ap- 
peal to  any  other  standard  than  the  Word 
of  God. 

A  public  disputation  was  held  in  the 
presence  of.  the  sub-prior,  between  Knox 
and  the  priests  ;  the  effect  of  which  was    . 
prodigious  upon  the  numerous  audience,  j 
who    now    clearly    perceived    that   the  J 
popish  party  were   unable  to  maintain  | 
their  cause  in  argument      Nor  were  the 
prelates  unaware  of  their  danger ;  and  \ 
therefore  they  prepared  to  overwhelm  by  j 
force  what  they  could  not  oppose  success-  J 
fully  from  reason  and  Scripture.     Hav- 1 
ing   procured    assistance  from  France,! 
they  again  besieged  the  castle,  not  only 

*  Life  of  Knox,  by  Dr  M'Crie,  pp.  32, 33. 


A.  D.  1547.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


35 


by  land,  but  also  by  sea,  by  means  of  the 
French  galleys,  which  blockaded  the 
harbour,  thereby  cutting  off  their  sup 
plies  from  England.  After  a  gallant  re- 
sistance, the  defenders  were  obliged  to 
capitulate,  on  the  31st  day  of  July  1547, 
making  their  terms  with  the  French 
commander,  and  stipulating  that  their 
lives  and  liberties  should  be  preserved. 
These  terms,  however,  were  not  kept ; 
for  immediately  upon  the  return  of  the 
French  fleet  to  France,  the  prisoners,  in- 
stead of  being  set  at  liberty,  were  con- 
fined to  the  galleys  as  slaves.* 

The  triumph  of  the  popish  party  was 
great ;  but  it  was  of  brief  duf  ation.  The 
Duke  of  Somerset,  protector  of  England 
in  the  minority  of  Edward  VI.,  resenting 
the  perfidy  of  the  regent  and  his  counsel- 
lors, invaded  Scotland  at  the  head  of  a 
powerful  army,  and  inflicted  on  the  Scot- 
tish forces  a  severe  defeat  at  the  battle  of 
Pinkie.  This  had  little  other  affect  than 
that  of  throwing  the  ruling  party  in  Scot- 
land more  completely  into  the  arms  of 
France,  and  thereby  hastening  the  de- 
cisive struggle.  In  a  parliament  held  at 
Stirling  in  1548,  it  was  resolved  to  send 
the  young  Queen  of  Scotland  to  France, 
first  to  be  educated  there,  and  then  mar- 
ried to  the  dauphin. 

After  hostilities  had  continued  for  some 
time  between  Scotland  and  England,  of 
a  harassing  rather  than  of  a  destructive 
character,  a  peace  was  concluded,  in 
which  France  also  was  embraced  ;  and, 
in  consequence  of  the  application  of  the 
English  ambassadors,  John  Knox  was 
released  from  the  galleys,  and  allowed 
to  return  to  England.  He  resided  for 
some  time  in  that  country ;  and  while 
there,  refused  the  offer  of  the  bishopric 
of  Rochester,  which  he  could  not  accept 
because  he  regarded  prelacy  as  without 
the  sanction  of  scriptural  authority. 
From  England  Knox  proceeded  to  the 
Continent ;  and,  after  being  for  some 
time  pastor  of  a  Protestant  church  at 
Frankfort,  whence  he  withdrew  on  ac- 
count of  the  usurpation  and  intolerance 
of  an  English  prelat;c  party,  went  to 
Geneva,  where  he  remained  till  Jiis  re- 
turn to  Scotland  in  the  year  1555. 

But  during  this  interval  some  things 
occurred  which  deserve  to  be  mentioned, 
that  the  series  of  events  may  not  be  left 

*  Knox,  Historic,  p.  77 ;  Spo  swood,  p.  88. 


unconnected.  After  the  taking  of  the 
castle  of  St.  Andrews,  and  the  banish- 
ment of  its  defenders,  the  popish  party 
continued  their  efforts  for  the  suppression 
of  the  incipient  Reformation  ;  in  which 
they  promised  themselves  the  more  com- 
plete success  that  Knox  was  now  no  lon- 
ger present  to  defend  it.  Adam  Wallace, 
who  was  tutor  to  the  family  of  Ormiston, 
was  accused  of  heresy,  and  burned  on  the 
Castle  Hill  of  Edinburgh.  Several 
gentlemen  of  property,  accused  of  favour- 
ing the  reforming  party,  were  banished, 
and  their  estates  forfeited.  Councils  of 
the  clergy  were  held  at  Linlithgow,  and 
at  Edinburgh,  for  devising  measures, 
not  only  to  extirpate  heresy,  but  also  to 
reform  such  glaring  abuses  as  excited 
public  odium,  hoping  thereby  to  allay 
the  general  desire  of  further  reformation. 
Some  of  the  regulations  passed  by  these 
councils  were  good  in  themselves,  but  as 
they  were  left  to  be  carried  into  execu- 
tion by  the  very  persons  who  were  in- 
terested in  the  perpetuation  of  abuses, 
they  remained  themselves  generally  in- 
operative. In  the  meantime,  the  reform-  • 
ing  party  were  left  without  a  leader.  * 
several  of  the  nobility,  and  the  inferior 
barons  of  considerable  influence,  con- 
tinued to_  favor  the  views  of  the  reformers, 
but  contented  themselves  with  retaining 
their  opinions,  and  waiting  for  a  more 
propitious  juncture.  The  zeal  of  the 
persecutors  seemed  also  to  abate.  They 
flattered  themselves  that  they  had  suc- 
eeded  in  suppressing  heresy  in  Scot- 
land ;  and  they  returned  to  their  old  em- 
ployment of  engaging  in  political  in- 
;rigues. 

There  was  at  this  time  a  double 
course  of  intriguing  carried  on  ;  and,  on 
he  one  side,  by  a  person  who  proved 
lerself  an  adept  in  the  art, — namely,  the 
queen-mother.  It  was  her  desire  to  ob- 
tain the  regency,  and  yet  not  to  give 
direct  offence  to  the  Earl  of  Arran. 
She  contrived  therefore,  to  form  a  party 
igainst  him  among  the  nobility  and  gen- 
ry  who  were  attached  to  the  principles 
of  the  Reformation,  to  whom,  secretly, 
she  promised  protection.  At  length  Ar- 
ran, feeling  his  influence  departing,  re- 
signed the  regency,  which  was  given  to 
the  queen-mother,  Mary  of  Guise,  on  the 
10th  of  April  1554.  She  thus  reached 
he  summit  of  her  ambition  j  and  had 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  II. 


the  state  of  torpor  into  which  the  Refor- 
mation had  been  cast  continued,  she 
might,  in  all  probability,  have  enjoyed 
her  power  for  a  considerable  time,  and 
with  no  little  reputation  ;  for  she  was 
possessed  of  superior  abilities,  untroubled 
by  conscientious  scruples,  and  able  to 
gild  over  her  designs  by  plausible  artifice 
and  deep  dissimulation. 

But  the  mind  of  Scotland  was  not  al- 
lowed to  remain  long  in  this  state  of  tor- 
pidity. The  accession  of  Mary  to  the 
English  throne  on  the  lamented  death  of 
Edward  VI.  produced  an  immediate 
change  in  religious  matters  throughout 
the  island.  The  fierce  persecution 
which  arose  in  England  drove  several 
of  the  English  Protestants  to  Scotland, 
where  they  renewed  the  public  preach- 
ing, which  had  been  for  some  time  in  a 
great  measure  suppressed.  Of  these  the 
most  distinguished  were  William  Har- 
low  and  John  Willock,  the  latter  of 
whom  was  afterwards  colleague  to  John 
Knox. 

At  length,  in  the  end  of  harvest,  in  the 
year  1555,  John  Knox  himself  returned 
to  Scotland,  and  resumed  his  reforming 
labours,  with  double  energy,  zeal,  and 
success.  From  Edinburgh,  where  he 
first  recommenced  his  toils,  he  proceed- 
ed, along  with  the  justly  celebrated  John 
Erskine  of  Dun,  to  Angus  and  Mearns, 
where  he  preached  in  public  for  a  month, 
rekindling  in  that  district  the  embers  of 
the  Reformation.  His  next  position  was 
at  Calder  House,  where  he  resided  for 
some  time  as  the  friend  and  guest  of  Sir 
James  Sandilands,  preceptor,  or  provin- 
cial grand-master  of  the  Knights  of  St. 
John,  who  had  been  for  some  time  at- 
tached to  the  reformed  faith,  and  was  a 
person  of  distinguished  talents,  blameless 
life,  and  great  weight  and  dignity  of 
character.  In  his  mansion  Knox  held 
intercourse  with  Lord  Erskine,  subse- 
quently Earl  of  Mar,  and  Regent ;  the 
Lord  of  Lorn,  afterwards  Earl  of  Argyle  ; 
and  Lord  James  Stewart,  an  illegitimate 
son  of  James  V.,  afterwards  Earl  of 
Murray,  "the  Good  Regent."  By  his 
intercourse  with  these  noblemen,  Knox 
was  at  that  time  framing  the  nucleus  of 
what  subsequently  grew  into  a  power 
capable  not  only  of  assuming  an  attitude 
of  self-defence,  but  of  wielding  the  king- 
dom. 


From  Calder  House  Knox  went  to 
Ayrshire,  accompanied  by  Campbell  of 
Kinyeangh,  and  traversed  that  dis 
trict,  preaching  wherever  he  had  an  op- 
portunity, to  increasing,  attentive,  and 
deeply  impressed  audiences.  The  Earl 
of  Glencairn,  who  alone  had  opposed  the 
martyrdom  of  Adam  Wallace,  gave  the 
full  weight  of  his  countenance  and  sup- 
port to  the  teaching  of  Knox.  Con- 
tinuing his  reforming  progress  Knox 
again  visited  Calder,  the  district  of  An- 
gus and  Mearns,  and  finally  returned  to 
Edinburgh. 

[1556.J  By  this  time  the  priesthood 
were  thoroughly  roused  out  of  their  vain 
security;  and,  determining  to  stem  the 
tide  ere  it  should  reach  its  flood,  they 
summoned  Knox  to  appear  in  the  Black- 
friars  Church  at  Edinburgh,  on  the  15th 
of  May  1556.  Knox  at  once  determined 
to  comply  with  this  summons,  and  con- 
front his  opponents  ;  and  with  that  inten- 
tion came  to  Edinburgh  a  little  before  the 
day  appointed,  accompanied  by  Erskine 
of  Dun,  and  several  other  gentlemen. 
But  the  clergy  were  not  prepared  to  deal 
summarily  with  this  dauntless  antago- 
nist. They  were  not  sure  how  far  the 
queen-regent  would  support  them,  and 
they  deserted  the  diet,  and  allowed  Knox 
to  keep  the  field  unchallenged.  He,  on 
his  part,  did  not  let  slip  the  opportunity : 
he  preached  openly  in  Edinburgh,  deep- 
ening the  impression  formerly  made,  and 
increasing  the  alarm  and  confusion  of  his 
enemies.  Some  of  the  nobility,  who  were 
equally  impressed  and  astonished  with 
the  convincing  power  of  his  fervid  elo- 
quence, persuaded  him  to  write  to  the 
queen-regent,  hoping  that,  if  she  could 
be  prevailed  on  to  hear  him,  she  too 
might  be  converted  to  the  reformed  faith. 
But  after  glancing  carelessly  over  his  let- 
ter, she  handed  it  to  the  archbishop  of 
Glasgow,  saying,  in  a  tone  of  mockery, 
"  Please  you,  my  Lord,  to  read  a  pas- 
quil."  So  vanished  the  hope  of  her  re- 
formation. 

While  John  Knox  was  thus  strenuously 
engaged  in  promoting  the  Reformation. 
in  his  native  country,  letters  came  from 
his  former  flock  in  Geneva,  earnestly 
pressing  him  to  return  to  his  charge 
among  them.  After  revisiting  those  parts 
of  Scotland  where  he  had  previously 
preached,  and  spending  a  few  days  at 


A.  I/.  1557.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


37 


Castle  Campbell  with  the  aged  Earl  of 
Arg-yle,  he  departed  for  Geneva  in  July 
1556.  He  was  no  sooner  gone  than  the 
clergy  renewed  their  summons  ;  and  up- 
on his  failing  to  appear,  he  was  con- 
demned of  heresy,  and  hurned  in  effigy  at 

the  market-cross  of  Edinburgh, an 

achievement  sufficiently  showing  the 
fang-less  malice  of  his  enemies. 

Although  John  Knox  had  left  Scot- 
land, the  reformed  doctrines  continued  to 
be  preached  in  different  parts  of  the 
country.  John  Douglas,  a  Carmelite 
friar,  renouncing  the  errors  of  Popery, 
became  chaplain  to  the  aged  Earl  of  Ar- 
gyle  ;  and  when  the  archbishop  of  St. 
Andrews  endeavoured  to  persuade  the 
earl  to  dismiss  his  suspected  chaplain,  he 
positively  refused,  and  continued  to  pro- 
tect him  till  his  own  decease.  Willock, 
about  the  same  time,  arrived  from  the 
Continent ;  and  Paul  Methven  began  to 
preach  the  Protestant  doctrines  in  Dun- 
dee, as  did  others  in  Angus  and  Mearns. 

The  clergy  perceiving  that  their  own 
power  was  now  insufficient  for  the  sup- 
pression of  what  they  termed  heresy,  pre- 
vailed on  the  queen-regent  to  summon 
the  preachers  before  the  council  of  state, 
and  there  to  have  them  accused  of  stir- 
ring up  sedition  among  the  people, — a 
device  to  which  persecutors  have  very 
often  since  resorted,  for  the  purpose  of 
at  once  accomplishing  the  object,  and  es- 
caping the  odiurn  of  persecution.  But 
this  device  was,  in  this  instance,  com- 
pletely frustrated.  When  the  preachers 
came  to  Edinburgh,  such  numbers  of 
their  friends  came  along  with  them,  that 
it  was  judged  dangerous  to  proceed  to 
extremities.  A  proclamation  was,  how- 
ever, issued,  ordering  all  who  had  come 
to  the  town  without  having  been  com- 
manded, to  repair  immediately  to  the 
borders,  and  there  remain  fifteen  days 
under  the  banner  of  the  lieutenant-gen- 
eral. The  Protestant  gentlemen,  pene- 
trating easily  into  the  object  of  this  pro- 
clamation, assembled  together,  and,  in- 
stead of  obeying  it,  proceeded  to  court, 
and  forced  themselves  with  little  cere- 
mony into  the  presence  of  the  queen, 
then  sitting  in  council  with  the  bishops. 
Chalmers  of  Gadgirth,  a  bold  and  zealous 
man,  spoke  in  the  name  of  all : — "  Ma- 
dam, we  know  that  this  proclamation  is 
a  device  of  the  bishops,  and  of  that  bas- 


tard, (the  primate  of  St.  Andrews)  that 
stands  beside  you.  We  avow  to  God, 
that  ere  we  yield,  we  will  make  a  day  of 
it.  These  idle  drones  oppress  us  and  our 
tenants  ;  they  trouble  our  preachers,  and 
would  murder  them  and  us.  Shall  we 
suffer  this  any  longer  ?  No,  madam,  it 
shall  not  be."  And  therewith  every  man 
put  on  his  steel  bonnet.  The  queen-re- 
gent had  recourse  to  fair  words,  disa- 
vowed the  proclamation,  and  discharged 
the  citation  of  the  preachers.  Thus  that 
storm  blew  past.* 

A  few  days  after  this  there  was  a  lu- 
dicrous tumult  of  the  people,  at  a  proces- 
sion in  honour  of  St.  Giles,  when  the  im- 
age was  thrown  scornfully  to  the  ground, 
drawn  through  the  mire  of  the  streets, 
its  head  beaten  off,  the  body  thrown  into 
the  North  Loch,  and  then  dragged  out 
and  burned.  These  events  so  discour- 
aged the  queen  and  the  clergy,  that  they 
thought  it  expedient  to  abandon  their 
persecuting  schemes,  and  to  endeavour  to 
procure  an  accession  of  strength  hefore 
they  should  again  provoke  the  courage 
of  the  Protestant  gentry  and  the  tumults 
of  the  people.  This  accession  of  strength 
they  expected  to  obtain  by  procuring  an 
act  of  the  Scottish  parliament  to  confer 
the  crown-matrimonial  of  Scotland  on 
Francis  the  Dauphin,  and  husband  of 
Mary  ;  by  which  scheme  there  would  be 
so  close  a  union  between  France  and 
Scotland,  the  king  of  the  one  country 
being  also  the  king  of  the  other,  that 
French  power  would  give  the  popish 
clergy  paramount  influence  in  Scotland, 
and  enable  them  to  extirpate  the  Refor- 
mation by  force. 

[1557.]  But  while  the  queen-regent 
and  the  prelates  were  concocting  this 
deep  scheme,  the  Scottish  protestants  be- 
came anxious  for  the  return  of  Knox 
from  Geneva.  A  letter  was  accordingly 
sent  to  him  in  March  1557,  signed  by  the 
Earl  of  Glencairn,  arid  Lords  Erskine, 
Lorn,  and  James  Stewart,  inviting  him 
in  their  own  name,  and  in  that  of  their 
brethren,  to  return  to  Scotland,  where  he 
would  find  them  all  ready  to  receive  him, 
and  to  jeopard  their  lives  and  fortunes  in 
the  cause  of  true  religion.  Having  consult- 
ed Calvin  and  his  other  friends  at  Geneva, 
and  been  by  them  advised  to  comply 
with  the  request,  Knox  prepared  to  take 

*  Knox,  Historic,  p.  94. 


38 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP  II. 


wha:  he  expected  to  be  a  final  farewell  of 
Geneva,  and  then  proceeded  on  his  jour- 
ney through  France  to  Dieppe.  When 
he  arrived  at  Dieppe,  he  received  letters 
from  Scotland  of  a  tenor  so  discoura- 
ging as  to  cause  him  to  delay  his  farther 
journey  till  he  should  receive  additional 
information  as  to  the  real,  state  of  matters 
in  his  native  country.  While  at  Dieppe 
he  wrote  a  letter  to  the  nobility  by  whom 
he  had  been  invited,  upbraiding  them 
sharply  for  their  timidity  and  fickleness 
of  purpose.  Being  unwilling  to  abandon 
the  enterprise,  he  continued  to  reside  at 
Dieppe  for  several  months,  expecting  a 
more  favourable  answer  from  Scotland  ; 
and  employing  his  time  in  writing  some 
very  long  and  able  letters  of  a  public 
character,  in  particular,  one  against  the 
erroneous  tenets  of  the  Anabaptists,  and 
another  to  the  Scottish  nobility  on  their 
duties  in  general,  and  on  the  question  of 
resistance  to  supreme  rulers.  Not  re- 
ceiving such  answers,  and  so  directly  as 
he  wished,  he  returned  again  to  Geneva 
in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1558. 

In  the  meantime  matters  were  rapidly 
maturing  in  Scotland.  Notwithstanding 
the  discouraging  letters  which  Knox  had 
received  at  Dieppe,  the  chief  of  the  no- 
bility who  invited  him  were  still  prepared 
to  stand  by  their  invitation  ;  and,  in  fact, 
renewed  it,  in  a  letter  sent  to  Geneva  by 
a  special  messenger.  And  although  the 
return  of  Knox  was  delayed,  yet  his  let- 
ters from  Dieppe  seemed  to  have  little 
less  influence  than  his  presence  might 
have  had.  The  lords  and  chief  gentry, 
devoted  to  the  reforming  interests,  re- 
solved to  meet  at  Edinburgh,  and,  by  a 
general  'consultation,  to  determine  what 
was  now  best  for  them  to  do.  They 
came  to  the  noble  resolution  that  they 
would  persevere  in  their  defence  of  the 
reformed  religion ;  and,  that  they  might 
have  the  confidence  and  strength  of  con- 
firmed union,  they  resolved  to  frame  a 
common  bond  or  covenant,  engaging 
them  to  mutual  support  in  defence  of  each 
other  and  of  the  gospel.*  This  very  re- 
markable document,  which  has  been  com- 
monly called  The  FIRST  COVENANT,  was 
subscribed  at  Edinburgh,  on  the  3d  of 
December  1557  ;  and  on  account  of  its 
great  importance,  both  in  its  own  time, 
and  as  setting  the  example  of  similar 

*  The  First  Covenant,  3d  December  1557. 


covenants,  we  shall  present  it  to  the  reader 
entire,  merely  modernizing  the  spelling-. 

"We,  perceiving  how  Satan,  in  his 
members  the  antichrists  of  our  time,  cru- 
elly doth  rage,  seeking  to  downthrow 
and  destroy  the  evangel  of  Christ  and  his 
congregation,  ought,  according  to  our 
bounden  duty,  to  strive  in  our  master's 
cause,  even  unto  the  death,  being  certain 
of  the  victory  in  him:  the  which,  our 
duty  being  well  considered,  we  do  prom- 
ise before  the  Majesty  of  God  and  his 
congregation,  That  we,  by  his  grace, 
shall  with  all  diligence  continually  apply 
our  whole  power,  substance,  and  our  very 
lives,  to  maintain,  set  forward,  and  estab- 
lish the  most  blessed  Word  of  God,  and 
his  congregation  j  and  shall  labour  at  our 
possibility  to  have  faithful  ministers, 
purely  and  truly  -to  minister  Christ's 
evangel  and  sacraments  to  his  people. 
We  shall  maintain  them,  nourish  them, 
and  defend  them,  the  whole  congregation 
of  Christ,  and  every  member  thereof,  at 
our  whole  powers,  and  wairing  [expend- 
ing] of  our  lives  against  Satan  and  all 
wicked  power  that  does  intend  tyranny 
and  trouble  against  the  foresaid  congre- 
gation. Unto  the  which  holy  word  and 
congregation  we  do  join  us ;  and  also  do 
renounce  and  forsake  the  congregation  of 
Satan,  with  all  the  superstitions,  abomi- 
nations and  idolatry  thereof.  And  more- 
over shall  declare  ourselves  manifestly 
enemies  thereto,  by  this  our  faithful 
promise  before  God,  testified  to  his  con- 
gregation, by  our  subscription  at  these 
presents.  At  Edinburgh  the  3d  day  of 
December  1557  years.  God  called  to 
witness."* 

This  bond,  or  covenant,  was  subscribed 
by  the  Earls  of  Argyle,  Glencairn,  and 
Morton,  Archibald,  lord  of  Lorn,  John 
Erskine  of  Dun,  and  a  great  number  of 
other  distinguished  men  among  the  lesser 
barons  and  influential  country  gentle- 
men. From  the  repeated  recurrence  of 
the  word  congregation  in  this  document, 
the  chief  subscribers  were  after  this  called 
Lords  of  the  Congregation  ;  and  the  peo- 
ple who  adhered  to  them  were  called  the 
Congregation. 

Though  they  had  thus  both  ascer- 
tained and  confirmed  their  strength,  the 
Lords  of  the  Congregation  were  desirous 
to  act  in  the  most  temperate  manner,  and 

"  Knox,  Historic,  p.  101. 


A.  D.  1558.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


not  to  provoke  an  actual  conflict,  unless 
it  could  not  possibly  be  avoided.  They 
resolved,  therefore,  to  rest  satisfied  with 
requesting  the  queen-regent  to  cause  all 
country  curates  and  pastors  to  perform 
the  services  of  religion  in  the  English 
language  ;  consenting  that  the  reformed 
'  preachers  should  teach  in  private  houses 
only,  till  permission  should  be  obtained 
for  them  to  preach  in  public.  This  peti- 
tion was  presented  to  the  queen-regent  by 
Sir  James  Sandilands.  To  this  she  re- 
turned a  plausible  answer,  promising  to 
grant  the  prayer  of  the  petition  as  far  as 
might  be  practicable,  and,  in  the  mean- 
time, granting  protection  to  the  Protes- 
tant preachers  till  some  uniform  arrange- 
ment might  be  established  by  parliament, 
provided  there  should  be  no  public  meet- 
ings held  in  Edinburgh  and  Leith.  In 
consequence  of  this  interim  arrangement, 
the  chief  Protestant  preachers  were  re- 
ceived into  the  houses  of  the  Lords  of  the 
Congregation,  and  restricted  their  teach- 
ing in  a  great  measure  to  the  households 
where  they  resided. 

[1558.]  The  popish  clergy  being  now 
unable  to  wreak  their  vengeance  on  the 
chief  Protestant  preachers,  determined  to 
show  no  mercy  to  any  whom  they  could 
get  within  their  power.  There  was  an 
aged  priest,  named  Walter  Mill,  who 
had  been  accused  of  heresy  in  the  days 
of  Cardinal  Beaton,  but  had  contrived  to 
escape  at  that  time  from  his  murderous 
hands.  Mill  had  continued  to  live  in 
comparative  concealment,  for  several 
years,  occasionally  preaching  in  public, 
but  more  commonly  in  private,  in  differ- 
ent quarters  of  the  kingdom.  Being 
lately  discovered  by  one  of  the  arch- 
bishop's spies,  he  was  seized  and  brought 
to  trial  at  St.  Andrews.  The  venerable 
man,  bowed  down  with  the  weight  of 
years,  for  he  was  upwards  of  four-score, 
defended  himself  on  the  day  of  his  trial 
with  great  spirit  and  ability.  He  was, 
nevertheless,  condemned  to  be  burned  at 
the  stake  ;  but  so  great  was  the  compas- 
sion felt  for  him,  and  such  the  horror 
awakened  by  this  barbarous  outrage  of 
all  that  man  holds  sacred  in  the  hoary 
head  of  drooping  human  nature,  that  no 
person  could  be  got  to  aid  in  the  execu- 
tion of  the  sentence,  till  the  archbishop 
commanded  one  of  his  own  domestics  to 
perpetrate  the  crime.  On  the  28th  of 


April  1558,  Mill  expired  amidst  the 
flames,  uttering  these  words,  «  As  for  me, 
I  am  fourscore  and  two  years  old,  and 
cannot  live  long  by  course  of  nature  ; 
but  a  hundred  better  shall  rise  out  of  the 
ashes  of  my  bones.  I  trust  in  God,  I 
shall  be  the  last  that  shall  suffer  death  in 
Scotland  for  this  cause."* 

This  barbarous  deed  stirred  the  heart 
of  the  reforming  party  in  Scotland,  like 
the  sound  of  a  trumpet.  The  people  of 
St.  Andrews  raised  a  great  pile  of  stones 
on  the  spot  where  he  was  burned,  to 
commemorate  his  martyrdom.  The 
Lords  of  the  Congregation  complained 
to  the  queen-regent  against  the  unpar- 
alleled barbarity  of  the  bishops.  And 
the  Protestant  preachers  availing  them- 
selves of  the  ferment  throughout  the 
kingdom,  broke  through  the  restraints  to 
which  they  had  submitted  for  the  sake  of 
peace,  and  began  to  preach  with  increased 
fervour  and  publicity.  But  the  measures 
of  the  queen-regent  were  not  yet  matured, 
and  therefore  she  renewed  her  deep  dis- 
simulation. 

She  declared  to  the  Protestant  lords 
that  she  was  not  guilty  of  the  death 
of  Walter  Mill,  who,  being  a  priest,  be- 
longed properly  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Church.  She  engaged  to  do  every  thing 
in  her  power  to  procure  redress  in  a 
legal  form  from  parliament ;  and  suc- 
ceeded in  deceiving  the  Lords  of  the  Con- 
gregation, whom  she  could  not  venture 
openly  to  offend  till  she  had  procured 
their  aid  in  accomplishing  her  own  deep 
cheme. 

In  the  parliament  which  met  in  Octo- 
ber 1558,  she  contrived  to  balance  the 
bishops,  the  party  headed  by  Arran,  and 
the  Lords  of  the  Congregation,'  against 
each  other,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  pro- 
cure the  consent  of  all  that  the  crown 
matrimonial  should  be  given  to  Francis, 

o  would  thereby  be  king  of  both 
France  and  Scotland.  In  the  same  par- 
liament, previous  to  the  completion  of  this 
arrangement,  the  Lords  of  the  Congrega- 
ion  were  prepared  to  present  a  petition 
seeking  the  redress  of  the  grievances  in 
religious  matters  of  which  they  had  pre- 
viously complained  ;  but  the  wily  regent 
contrived  to  induce  them  to  withhold 

for  the  present,  and  to  content  them- 
selves with  publicly  reading  such  a  pro 

*  Knox,  p.  122;  Spotswood,  pp.  95-97. 


40 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  II 


test  as  should  completely  reserve  their 
right  to  have  the  subject  re-introduced 
when  another  opportunity  should  occur. 
To  the  protest  the  queen-regent  answered 
verbally,  that  she  would  remember  what 
was  protested,  and  put  order  afterwards 
to  all  that  was  in  controversy.  With  this 
promise  the  Protestant  lords  were  satis- 
fied, and  their  suspicions  lulled  asleep. 
But  having  now  gained  her  object  in  se- 
curing the  crown-matrimonial  to  the  Dau- 
phin of  France,  she  gave  private  assur- 
ance of  support  to  the  archbishop  of  St. 
Andrews,  and  consulted  with  him  how 
most  thoroughly  and  speedily  to  suppress 
the  Reformation. 

Dr.  Robertson*  has  stated  very  clearly 
and  convincingly  the.  deep  and  daring 
scheme  of  the  princes  of  the  house  of 
Lorraine,  brothers  of  the  queen-regent 
of  Scotland,  with  which  that  able  and 
unscrupulous  princess  was  fully  ac- 
quainted, and  which  formed  in  truth  the 
leading  principle  of  all  her  own  political 
machinations.  It  was  to  the  following 
effect:  The  formation  of  a  league  be- 
tween France  and  Spain  for  the  utter  de- 
struction of  the  Reformation  throughout 
Europe ;  and  as  England  was  the  most 
powerful  Protestant  kingdom,  and  Eliz- 
abeth was  now  its  sovereign,  it  was  ne- 
cessary that  she  should  be  dethroned, 
and  the  crown  bestowed  on  a  popish 
monarch.  As  Mary,  the  young  queen 
of  Scotland,  was  the  nearest  heir  to  the 
English  crown,  it  was  thought  that  the 
best  method  of  accomplishing  their  design 
would  be,  by  suppressing  the  Reforma- 
tion in  Scotland,  establishing  the  French 
and  popish  influence  in  that  country,  and 
through  it  assailing  Elizabeth.  It  was 
essential  to  the  complete  arrangement  of 
this  gigantic  scheme  that  the  crown-mat- 
rimonial of  Scotland  should  be  secured  to 
the  Dauphin  of  France,  Mary's  husband ; 
and  for  this  reason  did  the  queen-regent 
employ  all  her  artifice  to  blind  and  cajole 
the  Lords  of  the  Congregation,  and  to 
induce  them  to  consent  to  recognise 
Francis  and  Mary  as  king  and  queen  of 
Scotland,  distinctly  promising  that  she 
would  then,  supported  by  the  authority 
of  the  kingly  name,  make  such  arrange- 
ments as  should  protect  their  preachers 
and  themselves  from  the  malice  and  ha- 

•  Robertson's  History  of  Scotland. 


tred  of  the  bishops,  and  promote  the  re- 
formation of  religion.* 

Having  now  accomplished  her  pur- 
pose, the  queen-regent  prepared  to  throw 
aside  the  mask  which  she  had  so  long 
worn.  Accordingly,  in  the  end  of  De- 
cember 1558,  with  her  concurrence,  the 
preachers  of  the  reformed  doctrines  were 
summoned  to  appear  at  St.  Andrews,  be- 
fore the  archbishop,  on  the  2d  day  of 
February  following,  to  answer  for  their 
conduct  in  usurping  the  sacred  office, 
and  disseminating  heretical  doctrines. 
Upon  this,  a  deputation  of  the  Protest- 
ants waited  on  the  queen-regent,  and  en- 
deavoured to  dissuade  her  from  permit- 
ting the  adoption  of  such  violent  meas- 
ures ;  declaring,  that  after  what  had  re- 
cently taken  place  in  the  instance  of  the 
martyr  Mill,  they  were  determined  to  at- 
tend and  see  justice  done  to  their  preach- 
ers, and  that,  if  the  prosecution  went  on, 
there  would  be  such  a  number  present  to 
witness  it  as  had  been  rarely  seen  in 
Scotland.  This  declaration  so  far  alarmed 
the  regent,  that  she  caused  the  trial  to  be 
postponed  ;  at  the  same  time  summoning 
a  convention  of  the  nobility,  to  be  held 
at  Edinburgh  on  the  7th  of  March,  1559, 
to  advise  upon  the  most  proper  measures 
for  settling  the  religious  differences  by 
which  the  nation  had  been  so  long  agi- 
tated ;  and,  that  these  matters  might  be 
fully  discussed,  the  primate,  at  her  re- 
quest called  a  provincial  council  of  the 
clergy,  to  meet  in  the  same  place  on  the 
1st  of  March. 

[1559.]  The  convention  of  nobility 
and  council  of  clergy  met  at  the  time  ap- 
pointed, and  the  Protestants  having  also 
assembled  at  Edinburgh,  appointed  com- 
missioners to  lay  their  representations 
before  each  of  these  bodies.  To  the 
council  of  clergy  they  gave  in  certain 
preliminary  articles  of  reformation,  in 
which  they  craved  that  the  religious  ser- 
vice should  be  performed  in  the  native 
tongue  ;  that  such  as  were  unfit  for  the 
pastoral  office  should  be  removed  from 
their  benefices;  that,  in  future,  bishops 
should  be  admitted  with  the  assent  of  the 
barons  of  the  diocese,  and  parish  priests 
with  the  assent  of  the  parishioners  ;  and 
that  measures  should  be  adopted  for  pre- 

*  Km  x,  Historic,  p.  110;  Spotswood,  p.  120;  M'Crie'a 
Life  of  Snox. 


A.  D.  1559  ] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


41 


venting-  immoral  and  ignorant  persons 
from  being  employed  in  ecclesiastical 
functions,  It  deserves  to  be  noticed,  that 
there  was  another  paper  laid  before  the 
council,  drawn  up  by  persons  attached  to 
the  Romish  Church,  also  "  craving  re- 
dress for  several  grievances  complained 
of  in  the  ecclesiastical  administration  of 
Scotland."  This  latter  paper,  indicating 
the  existence  of  a  reforming  party  within 
the  Romish  Church  itself  gave  serious 
alarm  to  the  council,  and  increased  their 
determination  to  adopt  strong  and  deci- 
sive measures  at  once.  They  accord- 
ingly ratified,  in  the  strongest  terms,  all 
the  controverted  doctrines  ;  ordered  strict 
inquiry  to  be  made  after  all  such  as  ab- 
sented themselves  from  the  celebration  of 
mass  ;  and  threatened  with  excommuni- 
cation all  who  should  disseminate  or  ad- 
here to  the  doctrine  of  the  Reformation. 
A  secret  treaty,  it  appears,  had  been 
framed  between  the  clergy  and  the  queen- 
regent,  in  which  they  engaged  to  raise  a 
large  sum  of  money  to  enable  her  to 
levy  and  maintain  forces  wherewith  to 
overthrow  and  suppress  the  reformers. 

The  Protestant  party  becoming  aware 
of  this  secret  treaty,  and  perceiving  the 
turn  that  matters  were  now  taking,  broke 
off  the  negociations  in  which  they  had 
been  engaged,  and  left  Edinburgh. 
They  were  no  sooner  gone  than  a  pro- 
clamation was  made  at  the  market-cross 
by  order  of  the  queen-regent,  "  prohibit- 
ing any  person  from  preaching  or  ad- 
ministering the  sacraments  without  au- 
thority from  the  bishops  ;  and  command- 
ing all  the  subjects  to  prepare  to  cele- 
brate the  ensuing  feast  of  Easter,  ac- 
cording to  the  rules  of  the  Catholic 
Church."  This  proclamation  the  Pro- 
testants regarded  as  equivalent,  to  a  de- 
claration of  direct  hostility  againtt  them 
and  their  religious  belief;  and  perceived 
that  they  must  either  now  take  their 
stand,  or  prepare  to  abandon  all  that  they 
held  most  sacred.  They  did  not  hesitate, 
but  disregarded  the  proclamation,  neg- 
lecting the  superstitious  and  idolatrous 
rites  of  Popery,  and  worshipping  God 
according  to  the  directions  contained  in 
His  own  Word,  and  the  light  of  con- 
science. The  queen-regent  had  now  ad- 
vanced too  far  to  retract ;  and  accord- 
ingly, Paul  Methven,  John  Christison, 
William  Harlaw,  and  John  Willock, 
6 


were  summoned  to  stand  trial  before  the 
Justiciary  Court  at  Stirling,  on  the  10th 
of  May  1550,  for  disregarding  the  pro- 
clamation, teaching  heresy,  and  exciting 
seditions  and  tumults  among  the  people. 

Being  reluctant  to  proceed  to  extremi- 
ties, the  Protestants  sent  the  Earl  of 
Glencairn  and  Sir  Hugh  Campbell  of 
London  to  wrait  on  the  queen,  and  re- 
monstrate against  these  violent  proceed- 
ings ;  but  she  haughtily  replied,  that 
"  maugre  [in  spite  of]  their  hearts,  and 
all  that  would  take  part  with  them, 
these  ministers  should  be  banished  Scot- 
land, though  they  preached  as  soundly 
as  ever  St.  Paul  did."  The  deputation 
reminded  her  of.  the  promises  she  had 
repeatedly  made  to  protect  them,  to 
which  she  unblushingly  replied,  that  "  it 
became  not  subjects  to,  burden  their 
princes  with  promises,  farther  than  they 
pleased  to  keep  them."  Roused,  rather 
than  intimidated,  by  this  language,  they 
answered,  that  if  she  violated  the  en- 
gagements she  had  come  under  to  her 
subjects,  they  would  regard  themselves  as 
absolved  from  their  allegiance  to  her. 
This  bold  and  resolute  answer  caused 
her  to  pause  and  resume  her  tone  of 
simulated  mildness,  and  at  Igngth  she 
promised  to  suspend  the  trial  of  the 
preachers,  and  take  the  whole  affair  into 
serious  consideration. 

That  very  night,  according  to  Spots- 
wood,  after  the  departure  of  the  deputa- 
tion, the  queen  received  information  that 
the  town  of  Perth  had  embraced  the  re- 
formed doctrines.  Enraged  to  find  all 
matters  going  so  contrary  to  her  wishes, 
she  sent  for  Lord  Ruthven,  provost  of 
that  town,  and  commanded  him  to  go  im- 
mediately to  suppress  these  innovations. 
To  this  he  answered,  that  "  he  could 
make  their  persons  and  their  goods  sub- 
ject to  her,  but  had  no  power  over  their 
minds  and  consciences."  She  furiously 
exclaimed,  that  "  he  was  too  malapert  to 
give  her  such  an  answer,  and  she  would 
make  both  him  and  them  repent  it."  In 
the  same  spirit  of  revenge,  she  broke 
the  promise  she  had  given  to  Glen- 
cairn  and  Loudon,  ordered  the  processes 
against  the  preachers  to  go  on,  and  sum- 
moned them  peremptorily  to  stand  their 
trial  at  Stirling  on  the  appointed  day. 

Affairs  now  swept  rapidly  forward  to 
the  crisis  that  had  been  long  inevitable. 


42 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  U 


The  Protestant  nobility  and  gentlemen 
determined  to  accompany  their  preachers 
to  Stirling-  on  the  day  appointed.  The 
townsmen  of  Dundee,  and  those  of  Mon- 
trose,  together  with  the  chief  inhabitants 
of  Angus  and  Mearns,  assembled  at 
Perth  ;  but  before  proceeding  to  Stirling, 
it  was  judged  expedient  to  send  Erskine 
of  Dun  before  them,  to  assure  the  queen 
of  their  peaceful  dispositions,  and  that 
their  only  object  was  to  join  with  their 
preachers  in  making  a  public  confession 
of  their  faith,  and  to  aid  them  in  their 
just  defence.  The  wily  queen  again  re- 
sorted to  dissimulation  ;  and  succeeded  in 
persuading  Erskine  to  remain  at  Stirling, 
and  to  write  to  the  assembled  Protestants 
at  Perth,  requesting  them  to  return  to 
their  houses,  and  promising  that  the  trial 
should  not  proceed  against  the  ministers. 
Some,  confiding  in  the  queen-regent's 
promise,  did  return  to  their  homes  ;  but 
a  considerable  number,  remembering  her 
previous  acts  of  treachery,  remained  at 
Perth,  till  they  should  see  the  issue.  At 
this  very  important  juncture  the  Protest- 
ant party  received  an  accession  of  strength 
in  the  opportune  arrival  of  John  Knox 
in  Scotland. 

It  has  ]peen  already  stated  that  he  had 
returned  to  Geneva,  after  the  discourag- 
ing letters  which  he  received  at  Dieppe. 
But  when  he  received  a  fresh  invitation 
from  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation,  and 
farther  learned  in  what  extremities  his 
Scottish  reforming  brethren  were  placed, 
he  at  once  determined  to  hasten  to  his 
native  country,  and  devote  his  life  to  the 
great  and  sacred  cause  of  the  Scottish 
Reformation.  He  was  refused  permis- 
sion to  journey  through  England ;  but 
taking  shipping  at  Dieppe,  he  sailed  to 
Leith,  where  he  landed  the  2d  of  May 
1559. 

Nothing  can  more  strikingly  prove 
the  importance  of  this  timely  arrival  of 
the  great  Scottish  reformer,  than  the  con- 
sternation it  excited  in  the  hearts  of  his 
antagonists.  The  day  for  the  trial  of  the 
preachers  was  close  at  hand,  and  their 
enemies  were  busily  engaged  in  com- 
pleting their  treacherous  plots  against 
the  lives  of  those  devoted  men.  For  se- 
veral days  the  provincial  council  of  the 
clergy  had  been  sitting  in  the  monastery 
of  the  Gray  friars  j  and  on  the  morning 


of  the  3d  of  May,  they  had  again  met 
and  resumed  their  deliberations.  While 
they  were  thus  engaged,  on  a  sudden  one 
of  the  fraternity  entered  the  monastery, 
and  rushed  into  the  presence  of  the  coun- 
cil, breathless  with  haste,  and  pale  with 
terror,  exclaiming  in  broken  words — 
"  John  Knox  !  John  Knox  is  come  !  he 
is  come!  he  slept  last  night  in  Edin- 
burgh !"  The  council  was  panic-struck. 
In  dumb  dismay  they  contemplated  the 
ruin  of  all  the  plans  which  they  had 
given  their  gold  and  stained  their  souls 
with  guilt  to  fabricate.  At  once  stunned 
and  terrified,  they  ceased  to  deliberate, 
broke  up  the  council,  and  dispersed  in 
great  haste  and  confusion. 

A  messenger  was  instantly  sent  to  the 
queen-regent  with  the  unwelcome  infor- 
mation ;  and  within  a  few  days  Knox 
was  proclaimed  an  outlaw  and  a  rebel, 
in  virtue  of  the  sentence  formerly  pro- 
nounced against  him  by  the  clergy.  He 
staid  but  one  day  in  Edinburgh  ;  and  be- 
ing resolved  to  cast  himself  at  once  into 
the  heart  of  the  conflict,  and  to  share  the 
dangers  of  his  brethren,  he  hurried  to 
Dundee,  and  joined  those  who  were  pre- 
paring to  proceed  to  the  trial  at  Stirling. 
With  them  he  hastened  to  Perth,  where 
the  main  adherents  of  the  Reformation 
were  by  this  time  assembled,  waiting  the 
result  of  the  negotiations  between  the 
queen-regent  and  Erskine  of  Dun,  of 
which  mention  has  been  already  made. 

The  queen,  as  already  stated,  had 
promised,  to  Erskine  that  the  trial  of  the 
preachers  should  be  postponed ;  but  when 
the  day  of  trial  came,  they  were  sum- 
moned, and,  not  appearing,  they  were 
outlawed,  and  all  persons  were  prohib- 
ited, "  under  pain  of  rebellion,  to  assist, 
comfort,  receive,  or  maintain  them  in  any 
sort."  ^At  the  same  time,  the  gentlemen 
who  had  given  security  for  their  appear- 
ance were  fined.  Indignant  at  this  act 
of  gross  deceit  and  injury,  and  apprehen- 
sive of  personal  danger,  Erskine  con- 
trived to  escape  from  Stirling  unobserved, 
and  hastened  to  Perth  with  the  intelli- 
gence of  what  had  taken  place.  An 
event  immediately  followed  the  return  of 
Erskine  to  Perth,  which  has  often  been 
grievously  misrepresented,  to  the  preju- 
dice of  the  reformers,  very  unjustly,  by 
the  favourers  of  Prelacy;  and  as  Dr. 


A.  D.  1559.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


43 


M'Crie  has  given  a  very  full  account  of 
it  in  his  Life  of  Knox,  we   extract  the 


SG- 
"  It  happened  that,  on  the  same  day  on 

which  the  news  came  of  the  queen's 
treacherous  conduct  at  Stirling.  Knox, 
who  remained  at  Perth,  preached  a  ser- 
mon, in  which  he  exposed  the  idolatry  of 
the  mass  and  of  image-worship.  The 
audience  had  quietly  dismissed,  and  a 
few  idle  persons  only  loitered  in  the 
church,  when  an  imprudent  priest,  wish- 
ing to  try  the  disposition  of  the  people,  or 
to  show  his  contempt  of  the  doctrine 
which  had  just  been  delivered,  uncovered 
a  rich  altar-piece,  decorated  with  images, 
and  prepared  to  celebrate  mass.  A  boy, 
having  uttered  some  expressions  of  disap- 
probation, was  struck  by  the  priest.  He 
retaliated  by  throwing  a  stone  at  the 
aggressor,  which,  falling  on  the  altar- 
piece,  broke  one  of  the  images.  This 
operated  as  a  signal  upon  the  people 
present,  who  had  sympathised  with  the 
boy  ;  and  in  course  of  a  few  minutes,  the 
altar,  images,  and  all  the  ornaments  of  the 
church,  were  torn  down  and  trampled 
under  foot.  The  noise  soon  collected  a 
mob,  which,  finding  no  employment  in 
the  church,  flew,  by  a  sudden  and  irre- 
sistible impulse,  upon  the  monasteries  : 
and  although  the  magistrates  of  the  town 
and  the  preachers  assembled  as  soon  as 
they  heard  of  the  riot,  yet  neither  the  per- 
suasions of  the  one,  nor  the  authority  of 
the  other,'  could  restrain  the  fury  of  the 
people,  until  the  houses  of  the  gray  and 
black  friars,  with  the  costly  edifice  of  the 
Carthusian  monks,  were  laid  in  ruins. 
None  of  the  gentlemen  or  sober  part  of 
the  congregation  were  concerned  in  this 
unpremeditated  tumult ;  it  was  wholly 
confined  to  the  lowest  of  the  inhabitants, 
or,  as  Knox  designs  them,  '  the  rascal 
multitude.'  If  this  disorderly  conduct 
must  be  traced  to  a  remote  cause,  we  can 
impute  it  only  to  the  wanton  and  dishon- 
ourable perfidy  of  the  queen-regent. 

"  In  fact,  nothing  could  be  more  fa- 
vourable to  the  designs  of  the  regent  than 
this  riot.  By  her  recent  conduct  she  had 
forfeited  the  confidence  of  the  Protes- 
tants, and  even  exposed  herself  in  the 
eyes  of  the  sober  and  moderate  of  her 
own  party.  This  occurrence  afforded 
her  an  opportunity  of  turning  the  public 
indignation  from  herself,  and  directing  it 


against  the  Protestants.  She  did  not 
fail  to  improve  it  with  her  usual  address. 
She  magnified  the  accidental  tumult  into 

dangerous  and  designed  rebellion. 
Having  called  the  nobility  to  Stirling, 
she,  in  her  interviews  with  them,  insisted 
upon  such  topics  as  were  best  calculated 
to  persuade  the  parties  into  which  they 
were  divided.  In  conversing  with  the 
Catholics,  she  dwf  It  upon  the  sacrilegious 
overthrow  of  those  venerable  structures 
which  their  ancestors  had  dedicated  to 
the  service  of  God.  To  the  Protestants 
who  had  not  joined  their  brethren  at 
Perth,  she  complained  of  the  destruction 
of  the  charter-house,  which  was  a  royal 
foundation  ;  and,  protesting  that  she  had 
no  intention  of  offering  violence  to  their 
consciences,  promised  to  protect  them, 
provided  they  would  assist  her  in  pun- 
ishing those  who  had  been  guilty  of  this 
violation  of  public  order.  Having  in- 
flamed the  minds  of  both  parties,  she  col- 
lected an  army  from  the  adjacent  coun- 
tries, and  advanced  to  Perth,  threatening 
to  lay  waste  the  town  with  fire  and  sword, 
and  to  inflict  the  most  exemplary  ven- 
geance on  all  who  had  been  instrumental 
in  producing  the  riot."* 

A  considerable  body  of  French  troops 
strengthened  the  queen's  army,  and  in- 
creased the  danger  of  the  Protestants, 
who  were  also  weakened  by  the  retreat 
of  many  of  their  own  party,  confiding 
in  the  previous  pacific  declarations  of  the 
queen.  But  messengers  had  been  sent 
by  the  reformers  from  Perth,  requesting 
their  friends  to  come  to  their  defence 
with  all  possible  expedition  ;  and  so  read- 
ily were  these  entreaties  responded  to, 
that  before  the  queen's  army  had  reached 
Perth,  the  reformers  were  enabled  to  as- 
sume an  attitude  of  self-defence  suffi- 
ciently imposing  to  cause  the  queen  to 
propose  overtures  of  accommodation. 
The  promptitude  of  the  Earl  of  Glen- 
cairn,  on  this  emergency,  deserves  par- 
ticular mention.  In  an  almost  incredible 
short  space  of  time,  he  assembled  about 
two  thousand  five  hundred  men.  and 
marched  from  Ayrshire  to  Perth,  bring- 
ing this  large  reinforcement  to  his  breth- 
ren there,  while  they  were  treating  with 
the  queen-regent. 

The  queen  employed  the  Earl  of  Ar- 
gyle  and  Lord  James  Stewart  to  treat 

*  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  pp,  159,  160. 


44 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  II. 


with  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation  at 
Perth  ;  and  an  agreement  was  entered 
into,  in  which  it  was  stipulated,  that  the 
town  should  be  left  open  to  the  queen ; 
that  none  of  the  inhabitants  should  be 
called  in  question  for  what  had  taken 
place  ;  that  the  French  should  not  enter 
the  town  ;  and  that,  when  the  queen  re- 
tired, there  should  be  no  garrison  left  in 
it.  To  these  terms  the  reformers  agreed  ; 
at  the  same  time  stating,  that  they  did  not 
expect  the  queen  to  keep  faith  with  them 
any  longer  than  till  she  obtained  the 
power  to  break  it  with  safety  to  herself; 
and  Argyle  and  Stewart,  declaring  that 
if  she  should  violate  the  treaty,  they 
would  leave  her,  and  openly  take  part 
with  their  brethren,  to  whom  they  con- 
sidered themselves  bound  by  the  most 
sacred  ties.  Before  quitting  Perth,  the 
Lords  of  the  Congregation  framed  and 
subscribed  another  bond  pledging  them 
to  mutual  support  and  defence  in  the 
cause  of  religion,  or  any  cause  dependent 
thereupon,  by  whatsoever  pretext  it  might 
be  coloured  and  concealed.  This  has 
been  generally  called  THE  SECOND  COVE- 
NANT. It  was  subscribed  in  the  name  of 
the  whole  Congregation,  by  the  Earls  of 
Argyle  and  Glencairn,  Lord  James  Stew- 
art, the  Lords  Boyd  and  Ochiltree,  and 
Matthew  Campbell  of  Terringland,  on 
the  31st  of  May  1559.* 

A  very  short  time  was  sufficient  to 
prove  how  much  reason  the  Protestants 
had  to  distrust  the  most  solemn  promises 
of  the  queen-regent.  No  sooner  had  she 
obtained  complete  possession  of  the  town 
of  Perth  than  she  began  to  violate  her 
engagement,  treating  the  inhabitants  with 
the  greatest  violence,  changing  their 
magistrates  forcibly,  and  substituting 
creatures  of  her  own,  exacting  oppressive 
fines  from  some,  and  conniving  at  the 
murder  of  others  who  had  been  friendly 
to  the  reformers,  and,  upon  her  depart- 
ure, leaving  a  garrison  in  the  town,  con- 
trary to  the  express  stipulations  of  the 
treaty.  Argyle  and  Lord  Jarnes  Stewart 
remonstrated  strongly  against  such  con- 
duct, and  were  answered,  that  "  she  was 
not  bound  to  keep  promises  rmde  to  her- 
etics ;  and  that  she  would  make  little 
conscience  to  take  from  all  that  sect  their 
lives  and  inheritance,  if  she  might  do  it 
with  so  honest  an  excuse."!  These  no- 

*  Knox,  p.  138.        t  Knox,  p.  130  ;  Spotswocd,  p.  133. 


blemen  feeling  their  own  honour  impli- 
cated, forsook  her,  and  went  to  the  Con- 
gregation, resolving  never  again  to  place 
any  confidence  in  her  promises. 

The  Lords  of  the  Congregation  now 
resolved  to  temporize  and  negotiate  no 
longer,  but  to  take  immediate  steps  for 
abolishing  the  idolatrous  and  superstitious, 
rites  of  Popery,  and  setting  up  the  re- 
formed worship  in  all  places  to  which 
their  authority  or  influence  extended. 
And  as  Lord  James  Stewart  was  prior 
of  St.  Andrews,  and  had  now  cordially 
and  entirely  joined  with  the  reformers, 
he  gave  an  authoritative  invitation  to 
John  Knox,  to  meet  him  in  that  city  on 
a  certain  day,  and  to  preach,  publicly  in 
the  Abbey  Church.  Knox,  who  had 
been  preaching  in  several  places  along 
the  east  coast  of  Fife,  hastened  to  com- 
ply with  this  invitation,  and  on  the  9th 
of  June  arrived  at  St.  Andrews.  The 
archbishop,  hearing  of  this  design  to 
storm  Ropery  in  its  stronghold,  hastily 
collected  an  armed  force,  and  having  at 
their  head  hurried  to  St.  Andrews,  sent 
information  to  Knox,  that  if  he  appeared 
in  the  pulpit,  he  would  give  orders  to  fire 
upon  him. 

The  juncture  was  one  of  an  extremely- 
critical  nature.  The  Lords  of  .the  Con- 
gregation were  but  slenderly  accompa- 
nied ;  the  disposition  of  the  townsmen 
was  in  a  great  measure  uncertain ;  and 
the  queen-regent  had  advanced  to  Falk- 
land, about  twelve  miles  distant,  at  the 
head  of  a  considerable  army,  consisting 
chiefly  of  the  French  troops,  who  were 
thoroughly  devoted  to  her  interests,  and 
as  thoroughly  hostile  to  the  Reformation. 
Argyle  and  Lord  James  Stewart  were 
alarmed  at  the  dangerous  aspect  of  affairs, 
and  yet  reluctant  to  abandon  their  inten- 
tion. They  felt  that  to  be  baffled  at  the 
very  outset  of  their  great  enterprise  would 
be  a  severe  if  not  a  fatal  discouragement ; 
and  yet  they  were  unwilling  to  put  the 
life  of  Knox,  as  well  as  their  own  lives, 
in  such  imminent  peril.  In  this  perplex- 
ity they  sent  for  Knox  himself,  to  have 
his  own  judgment  in  this  emergency. 
That  judgment  was  one  becoming  him 
"  who  never  feared  ,the  face  of  man." 
Reminding  them  that  he  had  been  first 
called  to  preach  the  gospel  in  that  very 
town, — reft  from  it  by  the  tyranny  of 
France,  at  the  procurement  of  the 


A.  D.  1559.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


45 


bishops, — that  now  the  opportunity  was 
presented  to  him,  for  which  he  had  long- 
ed, and  prayed,  and  hoped, — he  entreated 
them  not  to  hinder  him  from  once  more 
preaching  in  St.  Andrews.  "  As  for  the 
fear  of  danger  that  may  come  to  me,  let 
no  man  be  solicitous ;  for  my  life  is  in 
the  custody  of  Him  whose  glory  I  seek. 
I  desire  the  hand  and  weapon  of  no  man 
to  defend  me.  I  only  crave  audience ; 
which,  if  it  be  denied  here  unto  me  at 
this  time,  I  must  seek  farther  where  I 
may  have  it." 

The  dauntless  courage  of  the  great  re- 
former communicated  itself  to  the  lords. 
Like  him,  they  ceased  to  think  of  danger, 
when  the  call  was  that  of  sacred  duty  ; 
and  next  day,  the  16th  of  June,  Knox  ap- 
peared in  the  pulpit,  arid  preached  to  a 
numerous  audience,  including  the  arch- 
bishop, many  of  the  inferior  clergy,  and 
the  scowling  bands  of  armed  retainers 
prepared  for  the  assassination  of  the  fear- 
less preacher.  But  the  hand  of  God  was 
with  him,  restraining  the  fury  of  the  ad- 
versary, and  moulding  anew  the  melted 
hearts  of  the  people.  The  subject  of  his 
discourse  was,  our  Saviour's  ejecting  the 
profane  traffickers  from  the  temple  of 
Jerusalem ;  which  he  applied  to  the  duty 
incumbent  on  all  Christians,  according 
to  their  different  stations,  to  remove  the 
corruptions  of  the  Papacy,  and  purify  the 
Church.  On  the  three  following  days 
he  preached  in  the  same  place,  and  on 
similar  subjects  ;  and  such  was  the  effect 
of  his  doctrine,  that  the  magistracy  and 
the  inhabitants  agreed  to  set  up  the  re- 
formed worship  in  the  town  ;  and  imme- 
diately stripped  the  church  of  images  and 
pictures,  and  demolished  the  monasteries. 

The  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  hast- 
ened to  the  queen-regent  with  this  dire 
information.  Being  apprised,  at  the 
same  time,  that  the  lords  at  St.  Andrews 
were  accompanied  by  a  small  retinue, 
she  resolved  to  surprise  them  before  their 
friends  could  come  to  their  support,  and 
gave  orders  to  prepare  to  march  on  Cu- 
par.  But  the  Protestants  in  the  adjacent 
counties,  being  aware  of  the  danger  of 
their  friends,  hastened  to  their  aid  with 
such  celerity,  and  in  such  numbers,  that 
they  were  able  to  anticipate  the  queen's 
movements,  and  take  up  a  position  con- 
fronting her  army  on  Cupar-moor.  The 
resolute  aspect  of  the  Protestant  army  j 


again  appalled  the  queen  ;  and  dreading 
a  disastrous  defeat,  should  she  risk  a  bat- 
tle, she  proposed  a  suspension  of  hostili- 
ties. The  Protestant  lords  had  now  re- 
ceived too  many  proofs  of  her  duplicity 
to  be  again  circumvented  by  mere  pro- 
mises. They,  therefore,  stipulated  that 
the  French  troops  should  be  removed  out 
of  Fifeshire  ;  and  that  commissioners 
should,  within  ten  days,  be  sent  to  St. 
Andrews,  for  the  purpose  of  settling  all 
differences  between  her  and  the  Congre- 
gation. The  troops  were  removed ;  but 
no  commissioners  were  sent.  The  Lords 
of  the  Congregation  determined,  there- 
fore, to  adopt  more  decisive  measures, 
and  to  redress  by  their  own  efforts  those 
grievances  which  they  could  not  get 
otherwise  remedied. 

Mustering  once  more  their  strength, 
they  advanced  to  Perth,  and  expelled  the 
garrison  left  there  by-the  queen.  Thence 
by  a  rapid  movement  they  proceeded  to 
Stirling,  seized  upon  it,  and  continuing 
their  march,  took  possession  of  Edin- 
burgh itself;  the  queen-regent,  as  they 
approached,  retiring  with  her  forces  to 
Dunbar.  In  the  meantime  the  dread  of 
the  direct  and  immediate  vengeance  of 
the  popish  clergy  being  removed,  the 
rest  of  the  kingdom  quickly  followed  the 
example  of  Perth  and  St.  Andrews,  in 
abolishing  the  popish  worship ;  and  in 
the  course  of  a  few  weeks,  "  at  Crail,  at 
Cupar,  at  Lindors,  at  Stirling,  at  Linlith- 
gow,  at  Edinburgh,  and  at  Glasgow,  the 
houses  of  the  monks  were  overthrown, 
and  all  the  instruments  of  idolatry  des- 
troyed."* 

On  their  arrival  at  Edinburgh  the 
Lords  of  the  Congregation  sent  deputies 
to  Dunbar,  to  assure  the  queen  that  they 
had  no  intention  of  throwing  off  their  al- 
legiance, and  to  induce  her  to  accede  to 
reasonable  terms  of  accommodation. 
One  preliminary  point  was  agreed  upon, 
— that  the  sentence  of  outlawry  against 
the  ministers  should  be  rescinded,  and 
that  they  should  be  allowed  to  preach 
publicly  to  those  who  chose  to  hear 
them.  Knox  was  chosen  by  the  people 
of  Edinburgh  to  be  their  minister,  on  the 
7th  of  July,  and  immediately  began  his 
labours  among  them.  But  the  wiles  of 
the  queen  were  not  yet  exhausted.  She 
prolonged  the  negotiations  till  she  learned 

*  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  p.  165. 


46 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP  II. 


that  the  greater  part  of  the  Protestant 
forces  had  returned'  to  their  homes,  and 
then  advanced  suddenly  with  her  army 
to  Edinburgh.  Leith  having  declared 
for  the  regent,  and  the  castle  of  Edin- 
burgh being  under  the  command  of 
Lord  Erskine,  who  was  unfavourable  to 
the  Protestants,  they  felt  that  they  could 
not  defend  the  town,  and  agreed  to 
evacuate  it,  on  condition  that  the  inhabi- 
tants should  be  left  at  liberty  to  use  that 
form  of  worship  which  they  should  pre- 
fer. The  lords  then  retired  to  Stirling, 
taking  with  them  John  Knox,  and  leav- 
ing Willock  in  his  place,  who  continued 
to  preach  in  St.  Giles'  Church  after  the 
arrival  of  the  regent. 

The  King  of  France  dying  about  this 
time  was  succeeded  by  Mary's  husband, 
and  thus  the  crowns  of  France  and  Scot- 
land seemed  to  be  united,  and  the  deep 
scheme  of  the  princes  of  Lorraine  on  the 
point  of  being  realized.  Letters  were 
sent  by  the  new  king  and  queen  to  Lord 
James  Stewart,  for  the  purpose  of  detach- 
ing him,  if  possible,  from  the  Protestant 
party  ;  but  he  remained  firm  to  his  faith 
and  covenant  engagement.  At  the  same 
time,  an  additional  supply  of  money  and 
troops  were  sent  from  France  to  the 
queen-regent  to  enable  her  to  crush  and 
exterminate  the  Reformation  in  Scotland. 
The  hopes  of  the  regent  began  to  revive  ; 
and  she  commenced  fortifying  Leith, 
both  as  commanding  strength  in  an  im- 
portant position,  and  a  port  through 
which  she  might  readily  at  all  times  re- 
ceive supplies  from  France  into  the  very 
heart  of  the  country.  But  though  these 
matters  were  favourable  to  the  queen-re- 
gent, there  were  others  of  a  counter- 
balancing character.  The  Earl  of  Ar- 
ran,  son  to  the  former  regent,  the  Duke 
of  Chatelherault,  returned  at  this  time 
from  France,  having  narrowly  escaped 
imprisonment  on  account  of  having  ex- 
pressed himself  favourable  to  the  Protes- 
tant doctrines.  After  having  held  an 
interview  with  the  Protestant  lords  at 
Stirling,  this  young  nobleman  went  to 
Hamilton  to  his  father,  and  succeeded  in 
prevailing  on  him  to  quit  the  party  of 
the  qtfeen-regent,  and  join  the  Lords  of 
the  Congregation. 

The  accession  of  the  Hamiltons  to  the 
Protestant  party  gave  a  new  tur*n  to  af- 
fairs. The  queen-regent  immediately 


put  in  practice  all  her  diplomatic  arts  to 
detach  the  Hamiltons  from  the  Congre- 
gation, if  possible,  or  to  sow  jealousy  and 
cause  dissension  among  them.  Failing 
in  these  endeavours,  she  issued  declara- 
tions to  the  public,  in  which  she  strove 
to  fix  the  charge  of  rebellion  upon  the 
Congregation  generally,  and,  in  particu- 
lar, accused  Lord  James  Stewart  and  the 
Duke  of  Chatelherault  of  aiming  several- 
ly at  the  crown.  These  insidious  de- 
clarations were  met  by  counter-declara- 
tions, in  which  the  accused  parties  vindi- 
cated themselves  from  these  charges,  and 
exposed  the  course  of  treachery  and 
cruelty  by  which  her  conduct  had  been 
all  along  characterised.  This  war  of 
diplomacy,  however,  was  not  likely  to 
lead  to  any  satisfactory  result ;  and  the 
Protestant  lords  began  to  prepare  for 
more  decisive  measures.  They  as- 
sembled in  Edinburgh  on  the  21st  of 
October  1559,  in  such  numbers  as  to 
form  a  convention  of  the  estates  of  the 
kingdom,  and  entered  upon  a  formal  de- 
liberation what  ought  to  be  done  to  res- 
cue the  country  from  such  a  state  of 
civil  dissension,  and  especially  from  the 
lawless  outrages  committed  by  the 
French  troops  in  the  queen-regent's 
army. 

In  this  convention  of  estates  both  Knox 
and  Willock  were  requested  to  state  their 
sentiments  respecting  the  duty  of  subjects 
to  their  rulers  in  cases  of  oppression. 
Willock  held  that  the  power  of  rulers 
was  limited  both  by  reason  and  by  Scrip- 
ture, and  that  they  might  be  deprived  of 
it  upon  valid  grounds  ;  implying  that  he 
thought  the  conduct  of  the  queen-regent 
had  passed  these  limits,  and  given  to  her 
subjects  these  valid  grounds.  Knox  as- 
sented to  Willock's  opinions,  and  added, 
that  the  assembly  might,  with  safe  con- 
sciences, act  upon  it,  provided  they  at- 
tended to  the  three  following  points  : — 
"  First,  that  they  did  not  suffer  the  mis- 
conduct of  the  queen-regent  to  alienate 
their  affections  from  their  due  allegiance 
to  their  sovereigns,  Francis  and  Mary  •, 
second,  that  they  were  not  actuated  in 
the  measure  by  private  hatred  or  envy 
of  the  queen-dowager,  but  by  regard  for 
the  safety  of  the  commonwealth ;  and, 
third,  that  any  sentence  which  they  might  j 
at  this  time  pronounce  should  not  pre 
elude  her  readmission  to  office,  if  si 


A.  D.  1559.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF    SCOTLAND. 


47 


afterwards  discovered  sorrow  for  her 
conduct,  and  a  disposition  to  submit  to 
the  advice  of  the  estates  of  the  realm. 
After  this,  the  whole  assembly,  having 
severally  delivered  their  opinions,  did,  by 
a  solemn  deed,  suspend  the  queen-dowa- 
ger from  her  authority  as  regent  of  the 
kingdom,  until  the  meeting  of  a  free  par- 
liament ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  elected  a 
council  for  the  management  of  public 
affairs^  during  this  interval. 

The  conduct  of  Knox  and  Willock,  in 
giving  their  opinions  on  this  very  import- 
ant matter,  has  been  very  often  and  very 
severely  censured.  But  those  who  have 
done  so  have  in  general  displayed  either 
an  anxious  desire  to  avail  themselves  of 
any  opportunity  of  blackening  the  char- 
acter and  aspersing  the  motives  of  the 
Scottish  reformer,  or  so  little  acquaintance 
with  the  great  principles  of  civil  and  re- 
ligious liberty,  as  to  render  their  opinion 
of  very  slight  value.  Genuine  Chris- 
tianity, instead  of  impairing  the  worth 
of  man's  natural  and  civil  rights  and 
privileges,  gives  to  them  an  infinitely 
increased  importance,  as  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  the  freemen  of  the  Lord ; 
rendering  it  absolutely  impossible  for  a 
true  Christian  either  to  enslave  other's  or 
to  submit  to  be  himself  enslaved.  And 
let  it  be  ever  most  gratefully  remembered, 
that  to  the  Reformation  we  owe  that  true 
civilization  which  not  only  strikes  off  the 
fetters  from  the  body,  but  cultivates  also 
the  mind, — which  not  only  liberates  men 
from  civil,  mental,  and  moral  thraldom, 
but  also,  at  the  same  time,  elevating  them 
in  the  scale  of  existence,  renders  them 
worthy  to  be  free.  The  mind  of  Knox 
was  too  deeply  imbued  with  these  great 
principles,  and  his  heart  too  fearless,  for 
him  to  hesitate  in  giving  a  frank  avowal 
of  his  sentiments,  be  the  danger  and  the 
obloquy  thereby  to  be  encountered  what 
they  might ;  and  yet,  let  it  be  observed, 
that  while  he  vindicated  the  right  of  sub- 
jects to  protect  themselves  against  unlaw- 
ful despotism,  both  in  this  and  in  other 
instances,  he  carefully  guarded  against 
the  opposite  extreme,  of  encouraging  sub- 
jects wantonly  to  violate  the  allegiance 
due  to  their  sovereigns.  But  instead  of 
farther  attempting  to  vindicate  Knox  from 
the  aspersions  cast  upon  him  by  writers 
of  a  servile  character,  let  us  direct  the  at- 
tention of  the  reader  to  a  noble  passage 


in  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  where  the 
principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty 
are  explained  and  defended  with  great 
eloquence  of  language  and  power  of 
reasoning.* 

This  act,  suspending  the  commission 
of  the  queen-regent,  was  proclaimed  in  all 
the  chief  towns  throughout  the  kingdom, 
and  intimated  formally  to  the  regent  her- 
self, summoning  her  at  the  same  time  to 
dismiss  the  French  troops  from  Leith3 
and  yield  the  town.  To  this  declaration 
and  summons,  an  answer,  charging  the 
Protestants  with  rebellion,  and  uttering  a 
bold  defiance  of  their  power,  was  re- 
turned ;  and  hostilities  immediately  be- 
gan. But  the  success  of  the  Protestant 
lords  and  their  army  was  not  equal  to 
their  hopes  and  the  goodness  of  their 
cause.  There  arose,  in  fact,  a  division 
among  them,  of  a  kind  to  which  such 
enterprises  as  they  were  engaged  in  must 
always  be  exposed.  The  very  essence 
of  the  contest  was  of  a  strictly  religious 
character,  and  had  been  begun  by  men 
whose  sole  object  it  was  to  rescue  the 
pure  and  undefiled  Christianity  of  the 
Bible  from  the  gross  corruptions  of  Po- 
pery. But  many  had  now  joined  the 
early  reformers  from  a  variety  of  motives, 
apart  from  those  of  religion  ;  and  even 
those  in  whom  religious  motives  predom- 
inated still  retained  so  great  an  admix- 
ture of  selfish  and  worldly  policy,  as  to 
embarrass  extremely  the  conduct  of  those 
with  whom  they  professed  to  act.  A 
double  policy  must  always  be  an  unsafe 
one.  And,  perhaps,  there  is  nothing 
which  has  ever  done  more  evil  to  man 
than  the  debasing  intermixture  of  worldly 
motives  in  matters  of  a  purely  religious 
and  sacred  character.  But  on  this  subject 
we  shall  not  further  dwell  at  present,  as 
it  will  repeatedly  meet  us  hereafter,  and 
in  circumstances  fitted  to  display  its  na- 
ture and  bearing  more  clearly. 

The  accession  of  the  Hamiltons  and 
their  adherents  appeared  to  strengthen 
the  Protestants  very  much  ;  yet  the  divi- 
sions which  almost  immediately  sprung 
up  proved  more  detrimental  to  their  cause 
than  their  increase  of  numbers  was  bene- 
ficial. And  as  the  Duke  of  Chatelhe- 
rault,  being  the  man  of  greatest  rank 
among  them,  was  placed  nominally  at 
their  head,  his  timid  and  vacillating 

*  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  pp.  183-192. 


48 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  II. 


character  diffused  its  contagion  among 
them,  and  rendered  their  councils  unde- 
cided and  their  conduct  irresolute.  They 
failed  in  some  encounters  with  the 
French  ;  and  fresh  supplies  arriving  at 
Leith,  they  became  so  discouraged  as  to 
abandon  the  siege,  and  retreat  to  Stirling, 
in  a  state  of  great  dejection.  '  They  were 
also  deficient  in  money  to  pay  and  sup- 
port their  forces,  many  of  whom  were  of 
a  mercenary  character,  regarding  little 
on  which  side  they  fought,  provided  they 
obtained  pay,  and  were  occasionally  gra- 
tified with  pillage.  Upon  the  retreat  of 
the  Lords  of  the  Congregation,  the  French 
issued  from  Leith,  took  possession  of 
Edinburgh,  with  the  exception  of  the 
castle,  which  Lord  Erskine  continued  to 
hold  in  a  kind  of  armed  neutrality,  ad- 
vanced to  Stirling,  pillaging  the  country 
as  they  went,  and  crossed  into  Fifeshire, 
skirting  the  coast,  and  continuing  their 
ravages  as  they  proceeded  towards  St. 
Andrews.* 

In  this  extremity  the  Protestants  found 
it  necessary  to  apply  more  pressingly  to 
Queen  Elizabeth  for  aid  from  England. 
This  had  indeed  been  done  some  months 
before,  when  they  became  convinced  that 
hostilities  must  ensue ;  and  the  inter- 
course with  England  had  been  conducted 
chiefly  by  Knox  and  Henry  Balnaves  of 
Hallhill,  on  the  Scottish  side,  and  Cecil 
on  the  English.  Knox  apprized  Cecil 
of  the  great  popish  league,  devised  by 
the  princes  of  Lorraine,  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  Reformation  throughout  Eu- 
rope, to  which  the  dethronement  of  Eliz- 
abeth was  essential ;  and  suggested  a 
great  counter-league  of  Protestant  pow- 
ers, of  which  Elizabeth  should  be  the 
head.  Cecil  could  appreciate  the  scheme ; 
but  it  was  not  so  easy  to  induce  Eliza- 
beth to  engage  in  it,  requiring,  as  it  ne- 
cessarily did,  great  and  immediate  sacri- 
fices and  exertions  for  a  remote,  and 
what  might  appear  a  contingent,  good. 
Assistance  in  money  was  sent,  but  with 
a  sparing  hand ;  and  part  of  it  was  in- 
tercepted, and  fell  into  the  possession  of 
the  queen-regent.  But  now,  when  the 
Protestant  cause  appeared  to  be  sinking 
in  Scotland,  in  consequence  of  the  direct 
aid  received  by  the  queen-regent  from 
France,  the  English  court  perceived  the 
necessity  of  sending  an  army  to  the  as- 

•  Knox,  Spotswood,  Buchanan. 


sistance  of  the  Congregation.  A  short 
time  before  the  Protestants  retired  from 
Edinburgh,  they  were  joined  by  Wil- 
liam Maitland  of  Lethington,  one  of  the 
ablest  statesmen  of  his  time,  who  had 
previously  been  secretary  to  the  queen- 
regent.  '  Upon  his  arrival,  Knox,  who 
had  no  relish  for  the  intrigues  of  mere 
politicians,  immediately  relinquished  the 
direct  management  of  all  diplomatic  mat- 
ters to  Lethington,  expressing  great  satis- 
faction at  being  relieved  from  duties  so 
uncongenial  to  his  mind.  Lethington  was 
sent  to  England  to  endeavour  to  procure 
assistance ;  and  it  was  finally  resolved 
that  an  English  force  should  be  sent  to 
Scotland  to  co-operate  with  the  Protest- 
ant lords  in  expelling  the  French  troops 
out  of  the  kingdom.  A  contract  to  that 
effect  was  concluded  at  Berwick,  between 
the  Duke  of  Norfolk  and  the  Scottish 
commissioners,  on  the  27th  of  February 
1560.* 

[1560.]  The  war  now  assumed  a  more 
determined  aspect.     The  French  troops, 
being  aware  of  the  approach  of  the  Eng-   ; 
lish,  returned  to  Leith,  and  prepared  to   \ 
defend  it  to  the  last  extremities.     Before  j 
the  arrival  of  the   English  forces,  the   j 
queen-regent  was  allowed  by  Lord  Er- 
skine to  enter   into  Edinburgh   castle;    ' 
thus  withdrawing  herself  from  being  per-    i 
sonally  exposed  to  the  dangers  and  hor- 
rors of  a   war  which  she  herself  had 
caused.     Several  sharp  encounters  took 
place  between  the  besiegers  and  the  be-   .j 
sieged  ;  but  as  the  English  fleet  had  the    } 
command  of  the  sea,  no  supplies  could  '.<> 
be  transmitted  from  France  to  the  garri- 
son of  Leith,  which  was  daily  becoming  j 
weaker.     The  French  court   employed    j 
every  art  of  policy  to  induce  Elizabeth  to 
abandon   the   support  of  the  Protestant  j 
lords,  and  almost  succeeded.     But  being  I 
at  length  convinced  that  England's  ovn    < 
security  and  best  interests  were  involved   j 
in   the   support   of  Scotland,   she   ga\ve   j 
orders  to  prosecute  the  siege  with  the  | 
utmost  vigour.     The  resolution  of  Efiza-  | 
beth  convinced  the  Court  of  France  that  I 
it  was  in  vain  to  prolong  the  contest.     A 
treaty  was  therefore  proposed  between  1 
France  and  England,  the  basis  of  which  J 
was,  that   the   troops  of  both  countries  I 
should   be   withdrawn    from    Scotland  ;• 
and  ambassadors  were  appointed  to  meet* 

*  Knox,  Spotswood 


A.  D.  1560.] 


HISTORY'  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


49 


in  Edinburgh,  to  complete  its  arrange- 
ment and  ratification. 

While  the  ambassadors  were  on  their 
way  to  Scotland,  the  queen-regent,  who 
had  been  for  some  time  declining  in 
health,  became  seriously  ill ;  and,  send- 
ing for  some  of  the  chief  Lords  of  the 
Congregation,  expressed  her  regret  at  the 
sufferings  which  the  kingdom  had  en- 
dured. She  also  sent  for  John  Willock, 
and  conferred  with  him  for  some  time  on 
religious  matters;  but,  after  his  depar- 
ture, received  extreme  unction,  according 
to  the  rites  of  the  Romish  Church,  and 
expired,  on  the  9th  Knox  says,  Spots- 
wood  says  the  10th,  of  June  1560.* 

On  the  16th  of  June  the  ambassadors 
arrived  in  Edinburgh,  and  began  their 
negotiations.  The  death  of  the  late  queen- 
dowager  had  removed  one  of  the  main  ob- 
stacles to  peace  ;  and  the  troubled  state  of 
political  matters  in  France  tended  to 
make  the  ambassadors  of  that  country 
more  disposed  to  pacification  than  they 
might  otherwise  have  been.  It  proceeded, 
however,  with  the  usual  tardiness  of  state 
diplomacy,  and  was  signed  on  the  7th  of 
July  1560.  By  this  treaty  it  was  pro- 
vided, that  the  French  troops  should  be 
immediately  removed  from  Scotland ;  that 
an  amnesty  should  be  granted  to  all  who 
had  been  engaged  in  the  late  resistance 
to  the  queen-regent;  that  the  principal 
grievances  of  which  they  complained  in 
the  civil  administration  should  be  re- 
dressed ;  that  a  free  parliament  should  be 
held  in  the  month  of  August  next,  to  set- 
tle the  other  affairs  of  the  kingdom  ;  and 
that,  during  the  absence  of  their  sover- 
eigns, the  government  should  be  admin- 
istered by  a  council  of  twelve,  all  natives 
of  the  kingdom,  to  be  partly  chosen  by 
Francis  and  Mary,  and  partly  by  the  es- 
tates of  the  nation.  On  the  16th  July  the 
French  army  embarked  at  Leith,  and  the 
English  troops  began  their  march  to  their 
own  country  ;  and  on  the  19th  the  Con- 
gregation assembled  in  St.  Giles's  Church, 
to  return  public  thanks  to  God  for  the 
restoration  of  peace,  and  for  the  success 
which  had  crowned  their  exertions. 

The  parliament,  which  had  met  for*- 
mally  during  the  presence  of  the  ambas- 
sadors on  the  I Oth  of  July,  adjourned 
until  the  1st  day  of  August,  according  to 
the  treaty,  both  dates  being  specified  in 

*  Knox,  Spotswood. 


the  records  of  its  acts.  When  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  they  were  assem- 
bled, and  the  affairs  on  which  they  were 
called  to  deliberate,  are  taken  into  con- 
sideration, this  must  be  regarded  as  the 
most  important  meeting  of  the  estates  of 
the  kingdom  that  had  ever  been  held  in 
Scotland.  It  engrossed  the  attention  of 
the  nation,  and  the  eyes  of  Europe  were 
fixed  on  its  proceedings.  Although  a 
great  concourse  of  people  resorted  to  Ed- 
inburgh on  that  occasion,  yet  no  tumult 
or  disturbance  of  the  public  peace  occur- 
red. Many  of  the  lords  spiritual  arid 
temporal  who  were  attached  to  Popery 
absented  themselves;  but  the  chief  pa- 
trons of  the  old  religion,  as  the  archbishop 
of  St.  Andrews,  and  the  bishops  of  Dum- 
blane  and  Dunkeld,  countenanced  the 
Assembly  by  their  presence,  and  were 
allowed  to  act  with  freedom  as  lords  of 
parliament. 

"  The  all-important  business  of  reli- 
gion was  introduced  by  a  petition  pre- 
sented by  a  number  of  Protestants  of  dif- 
ferent ranks  ;  in  which,  after  rehearsing 
their  former  endeavours  to  procure  the  re- 
moval of  the  corruptions  which  had  in- 
fected the  Church,  they  requested  parlia- 
ment to  use  the  power  which  Providence 
had  now  put  into  their  hands  for  effecting 
this  great  and  urgent  work.  They  craved 
three  things  in  general ;  that  the  anti- 
christian  doctrine  maintained  in  the 
Popish  Church  should  be  discarded ;  that 
means  should  be  used  to  restore  puiity  of 
worship  and  primitive  discipline ;  and 
that  the  ecclesiastical  revenues,  which  had 
been  engrossed  by  a  corrupt  and  indolent 
hierarchy,  should  be  applied  to  the  sup- 
port of  a  pious  and  active  ministry,  to  the 
promotion  of  learning,  and  to  the  relief 
of  the  poor.  They  declared,  that  they 
were  ready  to  substantiate  the  justice  of 
all  their  demands,  and,  in  particular,  to 
prove  that  those  who  arrogated  to  them- 
selves the  name  of  clergy  were  destitute 
of  all  right  to  be  accounted  ministers  of 
religion;  and  that,  from  the  tyranny 
which  they  had  exercised,  and  their  vas- 
salage to  the  court  of  Rome,  they  could 
not  be  safely  tolerated,  and  far  less  in- 
trusted with  power,  in  a  reformed  com- 
mon wealth."* 

The  attentive  reader  will  mark,  in  the 


238. 


M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  pp.  200,  201 ;  Knox,  pp.  237, 


50 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  II. 


preceding  outline  of  this  petition,  the 
statement  of  certain  great  principles 
which  he  will  have  occasion  subsequently 
to  trace  in  active  operation.  He  will 
mark  the  request,  not  only  for  purity  of 
worship,  but  also  for  primitive  discipline, 
— a  point  of  vital  importance  in  any 
Church,  but  one  which  worldly-minded 
men  will  always  hate  and  oppose.  He 
will  mark,  also,  that  while  our  Scottish 
reformers  still  wished  ecclesiastical  reve- 
nues to  be  devoted  to  ecclesiastical,  and 
not  civil  purposes,  they  did  so,  not  for  the 
sake  of  their  own  aggrandizement,  but 
purely  for  the  public  good,  purposing  a 
threefold  division  and  application  of  them, 
— one-third  for  the  support  of  colleges 
and  schools,  one-third  for  the  support  of 
the  poor,  and  the  remaining  third  for  the 
support  of  the  ministers  of  religion.  No 
other  national  Church  ever  exhibited  a 
spirit  at  once  so  generous  and  self-deny- 
ing, and  so  wisely  and  nobly  zealous  in 
devising  large  and  liberal  schemes  for 
promoting  the  welfare  of  the  kingdom. 
But  such  schemes  were  far  too  generous 
to  find  favour  in  the  sight  of  the  avari- 
cious nobility  and  gentry,  and  far  too  en- 
lightened to  be  adequately  understood, 
either  by  the  men  of  that  age,  or  even  yet, 
of  our  own.  Unfortunately  for  the  public 
welfare,  in  all  ages  and  countries,  men  of 
the  world,  judging  others  by  themselves, 
cannot  understand,  and  will  not  believe, 
the  self-denying  and  generous  spirit  of 
true  religion,  and  therefore  always  regard 
with  jealousy  every  proposal  made  by 
the  servants  of  Christ ;  and  even  the  more 
manifestly  self-denying  and  generous  it 
is,  the  more  suspicious  are  they  that  it 
must  contain  some  peculiarly  deep  de- 
sign. The  applicability  of  these  remarks 
will  soon  be  made  evident. 

When  this  petition  was  laid  before  par- 
liament, it  soon  became  apparent  that  it 
went  much  farther  than  many  of  the  poli- 
ticians were  disposed  to  permit.  Mait- 
land  of  Lethington  had  previously  said, 
in  reference  to  the  discourses  which 
Knox  had  preached  from  the  book  of 
Haggai,  "We  may  now  forget  ourselves, 
and  bear  the  barrow  to  build  the  house 
of  God."  This  scoffing  comment  showed 
plainly  enough  what  were  his  sentiments ; 
and  there  were  but  too  many  ready  to 
concur  with  and  support  him.  In  answer 
to  the  first  topics  of  the  petition,  the  par- 


liament required  the  reformed  ministers  \ 
to  lay  before  them  a  summary  of  doctrine  j 
which  they  could  prove  to  be  consonant 
with  the  Scriptures,  and  which  they  de- 
sired to  have  established.  .The  following 
ministers  were  appointed  to  perform  the 
task: — John  Winram,  John  Spotswood, 
John  Willock,  John  Douglas,  John  Row, 
and  John  Knox;  and  in  the  course  of 
four  days,  they  presented  a  Confession  of 
Faith  as  the  product  of  their  joint  labours, 
and  an  expression  of  their  unanimous 
judgment.  It  agreed  with  the  Confes- 
sions which  had  been  published  by  other 
reformed  Churches.  In  the  statement  of 
doctrinal  tenets  it  is  very  clear  and  dis- 
tinct, and  eminently  evangelical  5  but 
though  a  very  valuable  and  excellent 
summary  of  Christian  faith,  it  is  perhaps  N 
more  coloured  with  the  circumstances  of 
the  times  than  is  necessary,  and  in  some 
respects  less  specific  and  decided  than  is 
desirable.  For  an  admirable  outline  of 
it  the  reader  may  consult  M'Crie's  Life 
of  Knox ;  from  which  work  we  extract 
the  following  condensed  account  of  its 
ratification. 

"  The  Confession  was  first  read  before 
the  Lords  of  Articles,  and  afterwards 
before  the  whole  parliament.  The  Pro- 
testant ministers  attended  in  the  house  to 
defend  it,  if  attacked,  and  to  give  satis- 
faction to  the  members  respecting  any 
point  which  might  appear  dubious.  Those 
who  had  objections  to  it  were  formally 
required  to  state  them.  And  the  farther 
consideration  of  it  was  adjourned  to  a 
subsequent  day,  that  none  might  pretend 
that  an  undue  advantage  had  been  taken 
of  him,  or  that  a  matter  of  such  impor-  ] 
tance  had  been  concluded  precipitately. 
On  the  17th  of  August  the  parliament 
resumed  the  subject,  and  previous  to  the 
vote,  the  Confession  was  again  read,  ar- 
ticle by  article.  The  Earl  of  Athole, 
and  Lords  Somerville  and  Borthwick,  • 
were  the  only  persons  of  the  temporal 
estate  who  voted  in  the  negative,  assign- 
ing this  as  their  reason,  '  We  will  believe 
as  our  forefathers  believed.'  '  The  bish- 
ops spake  nothing.'  After  the  vote  es- 
tablishing the  Confession  of  Faith,  the 
Earl  Marischal  rose,  and  declared,  that 
the  silence  of  the  clergy  had  confirmed 
him  in  his  belief  of  the  protestant  doc- 
trine ;  and  he  protested  that  if  any  of  tl 
ecclesiastical  estate  should  afterwards  01 


A.  D.  1560.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


51 


pose  the  doctrine  which  had  just  been 
received,  they  should  be  entitled  to  no 
credit,  seeing,  after  full  knowledge  of  it, 
and  ample  time  for  deliberation,  they 
had  allowed  it  to  pass  without  the  small- 
est opposition  or  contradiction.  On  the 
24th  of  August,  the  parliament  abolished 
the  papal  jurisdiction,  prohibited,  under 
certain  penalties  the  celebration  of  mass, 
and  rescinded  all  the  laws  formerly  made 
in  support  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
and  against  the  Reformed  faith."* 

With  these  acts  Sir  James  Sandilands 
of  Torphichen  was  sent  to  France,  in 
order  to  obtain,  if  possible,  their  ratifica- 
tion by  the  king  and  queen.  This,  how- 
ever, they  refused  to  give,  trusting  to  the 
possibility  of  yet  restoring  the  Romish 
Church  in  Scotland  ;  but  as  their  hostil- 
ity was  known,  their  refusal  gave  little 
disturbance  to  the  reformers,  by  whom 
indeed  it  seems  to  have  been  expected. 
As  in  the  treaty  of  Edinburgh  it  had 
been  expressly  agreed  that,  in  the  parlia- 
ment which  was  to  be  held  in  August, 
the  religious  matters  in  dispute  should  be 
considered  and  grievances  redressed,  the 
reformers  held  themselves  entitled  to  re- 
gard all  the  decisions  of  that  parliament 
as  in  reality  ratified  by  anticipation  ;  and 
accordingly  their  next  care  was  to  devise 
what  steps  should  now  be  taken  for  the 
complete  diffusion  and  establishment  of 
the  Reformation  throughout  the  kingdom. 

Previous  to  the  meeting  of  parliament, 
and  during  the  calm  which  intervened 
between  the  treaty  of  Edinburgh  and  the 
later  period,  a  temporary  arrangement 
had  been  made,  by  which  the  chief  of 
the  reformed  ministers  were  appointed  to 
reside  in  the  most  populous  and  impor- 
tant towns.  John  Knox  was  appointed 
to  Edinburgh ;  Christopher  Goodman 
(who  had  been  Knox's  colleague  at  Ge- 
neva, and  had  of  late  come  to  Scotland) 
was  appointed  to  St.  Andrews  5  Adam 
Heriot  to  Aberdeen ;  John  Row  to  Perth ; 
Paul  Methven  to  Jedburgh  ;  William 
Christison  to  Dundee  ;  David  Ferguson 
to  Dumferline;  and  David  Lindsay  to 
Leith.  But  as  the  country  parts  of  the 
kingdom  were  at  least  equally  in  need  of 
ministers  and  instruction,  and  there  were 
not  yet  any  thing  like  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  reformed  ministers  to  supply  the 

•  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  p.  203 ;  see  also  Knox,  p. 
253 ;  Spotswood,  p.  150  .  Calderwood,  p.  14. 


urgent  necessities  of  the  case,  another 
expedient  was  devised.  It  was  resolved 
to  divide  the  counties  into  departments, 
and  appoint  one  of  the  Protestant  party 
to  take  the  general  charge  of  religious 
matters  throughout  each  of  these  depart- 
ments, and  to  bear  the  name  of  Superin- 
tendents, as  indicative  of  the  general 
charge  which  they  were  to  take  of  the 
interests  of  religion  in  their  respective 
districts.  These  superintendents  were, 
John  Spots wod  for  the  Lothians  ;  John 
Win  ram  for  Fife  ;  John  Willock  for 
Glasgow ;  John  Erskine  of  Dun  for 
Angus  and  Mearns  ;  and  John  Carsewell 
for  Argyle.*  It  was  intended  by  the  re- 
formers to  have  divided  Scotland  into  ten 
districts,  and  to  have  appointed  a  super- 
intendent for  each ;  but  the  difficulty  of 
obtaining  suitable  persons  prevented  the 
appointment  of  any  more  than  the  above- 
named  five. 

From  the  fact  of  the  appointment  of 
these  superintendents,  Episcopalian  wri- 
ters have  striven  to  represent  the  Scottish 
reformers  as  favourable  to  diocesan  Pre- 
lacy. The  utter  absurdity  of  this  notion 
has  been  demonstrated  so  conclusively  by 
many  authors,  that  we  need  not  expend 
our  time  in  its  refutation  ;  it  is  enough  to 
refer  to  Calderwood,  Stevenson,  and 
M-Crie,  or  to  the  First  Book  of  Disci- 
pline, in  which  it  manifestly  appears  that 
the  superintendents  had  no  one  thing  in 
common  with  prelates,  except  the  charge 
of  religious  matters  in  an  extensive  dis- 
trict,— a  charge  by  the  one  class  of  men 
laboriously  executed,  and  by  the  other 
made  a  source  of  honour  and  emolument ; 
thus,  even  in  this  apparent  similarity, 
proving  their  inherent  and  essential  dif- 
ference. It  may  be  added,  that  not  only 
was  there  no  essential  difference  between 
he  ordination  of  the  superintendent  and 
the  minister,  but  Erskine  of  Dun  filled 
the  office  of  a  superintendent  before  he 
was  ordained  at  all ;  and  farther,  that 
when  it  was  proposed  to  make  the  bishop 
of  Galloway  superintendent  over  Gallo- 
way, the  proposal  was  rejected,  lest  the 
appointment  of  one  who  had  been  a 
bishop  should  give  some  colour  to  the 
idea  that  the  office  was  Prelacy  under  a 
different  name.f 

Soon  after  the  parliament  had  finished 

*  Knox,  p.  236  ;  Spotswood,  p.  149. 

t  Knox,  Historic,  p.  263 ;  Calderwood,  p.  32. 


52 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  III. 


its  labours  and  been  dissolved,  the 
reformed  ministers  and  the  leading  Pro- 
testants determined  to  meet  and  deliber- 
ate respecting  the  measures  to  be  next 
adopted.  On  the  20th  day  of  December 
1560,  they  met  accordingly,  in  Edin- 
burgh, "  To  consult  upon  those  things 
which  are  to  forward  God's  glory,  and 
the  weil' of  his  Kirk,  in  this  realme." 
And  this  was  the  first  meeting  of  the 
FIRST  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  OF  THE  CHURCH 
OF  SCOTLAND."* 

We  have  thus  briefly  traced  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Reformation  in  Scotland, 
from  its  first  scarcely  perceptible  begin- 
ning, struggling  against  the  opposition  of 
powerful,  treacherous,  and  merciless  an- 
tagonists, until,  "  strong  only  in  the  Lord 
and  in  the  power  of  His  might,"  it  sur- 
mounted all  obstacles,  and  the  ministers 
and  elders  of  the  Church  of  Scotland 
convened  and  held  their  General  Assem- 
bly, in  the  name  and  by  the  sole  au- 
thority of  Him  by  whom  they  had  been 
so  mightily  upheld,  and  whom  alone  they 
recognized  as  Head  and  King  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland.  We  have  seen  how 
long  the  early  Church  of  Scotland,  the 
Culdees,  resisted  the  encroachments  and 
the  corruptions  of  Prelacy  and  Popery  ; 
with  what  difficulty  these  adherents  of 
primitive  Christianity  were  overborne ; 
how  pertinaciously  the  people  of  Scot- 
land clung  to  their  early  belief;  and  how 
readily  the  tenets  of  Wickliffe  and  other 
early  reformers  were  received  in  those 
districts  where  the  Culdee  system  had 
most  prevailed.  The  dying  declarations 
of  the  Scottish  martyrs  have  called  forth 
our  admiration,  and  touched  our  sympa- 
thies ;  and  we  have  traced  the  steady  un- 
swerving course  of  the  undaunted  Knox, 
as  he  bore  right  onward  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  his  one  great  aim, — the  es- 
tablishment of  the  blessed  gospel  of 
Christ  in  his  native  land.  And  we  must 
have  traced  the  course  of  these  great 
events  with  unperceiving  eye  indeed,  if 
we  have  not  marked  the  hand  of  Prov- 
idence guiding  them  all  in  a  most  pecu- 
liar manner.  Even  circumstances  the 
most  seemingly  adverse  were  so  over- 
ruled as  to  contribute  to  the  purity  and 
completeness  of  the  Scottish  Reforma- 
tion. The  alternating  direct  hostility 
and  alien  intrigues  of  the  court  and  the 
*  Booke  of  the  Universal!  Kirk  of  Scotland. 


civil  rulers,  preventing  the  vitiating  influ- 
ence of  worldly  policy  from  interfering 
with  and  warping  the  views  of  our  re 
formers,  who  were  thus  not  only  left, 
but  even  constrained,  to  follow  the  guid- 
ance of  the  sacred  Word  of  God  alone  ; 
while  in  almost  every  other  country, 
England  for  example,  the  Reformation 
was  either  biassed  in  its  course,  or  ar- 
rested at  that  stage  of  its  progress  in 
which  worldly  statesmen  conceived  it 
could  be  rendered  more  subservient  to 
their  own  designs.  But  this,  which  is 
the  glory  and  excellency  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  we  shall  find  to  have  been 
the  cause  of  nearly  all  the  perils  where- 
with she  has  been  encompassed,  and  the 
sufferings  through  which  she  has  passed, 
from  the  Reformation  to  the  present  day. 


CHAPTER  III. 

FROM  THE  FIRST  GENERAL  ASSEMLLY,  IN  1560, 
TO  THE  YEAR  1592,  AND  THE  GREAT  CHAR- 
TER OF  THE  CHURCH. 

First  Book  of  Discipline — Opposition  of  the  Nobility  to 
its  Regulations — Queen  Mary's  Return  to  Scotland — 
Contests  respecting  the  Mass,  and  respecting  the 
Liberty  of  the  Assembly,  and  the  Patrimony  of  the 
Church— Proceedings  against  the  Popish  Bishops — 
Trial  of  Knox  for  convening  the  Ministers— Defence 
by  Knox  of  the  Freedom  of  the  Pulpit — Marriage  of 
the  Queen  to  Darnley— Patronage— Death  ofRizzio— 
First  National  Fast— Murder  of  Darnley — Marriage  of 
the  Queen  to  Bothwell— Flight  of  Bothwell,  and 
Mary's  Imprisonment — Act  of  Parliament  1567,  re> 
cognising  the  Church — Powers  and  Jurisdiction  of 
the  Church,  and  its  Condition  at  this  time— The  Re- 
gent Murray — his  Assassination — The  Regent  Morton 
— Attempts  for  the  Restoration  of  Prelacy — Conven- 
tion of  Leith,  1572— Tulchan  Bishops— Death  of  John 
Knox — Continued  Struggles  of  the  Church  against 
the  Tulchan  Bishops— Andrew  Melville  comes  to 
Scotland — Commission  to  draw  up  a  System  of 
Ecclesiastical  Polity  and  Jurisdiction — Patrick  Adam- 
son — Opposition  of  Melville— Morton  resigns  the 
Regency,  and  King  James  assumes  the  Government 
— The  Second  Book  of  Discipline— Conference  re- 
specting it — Its  Ratification  evaded — Condemnation 
of  Episcopacy  by  the  Assembly— Erection  of  Pres- 
byteries, and  Engrossment  of  the  Second  Book  of 
Discipline  in  the  Records  of  the  Assembly— First 
National  Covenant  subscribed  by  the  King— Hobert 
Montgomery— Proceedings  of  the  Church  in  his  case 
— The  Raid  of  Ruthven— Proceedings  of  the  King 
against  Melville— The  Black  Acts  of  1584— Sufferings 
of  the  Church— Change  of  Measures  for  the  better — 
Act  of  Annexation — Alarm  on  account  of  the  Span- 
ish Armada— The  King  sails  to  Norway — Peaceful 
State  of  the  Church  and  Kingdom — The  King  re- 
turns and  eulogizes  the  Church— Collision  between 
the  Court  of  Session  and  the  Church— Act  of  Parlia- 
ment of  1592,  called  the  Great  Charter  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland. 

THE  act  of  the  Scottish  parliament,  pas- 
sed on  the  24th  August  1560,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  petition  of  the  Scottish  re- 
formers, abrogated  and  annulled  the  pa 


A.  D.  1560.J 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


53 


pal  jurisdiction,  and  all  authority  flowing 
therefrom  ;  but  it  enacted  no  ecclesias- 
tical jurisdiction  whatever  in  its  stead. 
This  it  left  the  reformed  Church  to  de- 
termine upon  and  effect  by  its  own  in- 
trinsic powers.  And  this  is  a  fact  of  the 
utmost  importance,  which  cannot  be  too 
well  known  and  kept  in  remembrance. 
It  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  distinctive  char- 
acteristics of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
that  it  owes  its  origin,  its  form,  its  juris- 
diction, and  its  discipline,  to  no  earthly 
power.  And  when  the  ministers  and 
elders  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  resolved 
to  meet  in  a  General  Assembly,  to  delib- 
erate on  matters  which  might  tend  to  the 
promotion  of  God's  glory  and  the  wel- 
fare of  the  Church,  they  did  so  in  virtue 
of  the  authority  which  they  believed  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  had  given  to  His 
'Church.  The  parliament  which  abol- 
ished the  papal  jurisdiction  made  not  the 
slightest  mention  of  a  General  Assembly. 
In  that  time  of  comparatively  simple  and 
honest  faith,  even  statesmen  seem  instinc- 
tively to  have  perceived,  that  to  interfere 
in  matters  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction, 
so  as  to  appoint  ecclesiastical  tribunals, 
specify  their  nature,  and  assign  their 
limits,  was  not  within  their  province.  It 
had  been  well  for  the  kingdom  if  states- 
men of  succeeding  times,  certainly  not 
their  superiors  in  talent  and  in  judgment, 
had  been  wise  enough  to  follow  their 
example. 

The    first   meeting    of   the    General 

(  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  was 
held,  as  has  been  already  stated,  on  the 
20th  of  December  1560.  The  number 
that  convened  was  but  small, — it  con- 
sisted of  forty  members,  only  six  of  whom 
were  ministers:  but  they  were  men  of 
great  abilities,  of  deep  piety,  and  of  emi- 
nent personal  worth,  fitted  and  qualified 
by  their  Creator  for  the  work  which  he 
had  given  them  to  do.  The  very  next 
step  which  was  taken  proved  both  their 

^  qualifications  and  their  zeal.  It  was  very 
clearly  seen  by  the  reformers,  that  the 
power  of  discipline  was  essential  to  the 
welF-being  of  a  Church,  since  without  it 
purity  could  not  be  maintained,,  either 
among  the  people  or  the  ministers  them- 

r  selves.     They  determined,  therefore,  to 

'  draw  up  a  book  in  which  there  should  be 
a  complete  system  of  ecclesiastical  gov- 
ernment ;  and  the  same  eminent  men  by 


whom  the  Confession  of  Faith  had  been 
composed  were  appointed  to  undertake 
the  new  and  scarcely  less  important  task. 
This,  indeed,  they  had  been  previously 
desired  to  do  by  the  privy  council,  as  ap- 
pears from  the  preamble  of  their  produc- 
tion. They  applied  themselves  to  their 
task  in  the  same  spirit  as  before,  having 
respect,  indeed,  to  the  circumstances  and 
the  exigencies  of  the  time,  but  looking  to 
Divine  direction  and  authority  alone. 
"  They  took  not  their  example,"  says 
Row,  "  from  any  Kirk  in  the  world  ;  no, 
not  from  Geneva  ;"  but  their  plan  from 
the  sacred  Scriptures.  Having  arranged 
the  subject  under  different  heads,  they 
divided  these  among  them  ;  and,  after 
they  had  finished  their  several  parts,  they 
met  together  and  examined  them  with 
great  attention,  spending  much  time  in 
reading  and  meditation  on  the  subject, 
and  in  earnest  prayers  for  Divine  direc- 
tion. When  they  had  drawn  up  the 
whole  in  form,  they  laid  it  before  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  by  whom  it  was  approved, 
after  they  had  caused  some  of  its  articles 
to  be  abridged.  At  the  close  of  the  brief 
records  of  the  first  General  Assembly, 
there  is  an  intimation  that  the  next  meet- 
ing was  to  be  held  on  the  15th  day 
of  January  following  ;*  but  no  record  ap- 
pears to  have  been  kept  of  that  meeting  ; 
yet,  as  we  find  the  Book  of  Discipline  re- 
ferred to  in  the  next  meeting  of  May  the 
same  year,  we  may  conclude  that  it  was 
in  January  that  it  was  approved  and  rati- 
fied by  the  Assembly.  It  was  also  sub- 
mitted to  the  privy  council ;  but  although 
many  of  the  members  highly  approved 
of  the  plan,  it  was  keenly  opposed  by 
others.  "Every  thing,"  says  Knox, 
"  that  repugned  to  their  corrupt  affec- 
tions was  termed,  in  their  mockery,  '  de- 
vout imaginations.'  The  cause  we  have 
before  declared :  some  were  licentious, 
some  had  greedily  gripped  the  posses- 
sions of  the  Church,  and  others  thought 
that  they  would  not  lack  their  part  of 
Christ's  coat.*}-  This  points  out  clearly 
enough  the  cause  of  the  opposition  made 
to  the  Book  of  Discipline,— partly  aver- 
sion to  the,  strict  discipline  which  it  ap- 
pointed to  be  exercised  against  vice,  and 
partly  from  reluctance  to  comply  with  its 
requisition  for  the  appropriation  of  the 

*  Booke  of  the  Universal!  Kirk,  p.  5. 
t  Knox,  p.  256. 


54 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  Ill 


revenues  of  the  Popish  Church  to  the 
support  of  the  new  religious  and  literary 
establishments.  But  though  not  formally 
ratified  by  the  privy  council,  it  was  sub- 
scribed by  the  greater  part  of  the  nobility 
and  barons,  members  of  the  council,  and 
thereby  virtually  ratified.  The  docu- 
ment deserves  to  be  recorded  : — 

"  At  Edinburgh,  17th  January  1561. 

"  We,  who  have  subscribed  these  pres- 
ents, having  advised  with  the  articles 
herein  specified,  as  is  above  mentioned, 
from  the  beginning  of  this  book,  think 
the  same  good,  and  conform  to  God's 
Word  in  all  points, — conform  to  the  notes 
and  additions  hereto  eiked ;  and  promise 
to  set  the  same  forward  to  the  uttermost 
of  our  powers.  Providing  that  the 
bishops,  abbots,  priors,  and  other  prelates 
and  beneficed  men  which  else  have  ad- 
joined themselves  to  us,  bruik  [enjoy] 
the  revenues  of  their  benefices  during 
their  lifetimes ;  they  sustaining  and  up- 
holding the  ministry  and  ministers,  as 
herein  is  specified,  for  the  preaching  of 
the  Word,  and  ministering  of  the  sacra- 
ments." 

To  this, — termed  by  several  writers 
"  An  act  of  the  secret  council,"  which  in- 
deed it  was,  being  subscribed  by  a  large 
majority, — there  were  affixed  the  names 
of  the  Duke  of  Chatelherault,  the  Earls 
of  Arran,  Argyle,  Glencairn,  Rothes, 
Marischal,  Monteith,  and  Morton,  Lords 
James  Stewart,  Boyd,  Yester,  Ochiltree, 
Lindsay,  Sanquhar,  St.  John  of  Torphi- 
chen,  the  Master  of  Maxwell,  the  Master 
of  Lindsay,  Drumlanrig,  Lochinvar, 
Garlies,  Balgarnie,  Cunninghamhead, 
Alexander  Gordon,  bishop  of  Galloway, 
Alexander  Campbell,  dean  of  Murray, 
and  others  of  less  note. 

As  the  Book  of  Discipline  contains  the 
deliberate  opinions  of  the  Scottish  reform- 
ers respecting  what  they  regarded  as  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  Church 
which  they  were  labouring  to  establish 
in  Scotland,  it  seems  necessary  to  give  a 
brief  abstract  of  those  principles,  that  the 
reader  may  the  better  know  what  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  from  its  beginning, 
has  either  been  or  striven  to  be. 

The  ordinary  and  permanent  office- 
bearers of  the  Church  were  of  four  kinds: 
the  minister  or  pastor,  to  whom  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  and  administra- 
tion of  the  sacraments  belonged ;  the 


doctor  or  teacher,  whose  province  it  was )( 
to  interpret  Scripture  and  confute  errors, 
including  those  who  taught  theology  in 
schools  and  universities ;  the  ruling  elder, 
who  assisted  the  minister  in  exercising 
ecclesiastical  discipline  and  government ; 
and  the  deacon,  who  had  the  special 
charge  of  the  revenues  of  the  Church 
and  the  poor.  To  these  permanent  office- 
bearers there  were  added  two  others,  of 
a  temporary  character.  It  has  been 
already  stated,  that,  in  the  arrangement 
entered  into  previous  to  the  first  General 
Assembly,  there  were  only  twelve  re- 
formed ministers  to  preach  the  gospel 
throughout  the  whole  kingdom  j  and 
that,  to  accomplish  the  utmost  possible 
amount  of  duty  by  so  small  a  number, 
seven  were  placed  in  the  chief  towns, 
and  large  country  districts  were  assigned 
to  each  of  the  remaining  five.  These 
five  were  called  superintendents  :  and 
their  duty  was,  to  travel  from  place  to 
place  throughout  their  districts,  for  the 
purpose  of  preaching,  planting  churches, 
and  inspecting  the  conduct  of  the  coun- 
try ministers,  where  there  were  any, 
and  of  another  temporary  class  of  men 
termed  Exhorters  and  Readers.  This 
latter  class  consisted  of  the  most  pious 
persons  that  could  be  found,  who,  having 
received  a  common  education,  were  able 
to  read  to  their  more  ignorant  neigh- 
bours, though  not  qualified  for  the  minis- 
try. When  the  readers  were  found  to 
have  discharged  their  duty  well,  and  to 
have  increased  in  their  own  knowledge, 
they  were  encouraged  to  add  a  few  plain 
exhortations  to  the  reading  of  the  Scrip- 
tures ;  and  then  they  were  termed  Ex- 
horters. If  they  still  continued  to  im- 
prove, they  might  finally  be  admitted  to 
the  ministry.  To  search  out,  employ, 
and  watch  over  the  conduct  of  such  men, 
giving  them  instruction  from  time  to  time, 
was  the  chief  duty  of  the  superintendent, 
from  which,  indeed,  he  derived  his  name, 
so  naturally  expressive  of  his  duty, — 
a  duty  the  very  nature  of  which  shows  it 
to  have  been  temporary,  and  intended  to 
expire  whenever  the  necessities  which 
called  it  into  being  should  have  been  re- 
moved by  a  sufficiency  of  qualified  min- 
isters. 

No  person  was  allowed  to  preach,  or 
to  administer  the  sacraments,  till  he  was 
regularly  called  to  his  employment. 


A.  D.  1561.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


55 


"  Ordinary  vocation  [calling]  consisteth 
in  election,  examination,  and  admission." 
"  It  appertaineth  to  the  people,  and  to 
every  several  congregation,  to  elect  their 
minister."  "  For  altogether  this  is  to  be 
avoided,  that  any  man  be  violently  in- 
truded or  thrust  in  upon  any  congrega- 
tion ;  but  this  liberty,  with  all  care,  must 
be  reserved  to  every  several  church,  to 
have  their  votes  and  suffrages  in  election 
of  their  ministers."  The  examination 
was  appointed  to  take  place  "  in  open 
assembly,  and  before  the  congregation," 
to  satisfy  the  church  as  to  his  soundness 
in  the  faith ;  his  "  gifts,  utterance,  and 
knowledge;"  his  willingness  to  under- 
take the  charge  ;  the  purity  of  his  mo- 
tives ;  and  his  resolution  to  discharge  the 
duties  of  his  office  with  diligence  and 
fidelity.  Admission  then  took  place  by 
the  person  being  solemnly  set  apart  by 
prayer,  at  first  without  imposition  of 
hands,  which,  however,  was  afterwards 
appointed  to  be  done.  Superintendents 
were  admitted  in  the  same  way  as  other 
ministers,  were  tried  by  the  same  church 
courts,  liable  to  the  same  censures,  and 
might  be  deposed  for  the  same  crimes. 

The  affairs  of  each  congregation  were 
managed  by  the  minister,  elders,  and 
deacons,  who  constituted  the  kirk-session, 
which  met  regularly  once  a  week,  and 
oftener  if  business  required.  There  was 
also  a  meeting,  called  the  weekly  exer- 
cise, or  prophesying,  held  in  every  con- 
siderable town,  consisting  of  the  ministers, 
exhorters,  and  educated  men  in  the  vicini- 
ty, for  expounding  the  Scriptures.  This 
was  afterwards  converted  into  the  pres- 
bytery, or  classical  assembly.  The  su- 
perintendent met  with  the  ministers  and 
delegated  elders  of  his  district  twice  a- 
year,  in  the  provincial  Synod,  which  took 
cognizance  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  within 
its  bounds.  And  the  General  Assembly, 
which  was  composed  of  ministers  and 
elders  commissioned  from  the  different 
parts  of  the  kingdom,  met  twice,  some- 
times thrice,  in  a  year,  and  attended  to  the 
interests  of  the  National  Church. 

Public  worship  was  attended  to  in  such 
a  manner,  as  to  show  the  estimation  in 
which  it  was  held  by  our  reformers.  On 
Sabbath  days  the  people  assembled  twice 
for-public  worship;  and,  the  better  to  in- 
struct the  ignorant,  catechising  was  sub- 
stituted for  preaching  in  the  afternoon. 


In  towns  a  sermon  was  regularly  preach- 
ed on  one  day  of  the  week  besides  the 
Sabbath :  and  on  almost  every  day  the 
people  had  an  opportunity  of  hearing 
public  prayers  and  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures.  Baptism  was  never  dispensed 
unless  it  was  accompanied  with  preach- 
ing or  catechising.  The  Lord's  Supper 
was  administered  four  times  a-year  in 
towns  ;  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  baptizing, 
and  kneeling  at  the  Lord's  table,  were 
forbidden  ;  and  anniversary  holidays  were 
abolished. 

Education  was  very  justly  regarded  as 
of  the  utmost  importance,  and  deserving 
every  possible  encouragement.  It  was 
stated  as  imperatively  necessary,  that 
there  should  be  a  school  in  every  parish, 
for  the  instruction  of  youth  in  the  princi- 
ples of  religion,  grammar,  and  the  Latin 
tongue ;  and  it  was  farther  proposed,  that 
a  college  should  be  erected  in  every  "  no- 
table town,"  in  which  logic  and  rhetoric 
should  be  taught,  along  with  the  learned 
languages.  It  was  even  suggested  that 
parents  should  not  be  permitted  to  neg- 
lect the  education  of  their  children  ;  but 
that  the  nobility  and  gentry  should  be 
obliged  to  do  so  at  their  own  expense ;  and 
that  a  fund  should  be  provided  for  the 
education  of  the  children  of  the  poor, 
who  discovered  talents  and  aptitude  for 
learning. 

To  carry  these  important  measures 
into  effect,  permanent  funds  were  requi- 
site ;  and  for  these  they  naturally  looked 
to  the  patrimony  of  the  Church.  The 
hierarchy  had  been  abolished,  and  the 
popish  clergy  excluded  from  all  religious 
services,  by  the  alterations  which  the  par- 
liament had  introduced  ;  and  whatever 
provision  it  was  proper  to  allot  for  the  dis- 
missed incumbents  during  life,  it  was  un- 
reasonable that  they  should  c'ontinue  to 
enjoy  those  emoluments  which  were  at- 
tached to  offices  for  which  they  had  been 
found  totally  unfit.  No  successors  could 
be  appointed  to  them  ;  and  there  was  not 
any  individual  or  class  of  men  in  the  na- 
tion, who  could  justly  claim  a  title  to  the 
rents  of  their  benefices.  The  compilers 
of  the  Book  of  Discipline,  therefore,  pro- 
posed that  the  patrimony  of  the  Church 
should  be  appropriated,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, to  the  support  of  the  new  ecclesi- 
astical establishment.  Under  this  desig- 
nation they  included  the  ministry,  the 


56 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH   OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  III. 


schools,  and  the  poor.  For  the  ministers 
they  required,  that  such  "honest  pro 
vision"  should  be  made  as  would  give 
"  neither  occasion  of  solicitude,  neither 
yet  of  insolencie  and  wantonnesse."  The 
stipends  of  ministers  were  to  be  collected 
by  the  deacons  from  the  tithes  ;  but  all 
illegal  exactions  were  to  be  previously 
abolished,  and  measures  taken  to  relieve 
the  cultivators  of  the  ground  from  the 
oppressive  manner  in  which  the  tithes 
had  been  gathered  by  the  clergy,  or  by 
those  to  whom  they  had  farmed  them. 
The  revenues  of  bishoprics,  and  of  cathe- 
'  dral  and  collegiate  churches,  with  the 
rents  arising  from  the  endowments  of 
monasteries  and  other  religious  founda- 
tions, were  to  be  divided,  and  appropri- 
ated to  the  support  of  the  universities,  or 
of  the  churches  within  their  bounds. 

The  reformers  were  well  aware  of  the 
necessity  of  establishing  and  maintaining 
a  systematic  course  of  discipline.  "  As 
no  commonwealth  can  flourish  or  long 
endure  without  good  laws,  and  sharp  exe- 
cution of  the  same,  so  neither  can  the 
Kirk  of  God  be  brought  to  purity,  neither 
yet  be  retained  in  the  same,  without  the 
order  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  which 
stands  in  reproving  and  correcting  of  the 
faults  which  the  civil  sword  either  doth 
neglect  or  may  not  punish."*  "  To  dis- 
cipline must  all  the  estates  within  the 
realm  be  subject,  as  well  as  the  rulers  as 
they  that  are  ruled  ;  yea,  and  the  preach- 
ers themselves,  as  well  as  the  poorest 
within  the  Kirk."  These  quotations  may 
alone  serve  to  show,  that  there  was  no- 
thing in  which  the  Scottish  reformers  ap- 
proached nearer  to  the  primitive  Church, 
than  in  the  rigorous  and  impartial  exer- 
cise of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  the  relaxa- 
tion of  which,  under  the  papacy,  they 
justly  regarded  as  one  great  cause  of  the 
universal  corruption  of  religion.  "  In 
some  instances  they  might  carry  their 
rigour  against  offenders  to  an  extreme, 
but  it  was  a  virtuous  extreme,  compared 
with  the  dangerous  laxity,  or  rather  total 
disuse,  of  discipline  which  has  gradually 
crept  into  almost  all  the  churches  that  re- 
tain the  name  of  reformed ;  even  as  the 
scrupulous  delicacy  with  which  our  fore- 
fathers shunned  the  society  of  those  who 
had  transgressed  the  rules'of  morality,  is 
to  be  preferred  to  modern  manners,  by 

•  First  Book  of  Discipline,  chap.  ix. 


which  the  vicious  obtain  easy  admission 
into  the  company  of  the  virtuous."* 

There  is  one  almost  casual  expression 
in  that  part  of  the   Book  of  discipline 
which  treats  of  Church  censures,  of  too 
much  importance  to  be  passed  by  with- 
out notice,  tending,  a0  it  does,  to  throw  a 
flood  of  light  on  the  character  of  the  age, 
and  to  vindicate  the  reformers  from  one 
of  the  heaviest  of  the  accusations  brought 
against  them, — "  correcting  of  the  faults 
which  either  the  civil  sword  doth  neglect 
or  may  not  punish."      Every  person  at 
all  acquainted -with  the  history  of  those 
times  will  see  the  deep  meaning  of  these 
very  pregnant  words.     Rent  as  th  e  king- 
dom had  long  been  into  feudal  factions 
there  was  scarcely  anything  in  it  deserv- 
ing the  name  of  public  justice.     Every 
ambitious  nobleman  was  ready  to  defend 
the  most  notorious  criminals,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  strengthening  his   "  following," 
by  the  accession  of  fierce,  lawless,  and 
unscrupulous    adherents.      Impartiality 
in  the  administration  of  justice,  and  the 
suppression  of  crime,  neither  did  exist, 
nor  was  possible  in  such  a  state  of  mat- 
ters 5  and  the  popish  clergy,  being  them- 
selves as  licentious  and  unjust  as  either 
people  or  nobles,  were  not  disposed  to  at- 
tempt  enacting   or   enforcing   laws   by 
which  they   might   themselves  be  con- 
demned and   punished.       There    was, 
therefore,  an  absolute  necessity  that  the 
reformed   Church    of   Scotland   should 
take  decided  measures,  not  only  for  the 
teaching  of  truth,  but  also  for  the  sup- 
pression of  vice  and  immorality,  as  far 
as  its  authority  could  possibly  reach,  and 
much  farther  than  in  a  better  state  of 
society   would   have  been  either  neces- 
sary or  desirable.     Yet,  even  when  im- 
pelled by  these  urgent  considerations, 
;he  Church  of  Scotland  never  attempted 
;o  dictate  in  civil  matters,  nor  even  called 
upon  the   secular   authorities  to   inflict 
civil  penalties  for  the  purpose  of  enforc- 
ng  discipline  purely  ecclesiastical.    That 
he  Church  called  upon  the  parliament 
o  suppress  idolalry,  and  to  abolish  the 
papal  jurisdiction  in  the  kingdom,  is  ad- 
mitted ;  but  this  cannot  justly  be  regard- 
ed as  any  thing  more  than  the  public 
voice  of  the  Church   calling   upon   the 
:ivil  magistrate  to  do  his  own  duty  in 
tiis  own  province,  as  idolatry  is  a  viola- 

'  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  p.  251. 


A.  D.  1561.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


57 


tion  of  natural  religion,  and  even  of 
reason  itself,  and  the  papal  jurisdiction 
involves  the  national  crime  of  allegiance 
to  a  foreign  secular  power,  which  no 
well-governed  country  can  safely  tolerate. 
A  slight  apparent  confusion  between  the 
secular  and  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdictions 
arose  from  the  fact  that  the  parliament, 
or  the  magistracy  of  particular  burghs, 
had  enacted  punishments  of  a  corporal 
kind,  against  certain  crimes  which  were 
ordinarily  tried  in  the  church  courts  ; 
but  the  infliction,  as  well  as  the  enacting 
of  them,  pertained  to  the  civil  magis- 
trate.* 

Such  were  the  fundamental  principles, 
and  the  chief  points  of  the  government 
and  discipline  of  the  Church  of  Scotland 
as  stated  in  the  Book  of  Discipline, 
drawn  up  by  John  Knox  and  the  most 
eminent  of  the  Scottish  reformers  ;  ap- 
proved by  the  General  Assembly  ;  and 
subscribed  by  the  majority  of  the  nobles, 
and  inferior  barons,  and  gentry,  com- 
posing the  privy  council  of  the  kingdom. 
Had  it  obtained  the  complete  sanction  of 
the  civil  government,  and  its  principles 
and  arrangements  thereby  been  brought 
into  full  operation,  many,  if  not  all  of  the 
calamities  which  speedily  fell  upon  the 
kingdom,  might  have  been  averted. 
But  statesmen  had  not  then  learned, 
neither  indeed  have  they  yet,  the  impor- 
tant difference  between  principles,  which 
have  in  them  the  energy  of  imperishable 
vital  powers,  and  external  arrangements, 
which  are  either  the  results  of  the  opera- 
tion of  principles,  or  are  the  mere  mounds 
by  which  short-sighted  men  attempt  to 
modify  and  restrain  the  aspect  and 
growth  of  the  internal  agency,  which 
they  understand  not,  but  wish  to  coerce 
Arrangements  may  be  altered  almost  at 
will;  but  principles,  when  once  fully 
stated,  can  neyer  be  destroyed.  They 
may  be  repressed,  fettered,  turned  awry 
in  their  operations  ;  but  they  continue  to 
operate  powerfully  even  when  unseen, 
causing  convulsion  after  convulsion  as 
they  rend  asunder  and  throw  off  the  un- 
comforting  external  moulds  into  which 
they  have  been  forced  ;  and  must  inevit- 
ably continue  thus  to  act,  till  they  obtain 
a  free  and  unconstrained  developement, 
congenial  to  their  own  nature.  The 
principles  stated  in  the  First  Confession 

*  Baillie's  Vindication,  p.  17. 
8 


of  Faith,  and  the  First  Book  of  Discip- 
line, of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  were 
disliked,  opposed,  repressed,  and  turned 
aside  by  the  worldly-wise  statesmen  of 
that  day,  as  they  have  often  been  in  sub- 
sequent times ;  but  they  took  up  their 
abiding  residence  in  the  mind  and  heart 
of  Scotland, — in  the  deliberate  judgment 
and  conviction  of  its  intellect,  and  the 
fervent  regard  of  its  affection  ;  and  the 
struggle  then  begun  will  continue,  till, 
sooner  or  later,  they  be  completely 
realized. 

It  has  been  already  stated,  that  the 
Protestant  nobility  readily  enough  con- 
sented to  the  suppression  of  the  papal 
jurisdiction,  and  the  public  sanctioning 
of  the  reformed  doctrines,  especially  as 
these  measures  were  understood  to  imply 
a  prospective  confiscation  of  the  exorbi- 
tant wealth  of  the  Romish  clergy.  But 
they  were  by  no  means  equally  satisfied 
with  the  remaining  main  propositions  of 
the  reformers, — the  regulations  of  dis- 
cipline, and  especially  the  appropriation 
of  the  patrimony  of  the  suppressed 
Church  to  the  purposes,  ministerial,  edu- 
cational, and  charitable,  of  the  new  eccle- 
siastical establishment.  They  had  for 
some  time  cast  a  covetous  eye  on  the  rich 
revenues  of  the  popish  clergy.  Some  of 
them  had  seized  upon  church  lands,  or 
retained  the  tithes  in  their  own  hands. 
Others  had  taken  long  leases  of  them 
from  the  clergy  for  small  sums  of  money, 
and  were  anxious  to  have  these  private 
bargains  legalized.  From  this  arose 
one  great  cause  of  their  aversion  to  have 
the  Book  of  Discipline  ratified,  lest  they 
should  be  obliged  to  surrender  the  spoil 
they  had  unjustly  obtained.  The  plan 
of  the  Church  was,  they  said,  a  "  devout 
imagination,"  a  mere  visionary  scheme, 
which  showed  indeed  the  goodness  of 
their  intentions,  but  which  it  was  impos- 
sible to  carry  into  practical  effect.  In 
short,  they  determined  to  retain  by  force 
the  greater  part  of  the  Church  revenues, 
thus  fraudfully  seized  upon,  for  their  own 
advantage. 

Several  public  events  of  great  impor- 
tance occurred  about  this  time,  by  which 
the  affairs  of  the  Church  were  not  a  little 
influenced,  and  which,  therefore,  must  be 
briefly  stated.  Francis,  the  young  king 
of  France,  and  in  virtue  of  the  matrimo 
nial  crown  as  husband  of  Mary,  king  of 


58 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  III. 


Scotland  also,  died  in  December  1560. 
Mary  immediately  lost  all  power  at  the 
French  court,  and  indicated  her  willing- 
ness to  return  to  Scotland.  Her  natural 
brother,  Lord  James  Stewart,  was  sent  by 
the  Scottish  parliament  to  France,  in  the 
expectation  that  he  might  induce  her  to 
be  favourable  to  the  reformed  Church  ; 
and  Lesly,  afterwards  bishop  of  Ross, 
was  deputed  by  the  Romish  party  to  pro- 
mote their  interests.  Mary  manifested 
no  disposition  to  favour  the  Reforma- 
tion ;  but  seemed  disposed  to  place  much 
confidence  in  the  political  sagacity  of  her 
brother,  endeavouring,  at  the  same  time, 
to  draw  him  aside  from  his  adherence  to 
the  reformed  Church,  in  which  she  was 
partially  successful. 

Previous  to  the  return  of  Mary,  the 
second  General  Assembly  was  held  at 
Edinburgh,  on  the  27th  of  May  1561. 
Its  proceedings  were  chiefly  directed  to 
the  object  of  obtaining  a  specific  ratifi- 
cation of  certain  topics  contained  in  the 
Book  of  Discipline,  respecting  the  sup- 
pression of  idolatry,  and  the  providing  of 
maintenance  for  the  reformed  preachers, 
which  the  privy  council  thought  proper 
to  grant. 

On  the  19th  of  August,  in  the  same 
year,  Glueen  Mary  landed  at  Leith,  and 
was  conducted  to  Holyrood-house,  in  the 
midst  of  great  demonstrations  of  joy  at 
her  safe  arrival,  by  a  people  predisposed 
to  the  most  devoted  loyalty,  provided  their 
allegiance  to  an  earthly  sovereign  was 
not  strained  to  the  violation  of  the  infi- 
nitely higher  allegiance  which  they  owed 
to  the  King  of  kings.  There  was  but 
too  much  certainty,  that  they  would  soon 
be  put  to  choose  whether  they  would 
violate  their  conscience  or  offend  their 
queen.  Mary  had  unfortunately  been 
trained  up  from  her  infancy  in  a  blind 
attachment  to  the  tenets  and  observances 
of  Popery  ;  and,  before  she  left  France, 
her  uncles  of  the  house  of  Guise  or  Lor- 
raine had  used  every  means  to  strengthen 
this  prejudice,  and  to  inspire  her  with 
hatred  to  the  religion  which  had  been 
embraced  by  her  people.  She  was 
taught  that  it  would  be  the  glory  of  her 
reign  to  bring  back  her  kingdom  to  its 
former  obedience  to  the  papal  sway,  and 
to  co-operate  with  the  popish  princes  on 
the  Continent  in  extirpating  heresy.  To 
this  was  added  as  a  strong  inducement, 


that  they  would  not  only  support  her  in 
chastising  her  rebellious  subjects,  but 
would  assist  her  also  to  prosecute  her 
claims  to  the  English  crown  Mary 
brought  with  her  to  Scotland  these  pre- 
possessions and  schemes  ;  and  she  ad- 
hered to  them  throughout  her  life  with 
the  most  determined  pertinacity.  She 
did,  indeed,  temporise  for  a  time,  as  the 
Protestants  were  in  the  possession  of  all 
power  in  the  kingdom  ;  but  she  resolved 
to  withhold  her  ratification  of  the  late 
proceedings,  and  to  embrace  the  first  fav- 
ourable opportunity  to  overturn  them, 
and  re-establish  the  ancient  system.* 

The  Protestants,  on  the  other  hand, 
remembering  well  the  deep  dissimulation 
of  her.  mother,  and  aware  of  the  fierce 
bigotry  of  the  Guisan  family,  were  jea- 
lous of  their  young  queen,  and  had 
strictly  prohibited  the  deputies  sent  to 
France  from  promising  her  more  than 
the  private  exercise  of  her  religion, — if, 
indeed,  even  that  could  be  tolerated.  Be- 
tween such  conflicting  principles  and 
aims,  it  was  impossible  but  that  a  col- 
lision should  speedily  ensue.  Nor  was 
occasion  long  wanting  for  the  exhibition 
of  that  hostility  which  was  so  deeply 
entertained  by  both  parties.  As  if  to 
seize  the  earliest  opportunity  of  proving 
her  attachment  to  her  own  faith,  Mary 
gave  orders  for  the  celebration  of  a  sol- 
emn mass  in  the  chapel  of  Holyrood- 
house,  on  the  first  Sabbath  after  her  ar- 
rival. This  service,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, had  been  prohibited  by  an  aci  ox 
the  late  parliament,  and  had  not  beea 
publicly  performed  since  the  conclusion 
of  the  civil  war.  This  most  unwise 
step  of  the  queen  gave  such  offence  to 
the  people,  that  it  was  with  me  utmost 
difficulty  they  were  prevented  from 
breaking  into  an  open  tumult,  and  inflict- 
ing punishment  on  the  perpetrators  of 
what  they  regarded  as  a  direct  violation 
at  once  of  the  laws  of  God  and  of  the 
nation.  An  act  of  the  privy  council 
was  framed,  prohibiting  all  innovations 
in  the  religion  found  by  the  queen  on 
her  arrival ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  pro- 
hibiting all  tumultuary  interference  with 
the  French  attendants  "for  any  cause 
whatsoever,"  by  which  they  were  jro- 
tected  in  their  religious  usages,  despite 
the  known  hostility  of  her  Protestant 

'  See  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  note  UU. 


A.  D.  1561  ] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


59 


subjects.  Against  this  act  of  council  the 
Earl  of  Arran  alone  of  the  nobility  pro- 
tested briefly ;  but  a  more  full  and  for- 
mal protest  was  made  by  the  Protestant 
ministers.  John  Knox  took  occasion  to 
deliver  his  mind  fully  and  openly  on  the 
subject  in  a  sermon  preached  by  him  on 
the  following  Sabbath  ;  in  which  he  de- 
clared, "  That  one  mass  was  more  fear- 
ful unto  him  than  if  ten  thousand  armed 
enemies  were  landed  in  any  part  of  the 
realm,  of  purpose  to  suppress  the  whole 
religion :  for,  said  he,  in  our  God  there 
is  strength  to  resist  and  confound  multi- 
tudes, if  we  unfeignedly  depend  upon 
Him,  of  which  we  have  had  experience  ; 
but  when  we  join  hands  with  idolatry,  it 
is  no  doubt  but  both  God's  presence  and 
defence  will  leave  us  ;  and  what  shall 
then  become  of  us  ?* 

Let  the  Christian  reader  note  well  the 
reasoning  on  which  Knox  founds  his 
dread  of  the  mass  ;  and  let  him  put  to 
himself  this  question,  and  ponder  well 
what  answer  must  be  returned  to  it : — 
"  Can  religion  be  reformed  really  and 
successfully  without  the  direct  aid  of 
God,  and  can  it  be  defended  in  any  other 
manner  ?"  The  man  of  the  world  may 
imagine  that  it  can  ;  but  he  will  not  pro- 
duce one  instance  that  it  ever  was. 
Neither  will  it  be  possible  to  produce 
one  instance  of  a  great  and  real  refor- 
mation of  religion  taking  place,  without 
the  chief  human  agents  being  themselves 
fully  persuaded  that  they  are  enjoying 
the  direct  aid  of  God,  and,  in  the  strength 
of  that  belief,  proceeding  confidently  for- 
ward with  measures  the  success  of  which, 
according  to  every  merely  human  calcu- 
lation, is  absolutely  hopeless.  For  the 
same  reason  they  will  be  found  rejecting 
those  schemes  which  human  prudence 
and  political  sagacity  would  most  recom- 
mend ;  and  Expressing  their  dread  of  no- 
thing so  much  as  of  the  unhallowed  in- 
termixture of  worldly  wisdom  in  their 
sacred  welfare,  especially  when  that  in- 
termixture involves  the  crime  of  conniv- 
ing at  what  they  believe  to  be  direct  or 
implicit  violation  of  the  laws  of  Him 
who  alone  can  give  the  victory.  For 
they  well  know,  that  as  their  enterprise 
can  be  brought  to  a  successful  issue 
through  the  aid  of  God  alone,  so,  what- 
ever has  the  tendency  to  cause  Him  to 

•  Knox,  p.  287. 


withdraw  that  aid, — whether  by  direct 
violation  of  His  commandments,  or  by 
such  temporizing  conduct  as  implies  dis- 
trust of  His  all-sufficient  support, — must 
lead  infallibly  to  their  own  punishment, 
in  the  overthrow  of  their  undertaking, 
or  the  indefinite  postponement  of  its  suc- 
cess. So  thought  and  believed  John 
Knox  ;  and  hence  his  dread  of  one  per- 
mitted mass,  as  tending  to  cause  God  to 
withdraw  his  support,  and  to  leave  them 
to  the  punishment  which  their  faithless 
and  temporizing  devices  had  deserved. 
Such  opinions  and  rules  of  action,  we 
well  know,  are  termed  fanatical  by  sages 
and  the  learned,  by  the  philosophers  and 
statesmen  of  the  world  ;  but  the  Christian 
knows  their  truth,  and  the  reflecting  his- 
torian may  learn  and  mark  their  reality 
and  their  value.  We  shall  have  repeated 
occasion  to  trace  them,  and  to  note  their 
importance,  in  our  subsequent  pages. 

The  report  of  Knox's  animadver- 
sions upon  her  conduct  was  speedily 
conveyed  to  the  queen.  She  seems  to 
have  resolved  to  try  the  possible  amount 
of  that  personal  influence  with  him  which 
she  had  found  so  effectual  with  a  great 
number  of  the  Protestant  lords  ;  of 
whom  it  was  customary  to  say,  that  they 
came  to  court  very  zealous  defenders  of 
the  true  religion,  but,  after  a  few  days' 
residence  there,  the  fire-edge  wore  ofT 
them,  and  they  became  as  temperate  as  the 
rest.  If  such  were  her  expectations,  she 
was  completely  disappointed ;  and  find- 
ing that  she  had  now  to  deal  with  a  man 
who  could  neither  be  flattered  nor  over- 
awed, she  seems  to  have  ever  afterwards 
regarded  him  with  mingled  feelings  of 
respect,  terror,  and  hatred.  Knox  had, 
on  his  part,  made  it  his  study  to  avail 
himself  of  such  an  opportunity  to  discov- 
er the  real  character  of  the  queen  ;  and 
when  some  of  his  friends  asked  his  opin- 
ion of  her,  he  answered,  "If  there  be 
not  in  her  a  proud  mind,  a  crafty  wit, 
and  an  indurate  heart  against  God  and 
his  truth,  my  judgment  faileth  me."* 
Few  will  now  deny  that  his  judgment 
proved  to  be  but  too  accurate.  The  esti- 
mate which  he  formed  of  the  queen's 
character,  and  the  coldness  which  he 
perceived  spreading  among  the  Protest- 
ant lords,  had  no  other  effect  upon  him 
than  to  make  him  the  more  watchful 

•  Knox,  p.  292. 


60 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  III. 


over  public  procedure,  and  the  more  de- 
termined in  the  defence  of  the  Church. 

A  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly 
was  held  in  December,  the  same  year, 
1561,  of  which  the  Booke  of  the  Univer- 
sall  Kirk  gives  no  account,  probably  be- 
cause its  time  was  spent  in  disputations, 
without  producing  any  direct  result. 
These  disputations,  however,  have  been 
recorded  by  Knox  himself ;  and  a  brief 
account  of  them  is  necessary,  as  showing 
the  altered  sentiments  of  some  of  the 
Protestant  lords.  A  considerable  num- 
ber of  them  at  first  absented  themselves 
from  the  meeting  of  the  Assembly;  and 
when  reproved,  they  retorted  by  disput- 
ing the  propriety  of  such  conventions 
without  her  majesty's  pleasure.  Mait- 
land  of  Lethington,  now  made  secretary 
of  state,  took  upon  him  to  encounter  the 
reasoning  of  Knox.  "  Take  from  us 
the  liberty  of  assemblies,  and  take  from  us 
the  gospel,"  said  the  reformer.  "  If  the 
liberty  of  the  Church  must  depend  upon 
her  allowance  or  disallowance,  we  shall 
want  not  only  assemblies,  but  the  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel."  It  was  then  proposed 
that  the  Book  of  Discipline  should  be 
ratified  by  the  queen ;  but  this  was 
pointedly  opposed  by  the  secretary. 
"  How  many  of  those  that  subscribed 
that  book  will  be  subject  to  it  ?"  said  he 
scoffing!  y.  It  was  answered,  "  All  the 
godly."  «  Will  the  Duke  ?"  said  Leth- 
ington. "  If  he  will  not,"  replied  Lord 
Ochiltree,  "  I  wish  that  his  name  were 
scraped,  not  only  out  of  that  book,  but 
also  out  of  our  number  and  company  ;  for 
to  what  end  shall  men  subscribe,  and 
never  mind  to  keep  word  of  that  which 
they  promise?"  Lethington  answered, 
that  many  subscribed  it,  in  fide  parentum, 
as  children  are  baptized.  Knox  replied, 
that  "  the  scoff  was  as  untrue  as  it  was 
unbecoming ;  for  the  book  was  publicly 
read,  and  its  different  heads  discussed, 
for  a  number  of  days,  and  no  man  was 
required  to  subscribe  what  he  did  not 
understand."  "  Stand  content,"  said  one 
of  the  courtiers  :  "  that  book  will  not  be 
obtained."  "  Let  God,"  replied  Knox, 
"  require  the  injury  which  the  common- 
wealth shall  sustain,  at  the  hands  of  those 
who  hinder  it." 

Another  subject  which  caused  keen 
and  protracted  altercation  between  Knox 
and  the  court  party,  was  their  manage- 


ment in  settling  the  provision  for  the 
ministers  of  the  Church.  Hitherto  they 
had  lived  chiefly  on  the  benevolence  of 
their  hearers,  and  many  of  them  had 
scarcely  the  means  of  subsistence ;  but 
repeated  complaints  having  obliged  the 
privy  council  to  take  up  the  affair,  they 
came  at  last  to  a  determination,  that  the 
ecclesiastical  revenues  should  be  divided 
into  three  parts  ;  that  two  of  these  should 
be  given  to  the  ejected  popish  clergy, 
and  that  the  third  part  should  be  divided 
between  the  court  and  the  protestant 
ministry  !  Well  might  Knox  exclaim, 
when  he  heard  of  this  disgraceful  ar- 
rangement, "  If  the  end  of  this  order, 
pretended  to  be  taken  for  the  sustentation 
of  the  ministers,  be  happy,  my  judgment 
fails  me  !  I  see  two  parts  freely  given 
to  the  devil,  and  the  third  part  must  be 
divided  betwixt  God  and  the  devil." 
Even  the  lords  of  the  privy  council  seem 
to  have  felt  that  their  own  nefarious  deed 
was  little  better  than  a  mockery ;  for 
when  the  scheme  was  proposed  among 
them,  the  Earl  of  Huntly,  himself  a 
popish  nobleman,  addressed  the  others 
jestingly,  by  "  Good  morrow,  my  lords 
of  the  two  parts."*  The  privy  counciJ 
appointed  certain  persons  to  fix  the  sums 
which  were  to  be  appropriated  to  the 
court  and  to  the  ministry,  and  also  the 
particular  salaries  which  were  to  be  al- 
lotted to  individual .  ministers,  according 
to  the  circumstances  in  which  they  were 
placed.  The  officers  for  this  purpose 
composed  a  board  under  the  privy  coun- 
cil, which  was  called  the  "  Court  of 
Modification."  The  persons  thus  ap- 
pointed to  "modify  the  stipends,"  were 
disposed  to  gratify  the  queen,  and  her 
demands  were  readily  answered ;  while 
the  sums  allotted  to  the  ministers  were 
as  ill  paid  as  they  were  inadequate. 
Lethington  again  displayed  his  sneering 
and  bitter  nature,  asserting  that  "  if  the 
ministers  were  sustained,  the  queen 
would  not  get,  at  the  year's  end,  to  buy 
her  a  pair  of  new  shoes."  "  To  these 
dumb  dogs  the  bishops,"  answered  Knox, 
"  ten  thousand  was  not  enough ;  but  to 
the  servants  of  Christ,  that  painfully 
preach  the  Gospel,  an  hundred  merksf 
must  suffice !  How  can  that  be  sus- 
tained ?" 

The  preceding  particulars  have  been 

*  Knox,  pp.  296-300.  t  lOOmerks  Scots  =jE5, 11s.  1  3-4d, 


A.  D.  1562.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


61 


the  more  exactly  related,  because,  slight 
as  they  may  seem,  they  indicate  very 
correctly  the  main  grounds  of  the  hos- 
tility which  began  to  arise  between  the 
Protestant  nobility  and  the  ministers,  and 
also  serve  to  point  out  the  course  which 
that  hostility  was  likely  soon  to  take,  and, 
in  fact,  did  take.  The  more  that  the 
nobility  became  accustomed  to  the  loose 
manners  prevalent  in  a  court  formed,  as 
far  as  possible,  on  the  model  of  the  licen- 
tious court  of  France,  the  less  were  they 
inclined  to  conform  themselves  to  the 
strict  and  pure  morality  of  the  Book  of 
Discipline.  And  naving  given  two-thirds 
of  the  patrimony  of  the  Church  to  the 
popish  clergy  during  the  remainder  of 
their  lives,  they  had  rendered  it  impossi- 
ble to  comply  with  the  scheme  for  sup- 
porting the  poor  and  endowing  schools 
and  colleges.  The  dilapidated  state  of 
the  crown  revenues  had  long  rendered 
the  Scottish  monarchs  in  a  great  meas- 
ure dependent  on  the  gifts  which  they  re- 
ceived at  times  from  the  wealthiest  of  the 
nobility,  but  more  generally  from  the 
dignitaries  of  the  Church.  Had  a  por- 
tion of  these  two-thirds  of  the  Church  re- 
venues been  devoted  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  crown,  it  might  have  been  a  wise 
and  a  just  method  of  employing  them, 
and  lightening  the  public  burdens  of  the 
country  ;  but  nothing  could  be  more  un- 
just than  to  leave  them  in  the  possession 
of  such  unworthy  persons,  and  then  to 
rob  the  laborious  preachers  of  the  gospel, 
and  give  the  pillage  of  their  stinted  al- 
lowance to  the  queen.  There  is  reason 
to  believe,  that  when  the  queen  consent- 
ed to  this  arrangement,  she  anticipated 
the  overthrow  of  the  reformed  Church, 
and  the  re-establishment  of  the  popish  ; 
and,  in  that  case,  she  expected  to  retain 
the  entire  third  in  her  own  hands,  in  ad- 
dition to  what  benefactions  she  might  re- 
ceive from  the  popish  clergy.  Although 
this  expectation  was  never  realized,  the 
arrangement  gave  rise  to  another  evil, 
which  might  have  been,  and  perhaps 
was  foreseen.  The  two-thirds  were  se- 
cured to  the  ejected  clergy  during  their 
lives  ;  but  upon  their  deaths,  how  was 
this  large  revenue  to  be  bestowed?  It 
might  revert  to  the  Church,  and  then  the 
scheme  of  the  Book  of  Discipline  might 
be  accomplished.  This  ought  to  have 
been  the  case  ;  but  some  of  the  more  fore- 


casting nobles  had  a  very  different 
scheme  in  view.  If  they  could  construct 
a  kind  of  pseudo-prelacy,  they  might  in- 
duce some  creatures  of  their  own  to  ac- 
cept the  title,  while  they  should  them 
selves,  in  the  ame  of  those  mercenary 
sycophants,  draw  and  enjoy  the  revenues. 
This  device  seems  to  have  been  concoc- 
ted between  Lord  Erskine,  afterwards 
Earl  of  Mar,  and  the  Earl  of  Morton. 

[1562.]  The  next  General  Assembly 
met  in  June  1562.  In  it  several  matters 
of  importance  were  transacted,  tending 
to  the  completion  of  the  judicatorial  ar- 
rangements of  the  Church  ;  such  as  the 
appointment  of  the  method  of  trying,  and, 
if  necessary,  censuring,  superintendents, 
ministers,  and  elders  ;  authority  to  ex- 
communicate the  "  inobedient ;"  and  it 
was  added,  that  "  the  magistrate,  subject 
to  the  rule  of  Christ,  be  not  exeemed 
from  the  same  punishment,  being  found, 
guilty  and  inobedient."*  It  is  observa- 
ble also,  that  in  this  Assembly  the  formal 
style  of  supreme  authority  was  used — 
"  The  haill  Kirk  appoints  and  decerns." 

The  only  matters  of  public  importance 
which  occurred  during  the  early  part  of 
that  year  were,  the  elevation  of  Lord 
James  Stewart  to  the  earldom  of  Murray  ; 
by  which  title  he  is  henceforth  to  be 
known  ;  and  the  rebellious  enterprise  of 
the  Marquis  of  Huntly,  in  which  he  fell 
in  battle.  The  death  of  Huntly  weaken- 
ed the  popish  party,  and  seemed  to  con- 
firm the  influence  of  the  Earl  of  Murray ; 
but  the  infamous  Earl  of  Bothwell,  about 
the  same  time  began  that  course  of  daring 
intrigues  which  ended  in  the  ruin  of  the 
queen,  and  his  own  miserable  death  in  a 
Danish  prison. 

During  the  course  of  the  summer  of 
that  year,  in  consequence  of  the  paucity 
of  ministers  and  superintendents,  John 
Knox  was  sent  as  a  visitor,  to  preach  and 
plant  churches  in  Galloway,  and  George 
Hay  in  Ayrshire.  Returning  through 
the  latter  district,  Knox  held  a  public  dis- 
putation with  the  Abbot  of  Crassaguel. 
who  had  been  induced  to  attempt  the  de- 
fence of  Popery  in  that  manner.  About 
the  same  time  John  Craig  was  appointed 
colleague  to  John  Knox  in  Edinburgh, 
who  was  now  beginning  to  sink  beneath 
the  intensity  of  his  labours,  which  he  had 
so  long  endured. 

*  Booke  of  the  Universall  Kirk,  p.  10. 


62 


HISTORY   OF  THE  CHURCH   OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  III. 


Another  meeting  of  the  General  As- 
sembly took  place  in  December,  the 
same  year,  in  which  it  continued  steadily 
to  advance  in  the  course  of  reformation, 
and  of  what  might  be  not  inaptly  termed 
self-construction.  As  many  of  the  for- 
mer parish  priests  continued  to  reside  in 
their  parishes,  and,  without  any  formal 
abjuration  of  Popery,  pretended  to  act  as 
parish  ministers,  the  Assembly,  to  remedy 
this  evil,  prohibited  from  serving  in  the 
ministry  all  who  had  not  satisfied  the 
Church  of  their  soundness  in  the  faith, 
and  had  not  been  examined  and  approv- 
ed by  the  superintendent  ;  and  it  was 
added,  "  This  act  to  have  strength  as 
well  against  them  that  are  called  bishops ', 
as  others."  The  same  Assembly  erected 
provincial  synods,  to  meet  regularly 
twice  a-year,  with  power  to  translate  as 
well  as  to  appoint  ministers.  A  commis- 
sion was  also  nominated  to  treat  with  the 
lords  of  the  privy  council,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  coming  to  an  understanding  as  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church,  manifestly 
with  the  view  of  averting  the  danger  of 
any  collision  arising  between  two  co- 
ordinate jurisdictions,  the  separate  pro- 
vinces of  which  had  not  been  defined  and 
settled  by  mutual  agreement.*  So  early 
did  the  Church  of  Scotland  anticipate 
that  danger,  all  the  while  proceeding  in 
the  exercise  of  that  jurisdiction  which 
belonged  to  its  sacred  character  and  in- 
herent powers. 

[1563.]  In  the  spring  of  the  year 
1563,  an  event  occurred  which  had 
nearly  hastened  a  direct  conflict  between 
the  popish  arid  the  reformed  parties 
earlier  than  the  temporizing  policy  of 
the  queen  would  have  wished.  The 
knowledge  of  her  favour,  and  the  per- 
ceived disagreement  between  the  Pro- 
testant lords  and  the  ministers,  gave  such 
encouragement  to  the  popish  party,  that 
many  of  them  openly  celebrated  mass  at 
Easter.  It  will  be  recollected  that  this 
had  been  prohibited  by  the  parliament  of 
1560,  on  pain  of  very  severe  penalties, 
amounting  even  to  death  for  the  third  of- 
fence. The  Protestants,  highly  incensed 
at  this  open  violation  of  the  law,  resolved 
to  enforce  it  themselves,  without  farther 
application  to  the  queen,  and  even  in 
disregard  of  her  threatened  displeasure. 
The  queen  at  first  endeavoured  to  induce 

•  Booke  of  the  Universall  Kirk,  pp.  12, 13. 


Knox  himself  to  mitigate  the  zeal  of  the 
western  gentlemen  ;  but,  foiled  in  this 
attempt  by  his  firmness,  she  promised  to 
cause  summon  the  offenders,  and  see 
justice  done.  Knox  seems  almost  to 
have  believed  her  for  once  serious.  He 
gave  a  favourable  report  of  her  inten- 
tions, and  this  tended  to  allay  the  jealousy 
and  indignation  of  the  public  mind. 

Mary  seemed  now  on  the  point  of  re- 
alizing the  fruits  of  her  deep  and  crafty 
policy.  And,  in  order  the  more  com- 
pletely to  lull  the  Protestants  into  secu- 
rity, she,  on  the  19th  of  May,  caused  the 
archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  and  a  num- 
ber of  the  principal  Papists,  to  be  ar- 
raigned before  the  Lord  Justice-General, 
for  transgressing  the  laws  ;  and  they, 
aware  probably  of  her  politic  design, 
having  come  in  her  majesty's  will,  were 
committed  to  ward.  The  Protestants  in 
general  were  highly  delighted  with  this 
instance  of  justice  and  impartial-seeming 
administration  of  the  laws  of  the  queen ; 
and  began  to  entertain  sanguine  expec- 
tations that  she  would  now  ratify  the  re- 
formed religion,  and  perhaps  conform  to 
it  herself.  Following  up  her  scheme,  she 
convoked  a  parliament,  which  met  on  tht 
21st  of  May.  When  Knox  urged  the. 
Protestant  lords  to  procure  from  the 
queen  in  this  Parliament  the  complete 
ratification  of  the  reformed  Church,  they 
declined,  referring  to  the  present  more 
favourable  conduct  of  the  queen,  and  the 
inexpediency  of  urging  such  matters  so 
rapidly  forward  as  to  incur  the  hazard  of 
giving  her  offence,  and  thereby  renewing 
her  former  hostility.  The  altercation  be- 
tween Knox  and  the  Earl  of  Murray  on 
this  subject  became  so  hot,  that  it  caused 
a  total  suspension  of  all  friendly  inter- 
course between  them,  which  lasted  for 
nearly  two  years,  greatly  to  the  injury  of 
the  Protestant  cause.  So  far  had  the 
crafty  policy  of  the  queen  prevailed  Avith 
the  nobility,  that  instead  of  demanding 
the  ratification  of  the  treaty  of  Edin- 
burgh, and  the  establishment  of  the  Pro- 
testant Church,  they  consented  to  receive 
an  act  of  oblivion,  securing  indemnity 
to  those  who  had  been  engaged  in  the ; 
late  civil  war.  The  very  mode  of  itsj 
enactment  virtually  implied  the  invalidity!! 
of  the  treaty  in  which  it  had  been  emf  \ 
bodied  ;  for  the  Protestant  lords,  on  their 
bended  knees,  supplicated  as  a  boon  from  • 


A.  D.  15G3.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP   SCOTLAND. 


63 


their  sovereign,  what  they  had  formerly 
won  with  their  swords,  and  repeatedly 
demanded  as  their  right. 

John  Knox  publicly  and  severely  rep- 
rehended the  conduct  of  the  Protestant 
lords  ;  and,  adverting  to  the  report  of  the 
queen's  marriage,  which  was  then  preva 
lent,  predicted  the  consequences  which 
would  ensue,  if  ever  the  nobility  con- 
sented that  their  sovereign  should  marry 
a  Papist.  For  this  boldness,  he  was  sum- 
moned to  appear  before  the  queen  in 
council,  and  a  very  sharp  altercation  en- 
sued between  them,  in  which  Knox  de- 
fended himself  with  unshaken  firmness, 
alike  unmoved  by  her  threatenings  or  her 
tears.  She  was  persuaded,  however,  by 
the  lords  of  the  council,  to  abandon  the 
idea  of  a  prosecution.  "  And  so,"  says 
Knox,  "that  storm  quieted  in  appear- 
ance, but  never  in  the  heart." 

The  storm  in  the  heart  had  soon  an- 
other opportunity  of  bursting  forth.  Du- 
ring the  residence  of  the  queen  at  Stir- 
ling, in  the  month  of  August,  the  domes- 
tics whom  she  had  left  behind  her  in  Ho- 
lyrood-house  celebrated  the  popish  wor- 
ship with  greater  publicity  than  had  been 
usual,  even  when  she  was  present.  This 
gave  great  offence  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Edinburgh  ;  and  a  slight  popular  tumult, 
not  attended  with  injury,  or  even  danger 
to  any  one,  ensued.  Reports,  extremely 
exaggerated,  were  carried  to  the  queen, 
who  declared  her  determination  not  to 
return  to  Edinburgh  until  this  riot  was 
punished  ;  and  commanded  two  of  the 
Protestants  to  be  indicted  to  stand  trial 
for  the  offence  said  to  be  committed. 
Dreading  an  intention  to  proceed  to  ex- 
tremities against  these  men,  and  that  their 
condemnation  would  be  a  preparative  to 
some  hostile  attempt  against  their  reli- 
gion, the  Protestants  in  Edinburgh  re- 
solved that  Knox,  agreeably  to  a  com- 
mission which  he  had  received  from  the 
Church,  should  write  a  circular  letter 
to  the  principal  gentlemen  of  the  re- 
formed faith,  informing  them  of  the  cir- 
cumstances, and  requesting  their  pre- 
sence on  the  day  of  trial.  It  will  be  re- 
collected, that  a  similar  course  of  proce- 
dure had  been  repeatedly  adopted  by  the 
reformers  in  their  previous  contests  with 
the  queen-regent,  so  that  it  was  com- 

Sletely  accordant  with  the  usage  of  the 
hurch  and  nation.    He  wrote  the  letter 


according  to  their  request ;  but  a  copy  of 
it  falling  into  the  hands  of  Sinclair,  bishop 
of  Ross,  and  president  of  the  Court  of 
Session,  was  by  him  transmitted  to  the 
queen  at  Stirling.  She  communicated  it 
to  her  privy  council,  who,  to  her  great 
satisfaction,  pronounced  it  treasonable. 
This  was  what  the  queen  had  long 
wished ;  and  she  accordingly  gave  or- 
ders that  an  extraordinary  meeting  of 
councillors,  assisted  by  other  noblemen, 
should  be  held  at  Edinburgh,  to  try  the 
cause ;  and  the  reformer  was  summoned 
to  appear  before  this  convention. 

Previous  to  the  day  of  trial,  great  in- 
fluence was  used  in  private  to  persuade 
him  to  acknowledge  that  he  had  commit- 
ted a  fault,  and  to  throw  himself  on  the 
queen's  mercy.  This  neither  the  en- 
treaties of  friends  nor  the  threats  of  ene- 
mies could  prevail  upon  him  to  do.  On 
the  day  of  trial,  the  public  mind  was  ex- 
cited to  an  intense  degree  of  anxiety. 
The  cause  of  the  Reformation  appeared 
to  depend  on  the  issue ;  and  both  parties 
regarded  it  with  the  most  tremulous  and 
eager  interest.  Secretary  Lethington  took 
the  disreputable  office  of  accuser  ;  but 
was  repeatedly  and  unbecomingly  inter- 
rupted by  the  queen  herself,  when  she 
thought  he  was  not  prosecuting  the  mat- 
ter with  sufficient  point  and  force.  Knox 
defended  himself  with  such  skill  and 
ability  as  to  refute  every  accusation 
brought  against  him.  The  main  charge 
was  that  of  illegally  convoking  the 
queen's  lieges,  and  charging  herself  with 
cruelty.  This  charge  he  met  and  an- 
swered, so  as  completely  to  .baffile  both 
the  sophistry  of  Lethington,  and  the  an- 
gry vehemence  of  the  queen.  At  length 
he  was  ordered  to  retire  for  that  night ; 
and  the  judgment  of  the  council  was  ta- 
ken respecting  his  conduct. 

All  of  them,  with  the  exception  of  the 
immediate  dependents  of  the  court,  gave 
it  as  their  opinion  that  he  had  not  been 
guility  of  any  breach  of  the  laws.  The 
secretary,  who  had  assured  the  queen  of 
his  condemnation,  was  enraged  at  this 
decision.  He  brought  her  majesty,  who 
had  previously  retired,  again  into  the 
room,  and  proceeded  to  call  the  votes  a 
second  time.  This  attempt  to  overawe 
them  incensed  the  nobility.  "  What !" 
said  they,  "  shall  the  laird  of  Lethington 
have  power  to  control  us  ?  or  shall  the 


64 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP  III. 


presence  of  a  woman  cause  us  to  offend 
God,  and  to  condemn  an  innocent  man, 
against  our  consciences?"  They  then 
repeated  the  vote  which  they  had  already 
given,  absolving  Knox  from  all  offence, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  praising  his  modest 
appearance,  and  the  judicious  manner  in 
which  he  had  conducted  his  defence.* 

The  effects  of  this  trial  were  various 
and  extensive.  The  Protestant  part  of 
the  community  were  justly  indignant  at 
the  attempt  made  upon  Knox,  and 
alarmed  with  the  proof  thereby  given  of 
the  queen's  determined  hostility.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  queen  could  not  con- 
trol her  indignation  at  the  reformer's 
escape  ;  and  the  effects  of  her  resentment 
fell  upon  those  who  had  voted  for  his  ex- 
culpation, or  failed  to  procure  his  con- 
viction. The  Earl  of  Murray  lost  her 
confidence  ;  and  even  Lethington  sunk 
in  her  favour.  They  attempted  to  in- 
duce Knox  to  soothe  her  by  a  voluntary 
submission  ;  but  to  this  he  would,  not 
consent.  They  next  attempted  to  weaken 
his  influence  among  his  brethren  of  the 
ministry,  representing  to  them  that  Knox 
exercised  a  despotic  and  popish  authority 
in  the  Church,  inconsistent  with  their 
freedom  and  equality. 

These  secret  machinations  were  met 
by  Knox  with  his  usual  open  and  manly 
intrepidity  of  character.  At  the  meeting 
of  the  General  Assembly  in  December 
of  the  same  year,  he  refused  to  take  part 
in  the  public  deliberations  of  the  Church, 
till  an  inquiry  should  be  made  into  his 
conduct  in  writing  the  late  circular  let- 
ter, and  it  should  be  declared  whether  he 
had  gone  beyond  the  commission  with 
which  he  had  been  intrusted.  The  court 
party  endeavoured  to  prevent  the  discus- 
sion of  this  question  ;  but  it  was  taken  up, 
and  the  Assembly  decided,  by  a  great 
majority,  that  he  had  been  charged  with 
such  a  commission,  and  that  in  the  ad- 
vertisement which  he  had  lately  given  he 
had  not  exceeded  his  powers. 

In  the  preceding  Assembly,  held  in 
June,  one  of  the  most  important  princi- 
ples of  our  existing  system  of  church 
government  was  established.  It  was 
"  statute  and  ordained,"  that  any  person 
thinking  himself  aggrieved  by  the  sen- 
tence of  the  kirk-session  should  have 

*  Knox,  pp.  338-343 :  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  pp. 
264-2G9. 


liberty  to  appeal  to  the  Synod,  and,  if  ne- 
cessary, from  the  Synod  to  the  General 
Assembly,  "  from  which  it  shall  not  be 
lawful  to  the  said  party  to  appeal." 
There  were  also  various  other  regula- 
tions framed  for  the  perfecting  of  the  ju- 
dicatorial  powers  and  arrangements  of 
the  Church. 

It  has  been  already  stated,  that  in  the 
December  meeting  of  Assembly,  John 
Knox  was  vindicated  from  the  accusation 
of  having  convoked  the  Protestant  min- 
isters and  elders  on  his  own  authority 
alone.  By  the  same  Assembly  John 
Willock  was  appointed  moderator,  or 
president,  "  to  prevent  confusion  in  rea- 
soning." He  was  the  first  moderator  of 
the  Chu  rch  of  Scotland.  This  Assembly 
also  passed  an  act,  expressing  their  con- 
sent, "  that  for  their  own  parts,  tenants, 
and  occupiers  of  the  ground  should  have 
their  own  teinds  or  tithes  upon  composi- 
tion ;" — a  most  important  arrangement 
for  setting  free  agricultural  industry,  pre- 
venting harsh  and  vexatious  exactions, 
and  removing  one  great  cause  of  strife 
between  the  Church  and  the  people. 
This  act  is  another  clear  proof  of  the 
wise  and  enlightened  views  of  the  Scot- 
tish reformers,  who  were  in  almost  every  • 
respect  very  far  in  advance  of  their  age. 
It  may  be  mentioned  also,  that  non-resi- 
dence was  prohibited,  and  one  minister 
suspended,  by  this  Assembly. 

[1564.]  The  year  1564  was  not  sig- 
nalized by  any  events  of  peculiar  impor- 
tance ;  but  the  hostility  between  the  Pro- 
testant ministers  and  the  courtiers  con- 
tinued unabated.  In  the  month  of  June 
a  conference  was  held  between  the  prin- 
cipal statesmen  and  the  ministers  of  the 
Church,  respecting  the  liberty  demanded 
and  exercised  by  the  latter  of  animadvert- 
ing freely  in  the  pulpit  on  every  topic 
which  concerned  the  purity  of  public 
morals  and  the  welfare  of  religion.  In 
an  elaborate  debate  with  Lethington, 
Knox  defended  the  leading  points  of  his 
conduct  and  doctrine  on  this  subject, 
which  had  given  offence  to  the  court. 
"  This  debate,"  says  Principal  Robert- 
son, "  admirably  displays  the  talents  and 
character  of  both  the  disputants  ;  the 
acuteness  of  the  former,  embellished  with 
learning,  but  prone  to  subtlety  ;  the  vig- 
orous understanding  of  the  latter,  delight- 
ing in  bold  sentiments,  and  superior  to 


A.  D.  15G5.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF    SCOTLAND. 


65 


all  fear."*  The  reader  who  wishes  to 
peruse  a  full  statement  of  this  debate  may 
turn  to  Knox's  History  of  the  Reforma- 
tion in  Scotland,  or  to  the  account  of  it 
given  in  Dr.  M'Crie's  Life  of  the  re- 
former, f 

An  Assembly  was  held  in  June,  in 
which  a  committee  was  appointed  to 
"  reason  and  confer  anent  the  causes  of 
the  whole  Kirk  and  jurisdiction  thereof," 
and  to  report  to  next  Assembly.  Per- 
mission to  go  to  foreign  parts  was  refused 
to  a  minister  applying  for  it,  and  he  was 
"  ordained "  not  to  leave  his  congrega- 
tion. The  sentence  of  suspension  was 
taken  off  from  another,  and  he  was  re- 
stored to  his  ministry.  Another  minis- 
ter was  deposed  for  contumacy.  Thus 
did  the  Church  proceed,  completing  its 
arrangements,  asserting  its  authority,  and 
carrying  its  decrees  into  actual  execution, 
irrespective  of  tne  frowns  or  smiles  of 
parliaments  and  courts. 

The  Assembly  met  again  in  Decem- 
ber the  same  year,  and  directed  seven  ar- 
ticles respecting  the  prohibition  of  the 
mass,  the  provision  of  the  ministry,  the 
reparation  of  kirks,  &c.,  to  be  presented 
to  the  privy  council  and  the  queen,  re- 
quiring an  answer  to  each  of  the  particu- 
lars. The  rest  of  its  time  was  occupied 
with  matters  of  discipline. 

[1565.]  The  year  1565  began  with 
events  at  first  apparently  of  little  moment, 
yet  containing  the  germs  of  what  proved 
to  be  the  cause  of  great  individual  and 
national  calamity.  Towards  the  close 
of  the  preceding  year,  Matthew  Stewart, 
earl  of  Lennox,  after  an  exile  of  twenty 
years,  obtained  permission  to  return  to 
Scotland,  and  was  soon  afterwards  fol- 
lowed by  his  son,  Henry  Stewart,  Lord 
Darnley.  It  will  be  remembered  by 
those  who  are  acquainted  with  Scottish 
history,  that  Lennox,  besides  being  him- 
self of  royal  extraction,  had  received  from 
Henry  VIII.  in  marriage,  his  own  niece, 
the  Lady  Margaret  Douglas,  uterine  sis- 
ter of  James  V.  of  Scotland. 

Darnley  was  thus  the  nearest  heir  to 
both  the  English  and  the  Scottish  crowns, 
failing  any  direct  heirs  from  the  two 
reigning  queens,  Elizabeth  and  Mary. 
There  was,  therefore,  at  least  a  political 
convenience  m  a  union  between  him  and 

*  Robertson's  Hist,  of  Scotland,  vol.  ii.  p.  109. 

t  Knox's  Hist.  pp.  348-366;  M-Crie,  pp.  273-283. 

9 


Mary,  as  likely  to  preclude  any  competi- 
tion for  the  crown  of  either  country. 

It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  Mary 
was  swayed  by  such  considerations,  but 
by  the  sudden  and  strong  passion  which 
she  conceived  for  the  young  nobleman 
himself,  almost  at  the  first  interview  be- 
tween them.  Some  of  the  deeper  poli- 
ticians had,  it  appears,  anticipated  as 
much  ;  and,  in  particular,  Lethington  had 
exerted  himself  to  procure  permission 
from  Elizabeth  for  the  return  of  Lennox 
and  Darnley  to  Scotland ;  aware,  as  he 
himself  declared,  that  he  was  thereby 
likely  to  incur  the  direct  hostility  of  the 
powerful  house  of-  Hamilton,  whose 
hopes  of  succession  to  the  Scottish  throne 
would  be  thwarted.  The  Protestant 
lords,  those  of  them  at  least  whom  court 
influence  had  not  succeeded  in  corrupting, 
were  from  the  first  dissatisfied  with  the 
queen's  regard  to  Darnley,  and  opposed 
to  her  marriage.  Darnley,  had  not,  in- 
deed, exhibited  any  peculiar  regard  for 
any  religion ;  but  so  far  as  he  had  indi- 
cated his  predilections,  he  appeared  to  be 
inclined  to  Popery.  Every  endeavour 
was  made  by  the  queen  to  procure  the 
consent  of  the  nobility  to  her  marriage 
with  Darnley.  She  even  promised  to 
grant  the  royal  sanction  to  the  legal  es- 
tablishment of  the  Protestant  religion, 
which  had  been  hitherto  evaded,  as 
soon  as  a  parliament  could  be  conveni- 
ently assembled.  On  this  condition  she 
procured  the  consent  of  the  greater  part 
of  the  nobles ;  but  the  Earl  of  Murray 
continued  to  refuse,  nor  could  either  the 
entreaties  or  the  threatenings  of  the 
queen  move  him  to  consent  to  a  measure 
which  his  better  judgment  strongly  con- 
demned. 

The  queen,  finding  herself  thus  oppos- 
ed, resolved  upon  the  ruin  of  Murray. 
For  this  purpose  she  recalled  his  per- 
sonal enemy,  the  notorious  Bothwell,  to 
court,  and  restored  the  Huntly  family  to 
their  forfeited  estates  and  titles.  Having 
thus  strengthened  her  party,  Mary  hast- 
ened her  marriage  with  such  precipita- 
tion as  to  anticipate  any  opposition  ;  and 
on  the  19th  of  July  1565,  the  nuptials 
were  solemnized,  and  Darnley  proclaim- 
ed king,  without  the  consent  of  the  es- 
tates of  the  kingdom.  As  Murray  had 
refused  his  consent  to  the  marriage,  Darn- 
ley  was  determined  to  revenge  this  oppo- 


66 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH   OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  Ill 


sition,  and  during  his  brief  period  of  in- 
fluence over  the  queen,  prevailed  on  her 
to  summon  the  earl  to  court.  Aware  of 
his  danger,  Murray  refused  to  come,  and 
was  immediately  proclaimed  an  outlaw. 
He  prepared  to  defend  himself:  and  was 
joined  by  the  Hamiltons,  the  Earls  of 
Argyle,  Glencairn,  and  Rothes,  Lords 
Boyd  and  Ochiltree,  and  several  inferior 
barons.  The  queen  allowed  them  no 
time  to  consolidate  their  strength;  but 
hastily  levying  an  army,  advanced  against 
them,  herself  leading  on  her  troops  with 
masculine  spirit  and  energy,  and  pursu- 
ing them  from  place  to  place  till  they 
took  refuge  in  England. 

While  these  events  were  in  progress, 
the  General  Assembly  met  in  Edinburgh 
on  the  25th  of  June.  This  was  before 
the  queen's  marriage,  and  while  she  was 
busied  in  those  artifices  by  which  she 
hoped  to  accomplish  her  purpose.  De- 
sirous to  secure  support  from  any  quarter 
so  long  as  difficulties  were  apprehended, 
she  had  for  a  time  endeavoured  to  concili- 
ate the  Protestant  ministers,  and  had  ap- 
pointed a  conference  at  Perth,  in  addi- 
tion to  her  promises  to  call  a  parliament 
and  ratify  the  establishment  of  the  re- 
formed Church.  Trusting  a  little  to  these 
favourable  appearances,  the  Assembly 
drew  up  six  articles  for  her  majesty's 
consideration,  desiring  her  to  ratify  and 
approve  them  in  the  parliament  about  to 
be  held.  These  articles  were  of  the  same 
general  tenor  as  those  which  had  been 
repeatedly  presented  before ;  though  they 
were  perhaps  somewhat  more  fully  stated, 
in  expectation,  probably,  of  a  ratification, 
which  would  require  minute  and  specific 
detail  in  legal  form.  The  queen,  who 
had  no  intention  of  calling  a  parliament, 
evaded  an  immediate  answer,  and  con- 
tinued to  encourage  their  expectations  till 
after  her  marriage  to  Darnley.  This 
took  place,  it  will  be  remembered,  on  the 
19th  of  July.  At  length,  on  the  21st  of 
August,  an  answer  was  returned,  suffi- 
ciently unfavourable.  To  put  an  end  to 
all  their  hopes  of  her  own  conversion, 
she  plainly  declared  that  "  her  majesty 
neither  will  nor  may  leave  the  religion 
wherein  she  has  been  nourished  and 
brought  up."  Her  answer  to  the  second 
article  must  be  stated  more  fully,  as  it  has 
frequently  been  strangely  misrepresented 


and  misconstrued   in   subsequent  times, 
and  especially  of  late. 

The  article  itself  was  to  the  following 
effect : — «  That  provision  be  made  for  the 
sustentation  of  the  ministers,  as  well  for 
the  time  present  as  for  the  time  to  come  ; 
that  such  persons  as  are  presented  to  the 
ministry  may  have  their  livings  assigned 
to  them ;  that  vacant  benefices  may  be 
dispensed  to  qualified  and  learned  per- 
sons, able  to  preach  God's  Word;  that 
no  bishopric,  abbacy,  &c.,  having  many 
kirks  annexed  thereto,  may  be  disponed 
to  any  one  man." 

To  this  the  queen  answered  as  follows: 
— "  That  her  majesty  thinks  it  noway 
reasonable  that  she  should  defraud  her- 
self of  so  great  a  part  of  the  patrimony  of 
her  crown,  as  to  put  the  patronages  of 
benefices  forth  of  her  own  hands  ;  for  her 
own  necessities  in  bearing  of  her  great 
and  common  charges  will  require  the  re- 
tention of  a  good  part  in  her  own  hands." 

When  the  Assembly  met  in  December 
the  same  year,  the  queen's  answers  were 
taken  into  consideration,  and  the  replies 
of  the  Assembly  ordered  to  be  again  trans- 
mitted to  her  majesty.  The  reply  to  the 
second  article  was  as  follows : — "  It  is 
not  our  meaning  that  her  majesty,  or  any 
other  patron  within  this  realm,  should  be 
defrauded  of  their  just  patronages.  But 
we  mean,  whensoever  her  majesty,  or 
any  other  patron,  does  present  any  per- 
son to  a  benefice,  that  the  person  present- 
ed should  be  tried  and  examined  by  the 
judgment  of  learned  men  of  the  Kirk, 
such  as  are  presently  the  superintendents 
appointed  thereto:  and  as  the  presenta- 
tion of  benefices  pertains  to  the  patron,  so 
ought  the  collation  thereof,  by  law  and 
reason,  appertain  to  the  Kirk :  of  the 
which  collation  the  Kirk  should  not  be 
defrauded,  more  than  the  patrons  of  their 
presentation ;  for  otherwise  it  shall  be 
lesum  [lawful]  to  the  patrons  absolutely 
to  present  whomsoever  they  please,  with- 
out trial  or  examination :  What  then  shall 
abide  in  the  Kirk  of  God  but  ignorance 
without  all  order?  As  to  the  second  point, 
concerning  the  retention  of  a  good  part  of 
the  benefice  in  her  majesty's  own  hands, 
this  point  abhors  so  far  from  good  con-, 
science,  as  well  of  God's  law  as  from  thej 
public  order  of  our  common  laws.  How- 
soever the  retention  of  patronages  of 


A.  D.  15G6.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


67 


benefices  may  appertain  to  herself,  the 
retention  thereof  in  her  own  hands  un- 
disponed  to  qualified  persons,  is  both  un- 
godly, and  also  contrary  to  all  public  or- 
der, and  brings  no  small  confusion  to  the 
poor  soul?  of  the  common  people,  who  by 
these  means  should  be  instructed  of  their 
salvation."* 

It  must,  we  think,  be  evident  to  every 
unprejudiced  and  intelligent  person,  that 
the  queen's  answer  contained  a  sophism 
of  that  kind  which  consists  in  evasively 
substituting  one  thing  for  another,  con- 
founding the  distinction  between  them, 
and  reasoning  from  the  substituted  topic, 
as  if  it  were  the  real  one.  The  article 
of  the  petition  requested  that  provision  be 
made  for  the  sustentation  of  the  ministers. 
The  queen  makes  the  topic  of  patronage 
the  chief  point  of  her  answer,  yet  so  as 
to  exhibit  her  intention  to  avail  herself  of 
the  patronage  for  the  purpose  of  retaining 
the  benefice.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
there  were  only  about  two  hundred  strictly 
lay  patronages  at  the  time  of  the  Reform- 
ation. With  these,  viewing  them  as  de- 
pendent upon  and  guarded  by  civil  enact- 
ments, the  Church  did  not  take  it  upon 
herself,  of  her  own  authority,  to  interfere, 
however  much  disposed  to  condemn  them, 
as  contrary  to  the  principles  and  rules  of 
Scripture.  This  was  well  known  to  the 
person  by  whom  the  queen's  answer  was 
framed,  probably  Lethington  ;  and  for 
this  reason  they  were  put  prominently 
forward  in  the  answer.  But  in  the  reply 
of  the  Church  the  two  topics  are  sepa- 
rated,— the  lay  patronages  left  as  they 
were,  and  the  unprincipled  and  injurious 
retention  of  the  fruits  of  the  benefice 
pointed  out  and  condemned.  The  iniqui- 
tous nature  of  the  claim  might  be  placed 
in  a  still  stronger  light,  when  it  is  remem- 
bered, that  two-thirds  of  the  patrimony 
of  the  Church  had  already  been  either 
allowed  to  the  rejected  clergy,  or  seized 
upon  by  the  rapacious  nobility  ;  and  now 
the  queen,  under  pretence  of  her  right  to 
certain  patronages,  unblushingly  pro- 
posed to  retain  the  fruits  of  the  benefices 
in  her  own  hands.  Those  who  think  to 
defend  patronage  by  referring  to  such  a 
transaction,  must  be  either  unacquainted 
with  its  true  nature  themselves,  or  must 
calculate  largely  on  the  ignorance  of  the 
public. 

*  Booke  of  the  Universall  Kirk,  pp,  34-37. 


In  the  same  Assembly  the  following 
question  was  proposed :  "  What  order 
ought  to  be  used  against  such  as  oppress 
children !"  The  Assembly's  answer 
was, — "As  concerning  punishment,  the 
civil  magistrate  ought  therein  to  discern. 
As  touching  the  slander,  the  offenders 
ought  to  be  secluded  from  participation 
in  the  sacraments  till  they  have  satisfied 
the  Kirk,  as  they  shall  be  commanded." 
In  this  clear  answer  the  respective  provin- 
ces of  the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical  judi- 
catories  are  distinctly  specified.  *-" 

[1566.]  The  year  1566  was  pregnant 
with  events  of  a  dark  and  disastrous  char- 
acter. A  decree  had  been  passed  by  the 
Council  of  Trent  for  the  extirpation  of  the 
Protestant  name  ;  and  the  popish  princes 
had  combined  for  carrying  it  into  execu- 
tion. In  the  beginning  of  February, 
a  messenger  arrived  from  the  cardinal  of 
Lorraine,  Mary's  uncle,  with  a  copy  of 
that  infamous  combination  known  in  his- 
tory as  the  League  of  Bayonne,  and 
Mary  did  not  hesitate  to  set  her  name  to 
the  bloody  bond.  She  seems  to  have 
considered  herself  now  possessed  of  suffi- 
cient power  to  proceed  to  those  extremi- 
ties which,  there  is  too  much  reason  to 
believe,  she  had  always  contemplated. 
Darnley  had  professed  himself  a  convert 
to  Popery,  and  several  of  the  noblemen 
had  followed  his  example.  Murray  and 
the  chief  of  the  Protestant  lords  were  in 
exile  ;  and  to  render  their  return  impos- 
sible, Mary  summoned  them  to  appear 
before  a  parliament  which  was  appointed 
to  meet  on  the  12th  of  March.  The 
Lords  of  the  Articles  were  chosen  ac- 
cording to  the  queen's  pleasure ;  the 
popish  ecclesiastics  were  restored  to  their 
place  in  parliament ;  and  the  altars  to  be 
erected  in  St.  Giles's  Church,  for  the  cel- 
ebration of  the  Romish  worship,  were 
already  prepared. 

But  the  hand  of  Providence  arrested 
these  guilty  machinations.  Many  of  the 
Protestant  lords,  who  had  hitherto  sup- 
ported the  queen's  measures  against  their 
former  confederates,  began  to  take  alarm, 
some  from  disappointed  ambition,  and 
some  from  better  feelings  and  worthier 
motives.  The  League  of  Bayonne,  and 
the  queen's  accession  to  it,  was  not  un- 
known to  them  :  and  they  could  not  hope 
long  to  escape  the  fate  to  which  all  adhe- 
rents of  the  Protestant  religion  were 


68 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  Ill 


thereby  destined,  if  they  did  not  anticipate 
the  danger.  They  knew  also,  that  Riz- 
zio,  the  queen's  private  secretary,  an  Ital- 
ian by  birth,  was  in  the  confidence  of  the 
Continental  princes,  and  the  secret  man- 
ager of  their  dark  intrigues.  This  per- 
son had  been  for  some  time  treated  with 
an  undue  degree  of  confidential  regard 
by  the  queen,  and  the  jealousy  of  the 
king  had  been  excited  against  him.  The 
nobility  formed  a  secret  combination  to 
seize  upon  Rizzio,  and  put  him  to  an 
open  and  ignominious  death  ;  and  avail- 
ing themselves  of  Darnley's  jealousy, 
they  obtained  the  accession  of  both  him 
and  his  father  to  the  plot.  It  is  unneces- 
sary to  state  the  details,  which  are  famil- 
iar to  all.  Rizzio  was  assassinated  ;  the 
popish  councillors  fled  from  the  palace  ; 
the  exiled  lords  returned  out  of  England  ; 
and  the  queen's  prospects  of  accomplish- 
ing her  designs  being  entirely  frustrated, 
the  parliament  was  prorogued,  without 
accomplishing  any  of  the  objects  for 
which  it  had  been  assembled.  It  may  be 
mentioned,  in  passing,  that  Mr.  Tytler 
takes  the  credit,  as  he  probably  regards 
it,  of  having  discovered  that  John  Knox 
was  one  of  those  who  were  engaged  in 
the  conspiracy  for  the  assassination  of 
Rizzio.*  Certainly  so  grave  a  charge, 
-and  so  improbable,  was  never  brought 
forward  and  maintained  on  evidence  so 
slender,  nay,  so  absolutely  incredible. 
Its  utter  groundlessness  has  been  demon- 
strated by  the  Rev.  Thomas  M'Crie,  son 
of  the  historian  of  Knox ;  and  the  calum- 
nious accusation  deserves  no  farther  no- 
tice, f 

The  wrath  of  the  queen  against  the 
murderers  of  Rizzio  was  so  extreme,  that 
it  burned  out,  for  a  time,  all  other  wrath. 
The  exiled  lords,  Murray,  Glencairn, 
Ochiltree,  and  others,  were  forgiven,  or 
passed  over,  though  not  restored  to  fa- 
vour as  before.  But  although  the  Queen 
managed  to  detach  her  weak  husband 
from  the  confederacy,  and  thus  broke  it 
asunder,  she  never  forgave  him,  nor 
showed  him  the  least  regard.  She  had 
dried  her  tears  that  she  might  "  study  re 
venge,"  as  she  herself  declared  ;  and  in 
the  daring  and  unprincipled  Earl  of 
Bothwell  she  found  a  fitting  instrument 


•  Tytler's  Hist,  of  Scotland,  vol.  vii.  p.  25  and  427. 
t  See  Mr.  M'Crie's  Historical  Sketches,  Appendix 
and  note  in  Appendix. 


Her  condition  retarded  for  a  time  the 
Drosecution  of  her  designs  ;  and  on  the 
19th  of  June  she  gave  birth  to  a  prince, 
fterwards  James  VI.  of  Scotland  and  I. 
of  England. 

Little  of  importance  was  transacted  in 
he  Assembly  which  met  in  June,  with 
he  exception  of  an  act  appointing  a  na- 
ional  fast,  which  was  the  first  instance  of 
he  kind  since  the  Reformation.  The  act 
was  as  follows  : — "  The  haill  Assembly, 
n  respect  of  the  perils  and  dangers  where- 
with the  Kirk  of  God  is  assaulted,  and 
hat  by  mighty  enemies,  considered  a 
general  fast  to  be  published  throughout 
this  realm  in  all  kirks  reformed." 

In  the  December  meeting  of  Assembly, 
permission  was  granted  to  John  Knox  to 
visit  England ;  and  a  letter  was  addressed 
by  the  Assembly  to  the  English  Church, 
for  the  purpose  of  endeavouring  to  allay 
the  contentions  then  raging  respecting 
the  forms,  ceremonies,  and  dresses,  which 
the  high  prelatic  party  wished  to  impose 
upon  their  more  simple-minded  brethren. 
In  this  apparently  trivial  cause  of  conten- 
tion, it  may  be  remarked,  lay  the  germs 
of  the  division  of  the  Church  of  England 
into  two  great  parties,  the  High  Church- 
men and  the  Puritans,  and,  more  re- 
motely, of  the  great  civil  war  of  next 
century.  This  Assembly  also  "  Ordained 
a  humble  supplication  to  be  made  to  the 
Lords  of  the  Secret  Council,  anent  the 
commission  of  jurisdiction  supposed 
granted  to  the  bishop  of  St.  Andrews,  to  I 
the  effect  that  their  Honours  stay  the 
same,  in  respect  that  these  causes,  for  the 
most  part  judged  by  his  usurped  author- 
ity, pertain  to  the  true  Kirk."  Thus  did 
the  General  Assembly  not  only  define 
and  assert,  but  vigilantly  defend  its  pro- 
per jurisdiction. 

[1567.]  The  public  affairs  of  the  year 
1567  seemed  the  bursting  of  the  black 
thunder-cloud  which  had  hung  its  bale- 
ful gloom  over  the  greater  part  of  the 
preceding  year.  The  weak,  rash,  and  . 
vindictive  Darnley  had  become  an  object 
of  utter  abhorrence  to  the  ill-fated, 
haughty,  and  revengeful  queen.  Her 
own  too  manifest  predilection  for  Both- 
well  encouraged  that  licentious  and  aspir- 
ing man  to  proceed  to  the  perpetration  of 
a  crime  of  the  blackest  dye,  by  which  he  , 
trusted  to  reach  the  summit  of  his  ambi- 
tion. Darnley,  despised,  dispirited,  and 


A.  D.  1567  ] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


69 


suffering  under  disease,  was  decoyed  to 
Edinburgh,  lodged  in  a  solitary  dwelling 
at  the  Kirk  of  Field,  and  murdered  on  the 
morning  of  the  10th  of  February,  the 
house  in  which  he  lay  being  blown  up 
with  gunpowder.  Bothwell  was  accused 
of  the  crime  ;  but  his  own  ill-got  power, 
and  the  favour  of  the  queen,  screened  the 
murderer  from  justice. 

The  marriage  of  Mary  to  the  infamous 
Bothwell  completed  at  once  her  crimes 
and  her  ruin.  After  an  abortive  attempt 
by  Bothwell  to  obtain  possession  of  the 
infant  prince,  the  nobility  formed  a  con- 
federacy to  avenge  the  king's  death,  and 
protect  their  infant  sovereign.  The  per- 
petration of  some  deed  of  great  enormity 
seems  frequently  to  paralyze  the  criminal. 
Mary's  energy  of  character  appeared  to 
have  forsaken  her  immediately  after  the 
murder  of  Darnley.  No  longer  could 
she,  by  either  force  or  guile,  conquer  or 
circumvent  her  antagonists.  Her  troops 
would  not  fight  for  her  and  her  blood- 
stained paramour ;  Bothwell  fled,  and 
Mary  was  committed  to  Lochleven  Cas- 
tle. Her  subsequent  escape  from  Loch- 
leven,— the  rallying  of  the  Hamiltons 
and  their  adherents  round  her  standard, 
— her  defeat,  flight  to  England,  pro- 
tracted imprisonment,  and  melancholy 
death, — are  all  well  known  to  the  read- 
ers of  Scottish  history,  and  need  not  far- 
ther occupy  our  pages. 

During  these  troubled  and  guilty  times 
the  Assembly  met  in  June,  as  usual,  and 
soon  after  adjourned  to  July.  At  the 
latter  meeting,  the  confederate  lords  spe- 
cified a  number  of  articles  highly  favour- 
able to  the  Church,  which  they  expressed 
their  intention  to  have  granted  at  the  next 
lawful  parliament  that  should  be  held. 

Before  the  next  meeting  of  Assembly, 
in  December,  the  regency  had  been  con- 
ferred on  the  Earl  of  Murray,  who  had 
returned  from  France,  and  was  thus 
raised  to  the  head  of  the  government. 
On  the  15th  of  December  parliament  met. 
John  Knox  preached  at  the  opening  of 
parliament,  and  exhorted  them  to  begin 
with  the  affairs  of  religion,  in  which  case 
they  would  find  better  success  in  their 
other  business.  The  parliament  ratified 
all  the  acts  which  had  been  passed  in 
1560,  in  favour  of  the  Protestant  religion 
and  against  Popery.  Several  new  stat- 
utes of  a  similar  kind  were  added.  It 


was  provided,  that  no  prince  should  after* 
wards  be  admitted  to  the  exercise  of  au- 
thority in  the  kingdom,  without  taking  an 
oath  to  maintain  the  Protestant  religion  ; 
and  that  none  but  Protestants  should  be 
admitted  to  any  office,  with  the  exception 
of  those  that  were  hereditary,  or  held  for 
life.  It  was  ordained,  that  the  examina- 
tion and  admission  of  ministers  be  only 
in  the  power  of  the  Church,  reserving 
the  presentation  of  lay  patronages  to  the 
ancient  patrons.  The  ecclesiastical  juris- 
diction exercised  by  the  Assemblies  of 
the  Church  was  formally  ratified,  and 
commissioners  appointed  to  define  more 
exactly  the  causes  which  came  within 
the  sphere  of  their  judgment.  The  thirds 
of  benefices  were  appointed  to  be  paid  at 
first-hand  to  collectors  nominated  by  the 
Church,  who,  after  paying  the  stipends 
of  the  ministers,  were  to  account  to  the 
Exchequer  for  the  surplus.  And  the 
funds  of  provostries,  prebendaries,  and 
chaplainries,  were  appropriated  to  main- 
tain bursars  in  colleges.* 

No  difference  of  tone  or  manner  ap- 
pears in  the  proceedings  of  the  General 
Assembly,  which  met  on  December  the 
25th,  a  few  days  subsequent  to  the  meet- 
ing of  that  parliament  by  which  its  exist- 
ence and  jurisdiction  were  legally  recog- 
nised and  ratified.  It  went  calmly  and 
steadily  forward  in  the  prosecution  of 
those  sacred  duties  which  owed  neither 
their  existence,  their  validity,  nor  their 
continuation,  to  any  earthly  power. 
Commissioners  were  appointed  to  co- 
operate with  "  six  persons  of  parliament, 
or  secret  council,"  nominated  by  the  re- 
gent, "  for  such  affairs  as  pertain  to  the 
Kirk,  and  jurisdiction  thereof."  "  Adam, 
called  bishop  of  Orkney,"  was  deprived 
of  all  "  function  of  the  ministry,"  for 
marrying  the  queen  to  Bothwell.  John 
Craig  was  commanded  to  give  in  a  writ- 
ten statement  of  his  conduct  in  proclaim- 
ing the  banns  of  marriage  between  the 
queen  and  Bothwell ;  from  which  state- 
ment it  appeared  that  he  had  acted  in  a 
manner  to  deserve  not  only  acquittal,  but 
approbation.  The  Countess  of  Argyle 
submitted  to  the  discipline  and  censure 
of  the  Church,  "  for  having  given  her 
assistance  and  presence  to  the  baptizing 
of  the  king  in  a  papistical  manner." 

The  reformed  Church  was  now  le- 

*  Act  Parl.  Scot.  III.,  pp.  14-25.     See  also  Appendix. 


ro 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  Ill, 


gaily  recognised  as  the  only  National 
Church, — not,  it  will  be  observed,  created 
by  statute ;  not  deriving  its  existence 
from  acts  of  parliament,  as  has  been 
strangely  and  perversely,  if  not  igno- 
rantly  asserted ;  but  distinctly  and  spe- 
cifically recognised  as  pre-existent,  and 
the  powers  and  jurisdiction  which  it  had 
already  been  exercising,  in  virtue  of  the 
sacred  character  and  authority  derived 
from  its  Divine  Head  and  King,  merely 
ratified  and  confirmed,  so  as  to  place  it 
in  a  state  of  safety  from  the  open  assaults 
and  persecutions  of  any  human  power. 
It  has  been  thought  necessary  to  be  some- 
what minute  in  tracing  the  rise  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  and  the  manner  in 
which  it  exercised  its  ecclesiastical  powers 
previous  to  its  recognition  by  parliament, 
for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  those 
powers  are  wholly  and  purely  self-origi- 
nated, and  not  one  of  them  created  and 
conferred  by  statute  law.  While  still 
struggling  against  direct  persecution,  or 
the  secret  stratagems  of  insidious  foes, 
the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland  rose  into  personal  and  active 
being, — put  forth  supreme  legislative 
powers  in  regard  to  the  constitution  and 
government  of  the  Church,— sanctioned 
the  office  of  elder  on  the  authority  of  the 
sacred  Scriptures, — gave  existence  and 
powers  to  kirk-sessions, — appointed  the 
important  though  temporary  office  of  su- 
perintendents and  visitors, — erected  pro- 
vincial synods, — and  inflicted  on  offend- 
ers of  all  ranks,  according  to  their  offence 
and  its  distinctive  judgments,  the  discipli- 
nary and  executive  sentences  of  suspen- 
sion, deposition,  and  excommunication. 
And  is  it  now  to  be  asserted  that  the 
Church  of  Scotland  is  the  "  creature  of 
the  state !" — the  creature  of  a  hostile 
power,  which  would  have  crushed  it  in 
its  infancy,  had  that  been  possible ! — or 
that  the  Church  of  Scotland  lost  her  in- 
herent powers  by  means  of  the  very  en- 
actments which  gratefully  recognised  and 
sanctioned  them !  Such  assertions  mere 
lawyers  may  utter  and  pretend  to  believe ; 
but  the  common  sense  and  right  feelings 
of  mankind  in  general  will  ever  reject 
them  with  indignant  scorn ;  and  the  true 
Christian  will  do  as  did  his  venerated 
ancestors, — reject  and  resist  them  with 
Uncompromising  firmness  and  unyield- 


ing fortitude,  while  he  pities  and  prays 
for  his  blind  and  self-willed  antagonists. 
The  limits  to  which  we  purpose  re- 
stricting ourselves  in  this  work  will  nol 
permit  us  to  enter  into  details  of  a  verj 
minute  character ;  but  one  or  two  state- 
ments may  be  made,  calculated  to  interest 
the  reader.  It  has  been  stated  that  the 
first  General  Assembly,  in  1560,  con- 
tained but  forty  members,  only  six  of 
whom  were  ministers  ;  and  that  there 
were  no  more  than  twelve  Protestant 
ministers  at  that  time  in  Scotland.  When 
the  Assembly  met  on  the  20th  of  Decem- 
ber 1567,  exactly  seven  years  afterwards, 
the  Church  of  Scotland  could  number 
two  hundred  and  fifty-two  ministers,  four 
hundred  and  sixty-seven  readers,  and  one 
hundred  and  fifty-four  exhorters.  How 
mighty  the  increase  in  so  short  a  period  I 
And  yet  these  seven  years  had  beer 
spent  in  an  incessant  struggle  against  t 
hostile  government,  bent  on  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Church  by  every  artifice  that 
craft  and  malice  could  suggest.  And 
while  the  Church  was  thus  waxing 
stronger  and  stronger  in  spite  of  all  op- 
position, its  internal  progress  in  improve- 
ment of  doctrine  and  discipline  was  not 
less  rapid,  steady,  and  decided,  than  its 
manifest  external  increase.  Offenders 
of  every  kind  and  degree  were  compell- 
ed to  yield  obedience  to  its  sacred  author 
ity :  noblemen  and  ladies  of  the  highest 
rank  submitted  to  its  disciplinary  cen- 
sures ;  lordly  prelates  were  constrained 
to  bow  their  unmitred  heads  before  its 
rebuke ;  over  the  refractory  members  of 
its  own  body, — over  one  even  of  its  early 
champions,  Paul  Methven, — its  power 
was  extended  in  the  impartial  administra- 
tion of  even-handed  spiritual  justice ;  and 
even  the  stormy  tumults  of  a  fierce  and 
turbulent  populace  were  often  quelled 
and  hushed  into  peace  and  silence  at  the 
utterance  of  its  calm  and  grave  command. 
Whence  comes  that  invincible  and  all- 
controlling  energy?  How  were  these 
wondrous  deeds  achieved  ?  May  we 
not  answer  in  the  solemn  words  of  the 
inspired  prophet, — "  Not  by  might,  nor 
by  power,  but  by  my  Spirit,  saith  the 
Lord  of  Hosts."  That  there  must  have 
been  a  marvellous  amount  of  the  divine 
influence  accompanying  all  the  exertions 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  when  the 


A.  D.  1569.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


71 


walls  of  her  temple  were  thus  built  ir 
troublous  times,  we  cannot,  and  we  d 
not  doubt :  for  nothing  else  could  have 
given  to  means  so  inadequate  a  triumph 
so  complete.  And  let  it  be  well  markec 
and  understood,  that  there  is  perhaps  n< 
clearer  proof  of  the  presence  of  the  Spiri 
of  God  in  the  movements  of  a  Church 
than  when  that  Churcn  pursues  unswerv 
ingly  the  course  marked  out  by  the  prin 
ciples  of  the  Word  of  God,  refusing  to  be 
turned  aside  by  all  the  motives  which 
human  prudence,  apparent  expediency 
and  worldly  policy  can  suggest  j  and  no 
surer  evidence  that  she  has  begun  to  for 
sake  God,  and  to  be  by  Him  forsaken 
than  when  she  begins  to  mould  her 
measures  into  conformity  with  the  crook 
ed  and  selfish  schemes  so  natural  to  the 
guileful  heart  and  darkened  mind  of 
fallen  and  sinful  man. 

[1568.]  Although  the  mind  of  the  com- 
munity was  intensely  occupied  with  the 
contentions  which  arose  between  the  par- 
tizans  of  Mary  and  the  adherents  of  the 
regent,  the  affairs  of  religion  were  not 
neglected.     The  Assembly  held  its  usual 
meetings,  and  continued  to   watch  over 
the   religious   welfare   of   the  kingdom 
with  undiminished  vigilance.     Proceed- 
ing with  the  completion  of  their  ecclesi- 
astical arrangements,  they  passed  an  act 
in  July,  regulating  the  constitution  of 
Assemblies,   and   prescribing    who    the 
members  were  to  be,  and  how  they  were 
to  be  elected.     An  act  was  passed  also 
for  the  suppression  of  a  book  entitled  the 
Fall  of  the  Roman  Kirk,  in  which  the 
king  was  named  as  the  "  Supreme  Head 
of  the  primitive  Kirk."     By  this  it  was 
emphatically  proved  that  the  Church  of 
Scotland  would  own  no  earthly  Head. 
The  Assembly  renewed  its  applications 
to  the  civil  powers  for  a  better  distribu- 
tion of  the  patrimony  of  the  Church,  and 
a  more  adequate  support  to  the  minister  : 
but  although  Murray  was  personally  dis- 
posed to  grant  the  request,  his  political 
power  was  not  sufficiently  confirmed  to 
enable  him  to  act  according  to  his  own 
inclination.    He  returned  answers  couch- 
ed in  the  most  favourable  terms ;  but  there 
were  too  many  of  his  own  supporters 
among  those  who  had  seized  upon  the 
property  of  the  Church,  for  him  to  ven- 
ture to  dispossess  the  spoliators  of  their 
ill-got  gains.     The  utmost  that  he  could 


accomplish  was,  to  cause  a  more  regular 
and  faithful  payment  of  the  third  part  of 
the  ancient  Church  revenues,  and  to  pre- 
vent any  new  encroachments  from  being 
made  upon  them. 

[1569.]     It  is  neither  our  province  nor 
our  inclination  to  trace  civil  affairs,  or  to 
intermingle  more  of  them  in  this  work 
than   may  be   necessary  for   the   right 
understanding    of    the    affairs    of    the 
Church.     The  civil  matters  of  chief  im- 
portance which  occurred  during  this  pe- 
tiod  were  those  which  arose  out  of  the 
struggle  between  Murray  and  the  parti- 
zans  of  Mary,  headed  by  the  Hamilton 
family.     Lethington  joined  the  queen's 
party,  and  became  the  very  soul  of  all 
their  measures.     Not  only  did  he  plan 
and  conduct  the  intrigues  with  the  Duke 
of  Norfolk,   but   he   even   contrived  to 
seduce  Kirkaldy  of  Grange  from  his  long 
friendship  with  Murray.     The  firm,  pru- 
dent, and  vigorous  conduct  of  the  regent 
enabled  him  for  a  time  to  make  head 
against   all   open   adversaries ;    and   he 
steadily  refused  to  protect  himself  from 
the  danger  of  assassination,  by  cutting  off 
such  persons  as  were  strongly  suspected 
of  plotting  against  his  life.     The  noble 
magnanimity  of  his  nature  would  not  per- 
mit him  to  resort  to  such  a  method  for 
preserving  a  life  more  valuable  to  his 
ountry  than  it  seemed  to  be  to  himself. 
In  vain  was  he'repeatedly  warned  to  be 
on   his    guard.      It   seemed  to  be    his 
naxim,  that  it  was  better  to  die  than  to 
ive  haunted  by  suspicious  fears.     And 
lot  with  standing  the  almost  incessant  con- 
licts  with  the  opposite  faction  in  which 
was  engaged,  he   reformed   abuses, 
maintained  public  order,  and  administer- 
ed justice  with  steady  and  impartial  hand, 
:o  as  to  earn  from  his  grateful  country 
he  honourable  appellation  of  THE  GOOD 
REGENT. 

No  transactions  of  any  peculiar  im- 
>ortance  took  place  in  the  Assembly  in 
his  year.  It  may,  however,  be  stated, 
hat  the  Assembly  renewed,  in  urgent 
erms,  the  expression  of  their  earnest  de- 
ire,  "that  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Kirk 
nay  be  separated  from  that  which  is 
ivil."  To  this  the  Church  was  impelled 
y  the  conviction,  that  the  drawing  of 
clear  and  definite  line  of  distinction  be- 
ween  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  and 
civil  magistrate  was  essentially  neces- 


72 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  III. 


sary  for  securing  the  purity  of  the 
Church  and  the  peace  of  the  community  ; 
and  while  the  ecclesiastical  courts  were 
anxious  to  prevent  encroachments  upon 
their  own  sacred  province,  they  were 
equally  desirous  to  avoid  the  accusation, 
or  even  the  suspicion,  of  being  disposed 
to  interfere  with  matters  purely  secular. 
The  often-repeated  and  earnest  request  of 
the  Church  to  have  the  boundaries  be- 
tween the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical 
jurisdictions  distinctly  marked  out,  ought 
to  vindicate  her  from  the  charge  of  graspv 
ing  at  powers  not  naturally  within  her 
sphere. 

[1570.]  The  year  1570  was  ushered  in 
by  an  event  pregnant  with  disaster  to  the 
kingdom  and  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
The  Regent  Murray  had  hitherto  baffled 
every  attempt  to  overthrow  his  power  by 
direct  hostility  ;  and,  as  invariably  hap- 
pens, the  failure  of  every  successive  at- 
tempt to  shake  his  influence  served  but  to 
give  it  additional  firmness  and  solidity. 
Despairing  of  success  by  open  force,  his 
enemies  became  the  more  resolved  to 
employ  the  hand  of  the  private  assassin. 
A  fitting  instrument  was  soon  found  for 
the  perpetration  of  the  bloody  crime. 
Hamilton  of  Bothwellhaugh,  a  nephew 
of  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  whose 
life  Murray  had  spared  after  the  battle  of 
Langside,  undertook  the  murder  of  the 
man  who  had  restored  him  to  life  and 
liberty.  With  cool,  deliberate  determi- 
nation, he  followed  the  regent  from  place 
to  place,  till  he  found  an  opportunity  as 
Murray  was  passing  slowly  through  a 
narrow  and  crowded  street  in  Linlith- 
gow ;  and,  taking  his  stand  at  the 
window  of  a  room  carefully  prepared  for 
concealment,  shot  his  victim  through  the 
body  with  a  musket-ball,  on  the  23d  day 
of  January  1570.  The  murderer  fled  to 
Hamilton,  where  he  was  received  with 
great  applause  by  the  base  instigator  of 
his  crime.*  The  wound  proved  mortal 
in  the  course  of  a  few  hours ;  but  it  de- 
serves to  be  recorded,  that  while  the 
friends  of  the  dying  regent,  standing 
around  his  bed,  were  lamenting  that 
he  had  spared  the  life  of  his  murderer, 
he  replied,  that  nothing  should  ever 
make  him  regret  having  done  a  deed  of 
mercy. 

*  Spotswood,  p.  233 ;  Calderwood  MSS. ;  Banna- 
tyne's  Journal,  p.  4 ;  Buchanan. 


So  died  the  Good  Regent  Murray,  a 
man  of  great  natural  ability,  thoroughly 
tried  in  many  an  adverse  scene,  of  un- 
impeachable integrity,  a  skilful  warrior, 
a  wise  statesman,  an  upright  judge,  and 
an  impartial  ruler.  The  chief  aspect  of 
his  private  character  was  that  frank  and 
open  manliness  which  suspects  no  evil 
because  it  entertains  none  ;  and  a  deep 
and  earnest  personal  piety  imparted  a 
sacred  grace  to  all  the  virtues  which 
adorned  him  as  a  man  and  a  Christian. 
During  the  short  period  of  his  regency 
he  gave  to  the  world  one  of  the  brightest 
examples  ever  yet  recorded  in  its  annals, 
of  that  rare  and  truly  glorious  character, 
a  CHRISTIAN  STATESMAN.* 

The  death  of  the  Regent  Murray  was 
not  only  lamented  by  the  Church  to 
which  he  had  been  a  protector,  if  not  a 
benefactor,  but  was  soon  regretted  by  all 
parties  as  a  national  calamity.  Several 
months  elapsed  before  a  successor  in  the 
regency  could  be  appointed,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  nearly-balanced  power  of 
the  contending  parties.  At  length  the 
choice  fell  upon  the  Earl  of  Lennox,  not 
so  much  on  account  of  his  personal  fitness 
for  the  arduous  duties  of  that  high 
station,  as  because  of  his  relationship  to 
the  young  king,  whose  grandfather  he 
was.  It  soon  appeared  that  Lennox  was 
deficient  in  the  abilities  necessary  for 
swaying  the  government  of  a  nation  so 
rent  by  faction  as  Scotland  at  that  time 
was  ;  one  party  supporting  the  young 
king  and  the  regency,  the  other  contend- 
ing for  the  restoration  of  the  queen. 
The  whole  kingdom  was  devastated  by 
fierce  and  relentless  civil  wars  ;  the  two 
contending  parties  being  so  equally 
matched,  that  neither  could  acquire  a 
decided  superiority  over  its  antagonist. 
The  Church  lent  its  influence  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  king's  party  and  the  regency, 
but  was  unable  to  mitigate  to  any  extent 
the  fury  of  the  civil  broils  by  which  the 
kingdom  was  distracted. 

Little  of  importance  was  transacted  in 
the  meetings  of  Assembly  in  this  yearr 
the  distressed  state  of  the  country  en- 
grossing the  attention  of  all  classes.  It 
may,  however,  be  noticed,  that  the  hos- 
tility of  the  queen's  faction  was  so  great 


*  For  a  strikingly  accurate  and  able  view  of  the 
character  of  Murray,  see  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  iff. 
307-309. 


A.  D.  1571.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


73 


against  Knox,  that  his  own  congrega- 
tion prevailed  on  him  to  leave  Edin- 
burgh, the  castle  being  in  the  possession 
of  his  enemies,  and  to  retire  to  St.  An- 
drews. While  residing  in  the  latter 
town,  he  was  engaged  in  some  contro- 
versy with  Robert  and  Archibald  Ham- 
ilton, partly  in  vindicating  his  own  char- 
acter from  calumnious  aspersions,  partly 
in  defending  the  liberty  of  the  pulpit  from 
the  attempt  of  one  of  the  professors  to 
subject  it  to  the  judgment  of  the  uni- 
versity. 

[1571.]  In  the  Assembly  which  met 
in  March  1571,  there  were  six  articles 
stated  respecting  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Church,  to  be  proposed  to  the  regent  and 
the  privy  council,  for  their  approbation. 
The  chief  of  these  were, — that  the  Church 
nave  the  judgment  of  true  and  false  doc- 
trine,— of  election,  examination,  and  ad- 
mission to  the  ministry, — and  of  all  mat- 
ters concerning  the  discipline  of  the 
Church, — with  the  power  to  enforce  its 
own  decisions  by  admonition,  deposition, 
and  excommunication.  It  ought  to  be 
observed,  that  the  Church  did  not  ask  the 
civil  power  to  grant  her  jurisdiction  in 
these  matters,  for  she  had  exercised  it  in 
them  all  previous  to  her  recognition  in 
1567  ;  but  merely  that  she  should  meet 
no  obstruction  in  the  exercise  of  her  own 
inherent  and  essential  powers. 

But  a  storm  was  at  hand,  by  which  the 
Church  of  Scotland  was  to  be  severely 
tried.  Reference  has  been  repeatedly 
made  to  the  avaricious  conduct  of  the  no- 
bility, in  seizing  upon  the  revenues  of 
the  Church,  and  keeping  the  ministers  in 
poverty.  It  will  be  remembered  also, 
that  the  popish  prelates  had  been  allowed 
to  retain  two-thirds  of  the  revenues  of  the 
larger  benefices  during  their  lifetime, 
although  they  were  no  longer  recognised 
as  any  part  of  the  National  Church. 
Several  of  these  larger  benefices  had  be- 
gun to  become  vacant  by  the  death  or  the 
forfeiture  of  the  incumbents,  and  it  was 
necessary  to  determine  in  what  manner 
they  were  to  be  disposed  of.  Had  the 
uniform  request  of  the  Church  been  at- 
tended to,  this  would  not  have  been  a 
matter  of  any  difficulty  :  she  had  always 
required  that  they  should  be  divided,  and 
applied  to  the  support  of  the  religious  and 
literary  establishments.  Willingly  would 
the  nobility  have  seized  these  large  bene- 
10 


fices  as  they  became  vacant,  and  appro- 
priated them  to  themselves  without  scru- 
ple, could  they  have  done  so  without  a 
violation  of  all  law  and  reason  too  gla- 
ring for  even  these  unscrupulous  men. 
To  have  secularized  them  at  once  was  a 
measure  for  which  they  were  not  pre- 
pared ;  and.  indeed,  they  must  have  been 
well  aware,  that  to  do  so  would  only  be 
to  throw  another  element  of  strife  into  the 
seething  whirlpool  of  contention  with 
which  the  country  was  agitated.  The 
Earl  of  Morton  found  means  to  solve  this 
difficulty.  Upon  the  death  of  Hamilton, 
archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  Morton  ob- 
tained a  grant  empowering  him  to  dis- 
pose of  the  archbishopric  and  its  reve- 
nues. As  it  was  unseemly  for  him  to 
hold  a  benefice  which  the  law  declared 
to  be  ecclesiastical,  while  his  avarice 
stimulated  him  not  to  let  the  golden  prize 
elude  his  grasp,  he  devised  the  scheme 
of  appointing  to  the  archbishopric  a  min- 
ister with  whom  he  had  entered  into  a 
previous  arrangement,  that  while  his 
nominee  held  the  title,  he  should  enjoy 
the  principal  part  of  the  revenues.  In 
pursuance  of  this  scheme,  Morton  nomi- 
nated John  Douglas,  rector  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  St.  Andrews,  to  the  archbishop- 
ric. This  nefarious  transaction  set  the 
example  to  the  nobility,  who  perceiving 
how  it  might  be  imitated  for  their  own 
private  and  selfish  ends,  supported  Mor- 
ton, and  prepared  to  render  it  systematic 
and  universal. 

The  danger  to  the  interests  of  religion 
certain  to  arise  out  of  this  selfish  and  cor- 
rupt scheme,  did  not  escape  the  penetra- 
ting eye  of  Knox,  by  whom,  indeed,  it 
had  been  previously  suspected.  He  was 
at  that  time  at  St.  Andrews,  too  weak  in 
bodily  health  to  be  able  to  attend  a  meet- 
ing of  Assembly,  which  was  to  be  held 
at  Stirling  in  August  1571,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  dangerous  state  of  Edin- 
burgh, the  castle  being  still  in  possession 
of  the  queen's  party.  In  a  letter  to  this 
Assembly,  he  warned  them'of  the  nature 
of  the  struggle  in  which  they  were  about 
to  engage,  the  certainty  that  it  would  be 
severe  and  protracted,  and  the  necessity 
of  courage,  perseverance,  and  the  most 
strenuous  exertions  in  so  good  a  cause.* 
The  Assembly  gave  in  their  remonstran- 
ces to  a  parliament  which  met  in  Stirling 

*  Booke  of  the  Universall  Kirk,  p.  128. 


74 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  HI. 


in  the  end  of  August,  especially  protest- 
ing against  Douglas  taking  a  seat  in  par- 
liament and  voting,  on  pain  of  excommu- 
nication. Morton,  on  the  other  hand, 
whose  influence  was  paramount  in  par- 
liament, commanded  him  to  vote,  as  arch- 
bishop of  St.  Andrews,  on  pain  of  trea- 
son.* The  commissioners  of  the  Church 
presented  also  the  articles  respecting  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Church,  which  had 
been  previously  agreed  upon  by  the  As- 
sembly. 

While  the  parliament  was  sitting  at 
Stirling,  a  bold  attempt  was  made  by  the 
queen's  party  to  end  the  war  by  one  blow. 
A  considerable  body  of  men  marched 
under  night  with  great  speed  and  secrecy 
to  Stirling,  entered  the  town  before  any 
alarm  was  given,  assailed  the  houses  in 
which  the  nobility  were  lodged,  seized 
on  them,  and  on  the  regent  himself,  and 
endeavoured  to  carry  them  off  prisoners 
to  Edinburgh.  But  their  progress  had 
been  retarded  by  the  vigorous  defence 
made  by  the  Earl  of  Morton,  who  beat 
back  the  assailants  till  the  house  was  set 
on  fire,  and  thereby  gave  time  to  the  Earl 
of  Mar  to  hasten  from  the  castle  to  the 
rescue  of  the  regent  and  the  nobility. 
Finding  themselves  baffled  in  their  at- 
tempt, the  assailants  fled  ;  but  the  regent 
was  killed  by  command  of  Lord  Claude 
Hamilton,  in  revenge  for  the  death  of  the 
archbishop  of  St.  Andrews.  This  disas- 
trous event  took  place  on  the  3d  of  Sep- 
tember ;  and  on  the  5th,  the  Earl  of  Mar 
was  appointed  regent.  This  change  in 
the  regency  was  productive  of  no  advan- 
tage to  the  Church ;  for  though  Mar  was 
not  disposed  to  tyrannize  himself,  he  had 
several  years  before  laid  hold  of  a  large 
portion  of  church  property,  which  he  was 
not  inclined  to  relinquish,  and  he  was, 
besides,  very  much  under  the  influence 
of  the  Earl  of  Morton,  whose  feelings 
were  decidedly  hostile  to  the  Church,  as 
he  had  sufficiently  indicated  only  a  few 
days  before,  when  he  told  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  Church,  that  "  he  would 
lay  their  pride,  and  put  order  to  them."t 

The  Earl  of  Mar,  however,  was  not 
disposed  to  press  forward  these  innova- 
tions with  so  high  a  hand  as  Morton 
would  have  done.  Morton  procured  from 

*  Calderwood,  p.  48 ;  Bannatyne's  Memorials,  p.  183. 
t  Calderwood,  p.  48. 


him  letters  prohibiting  the  collectors  of 
tithes  in  St.  Andrews  from  raising  the 
money,  because  they  had  refused  to  be- 
stow the  sums  raised  on  his  creature 
Douglas  ;  but  Erskine  of  Dun  having 
written  a  very  strong  remonstrance  to  the 
regent  against  such  proceedings,  this 
direct  aggression  was  recalled.  In  this 
letter  Erskine  manifests  a  very  clear  per- 
ception of  the  essential  distinction  be- 
tween the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  juris- 
dictions. "  There  is,"  says  he,  "  a  spirit- 
ual jurisdiction  and  power,  which  God 
has  given  unto  his  Kirk,  and  to  them 
that  bear  office  therein ;  and  there  is  a 
temporal  jurisdiction  and  power  given  of 
God  to  kings  and  civil  magistrates.  Both 
the  powers  are  of  God,  and  most  agree 
to  the  fortifying  one  of  the  other,  if  they 
be  right  used.  But  when  the  corruption 
of  man  enters  in,  confounding  the  offices, 
usurping  to  himself  what  he  pleases,  no- 
thing regarding  the  good  order  appointed 
of  God,  then  confusion  follows  in  all  es- 
tates. The  Kirk  of  God  should  fortify 
all  lawful  power  and  authority  that  per- 
tains to  the  civil  magistrate,  because  it  is 
the  ordinance  of  God.  But  if  he  pass  the 
bounds  of  his  office,  and  enter  within  the 
sanctuary  of  the  Lord,  meddling  with 
such  things  as  appertain  to  the  ministers 
of  God's  Kirk,  then  the  servants  of  God 
should  withstand  his  unjust  enterprise, 
for  so  are  they  commanded  of  God."* 

This  clear  and  strong  assertion  of  the 
distinction  between  the  respective  juris- 
diction of  the  courts  civil  and  spiritual,  is 
of  double  importance,  both  as  showing 
the  sentiments  of  such  a  man  as  John 
Erskine  of  Dun,  whose  chief  failing  was 
a  tendency  to  yield  disputed  matters  for 
the  sake  of  peace ;  and  also  as  proving 
beyond  all  question  what  were  the  views 
on  that  vital  point  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land in  the  days  of  the  first  reformers. 
It  may  be  added,  that  in  the  same  letter 
Erskine  "  lamented  from  his  very  heart 
the  great  disorder  used  in  Stirling  at  the 
last  parliament,  in  creating  bishops,  pla- 
cing them,  and  giving  them  vote  in  par- 
liament as  bishops,  in  despite  of  the  Kirk, 
and  high  contempt  of  God,  the  Kirk  op- 
posing herself  against  that  disorder  :"  so 
little  favour  did  the  idea  of  Protestant 
bishops  find  in  the  opinion  of  our  re- 

*  Bannatyne's  Mem.,  pp.  197-204;  Calderwood,  p.  48. 


A.  D.  1572.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF    SCOTLAND. 


75 


forming  ancestors.  Even  Dr.  Cook  terms 
this  measure  "  plainly  subversive  of  ec- 
clesiastical right  ;"*  although  that  rever- 
end and  learned  historian  appears  to  re- 
gard the  subversion  of  ecclesiastical  right 
as  consisting  in  this  measure  being 
"  adopted  without  the  concurrence  of  the 
Church,  and  even  in  express  opposition 
to  it ;"  whereas,  he  seems  to  insinuate, 
to  have  first  corrupted  the  Church,  and 
then  changed  its  constitution,  would  have 
been  no  such  subversion.  The  regent 
appears  to  have  been  of  the  same  opin- 
ion ;  for  he  changed  his  measures  so  far 
as  to  recall  the  letters  which  had  drawn 
forth  Erskine's  remonstrance  ;  and  wrote 
an  explanatory  letter,  in  which  he  com- 
plains that  his  intentions  were  misunder- 
stood, and  that  "  the  fault  of  the  whole 
stands  in  this,  that  the  policy  of  the  Kirk 
of  Scotland  is  not  perfect,  nor  any  solid 
conference  among  godly  men,  that  are 
well  willed  and  of  judgment,  how  the 
same  may  be  helped."! 

It  would  appear  that  the  regent's  influ- 
ence had  prevailed  upon  Erskine,  to  yield 
farther  than  his  own  principles  would 
have  sanctioned.  A  convention  of  min- 
isters had  been  appointed  to  confer  with 
the  privy  council,  on  the  6th  of  Decem- 
ber. This  was  postponed,  in  conse- 
quence of  Erskine's  letter  to  the  regent ; 
but  another  was  soon  afterwards  appoint- 
ed to  meet  in  Leith,  for  the  same  purpose. 

[1572.]  On  the  12th  of  January  1572, 
the  regent  convened  the  superintendents 
and  certain  ministers  at  Leith,  to  consult 
on  the  best  method  of  allaying  the  dis- 
sension which  had  arisen  between  the 
court  and  the  Church.  This  convention 
imprudently  and  wrongfully  assumed  to 
itself  the  powers  of  a  General  Assembly ; 
and,  advancing  in  its  erroneous  course, 
devolved  the  whole  business  on  a  few  of 
its  members,  authorising  them  to  meet 
with  such  persons  as  should  be  appointed 
by  the  privy  council,  and  agreeing  to 
ratify  whatever  they  might  determine, 
agreeably  to  their  instructions.  A  joint 
committee  was  accordingly  formed  of  six 
of  the  privy  council  and  six  ministers, 
who  proceeded  with  strange  and  reck- 
less haste  in  the  arrangement  of  matters 
of  such  great  national  importance.^ 

*  Cook's  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  vol.  i. 
p.  169.  t  Bannatyi>e's  Mem.,  p.  206. 

T  The  names  of  the  persons  forming  this  convention 
deserve  to  be  recorded,  not  to  their  honour  :  the  Earl 


The  convention  of  Leith  agreed  that, 
"  in  consideration  of  the  present  time," 
the  titles  of  archbishops  and  bishops, 
and  the  bounds  of  dioceses,  should  re- 
main as  formerly,  at  least  until  the  king's 
majority,  or  until  the  parliament  should 
make  a  different  arrangement ;  that  such 
as  were  admitted  to  bishoprics  should  be 
of  due  age  and  scriptural  qualifications  ; 
that  they  should  be  chosen  by  a  chapter, 
or  assembly  of  learned  ministers  ;  and 
that  they  should  have  no  greater  juris- 
diction than  was  already  possessed  by 
superintendents,  but  should,  like  them, 
be  subject  to  the  General  Assemblies  of 
the  Church  in  Spiritual,  as  they  were  to 
the  King  in  temporal  matters.  The 
reader  is  requested  to  mark  well  this  lat- 
ter article,  subjecting  these  prelates  to 
the  authority  of  the  General  Assembly. 
It  was  inserted,  doubtless,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  inducing  the  Church  to  agree  the 
more  readily  to  this  great  innovation  ; 
but  remaining  unrepealed,  it  proved  in 
after  years  the  means  by  which  the 
Church  was  enabled  to  overthrow  Pre- 
lacy, and  restore  the  original  constitution 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland. 
Arrangements  of  a  similar  nature  were 
made  with  regard  to  abbacies,  priories, 
&c. ;  so  that,  while  the  holder  of  these 
large  benefices  were  to  be  admitted  to  sit 
in  parliament,  and  to  be  members  of  the 
College  of  Justice,  as  such  dignitaries 
had  done  before  the  Reformation,  they 
were  to  be  admitted  after  due  trial  by  the 
Church,  and  still  to  be  amenable  to  her 
supreme  court.  This  agreement  was 
immediately  confirmed  by  the  regent  and 
council,  who  engaged  to  persuade  the 
lay  patrons  of  churches  to  conform  to 
such  of  its  regulations  as  concerned 
them. 

By  this  strange  heterogeneous  com- 
pound of  Popery,  Prelacy,  and  Presby- 
tery, the  avaricious  nobility  imagined 
they  had  secured  their  long-cherished 
design  of  obtaining  for  themselves  the 
real  possession  of  the  wealth  of  the 
Church,  while  it  was  nominally  held  by 
these  mean  sycophants:  and  although 
the  true  nature  of  the  transaction  was 

of  Morton,  Lord  Ruthven.  Robert,  abbot  of  Dnnferm- 
line,  Sir  John  Bellenden,  Mr.  James  M-Gill,  and  Colin 
Campbell  of  Glenorchy,  of  privy  council ;  John  Erskine, 
John  Winram,  Andrew  Hay,  David  Lindsay,  Robert 
Pont,  and  John  Craiff,  ministers.  See  Spotswood,  p. 
260;  Calderwood,  MSS.,  vol.  ii.  p.  310,  &c  printed 
Calderwood,  pp.  50-54. 


76 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP  III, 


not  suffered  to  appear  in  their  records, 
the  object  was  well  enough  understood 
by  the  country  in  general,  as  appears 
from  the  designation  given  to  the  new 
order  of  bishops.  In  allusion  to  a  cus- 
tom at  that  time  prevalent  in  the  High- 
lands, of  placing  a  calf's  skin  stuffed 
with  straw,  called  a  tulchan,  before  cows 
to  induce  them  to  give  their  milk,  those 
who  were  placed  in  this  new  prelatic 
order  were  called  tulchan  bishops.  "  The 
bishop,"  says  Calderwood,  "  had  the  ti- 
tle, but  my  lord  got  the  milk  or  com- 
moditie." 

Having  thus  obtained  the  apparent 
sanction  of  the  Church  to  these  guileful 
proceedings,  the  nobility,  led  by  Morton, 
hastened  to  put  them  in  execution.  The 
archbishopric  of  St.  Andrews  was  con- 
ferred on  John  Douglas,  as  had  been 
previously  attempted ;  and  he  was  pub- 
licly installed  in  his  office,  his  ordination 
being  performed  by  men  who  were  not 
themselves  bishops.  The  Earl  of  Mor- 
ton had  the  effrontery  to  request  John 
Knox  to  inaugurate  Douglas ;  but  he 
positively  refused,  and  pronounced  an 
anathema  against  -both  the  giver  and  the 
receiver  of  the  bishopric  ;  and  when  the 
Assembly  met  in  St.  Andrews  a  few 
weeks  afterwards,  and  the  matters  agreed 
upon  by  the  convention  of  Leith  came  to 
be  discussed,  Knox  opposed  himself  di- 
rectly and  zealously  to  the  making  of 
bishops.*  Even  Patrick  Adamson  at 
that  time  was  a  strenuous  opponent  of 
Prelacy  ;  though,  as  James  Melville 
shrewdly  conjectures,  his  zeal  may  have 
been  caused  at  his  disappointment  at  not 
obtaining  one  of  the  new  bishopricks. 
"  There  were,"  said  Adamson,  "  three 
sorts  of  bishops :  my  lord  bishop,  my 
lord's  bishop,  and  the  Lord's  bishop. 
My  lord  bishop  was  in  the  papistrie  ; 
my  lord's  bishop  is  now,  when  my  lord 
gets  the  benefice,  and  the  bishop  serves 
for  nothing  but  to  make  his  title  sure  ; 
and  the  Lord's  bishop  is  the  true  minister 
of  the  Gospel."f  It  had  been  well  for 
Adamson  if  he  had  always  continued  to 
maintain  and  act  upon  such  sound  and 
scriptural  opinions. 

At  the  Assembly  which  met  in  Perth, 
in  August  the  same  year,  the  convention 
of  Leith  came  again  under  consideration, 

*  Melville's  Diary,  p.  24. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  25;  Calderwood,  p,  55. 


and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  ex- 
amine the  subject.  The  report  of  the 
committee  disclaimed  the  intention  of 
giving  any  countenance  to  popish  super- 
stitions, by  the  titles  recognised  in  the 
convention  ;  and  protested  that  the  heads 
and  articles  thereat  agreed  on  be  receiv- 
ed only  as  an  interim,  till  farther  order 
may  be  obtained  at  the  hands  of  the 
king's  majesty,  regent,  and  nobility,  for 
which  they  will  press  as  occasion  shall 
serve.*  To  that  Assembly  John  Knox 
sent  a  letter,  in  which  he  took  a  solemn 
farewell  of  them,  and  of  all  public  affairs, 
commending  the  Church  earnestly  to  the 
protection  of  God,  and  imploring  the 
divine  grace  to  strengthen  them  for  the 
contest  they  had  still  to  wage.  In  a  mes- 
sage accompanying  that  letter  he  pro- 
posed several  topics  for  their  considera- 
tion, to  be  turned  into  acts  of  Assembly 
if  approved  of;  and  in  these  topics  may 
be  traced  the  deep  and  far-seeing  pru- 
dence of  the  great  Reformer.  He  did 
not  advise  a  direct  opposition  to  the 
articles  of  the  convention  of  Leith,  being 
probably  but  too  well  aware,  that  those 
to  whom  the  management  of  the  affairs 
of  the  Church  would  now  fall,  did  not 
possess  the  courage  and  decision  of  mind 
requisite  for  such  a  struggle  ;  but  he  re- 
commended a  measure  which,  if  it  had 
been  adopted  and  enforced,  would  have 
defeated  the  mercenary  views  of  both  the 
nobility  and  their  tulchan  bishops.  But 
though  his  advice  was  approved  of,  the 
courage  and  energy  to  carry  it  into  exe- 
ution  were  not  found  ;  and  the  articles 
of  the  ill-omened  convention  were  allow- 
ed for  a  time  to  produce  their  baneful 
consequences,  in  the  corruption  of  the 
Church,  and  the  enjoyment  of  rheir  pil- 
lage by  the  rapacious  nobility. 

The  public  national  affairs  of  this 
year  may  be  very  briefly  stated.  The 
earl  of  Mar,  who  had  been  elevated  to 
the  regency  upon  the  death  of  Lennox, 
vas,  though  not  a  little  of  an  avaricious 
man,  well-disposed  and  unwilling  to  ex- 
cite strife,  or  to  see  it  prolonged.  But  he 
was  overruled  by  the  earl  of  Morton, 
and  thereby  brought  into  collision  with 
the  Church  ;  and  he  was  not  able  either 
o  compel  the  queen's  party  to  submit,  or 
to  procure  a  satisfactory  termination  of 
those  dire  hostilities  by  which  the  king 

*  Booke  of  the  Universall  Kirk,  p.  133. 


A.  D.  1574.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


77 


dom  was  devastated.  Anxiety  of  mind  is 
said  to  have  contributed  greatly  to  the 
bringing  on  of  the  disease  of  which  he 
died  on  the  29th  of  October  1572.  Soon 
after  his  death  the  earl  of  Morton  suc- 
ceeded to  the  regency,  of  which  he  had 
for  some  time  wanted  little  but  the  name. 
On  the  very  day  in  which  Morton  was 
appointed  regent,  the  24th  of  November, 
John  Knox,  the  Scottish  reformer,  rested 
from  his  long  and  arduous  labours  ;  and 
on  the  26th,  the  newly-elected  regent,  ac- 
companied by  all  the  nobility  at  that  time 
in  Edinburgh,  and  a  great  concourse  of 
people,  attended  his  funeral.  When 
the  body  was  lowered  into  the  grave,  the 
regent,  himself  one  of  the  daring  race 
of  Douglas,  gazing  thoughtfully  into  the 
open  sepulchre,  gave  utterance  to  what, 
from  his  lips,  was  a  most  emphatic  eulo- 
gium,  "  THERE  LIES  HE  WHO  NEVER 

FEARED  THE  FACE  OF  MAN." 

The  death  of  Knox  at  such  a  juncture 
was  a  serious  calamity  to  the  Church  of 
Scotland.  Morton  knew  well  that  he 
had  now  men  of  a  different  character  to 
deal  with, — men  who  might  be  cajoled, 
and  could  be  daunted.  He  proceeded, 
therefore,  with  the  execution  of  his 
schemes  more  openly  and  forcibly,  and 
also  made  more  use  of  those  intrigues  in 
which  he  was  such  an  adept,  than  he 
would  have  attempted  to  do,  bold  and 
designing  as  he  was,  if  he  had  still  had 
to  encounter  the  piercing  sagacity  and 
dauntless  courage  of  John  Knox.  In 
like  manner,  the  Assembly  felt  the  want 
of  his  clear  judgment  and  intrepid  spirit 
in  its  councils.  It  reeled  and  staggered 
like  a  storm-tossed  vessel,  when  the 
pilot's  hand  has  ceased  to  guide  the  rud- 
der. There  still  remained,  indeed,  a 
number  of  excellent  men,  sincerely  at- 
tached to  the  principles  upon  which  the 
Reformation  had  been  established  in 
Scotland,  and  not  incapable,  in  more 
peaceful  times,  to  have  defended  them. 
But  they  were  comparatively  paralyzed 
by  their  recent  loss,  by  the  new  difficul- 
ties with  which  they  had  to  contend,  and 
by  the  combined  subtlety  and  sternness 
of  that  bold  bad  man,  the  regent  Morton. 

[1573.]  Morton  accordingly,  advanced 
almost  unchecked  in  his  career.  To 
this  he  was  incited  by  an  additional 
reason,  which  now  began  to  influence  his 
mind.  He  had  entered  into  a  close  cor- 


respondence with  queen  Elizabeth,  and 
guided  all  his  policy  according  to  her 
maxims  and  example.  And  perceivino- 
how  skillfully  she  contrived  to  make  her 
influence,  as  head  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, bend  all  the  bishops  into  complete 
subserviency  to  her  will,  and  through 
them,  to  mould  the  mind  of  the  nation, 
he  was  the  more  confirmed  in  his  deter- 
mination to  change  the  entire  constitution 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  till  it  should 
become  as  prelatic  and  as  accommodat- 
ing as  that  of  England.  This,  he  had 
sagacity  enough  to  perceive,  could  be 
done  only  by  rendering  it  as  corrupt  and 
worldly  as  possible ;  which,  again, 
could  be  best  accomplished  by  placing 
sycophants  and  unprincipled  men  in  these 
nominally  influential  positions  which 
he  had  created  and  forced  upon  the 
Church.  But,  not  content  with  his  tul- 
chan  bishops,  he  endeavoured  further  to 
impoverish  the  Church,  that  he  might 
thereby  both  enrich  himself, — a  matter 
which  he  never  neglected, — and  at  the 
same  time  induce  its  poverty,  if  not  its 
will,  to  consent  to  his  pernicious  mea- 
sures. He  contrived  to  draw  into  his 
own  hands  the  thirds  of  benefices,  offer- 
ing more  sure  and  ready  payment  to  the 
ministers  than  had  been  made  previous- 
ly by  their  own  collectors,  and  promising 
to  make  the  stipend  of  each  minister  lo- 
cal, and  payable  in  the  parish  where  he 
laboured.  But  no  sooner  had  he  obtain- 
ed the  thirds  into  his  own  hands,  than  he 
joined  two,  three,  or  even  four  parishes 
together,  appointing  to  them,  by  means 
of  his  obedient  creatures,  the  tulchan 
bishops,  but  one  minister,  who  was  ob- 
liged to  preach  in  them  by  turns.  Mor- 
ton paying  him  as  if  he  had  but  one 
charge,  and  retaining  the  remaining 
stipends  for  his  own  purposes. 

Against  this  nefarious  conduct  the 
Church  continued  to  remonstrate,  but  in 
vain.  The  utmost  that  the  Assembly 
could  do  was  to  attempt  to  control  the 
proceedings  of  the  bishops  as  much  as 
was  practicable,  in  virtue  of  the  authority 
over  such  persons  which,  even  by  the 
convention  of  Leith,  they  continued  to 
possess. 

[1574.]  The  struggle  continued,  with 
somewhat  of  increasing  energy  on  the 
part  of  the  Church,  and  with  at  least  un- 
diminished  determination  on  that  of  the 


78 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  III. 


regent.  The  Assembly  not  only  asserted 
its  supremacy  over  bishops,  but  even  ex- 
ercised it  with  unexpected  firmness,  both 
by  a  strong  remonstrance  presented  to 
the  regent,  and  by  directly  censuring  the 
bishop  of  Dunkeld  for  his  improper  con- 
duct,— evincing  clearly  the  determination 
of  the  ChuTch  of  Scotland  to  maintain 
and  exercise  its  jurisdiction.  It  may  be 
stated  in  passing,  that  the  assembly  had 
proceeded  to  take  both  these  steps  before 
the  influence  of  Andrew  Melville  could 
have  even  begun  to  be  felt,  as  he  did  not 
arrive  in  Scotland  till  the  beginning  of 
July,  and  the  assembly  by  which  the 
bishop  of  Dunkeld  was  censured  met  on 
the  7th  of  August,  only  a  few  weeks  af- 
ter Melville's  arrival,  and  while  he  was 
still  residing  in  privacy  with  his  relations. 
The  noticing  of  such  a  matter  will  not 
seem  too  minute  to  those  who  are  aware 
how  much  Episcopalians  are  in  the  habit 
of  ascribing  the  decided  Presbyterian 
form  of  church  government  in  Scotland 
to  the  personal  inflence  of  Andrew  Mel- 
ville, who  had  brought,  say  they,  from 
Geneva  the  opinions  of  Calvin  and  Beza, 
and  succeeded  in  infusing  them  into  the 
Scottish  ministers,  who  had  previously 
been  favourable  to  a  modified  prelacy. 
This  modified  prelacy  they  pretend  to 
find,  partly  in  the  superintendents  ap- 
pointed by  John  Knox,  and  partly  in  the 
tulchan  bishops  of  the  convention  of 
Leith,  whom  they  affect  to  regard  as 
merely  the  natural,  but  somewhat  more 
properly  appointed  and  ordained,  succes- 
sors of  the  superintendents.  Our  readers 
are,  we  trust,  in  the  possession  of  infor- 
mation sufficient  to  enable  them  to  detect 
at  once  the  fallacy  of  all  such  statements, 
and  to  come  to  the  conclusion  unhesita- 
tingly, that  the  reformed  Church  of  Scot- 
land was  from  the  beginning,  and  al- 
ways has  been,  so  far  as  she  has  been 
enabled  to  exhibit  and  act  upon  her  own 
principles,  decidedly  opposed  to  Prelacy, 
taking  neither  her  creed,  her  form  of  gov- 
ernment, nor  her  discipline,  from  any 
other  church,  but  from  the  word  of  God 
alone,  and  in  principle,  aim,  and  endeav- 
our, always  essentially  and  determinedly 
Presbyterian. 

Andrew  Melville,  as  has  been  already 
stated,  arrived  in  Scotland  in  the  begin- 
ning of  July  1574,  after  an  absence  of 


ten  years  from  his  native  country. 
Though  personally  a  stranger,  his  emi- 
nent character  as  a  man  of  learning  and 
talents  was  well  known  to  his  country- 
men. The  regent  Morton,  aware  that 
such  a  man  must  soon  acquire  extensive 
influence  over  the  public  mind,  attempted 
to  secure  him  for  an  agent  in  the  prose- 
cution of  his  own  designs.  For  this  pur- 
pose he  caused  some  of  his  own  confi- 
dential friends  to  wait  on  Melville,  and 
propose  that  he  should  act  as  domestic 
instructor  to  the  regent,  with  a  promise 
of  advancement  to  a  situation  more  suited 
to  his  merits,  on  the  first  vacancy  that 
might  occur.  Had  Melville  acceded  to 
this  proposal,  and  fallen  into  the  regent's 
schemes,  he  might  have  enabled  that 
crafty  statesman  to  rivet  securely  the  fet- 
ters with  which  he  was  striving  to  bind 
the  Church,  instead  of  being  mightily 
instrumental  in  wrenching  them  asunder. 
But  though  it  does  not  appear  that  Mel- 
ville was  at  that  time  at  all  aware  of  Mor- 
ton's designs,  his  predilections  led  him  to 
prefer  an  academical  life  to  that  of  a 
courtier,  and  he  therefore  declined  the 
proposal. 

[1575.]  The  Assembly  which  met  in 
March  1575,  went  boldly  forward  in  the 
reforming  process  begun  by  its  predeces- 
sor of  the  year  before,  and  passed  an  act 
requiring  the  knowledge  of  Latin  in  ev- 
ery person  appointed  to  a  benefice ;  which 
act  was  intended  to  oppose  the  corrupt 
practice  of  many  of  the  nobility,  who 
were  in  the  habit  of  appointing  ignorant 
persons,  servants,  and  even  children,  to 
benefices  ;  such  appointments  being  rea- 
dily ratified  by  the  corrupt  and  servile 
bishops,  regarding  it  probably  as  the  reg- 
ular discharge  of  an  essential  part  of 
their  tulchan  function.  A  small  commit- 
tee was  also  appointed  to  confer  with  the 
regent's  commissioners  respecting  the 
policy  and  jurisdiction  of  the  Church. 
As  this  subject  had  been  very  fre- 
quently made  the  topic  of  application,  the 
convention  of  estates  had  come  to  tne 
conclusion  that  some  measure  must  be 
framed  to  put  an  end  to  the  uncertainty 
which  prevailed  on  such  matters.  Spots- 
wood  says  that  the  regent  sent  to  the 
General  Assembly  to  require  of  them 
whether  they  would  stand  to  the  policy 
agreed  to  at  Leith  ;  and  if  not,  to  desire 


A.  D.  1576.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


79 


them  to  settle  upon  some  form  of  govern- 
ment at  which  they  would  abide.*  The 
Assembly  was  not  unwilling  to  follow  up 
this  suggestion.  They  not  only  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  confer  with  the 
parliamentary  commissioners,  but  also 
selected  such  of  their  own  body  as  were 
known  to  have  most  thoroughly  studied 
the  subject,  directing  them  to  prepare  a. 
complete  outline  of  ecclesiastical  policy 
and  discipline,  to  be  submitted  to  the  As- 
sembly for  consideration,  and,  if  appro- 
ved of*  for  ratification.  It  deserves  to  be 
remarked,  that  the  regent  did  not  pre- 
sume to  appoint  commissioners  to  draw 
up  a  book  of  discipline  which  the  Church 
must  receive ;  but  requested  them  to 
frame,  according  to  their  own  principles, 
some  form  of  government  by  which  they 
would  abide.  In  this  very  instance  there 
is  the  most  distinct  recognition  of  the  in- 
herent right  of  the  Church  to  act  freely 
upon  its  own  principles,  in  the  formation 
of  its  rules  of  government  and  discipline. 

In  the  Assembly  which  met  in  August 
the  same  year,  John  Dury,  one  of  the 
ministers  of  Edinburgh,  protested  that 
the  examination  of  the  conduct  of  the 
bishops  should  not  prejudge  what  he  and 
other  brethren  had  to  object  against  the 
lawfulness  of  their  name  and  office.  This 
protest  led  to  a  discussion,  in  which  An- 
drew Melville  took  a  distinguished  part, 
and  the  discussion  brought  on  a  formal 
reasoning  on  the  question,  "  Have  bish- 
ops, as  they  are  now  in  Scotland,  their 
function  from  the  Word  of  God,  or  not  ? 
and  ought  the  chapters  appointed  for 
electing  them  to  be  tolerated  in  a  reformed 
Church?"  To  these  searching  questions, 
answers  of  a  somewhat  indefinite  charac- 
ter were  returned  by  those  whom  the  As- 
sembly had  appointed  to  confer  and  re- 
port ;  but  the  very  moving  of  such  ques- 
tions was  a  sufficiently  significant  indica- 
tion of  the  opinions  held  by  the  Church 
of  Scotland. 

In  the  meantime,  Morton,  who  was  well 
aware  of  the  prevalent  feelings  of  the 
Church,  and  knew  also  that  it  was  in 
vain  to  attempt  direct  compulsion,  en- 
deavoured to  corrupt  the  most  influential 
ministers,  that  he  might  by  their  means 
mould  the  Assembly  to  his  mind.  To 
gain  Andrew  Melville  was  his  great  ob- 
ject ;  and  this  he  tried  to  do  by  offering 

*  Spotswood,  p.  276. 


to  him  the  living  of  Govan,  Melville  be- 
ing at  that  time  principal  of  Glasgow 
college.  Not  succeeding  in  this  attempt, 
he  tried  a  higher  bribe,  and  offered  Mel- 
ville the  archbishopric  of  St.  Andrews, 
upon  the  death  of  Douglas.  But  all 
bribes  were  equally  ineffectual,  and  the 
crafty  regent  thought  proper  to  conceal 
his  displeasure. 

[1576.]  The  question  respecting  bish- 
ops, which  had  been  raised  in  the  preced- 
ing Assembly,  received  a  tolerably  dis- 
tinct answer  in  that  which  met  in  April 
1576.  This  answer  was,  "  That  the  name 
of  bishop  is  common  to  all  who  are  ap- 
pointed to  take  charge  of  a  particular 
flock,  in  preaching  the  Word,  adminis- 
tering sacraments,  and  exercising  disci- 
pline with  the  consent  of  their  elders ;  and 
that  this  is  their  chief  function  according 
to  the  Word  of  God."  And  still  proceed- 
ing with  their  important  work,  a  large 
commission  was  appointed  to  prosecute 
the  formation  of  a  complete  and  syste- 
matic work  on  the  policy  and  jurisdiction 
of  the  Church.  Spotswood  complains 
piteously,  that  in  these  Assemblies,  in 
which  the  office  of  a  bishop,  as  then  ex- 
ercised by  the  tulchan  prelates  in  Sc6t- 
land,  was  called  in  question,  not  one  of 
six  bishops  who  were  present  spoke  a 
single  word  in  defence  of  their  office. 
They  may  be  forgiven  ;  some  abuses  are 
so  glaringly  indefensible,  that  even  those 
who  could  tolerate  their  existence  cannot 
muster  effrontery  enough  to  defend  them. 

Although  the  regent  had  failed  to  bribe 
Melville  to  aid  in  his  nefarious  attempts, 
he  fcgmd  others  more  accessible  to  his 
golden  persuasives.  Patrick  Adamson, 
who,  on  the  installation  of  Douglas,  had 
expressed  his  condemnation  of  "my  lord's 
bishop"  so  pointedly,  had  been  gained 
over  by  Morton,  and  was  by  him  pre- 
sented to  the  archbishopric  of  St.  An- 
drews. This  was  stated  to  the  Assembly 
which  met  in  October,  and  he  was  re- 
quired to  submit  himself  to  trial  before 
admission,  agreeably  to  the  act  which  had 
been  passed  to  that  effect.  Adamson, 
declined  on  the  ground  that  the  regent 
had  forbidden  him  to  comply,  "  in  respect 
the  said  act  and  ordinance  of  the  Kirk  is 
not  accorded  on."  The  Assembly  pro- 
hibited the  chapter  from  proceeding  in 
the  matter  ;  but  Morton  commanded  them 
to  proceed,  in  disregard  of  the  Assem- 


80 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  III. 


bly's  prohibition,  and  gave 'him  admission 
to  the  archbishopric. 

[1577.]  The  contest  between  Morton 
and  the  Church  continued,  the  regent 
being  unwilling  to  relinquish  his  favour- 
ite tulchan  system,  and  the  Church  being 
equally  determined  to  put  an  end  to  an 
abuse  so  manifest  and  pernicious.  At 
the  meeting  of  the  Assembly  in  April 
1577,  Adamson  was  interdicted  from  the 
exercise  of  his  prelatic  authority,  until  he 
should  be  regularly  admitted  by  the 
Church;  and  a  commission  was  ap- 
pointed to  summon  him  before  them,  in- 
vestigate his  case,  and  judicially  deter- 
mine it.  A  committee  was  appointed  to 
confer  with  the  regent  respecting  the  dis- 
cipline and  jurisdiction  of  the  Church ; 
and  those  who  were  engaged  in  prepar- 
ing the  systematic  work  on  those  points, 
were  required  to  proceed  with  their  la- 
bours. 

It  was  probably  on  this  occasion  that 
the  regent,  irritated  at  the  steady  opposi- 
tion of  the  Church,  and  also  at  his  failure 
to  influence  Melville  by  mercenary  con- 
siderations, attempted  to  intimidate  and 
overbear  him.  Morton  complained  that 
the  Church  and  the  kingdom  were  kept 
in  a  perpetual  state  of  confusion  and  strife 
by  certain  persons,  who  sought  to  intro- 
duce their  own  private  conceits  and 
foreign  laws  on  points  of  ecclesiastical 
government.  Melville  replied,  that  he 
and  his  brethren  took  the  Scriptures,  and 
not  their  own  fancies,  or  the  mode  of  any 
foreign  Church,  for  the  rule  and  stand- 
ard of  the  discipline  which  they  defended. 
Morton  said,  as  Queen  Mary  had  former- 
ly done,  that  the  General  Assembly  was 
a  convocation  of  the  kings's  subjects,  and 
that  it  was  treasonable  for  them  to  meet 
without  his  permission.  To  this  Melville 
answered,  that  if  it  were  so,  then  Christ 
and  his  apostles  must  have  been  guilty  of 
treason,  for  they  called  together  great 
multitudes,  and  taught  and  governed 
them,  without  asking  the  permission  of 
magistrates.  The  regent,  unable  to  re- 
fute the  reasoning  of  Melville,  and  almost 
losing  command  of  his  temper,  biting  the 
head  of  his  staff,  growled,  in  that  deep 
under-tone  which  marked  his  occasional 
fits  of  cold,  black,  ruthless  anger, — 
"  There  will  never  be  quietness  in  this 
country  till  half-a-dozen  of  you  be  hanged 
or  banished.'3  «  Tush,  Sir,"  replied  Mel- 


ville, "  threaten  your  courtiers  after  that 
manner.  It  is  the  same  to  me  whether  I 
rot  in  the  air  or  in  the  ground.  The 
earth  is  the  Lord's.  My  country  is 
wherever  goodness  is.  Patria  est  ubi- 
cunque  est  bene.  I  have  been  ready  to 
give  my  life  where  it  would  not  have 
been  half  so  well  expended,  at  the  pleas- 
ure of  my  God.  I  have  lived  out  of  your 
country  two  years,  as  well  as  in  it.  Let 
God  be  glorified  ;  it  will  not  be  in  your 
power  to  hang  or  exile  his  truth."* 

Morton  felt  himself  for  once  outdared ; 
but,  however  indignant,  he  did  not  ven- 
ture to  put  his  threats  into  execution.  He 
seems  to  have  been  aware  that  to  proceed 
to  use  force  would  be  to  ensure  the  defeat 
of  his  intentions  ;  and  therefore  he  gave 
a  comparatively  favourable  answer  to  the 
Assembly  respecting  their  labours  in  pre- 
paring a  Book  of  Policy.  But  as  his  in- 
tentions were  by  no  means  altered,  he  en- 
deavoured to  turn  the  Assembly  aside 
from  its  endeavours  to  perfect  its  own 
policy,  by  employing  Adamson  to  frame 
a  number  of  frivolous  and  captious  ques- 
tions, to  which  he  wished  answers  to  be 
given.  He  was  also  not  a  little  embar- 
rassed in  political  matters.  His  admin- 
istration had  been  so  severe,  accompanied 
with  so  much  of  a  base  avaricious  spirit, 
that  it  had  become  intolerable  to  a  large 
portion  of  the  kingdom,  including  many 
of  the  most  influential  of  the  nobility.  He 
felt  his  power  on  the  wane,  and  would 
have  been  disposed  to  court  the  support 
of  the  Church,  of  which  he  gave  some  in- 
telligible indications,  had  the  crisis  of  his 
fate  not  come  on  too  rapidly  to  give  time 
for  a  sufficient  modification  of  his  meas- 
ures. 

[1578.]  On  the  6th  of  March  1578, 
Morton  resigned  his  regency,  and  King 
James  formally  assumed  the  reins  of  gov- 
ernment, although,  being  still  only  in  his 
twelfth  year,  it  was  in  reality  little  more 
than  a  nominal  assumption,  the  real 
power  passing  from  Morton,  not  into  the 
hands  of  the  king,  but  of  a  new  court 
favourite.  When  the  Assembly  met  in 
April  1578,  they  proceeded  to  consider 
the  system  of  ecclesiastical  polity  which 
their  committee  had  been  employed  for 
some  time  in  framing  ;  and  its  articles  hav- 
ing been  read  over  one  by  one,  the  whole 
received,  after  mature  deliberation,  the 

*  Melville's  Diary,  pp.  52,  53. 


1579] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


81 


sanction  of  the  General  Assembly.  The 
system  of  ecclesiastical  government  and 
discipline  thus  deliberately  prepared  and 
formally  sanctioned,  is  known  by  the 
name  of  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline ; 
and  from  that  time  forward  was,  and  con- 
tinues still  to  be,  the  authorised  standard 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in  respect  of 
government  and  discipline. 

The  same  Assembly  agreed,  that  the 
bishops  should,  for  the  future,  be  address- 
ed in  the  same  style  as  other  ministers ; 
and  in  case  of  a  vacancy  occurring  in  any 
bishopric,  they  prohibited  the  chapters 
from  proceeding  to  a  new  election  before 
next  meeting  of  Assembly.  Commis- 
sioners were  also  appointed  to  lay  the 
Book  of  Discipline  before  the  king  and 
council ;  and  in  case  a  conference  was 
desired  respecting  it,  commissioners  were 
named  for  such  conference.  Thus  did 
the  Church  advance  in  the  maturing  of 
her  own  principles  and  forms  of  govern- 
ment and  discipline ;  and  having  com- 
pleted what  she  thought  requisite  for  regu- 
lating her  own  conduct  in  matters  of  a 
spiritual  character,  she  sought  that  ratifi- 
cation of  the  system  by  the  civil  court 
which  should  protect  her  from  the  undue 
interference  of  any  hostile  power,  and  at 
the  same  time  give  civil  effect  to  all  such 
ecclesiastical  decisions  as  naturally  in- 
volved civil  consequences. 

The  Assembly  which  met  in  the  fol- 
lowing June  extended  to  all  future  time 
the  act  regarding  the  election  of  bishops, 
ordaining  that  no  new  bishops  should  be 
made  thenceforward.  It  was  also  or- 
dained, that  the  existing  bishops  should 
"submit  themselves  to  the  General  As- 
sembly concerning  the  reformation  of  the 
corruption  of  that  estate  of  bishops  in 
their  own  persons,"  under  pain  of  being 
excommunicated,  in  the  event  of  their  ob- 
stinate refusal.  The  bishop  of  Dunblane, 
who  was  present,  immediately  submitted, 
according  to  the  act. 

Soon  after  this  Assembly  closed  its  sit- 
tings, a  conference  took  place  between 
the  commissioners  of  the  Church  and  a 
commission  appointed  by  the  parliament, 
at  that  time  met  in  Stirling,  where  the 
king  was  then  residing.  Spotswood  has 
preserved  the  results  of  this  conference  in 
the  marginal  remarks  made  upon  a  copy 
of  the  Book  of  Discipline  which  was  laid 
11 


before  the  commission  of  Parliament.* 
In  these  marginal  comments  the  most  im- 
portant of  the  articles  are  marked  as 
"  agreed ;"  some,  chiefly  relating  to 
church  government,  are  "  referred  to  fur- 
ther reasoning,"  and  others  are  agreed  to 
with  some  slight  verbal  explanations. 
Upon  the  whole,  so  far  as  this  conference 
was  concerned,  the  Church  had  reason 
to  regard  her  essential  principles  and 
regulations  as  adopted  and  ratified  by  the 
state  virtually,  and  waiting  but  a  more 
full  discussion  to  be  formally  confirmed. 
By  the  same  parliament  an  act  was  pass- 
ed closely  resembling  the  acts  of  1567, 
and  ratifying  and  approving  all  acts  and 
statutes  previously  made,  agreeable  to 
God's  Word,  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
liberty  of  the  "  true  Kirk  of  God." 

Another  Assembly  was  held  in  Octo- 
ber the  same  year,  partly  to  consider  the 
result  of  the  conference  at  Stirling,  and 
partly  to  proceed  in  the  exercise  of  their 
own  inherent  authority,  stripping  the  pre- 
lates of  their  usurped  and  misused  powers, 
and  removing  their  corruptions. 

[1579.]  Before  the  Assembly  again 
met,  and  before  the  Parliament  had  com- 
pletely ratified  the  Book  of  Discipline, 
which  it  had  seemed  on  the  point  of  doing, 
the  Earl  of  Morton  regained  his  ascen- 
dency, and  once  more  swayed  the  coun- 
cils of  the  nation,  although  no  longer  in 
his  own  name.  The  favourable  senti- 
ments of  the  king  were  soon  changed ; 
and  as  the  Church  continued  to  exercise 
its  authority  over  the  tulchan  bishops 
manufactured  by  Morton,  the  king  was 
prevailed  upon  to  interfere  with  its  juris- 
diction, and  to  arrest,  by  means  of  orders 
in  council,  the  execution  of  the  acts  of  the 
Assembly,  and  its  sentences  of  excommu- 
nication. The  Assembly  which  met  in 
July  1579,  received  a  letter  from  the 
king,  in  which  he  objected  to  the  pro- 
ceedings against  the  bishops.  The  letter 
did  not,  however,  deter  the  Assembly 
from  both  persevering  in  its  course,  and  re- 
monstrating against  this  interference  with 
its  inherent  right  of  spiritual  jurisdiction. 

A  parliament  was  held  in  October  the 
same  year,  in  which  the  attempted  en- 
croachments of  the  king  were  not  counte- 
nanced ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  tjyo  of  the 
acts  of  1567  were  expressly  re-enacted,. 

*  Spotswood,  pp.  289-302. 


82 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  III. 


and  inserted  anew  in  the  record.  Little 
however,  was  done  in  this  parliament 
either  for  or  against  the  Church.  The 
elements  of  political  strife  and  intrigue 
were  too  numerous  and  active  to  allow 
mere  politicians  to  direct  their  attention 
to  what  they  have  always  regarded  as 
matters  of  comparatively  slight  impor- 
tance. The  Earl  of  Morton  was  no 
longer  regent ;  but  the  influence  of  the 
veteran  statesman  was  still  so  great,  that 
the  young  aspirants  to  political  power  felt 
that  their  own  ascendency  could  be  se- 
curely founded  only  on  his  rum.  The 
king  had  already -shown  his  disposition 
to  favoritism, — that  prevalent  vice  of 
weak  and  irresolute  minds ;  and,  as 
might  have  been  expected,  his  favourites 
were  those  who  could  rule  by  flattering, 
not  guide  by  instructing  him.  These 
favourites  were  Esme  Stewart,  his  own 
cousin,  whom  he  speedily  raised  to  the 
dukedom  of  Lennox ;  and  Captain  James 
Stewart,  second  son  of  Lord  Ochiltree, 
afterwards  created  Earl  of  Arran.  The 
former  had  been  brought  up  in  France, 
and  was,  on  his  arrival  in  Scotland,  an 
adherent  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  though 
not  long  afterwards  he  declared  himself 
a  convert  to  the  Protestant  faith.  The 
latter  was  a  bold,  unprincipled,  licentious 
man,  capable  of  any  crime,  and  posses- 
sing considerable  craft  in  devising,  as 
well  as  daringness  in  executing,  his  am- 
bitious designs.  To  such  men,  it  may 
be  easily  supposed,  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land was  an  object  of  dislike ;  and,  so 
far  as  their  influence  extended,  they,  es- 
pecially Arran,  were  its  natural  foes. 

[1580.]  The  Assembly,  perceiving  that 
•their  desire  to  have  the  corrupt  form  of 
pseudo-prelacy  abolished,  and  the  Book 
of  Discipline  ratified,  was  continually 
^evaded  by  the  civil  magistrate,  whether 
regent  or  king,  resolved  to  put  forth  their 
own  inherent  powers,  both  in  removing 
abuses,  and  in  completing  their  own  judi- 
cial and  disciplinary  arrangements.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  Assembly  which  met  in 
Dundee  in  July  1580  passed  an  act  de- 
.  claring,  that  the  office  of  a  bishop,  as  it 
was  then  used  and  commonly  understood, 
was  destitute  of  warrant  and  authority 
from^n^  Word  of  God,  was  of  mere  hu- 
man invention,  introduced  by  folly  and 
corruption,  and  tended  to  the  great  injury 
of  the  Church;  ordaining  farther,  that 


all  such  persons  as  were  in  possession  of 
the  said  pretended  office  should  be 
charged  simpliciter  to  demit  it,  as  an 
office  whereunto  they  wero  not  called  by 
God  ;  appointing  the  places  and  times  at 
which  they  should  appear  before  the 
provincial  synods,  and  signify  their  sub- 
mission to  this  act.  This  remarkable  act 
was  agreed  to  by  "  the  whole  Assembly 
with  one  voice,  after  liberty  given  to  all 
men  to  reason  in  the  matter,  none  oppo- 
sing himself  in  defending  the  said  pre- 
tended office."*  So  great  was  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Assembly,  that  notwithstand- 
ing the  reluctance  of  the  "  pretended 
bishops"  to  relinquish  their  usurped 
power  and  wealth,  and  the  opposition  of 
the  nobility  to  the  loss  of  their  tulchans, 
and  of  the  milk  thereby  extracted,  the 
whole  assumed  order  submitted,  with  the 
exception  of  five,  in  the  course  of  the 
year  in  which  the  act  abolishing  Episco- 
pacy was  passed.! 

[1581.]  The  year  1581  was  an  impor- 
tant one  in  the  history  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland.  The  labours  of  the  ablest  men 
in  the  Church  had  been  expended  for 
several  years  in  the  preparation  of  a  re- 
gular system  of  ecclesiastical  polity. 
This  had  been  at  length  matured,  made 
the  subject  of  conference  with  the  privy 
council,  their  remarks  considered  by  the 
Church,  and  the  book  again  laid  before 
the  king  and  council,  with  the  earnest 
request  that  it  might  obtain  the  full  rati- 
fication of  an  act  of  parliament.  But 
finding  their  endeavours  still  thwarted 
and  evaded,  the  Assembly  resolved  to 
temporize  no  longer  ;  but  as  they  had  al- 
ready guided  their  conduct  generally  in 
accordance  with  its  principles,  they  deter- 
mined now  to  erect  it,  by  an  act  of  As- 
sembly, into  the  condition  of  their  avow- 
ed and  accredited  standard  of  govern- 
ment and  discipline.  Several  of  its  pro- 
visions had  been  already  in  operation. 
Even  in  1 579  the  Assembly  had  proceed- 
ed so  far  towards  the  erection  of  presby- 
teries, that  they  had  decreed  that  "the 
exercise  [or  weekly  meeting  of  the 
ministers  and  elders  of  contiguous, 
parishes]  might  be  judged  a  presby- 
tery ."{  The  king,  following,  as  usual 
the  course  of  the  Church,  sent  to  the  As- 


*  Booke  of  the  Universal!  Kirk,  p.  194. 
t  Calderwood  MSS.,  vol.  ii.  p.  630. 
t  Booke  of  the  Universal!  Kirk,  p,  192. 


A.  D.  1581.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


83 


sembly,  which  met  at  Glasgow  in  April 
1581,  by  his  commissioner,  Cunningham 
of  Caprington,  a  request  that  the  Assem- 
bly would  proceed  with  the  erection  of 
presbyteries,  for  the  p.urpose  of  "  bring- 
ing the  ecclesiastical  discipline  to  be  far 
better  exercised  and  executed  over  all  the 
realm  than  it  had  previously  been." 
This  request  was  readily  complied  with  ; 
and  an  act  was  passed  erecting  at  once 
thirteen  presbyteries,  and  recommending 
the  speedy  extension  of  the  system 
throughout  the  kingdom. 

By  another  act  of  the  same  Assembly, 
the  Second  Book  of  Discipline  was  or- 
dained to  be  registered  in  the  acts'  of  the 
Church,  and  to  remain  therein,  ad  perpe- 
tuam  rei  memoriam,  and  copies  thereof 
to  be  taken  by  every  presbytery.*  By 
the  same  Assembly  another  act  was 
passed,  ratifying  what  has  often  been 
termed  Craig's  Confession  of  Faith,  be- 
cause it  was  drawn  up  by  John  Craig. 
It  is  also  known  by  the  designation  of 
THE  FIRST  NATIONAL  COVENANT  OF 
SCOTLAND,  and  forms  the  first  part  of 
every  subsequent  national  covenant  en- 
tered into  by  the  Church  and  people  of 
Scotland.  The  occasion  of  its  being 
framed  and  subscribed  at  this  time  was 
the  jealousy  entertained  by  the  nation  of 
the  Duke  of  Lennox  and  other  nobles, 
who  either  openly  avowed  their  adhe- 
rence to  the  Church  of  Rome,  or  were 
suspected  of  attachment  to  the  creed  of 
that  dreaded  and  detested  perversion  of 
Christianity.  This  covenant  was  sub- 
scribed by  the  king  himself,  his  house- 
hold, and  the  greater  part  of  the  nobility 
and  gentry  throughout  the  kingdom,  and 
ratified  by  the  Assembly,  as  has  been 
stated  above,  and  the  signing  of  it  zeal- 
ously promoted  by  the  ministers  in  every 
part  of  the  country.  The  interim  office 
of  "readers"  was  suppressed  by  this 
Assembly,  because  there  was  now  a  suf- 
ficient number  of  ministers  to  supply  the 
churches  throughout  the  kingdom.  In 
this  it  will  be  observed  that  the  Church 
acted  with  regard  to  readers  exactly  as 
it  had  done  with  regard  to  the  other  in- 
terim offices  of  superintendents  and  vis- 
itors. They  had  been  called  into  exist- 
ence, as  an  extraordinary  office,  to  meet 
the  necessities  of  the  time  ;  and  when 
these  necessities  ceased,  the  extraordinary 

•  Booke  of  the  Universal!  Kirk,  p.  218. 


offices  naturally  expired,  leaving  the  or- 
dinary and  permanent  to  carry  on  the 
healthful  functions  of  the  matured 
Church. 

As  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline,  be- 
ing thus  engrossed  in  the  acts  of  Assem- 
bly, must  be  regarded  as  the  standard  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  in  respect  of  gov- 
ernment and  discipline,  it  seems  expedi- 
ent to  give  a  brief  summary  of  its  leading 
propositions,  referring  those  who  wish 
more  minute  information  to  the  work  it- 
self. 

It  begins  by  stating  the  essential  line 
of  distinction  between  civil  and  ecclesias- 
tical power.  This  it  does  by  declaring, 
that  Jesus  Christ  has  appointed  a  govern- 
ment in  his  Church,  distinct  from  civil 
government,  which  is  to  be  exercised  by 
such  office-bearers  as  He  has  authorised, 
and  not  by  civil  magistrates,  or  under 
their  direction.  Civil  authority  has  for 
its  direct  and  proper  object  the  promoting 
of  externaj  peace  and  quietness  among 
the  subjects  ;  ecclesiastical  authority,  the 
direction  of  men  in  matters  of  religion, 
and  which  pertain  to  conscience.  The 
former  enforces  obedience  by  external 
means,  the  latter  by  spiritual  means  ;  yet, 
"  as  they  be  both  of  God.  and  tend  to  one 
end,  if  they  be  rightly  used,  to  wit,  to  ad- 
vance the  glory  of  God,  and  to  have  good 
and  godly  subjects,"  they  ought  to  co- 
operate within  their  respective  spheres, 
and  fortify  each  other.  "  As  ministers 
are  subject  to  the  judgment  and  punish- 
ment of  the  magistrates  in  external  mat- 
ters, if  they  offend,  so  ought  the  magis- 
trates to  submit  themselves  to  the  disci- 
pline of  the  Church,  if  they  transgress  in 
matters  of  conscience  and  religion."  The 
government  of  the  Church  consists  in 
three  things, — doctrine,  discipline,  and 
distribution.  Corresponding  to  this  di- 
vision, there  are  three  kinds  of  church- 
officers, — ministers,  who  are  preachers 
as  well  as  rulers ;  elders,  who  are  merely 
rulers  ;  and  deacons,  who  act^as  distribu- 
tors of  alms  and  managers  of  the  funds 
of  the  Church.  The  name  bishop  is  of 
the  same  meaning  as  that  of  pastor  or 
minister  :  it  is  not  expressive  of  superior- 
ity or  lordship;  and  the  Scriptures  do 
not  allow  of  a  pastor  of  pastors,  or  a  pas- 
tor of  many  flocks.  There  should  be 
elders,  who  do  not  labour  in  word  ant' 
doctrine.  The  eldership  is  a  spiritua 


84 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  III. 


function,  as  is  the  ministry.  These  func- 
tionaries ought  to  assist  the  pastor  in  ex- 
amining those  who  come  to  the  Lord's 
table,  and  in  visiting  the  sick  ;  but  their 
principal  office  is  to  hold  assemblies  with 
the  pastors  and  doctors,  who  are  also  of 
their  number,  for  establishing  good  or- 
der and  execution  of  discipline.  The 
office-bearers  of  the  Church  are  to  be  ad- 
mitted by  election  and  ordination.  None 
are  to  be  intruded  into  any  ecclesiastical 
office  "  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  con- 
gregation to  which  they  are  appointed." 
Ecclesiastical  assemblies  are  either  par- 
ticular (consisting  of  the  office-bearers  of 
one  congregation,  or  of  a  number  of 
neighbouring  congregations),  provincial, 
national  or  ecumenical,  and  general. 
The  presbytery,  or  eldership  as  it  is  call- 
ed, has  the  inspection  of  a  number  of  ad- 
joining congregations  in  every  thing  re- 
lating to  religion  and  manners,  and  has 
the  power  of  ordaining,  suspending,  and 
deposing  ministers,  and  of  exercising  dis- 
cipline within  its  bounds.  The  provin- 
cial synod  possesses  the  power  of  all  the 
presbyteries  within  a  province.  The 
General  Assembly  is  composed  of  com- 
missioners, ministers  and  elders,  from  the 
whole  churches  in  the  realm,  and  takes 
cognizance  of  every  thing  connected  with 
the  welfare  of  the  National  Church.  Ap- 
peals for  redress  of  grievances  may  be 
taken  from  every  subordinate  court  to  its 
next  superior  one,  till  they  reach  the 
General  Assembly,  whose  decision  in  all 
matters  ecclesiastical  is  final.  All  the 
ecclesiastical  assemblies  have  lawful 
power  to  convene  for  transacting  busi- 
ness, and  to  appoint  the  times  and  places 
of  their  meeting.  The  patrimony  of  the 
Church  includes  whatever  has  been  ap- 
propriated to  her  use,  whether  by  dona- 
tions from  individuals,  or  by  law  and 
custom.  To  take  any  part  of  this  by  un- 
lawful means,  and  apply  it  to  the  partic- 
ular and  profane  use  of  individuals,  is 
simony.  It  belongs  to  the  deacons  to  re- 
ceive the  ecclesiastical  goods,  and  to  dis- 
tribute them  according  to  the  appoint- 
ment of  presbyteries.  The  purposes  to 
hich  they  are  to  be  applied  are  the  four 
following : — The  support  of  ministers  ; 
the  support  of  elders  where  that  is  neces- 
sary, and  of  a  national  system  of  educa- 
tion ;  the  maintenance  of  the  poor  and 
of  hospitals  ;  and  the  reparation  of  places 


of  worship,  and  other  extraordinary 
charges  of  the  Church  or  commonwealth. 
Among  the  remaining  abuses  which 
ought  to  be  removed,  the  following  are 
particularly  specified: — The  titles  of  ab- 
bots, and  others  connected  with  monastic 
institutions,  with  the  places  which  they 
held,  as  churchmen,  in  the  legislative 
and  judicial  courts  ;  the  usurped  supe- 
riority of  bishops,  and  their  acting  in 
parliament  and  council  in  the  name  of 
the  Church,  without  her  commission ; 
the  exercise  of  criminal  jurisdiction  and 
the  pastoral  office  by  the  same  individ- 
uals ;  the  mixed  jurisdiction  of  commis- 
saries ;  the  holding  of  pluralities ;  and 
patronages  and  presentations  to  benefices, 
whether  by  the  prince  or  any  inferior 
person,  which  lead  to  intrusion,  and  are 
incompatible  with  "  lawful  election  and 
the  assent  of  the  people  over  whom  the 
person  is  placed,  as  the  practice  of  the 
apostolical  and  primitive  Kirk,  and  good 
order,  crave." 

"  Such  is  the  outline  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian plan  of  church  government,  as  deli- 
neated in  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline. 
Its  leading  principles  rest  upon  the  ex- 
press authority  of  the  Word  of  God.  Its 
subordinate  arrangements  are  supported 
by  the  general  rules  of  Scripture ;  they 
are  simple,  calculated  to  preserve  order 
and  promote  edification,  and  adapted  to 
the  circumstances  of  the  Church  for 
which  they  were  intended.  It  is  equally 
opposed  to  arbitrary  and  lordly  domina- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  clergy,  and  to  pop- 
ular confusion  and  misrule.  It  secures 
the  liberty  of  the  people  in  one  of  their 
most  important  privileges, — the  choosing 
of  those  who  shall  watch  for  their  souls, 
— without  making  them  the  final  judges 
of  the  qualifications  of  those  who  shall  be 
invested  with  this  office.  While  it  es- 
tablishes an  efficient  discipline  in  every 
congregation,  it  also  preserves  that  unity 
which  ought  to  subsist  among  the  differ- 
ent branches  of  the  Church  of  Christ, — 
secures  attention  to  those  numerous  cases 
which  are  of  common  concern  and  gene- 
ral utility, — and  provides  a  remedy 
against  particular  acts  of  injustice  and 
mal-administration  arising  from  local 
partialities  and  partial  information,  by 
the  institution  of  larger  assemblies  acting 
as  courts  of  appeal  and  review,  in  which 
the  interests  of  all  are  equally  represent- 


A.  D.  1581  ] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


85 


ed,  and  each  enjoys  the  benefit  resulting 
from  the  collective  wisdom  of  the  whole 
body.  It  encourages  a  friendly  co-ope- 
ration between  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
authorities  ;  but  it,  at  the  same  time, 
avoids  the  confounding  of  their  limits, — 
prohibits  church  courts  from  *  meddling- 
with  any  thing  pertaining  to  the  civil 
jurisdiction,7 — establishes  their  indepen- 
dence in  all  matters  which  belong  to 
their  own  cognizance, — and  guards 
against  what  is  the  great  bane  of  reli- 
gion and  curse  of  the  Church — a  priest- 
hood which  is  merely  the  organized  pup- 
pet of  the  state,  and  moves  and  acts  only 
as  it  is  directed  by  a  political  administra- 
tion. It  is  a  form  of  ecclesiastical  polity 
whose  practical  utility  has  been  propor- 
tioned to  the  purity  in  which  its  princi- 
ples have  been  maintained.  Accord- 
ingly, it  has  secured  the  cordial  and 
lasting  attachment  of  the  people  of  Scot- 
land :  whenever  it  has  been  wrested  from 
them  by  arbitrary  violence,  they  have 
uniformly  embraced  the  first  favourable 
opportunity  of  demanding  its  restoration  ; 
and  the  principal  secessions  which  have 
been  made  from  the  national  Church  in 
this  part  of  the  kingdom  have  been  stated, 
not  in  the  way  of  dissent  from  its  consti- 
tution, as  in  England,  but  in  opposition 
to  departures,  real  or  alleged,  from  its 
original  and  genuine  principles."* 

To  the  above  quoted  just  estimate  of 
the  merits  of  the  Second  Book  of  Disci- 
pline, it  would  be  presumptuous  and  un- 
necessary to  add  a  single  sentence.  And 
it  would  be  well  if  those  who  declaim 
against  the  Church  of  Scotland,  would 
have  the  candour  to  make  themselves  ac- 
quainted with  its  standard  of  government 
and  discipline,  before  they  proceed  to 
misrepresent,  villify,  and  condemn,  what 
they  neither  know  nor  understand.  It  is 
a  melancholy  thought,  but,  we  fear,  too 
near  the  truth,  that  the  opposition,  and 
even  bitter  hatred,  which  the  Church  of 
Scotland  has  had  to  encounter  in  every 
age,  has  arisen  from  the  fact,  that  her 
standards  of  faith  and  government  are  too 
pure  and  spiritual  to  be  readily  appre- 
hended by  the  darkened  mind,  or  rel- 
ished by  the  corrupt  heart,  of  fallen  and 
sinful  man.  This  at  least  is  certain,  that 
her  bitterest  enemies  have  always  been 
among  the  most  worldly-minded  or  the 

*  M'Crie's  Life  of  Melville,  pp.  124, 125. 


most  depraved,  and  her  warmest  friends 
among  the  wisest,  best,  and  holiest  of 
their  age  and  nation.  That  a  weak,  vain, 
and  tyrannical  king,  and  a  licentious 
court,  should  hate  and  endeavour  to  sub- 
vert so  pure  a  Church,  was  only  what 
might  have  been  expected  ;  that  some  of 
her  own  ambitious  or  backsliding  office- 
bearers should  have  been  ready  to  be- 
come tools  in  the  hands  of  her  enemies, 
for  the  sake  of  their  own  self-interested 
views  or  base  indulgencies,  was  also  but 
too  natural ;  but  that  men  can  still  be 
found  eager  to  blacken  the  character  of 
our  heavenly-minded  reformers,  and  at- 
tempt to  overthrow  the  Church  which 
these  great  men  expended  their  noble 
lives  in  establishing,  is  a  matter  that  must 
awaken  in  every  well-informed  and  spir- 
itually enlightened  mind  the  deepest  grief 
and  the  most  painful  reflections.  Is  it  in- 
deed so,  that  an  institution  avowedly  di- 
vine in  its  origin  and  principles,  cannot 
be  tolerated  by  kings,  and  governments, 
and  men  of  rank  and  power,  unless  it 
will  consent  to  abandon  all  claim  to  that 
sacred  origin  and  authority  in  virtue  of 
which  alone  it  exists,  to  sacrifice  all  its 
God-given  principles,  intrinsic  powers, 
and  divinely  appointed  jurisdiction,  and 
submit  to  become  the  slave,  bedecked  and 
pampered,  but  fettered  and  enthralled,  of 
licentious  and  worldly  despotism  ?-  Such 
might  have  been  the  sad  and  depressing 
thoughts  of  Knox  and  Melville,  in  the 
early  days  of  the  Church  of  Scotland; 
and  her  subsequent  history  will  often 
force  on  the  thoughtful  reader  musings 
of  a  similarly  melancholy  character. 

But  to  proceed  with  the  narrative  of 
events.  The  king  and  his  dissolute  and 
avaricious  favourites  viewed  these  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Church  with  equal  hatred 
and  alarm.  They  were  well  aware,  that 
unless  they  could  preserve  the  prelatic 
element  in  the  Church,  they  would  lose 
both  their  power  of  corrupting  and  bias- 
sing  its  courts,  and  of  laying  hold  of  the 
revenues  of  the  larger  benefices  through 
the  instrumentality  of  their  cringing  sy- 
cophants the  tulchan  bishops.  An  oppor- 
tunity soon  presented  itself  of  putting 
their  schemes  in  execution.  Boyd,  arch- 
bishop of  Glasgow,  died  in  June  1581  ; 
and  a  grant  of  the  revenues  of  the  arch- 
bishopric was  made  by  the  privy  coun- 
cil to  the  duke  of  Lennox.  But  as  these 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  Ill 


revenues  could  not  be  drawn  in  his  own 
name,  it  was  necessary  to  revive  the  tul- 
chan  system,  and  procure  some  hireling 
to  hold  the  title,  and  hand  over  to  Lennox 
the  greater  portion  of  the  revenues.  The 
transaction  was  so  base,  and  so  directly 
opposed  to  the  whole  acts  of  the  Assem- 
bly, especially  the  more  recent  ones  con- 
demning and  wholly  abolishing  the  epis- 
copal name  and  office,  that  Lennox  had 
some  difficulty  in  finding  a  person  at 
once  sufficiently  knavish  and  reckless  to 
enter  into  what  even  Spotswood  terms 
this  "  vile  bargain."  At  length,  Robert 
Montgomery,  minister  of  Stirling,  "  a 
man,"  says  Robertson,  "  vain,  feeble,  pre- 
sumptuous, and  more  apt,  by  the  blem- 
ishes of  his  character,  to  have  alienated 
the  people  from  an  order  already  beloved, 
than  to  reconcile  them  to  one  which  was 
the  object  of  their  hatred," — this  worth- 
less man  consented  to  make  himself  the 
base  instrument  of  a  licentious  courtier's 
sacrilegious  avarice. 

The  Assembly  which  met  in  October 
entered  promptly  into  the  consideration 
of  this  simoniacal  transaction,  and  called 
Montgomery  to  the  bar.  After  proceed- 
ing a  certain  length,  the  matter  was  re- 
mitted to  the  presbytery  of  Stirling,  to 
deal  farther  in  it  as  necessity  might  re- 
quire ;  and  Montgomery  was  prohibited 
from  accepting  the  condemned  prelatic 
office,  and  from  leaving  his  charge  at 
Stirling.  The  members  of  the  synod  of 
Lothian  were  summoned  to  appear  before 
the  privy  council,  on  account  of  having 
interfered  with  Montgomery  in  obedience 
to  the  orders  of  the  Assembly.  They 
appeared ;  and  Robert  Pont,  who  was  at 
that  time  one  of  the  Lords  of  Justiciary, 
in  their  name,  after  protesting  their  readi- 
ness to  yield  all  lawful  obedience,  de- 
clined the  judgment  of  the  council,  as  in- 
competent, according  to  the  laws  of  the 
land,  to  take  cognizance  of  a  cause  which 
was  purely  ecclesiastical. 

[1582.]  The  Assembly  met  in  April 
1582  at  St.  Andrews,  and  immediately 
proceeded  to  take  up  the  case  of  Mont- 
gomery, which  had  been  referred  to  them 
by  the  presbytery  of  Stirling.  The  king 
sent  a  letter  to  the  Assembly,  requesting 
them  not  to  proceed  against  Montgomery 
for  any  thing  connected  with  the  arch- 
bishopric. The  answer  was,  that  they 
would  touch  nothing  so  far  as  belonged 


to  the  civil  power,  but  in  other  respects 
would  discharge  their  duty.  Soon  after, 
a  messenger-at-arms  entered  the  house, 
and  charged  the  moderator  and  members 
of  Assembly,  on  the  pain  of  rebellion,  to 
desist  entirely  from  the  prosecution.  After 
serious  deliberation,  they  agreed  to  ad- 
dress a  respectful  letter  to  his  Majesty  ; 
resolved  that  it  was  their  duty  to  proceed 
with  the  trial ;  ratified  the  sentence  of  the 
presbytery  of  Stirling,  suspending  him 
from  the  exercise  of  the  ministry ;  and 
having  found  eight  articles  of  the  charge 
against  him  proved,  declared  that  he  had 
incurred  the  censures  of  deposition  and 
excommunication.  Overawed  by  this 
calm  and  resolute  conduct,  Montgomery 
hastened  to  the  house,  and  like  a  self-con 
victed  culprit,  humbly  crouching  before 
them,  acknowledged  that  he  had  heavily 
offended  God  and  His  Church,  craved 
that  the  sentence  might  not  be  pronounced, 
and  solemnly  promised  to  interfere  no 
farther  with  the  bishopric.  The  Assem- 
bly accepted  his  submission,  and  delayed 
pronouncing  the  sentence ;  but,  aware 
of  his  character,  gave  instructions  to  the 
presbytery  of  Glasgow  to  watch  his  con- 
duct, and  in  case  he  violated  his  engage- 
ment, to  inform  the  presbytery  of  Edin- 
burgh, who  were  authorized  to  appoint 
one  of  their  number  to  pronounce  the 
sentence  of  excommunication  against 
him. 

The  event  showed  the  wisdom  of  these 
precautions.  Instigated  by  Lennox,  who 
longed  to  realize  the  fruits  of  his  "  vile 
bargain,"  Montgomery  revived  his  claim 
to  the  prelacy  5  and  when  the  presbytery 
of  Glasgow  met  to  do  as  they  had  been 
directed  by  the  Assembly,  he  procured  an 
order  from  the  king  to  stay  their  proce- 
dure, and,  at  the  head  of  an  armed  force, 
entered  the  house  where  they  were  sit- 
ting, and  presented  the  order.  They 
refused  compliance  ;  and  the  moderator 
was  dragged  from  the  chair,  insulted, 
beaten,  and  cast  into  prison.  The  pres- 
bytery, nevertheless,  discharged  their 
duty,  found  him  guilty,  and  transmitted 
the  result  to  the  presbytery  of  Edinburgh, 
who  appointed  one  of  their  own  number 
to  pronounce  the  sentence.  In  spite  of 
the  rage  and  the  threatenings  of  the 
court,  the  sentence  was  pronounced,  and 
intimated  publicly  in  all  the  surrounding 
churches.  A  proclamation  was  immedi- 


A.  D.  1582.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


87 


ately  issued  by  the  privy  council,  declar- 
ing the  excommunication  of  Montgomery 
null  and  void.  The  ministers  of  Edin- 
burgh were  repeatedly  called  before  the 
council  and  insulted  ;  and  John  Dury 
'was  banished  from  the  capital,  and  pro- 
hibited from  preaching. 

But  if  the  king  and  the  courtiers  were 
furious,  the  Church  was  roused  and  reso- 
lute, and  its  councils  were  guided  by  men 
equal  to  the  emergency.  An  extraordi- 
nary meeting  of  Assembly  was  convened, 
and  a  spirited  remonstrance  was  drawn 
up,  to  be  presented  to  the  king  and  coun- 
cil, complaining  of  the  late  proceedings, 
and  craving  a  redress  of  grievances.  In 
this  very  remarkable  document  they  com- 
mence the  statement  of  grievances  by 
thus  addressing  the  king  : — "  That  your 
majesty,  by  device  of  some  councillors,  is 
caused  to  take  upon  you  a  spiritual  power 
and  authority,  which  properly  belongeth 
unto  Christ,  as  only  King  and  Head  of 
the  Church,  the  ministry  and  execution 
whereof  is  only  given  unto  such  as  bear 
office  in  the  ecclesiastical  government  in 
the  same.  So  that  in  your  highness's 
person  some  men  press  to  erect  a  new 
popedom,  as  though  your  majesty  could 
not  be  full  king  and  head  of  this  common- 
wealth, unless  as  well  the  spiritual  as 
temporal  sword  be  put  into  your  high- 
ness's  hands, — unless  Christ  be  bereft  of 
his  authority,  and  the  two  jurisdictions 
confounded  which  God  hath  divided, 
which  directly  tendeth  to  the  wreck  of  all 
true  religion."* 

A  deputation,  at  the  head  of  which  was 
Andrew  Melville,  was  appointed  to  go  to 
Perth,  where  the  king  was  then  resid- 
ing, and  to  present  this  remonstrance. 
When  information  of  these  proceedings 
reached  the  court,  the  favourites  expressed 
the  highest  indignation ;  and  an  appre- 
hension generally  prevailed,  that  if  the 
ministers  ventured  to  approach  the  court, 
their  lives  would  be  sacrificed  on  the 
spot.  Their  more  timid  and  wary  friends 
entreated  them  not  to  appear  ;  but  Mel- 
ville answered,  "  I  am  not  afraid,  thank 
God,  nor  feeble-spirited  in  the  cause  and 
message  of  Christ ;  come  what  God 
pleases  to  send,  our  commission  shall  be 
executed."  Having  next  day  obtained 

*  Booke  of  the  Universall  Kirk,  p.  256  ;  Calderwood, 
p.  127. 


access  to  the  king  in  council,  he  pre- 
sented the  remonstrance.  When  it  had 
been  read,  Arran,  looking  around  the 
assembly  with  a  threatening  countenance, 
exclaimed,  "  Who  dares  subscribe  these 
treasonable  articles  ?"  "  WE  DARE,"  re- 
plied Melville ;  and  advancing  to  the 
table,  he  took  the  pen  from  the  clerk,  and 
subscribed.  The  other  commissioners 
immediately  followed  his  example.  Even 
the  unprincipled  and  daring  Arran  was 
overawed  by  the  native  supremacy  of 
religious  principle  and  true  moral  cour- 
age, and  sunk  from  his  look  of  domineer- 
ing sternness  into  the  sullen  scowl  of  im- 
potent and  baffled  malice.  Lennox  ad- 
dressed the  commissioners  in  a  concilia- 
tory tone ;  and  they  were  peaceably 
dismissed.  Certain  Englishmen  who 
happened  to  be  present  expressed  their 
astonishment  at  the  bold  carriage  of  the 
ministers,  and  could  scarcely  be  per- 
suaded that  they  had  not  an  armed  force 
at  hand  to  support  them.* 

But  though  the  deputation  escaped  per- 
sonal violence,  the  king  and  his  favour- 
ites were  not  disposed  thus  to  relinquish 
the  contest.  A  warrant  was  given  to  the 
Duke  of  Lennox  to  hold  what  was  called 
a  chamberlain's  court,  to  inquire  into  the 
late  sedition,  and  have  its  authors  and 
abetters  duly  punished.  This  court  was 
to  be  held  in  Edinburgh  on  the  27th 
of  August ;  but  before  the  arrival  of  that 
day,  an  event  took  place  which  com- 
pletely changed  the  aspect  of  public 
affairs.  The  haughty  and  tyrannical 
conduct  of  Lennox  and  Arran  had  ex- 
cited the  hostility  of  the  greater  part  of 
the  nobility ;  and,  roused  from  their  le- 
thargy by  witnessing  the  free  and  ener- 
getic behaviour  of  the  Church,  they 
resolved  to  rescue  the  country  from  the 
disgraceful  servitude  under  which  it 
groaned.  A  combination  for  effecting 
this  purpose  was  formed ;  the  person  of 
the  king  was  seized,  and  restrained  for  a 
time  to  Ruthven  castle,  whence  this  enter- 
prise obtained  the  name  of  the  Raid  of 
Ruthven.  The  Duke  of  Lennox  was 
compelled  to  retire  to  France,  where  he 
soon  after  died  ;  Arran  was  removed  from 
all  intercourse  with  the  king;  and  a 
proclamation  was  issued,  recalling  all  the 

*  Calderwood,   p.    128;    Melville's    Diary,    p.    95; 
M'Crie's  Life  of  Melville,  pp.  182,  183. 


88 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP  III. 


late  despotic  measures,  and  putting  an 
end  to  all  hostile  procedure  against  the 
Church. 

When  the  Assembly  met  in  the  month 
of  October,  the  lords  connected  with  the 
Raid  of  Ruthven  sent  a  deputation  to  ex- 
plain the  grounds  of  the  late  proceedings. 
They  declared,  that  the  causes  which 
moved  them  were,  the  dangers  to  which 
they  perceived  the  Church  and  religion, 
the  king  and  his  estate,  were  exposed, 
and  the  confusion  and  disorder  of  the 
commonwealth ;  requesting  the  Assem- 
bly to  give  the  sanction  of  their  public 
approval  to  the  enterprise.  The  Assem- 
bly acted  with  becoming  caution  in  the 
matter.  Ministers  were  required  to  state 
whether  it  was  consistent  with  their  own 
knowledge  that  such  grievances  were 
prevalent  in  the  kingdom ;  and  a  deputa- 
tion was  sent  to  the  king,  to  receive  his 
own  account  of  the  transaction,  and  his 
own  feelings  regarding  it.  The  king's 
answer  agreeing  with  the  declaration  of 
the  lords,  and  the  statements  of  the  min- 
isters from  all  parts  of  the  country,  the 
Assembly  then  expressed  their  approba- 
tion of  the  reformation  of  the  common- 
wealth intended  and  begun. 

The  same  Assembly  proceeded  to  the 
trial  and  deposition  of  the  corrupt  pre- 
lates ;  and  commission  was  given  to  frame 
articles  to  be  presented  to  the  king,  coun- 
cil, and  estates,  for  the  farther  removal  of 
abuses,  and  maintenance  of  the  liberty 
and  purity  of  the  Church.  The  notori- 
ous Montgomery,  seeing  little  prospect  of 
accomplishing  his  base  designs,  offered 
to  submit  to  the  discipline  of  the  Church, 
and  begged  to  be  again  received  into  her 
communion. 

[1583.]  While  the  king  remained  un- 
der the  care  of  the  new  administration, 
peace  and  contentment  prevailed  through- 
out the  kingdom.  He  publicly  declared 
his  satisfaction  with  what  had  taken 
place ;  and,  lest  any  suspicion  might  re- 
main, emitted  an  act  of  indemnity  to  all 
in  any  way  connected  with  the  Raid  of 
Ruthven.  The  Church  was  not  only 
permitted,  but  even  encouraged,  to  ad- 
vance in  her  course  of  reformation :  and 
a  confidential  intercourse  was  commenced 
between  the  court  and  the  Assembly, 
which  seemed  to  indicate  the  opening  of 
a  more  propitious  era.  Yet  the  Assem- 
bly was  not  lulled  into  security ;  for  \\tfien 


certain  articles  were  proposed  for  their 
consideration  by  the  king  and  council, 
with  a  request  that  a  commission  might 
be  appointed  with  powers  to  deliberate 
and  conclude,  the  Assembly,  remember- 
ing well  the  convention  of  Leith,  answer- 
ed significantly,  "  that  they  had  found  by 
experience,  commission  given  to  brethren 
with  power  to  conclude,  to  have  done 
great  hurt  to  the  Church." 

But  the  period  of  peace  and  prosperity 
was  near  its  close,  and  a  storm  was  ready 
to  burst  forth  with  increased  violence. 
The  king,  whose  mind  and  morals  had 
been  deeply  corrupted  by  his  former 
licentious  favourites,  became  utterly  im- 
patient of  the  restraint  in  which  he  was 
kept  by  the  new  administration.  Con- 
triving to  elude  the  vigilance  of  the  lords, 
he  hastened  to  St.  Andrews,  summoned 
his  former  courtly  flatterers,  and  cast 
himself  once  more  into  the  arms  of  the 
unprincipled  Earl  of  Arran.  Immedi- 
ately the  hostile  proceedings  against  the 
Church  were  resumed,  although  for  a 
time  the  royal  and  courtly  displeasure 
was  directed  chiefly  against  individuals. 
John  Dury  was  banished  from  Edin- 
burgh, and  restricted  to  the  neighbour 
hood  of  Montrose ;  and  severe  threaten- 
ings  were  uttered  against  all  who  had 
expressed  approbation  of  the  Raid  of 
Kuthven. 

[1584.]  The  year  1584,  black  in  the 
annals  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  was 
ushered  in  by  the  commencement  of  that 
storm  which  was  soon  to  shake  and  de- 
vastate the  kingdom.  On  the  15th  of 
February,  Andrew  Melville  was  .sum- 
moned to  appear  before  the  privy  council, 
to  answer  for  seditious  and  treasonable 
speeches,  alleged  to  have  been  uttered  by 
him  in  his  sermon  and  prayers  on  a  fast 
which  had  been  kept  during  the  preced- 
ing month.  He  appeared,  gave  an  ac- 
count of  what  he  had  really  said,  and 
proved  his  innocence ;  but  the  council 
resolved  to  proceed  with  his  trial.  He 
then  stated  objections,  which  he  subse- 
quently put  into  the  form  of  a  protest, 
the  chief  point  of  which  was,  that  his  trial 
should  be  remitted,  in  the  first  instance, 
to  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  as  the  ordina- 
ry and  proper  judges  of  his  ministerial 
conduct,  according  to  Scripture,  the  law 
of  the  kingdom,  and  an  agreement  lately 
made  between  certain  commissioners  of 


A.  D.  1584.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


80 


the  privy  council  and  of  the  Church. 
This  modified  declinature  of  the  direct 
and  primary  jurisdiction  of  the  privy 
council  over  the  conduct  of  ministers  in 
the  discharge  of  the  pastoral  functions, 
gave  dire  offence  to  the  king,  who  was 
jealous  to  excess  of  every  limitation  of 
his  absolute  prerogative  ;  and  roused  the 
despotic  heart  of  Arran  to  a  degree  of 
ungovernable  fury.  Nothing  could  appal 
the  dauntless  spirit  of  Melville.  Un- 
clasping his  Hebrew  Bible  from  his  gir- 
dle, and  throwing  it  on  the  table,  he  said, 
"  These  are  my  instructions :  see  if  any  of 
you  can  judge  of  them,  or  show  that  I 
have  passed  my  injunctions."  Entrea- 
ties and  menaces  were  in  vain  employed 
to  induce  him  to  withdraw  his  protest ; 
he  steadily  refused,  unless  his  cause  were 
remitted  to  the  proper  judges.  He  was 
then  formally  accused,  and  the  deposition 
of  a  number  of  witnesses  taken.  But  al- 
though most  of  them  were  his  enemies, 
nothing  could  be  extracted  from  their  evi- 
dence that  tended  in  the  slightest  degree 
to  criminate  him.  Notwithstanding  this, 
he  was  found  guilty  of  declining  the  judg- 
ment of  the  council,  and  behaving,  as 
they  said,  irreverently  before  them ;  and 
was  condemned  to  be  imprisoned  in  the 
castle  of  Edinburgh,  and  to  be  farther 
punished  in  his  person  and  goods  at  his 
majesty's  pleasure.  Having  learned  that 
his  place  of  confinement  was  changed  to 
Blackness  Castle,  kept  by  a  creature  of 
Arran's,  and  that  if  once  there,  he  would 
either  never  leave  his  dungeon  alive,  or 
only  to  ascend  the  scaffold,  he  fled  to 
Berwick,  which  he  reached  in  safety, 
while  Arran  was  preparing  a  troop  of 
cavalry  to  convey  him  to  Blackness.* 

This  harsh  and  unjustifiable  conduct 
at  once  roused  and  alarmed  the  king- 
dom. The  ministers  of  Edinburgh  pray- 
ed publicly  for  Melville  ;  and  the  univer- 
sal lament  was,  that  the  king,  under  the 
influence  of  evil  council,  had  driven  into 
exile  the  most  learned  man  in  the  king- 
dom, and  the  ablest  defender  of  religion 
and  the  liberties  of  the  Church.  The 
privy  council  issued  a  proclamation,  de- 
claring that  his  exile  was  voluntary ; 
but  at  the  same  time  an  act  of  council 
was  passed,  ordaining  that  such  preach- 
ers as  were  accused  should  henceforth  be 

*  Calderwood,  pp.  141-147:  M'Crie's  Life  of  Melville, 
pp.  197-204. 

12 


apprehended  without  the  formality  of  a 
legal  charge.  This  contradictory  pro- 
cedure tended  still  more  to  increase  the 
public  dissatisfaction,  and  to  deepen  the 
general  alarm. 

This  contest  between  the  court  and 
Andrew  Melville  it  has  been  thought  ne- 
cessary to  state  with  some  minuteness, 
because  it  brings  before  the  reader  plain- 
ly one  of  the  chief  subjects  on  account 
of  which  the  Church  of  Scotland  has 
been  often  exposed  to  peril,  and  almost 
always  to  misrepresentation  and  calumny. 
The  claim  that  a  minister  should  be  tried, 
in  the  first  instance,  by  an  ecclesiastical 
court,  for  every  accusation  brought 
against  him  in  regard  to  doctrine  and  the 
discharge  of  his  pastoral  functions,  has 
been  attempted  to  be  identified  with  the 
claim  maintained  by  the  popish  clergy, 
of  entire  immunity  from  the  civil  juris- 
diction, even  in  matters  civil,  and  in 
crimes  of  every  kind.  That  the  two 
claims  are  essentially  different,  must  be 
obvious  to  every  clear  and  unprejudiced 
mind.  Even  the  bare  statement  of  them 
as  above,  makes  it  evident  that  they  are 
totally  dissimilar.  But  it  has  ever  been 
the  policy  of  the  enemies  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  first  to  misrepresent  her 
principles,  and  then  to  condemn  their 
own  misrepresentation  and  to  punish 
their  slandered  victims,  as  if  they  were 
indeed  convicted  criminals.  It  is  easy 
to  brand  a  good  cause  with  a  bad  name, 
and  then  to  assume  the  plausible  aspect 
of  preventers  of  evil,  or  avengers  of 
wrong,  when,  in  reality,  those  who  so 
act,  are  themselves  the  calumniators  of 
good  and  the  assailants  of  right.  The 
Church  of  Scotland  has  never  denied  the 
right  of  the  civil  magistrate  to  take  cog- 
nizance of  every  crime  by  which  the  pub- 
lic morality  and  peace  were  or  might  be 
injured ;  but  as  the  liberty  of  the  pulpit 
is  essential  to  the  free  and  fearless  deli- 
very of  the  gospel  message,  and  as  that 
liberty  would  be  but  a  name,  were  the 
minister  to  be  dragged  before  a  "ivil  tri- 
bunal upon  the  accusation  of  every  igno- 
rant, spiteful,  or  malicious  informer,  she 
has  always  asserted  the  right  of  the 
minister  to  be  tried,  in  the  first  instance, 
by  an  ecclesiastical  court  Should  the 
partiality  of  such  a  court  shelter  a  delin- 
quent from  condign  punishment,  it  is  still 
competent  for  the  civil  magistrate  to  pro- 


90 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  111. 


ceed  against  him  in  the  exercise  of  that 
authority  which  the  antecedent  judgment 
of  the  Church  could  neither  supersede 
nor  invalidate.  And,  if  accurately  ex- 
amined, this  liberty  will  be  found  to  be 
the  very  palladium  of  civil  liberty  itself. 
The  freedom  of  opinion  has  never  exist- 
ed in  any  country  where  religious  free- 
dom was  unknown  ;  indeed,  free  public 
opinion  had  no  existence  till  the  Refor- 
mation broke  the  fetters  of  religious  des- 
potism and  made  men  free  indeed.  And 
in  the  time  of  the  Scottish  Reformation, 
the  press,  with  its  mighty  influences,  had 
not  sprung  into  being, — parliamentary 
proceedings  were  the  records  of  tyranny 
or  faction, — the  courts  of  justice  obeyed 
too  generally  the  arbitrary  will  of  the 
sovereign,  or  exhibited  the  one-sided  re- 
sults of  partizanship, — and  it  was  from 
the  teachers  of  religion  that  the  people 
first  learned  to  know  that  they  were 
something  more  than  the  slaves  of  their 
feudal  lords  or  regal  despots, — that  being 
rational,  responsible,  and  immortal  crea- 
tures, they  were  entitled  to  think,  and 
reason,  and  act,  as  conscious  of  their 
mysterious  nature,  and  worthy  of  their 
high  destinies.  "  Despotism,"  says 
M'Crie,  "  has  rarely  been  established  in 
any  nation  without  the  subserviency  of 
the  ministers  of  religion.  And  it  nearly 
concerns  the  cause  of  public  liberty,  that 
those  who  ought  to  be  the  common  in- 
structors and  the  faithful  monitors  of  all 
classes,  should  not  be  converted  into  the 
trained  sycophants  of  a  corrupt,  or  the 
trembling  slave  of  a  tyrannical,  adminis- 
tration." 

Soon  after  the  flight  of  Melville,  a 
proclamation  was  issued  against  all  who 
had  been  concerned  in  the  Raid  of  Ruth- 
ven,  who  were  commanded  to  leave  the 
kingdom  within  a  given  time.  An  abor- 
tive attempt  was  made  by  the  threatened 
party  to  defend  themselves  ;  but  the  Earl 
of  Gowrie  having  been  seized,  the 
others  fled  to  England,  and  Arran  ob- 
tained the  uncontrolled  management  of 
the  king  and  the  government.  Gowrie 
was  executed  notwithstanding  the  act  of 
indemnity,  and  the  express  forgiveness  of 
the  king  to  him  personally.  Arran 
urged  impetuously  forward  his  schemes 
at  once  of  tyranny  and  revenge.  When 
the  Assembly  met  at  St.  Andrews  in  April, 
few  in  number,  and  dispirited  in  conse- 


quence of  the  conduct  of  the  court,  they 
were  peremptorily  commanded  by  the 
king's  commissioner  to  rescind  the  former 
act  expressing  approval  of  the  Raid  of 
Ruthven,  and  to  pass  another  condemn- 
ing that  transaction  as  treasonable. 
This  the  Assembly  declined  to  do ;  but 
instead  of  taking  a  determined  stand 
against  such  an  encroachment  on  their 
liberties,  they  broke  up  their  meeting,  and 
withdrew  from  the  scene  of  immediate 
danger. 

A  parliament  was  held  in  May,  in 
which  the  proceedings  were  of  a  most  ex- 
traordinary character.  The  Lords  of  the 
Articles  were  sworn  to  secrecy  while 
they  were  preparing  the  business  of  the 
parliament ;  and  the  meetings  of  the  par- 
liament were  held  with  closed  doors.  In 
spite  of  these  precautions,  it  became 
known  that  measures  subversive  of  the 
Presbyterian  form  of  church  government 
were  intended.  One  minister  was 
seized,  when  entering  the  palace-gate  to 
supplicate  the  king  in  behalf  of  the 
Church,  and  sent  to  Bla.ckness.  And 
when,  on  the  25th  of  May,  the  acts  of 
parliament  were  proclaimed,  Pont  and 
Balcanquhall  protested  formally  at  the 
market-cross  of  Edinburgh,  and  imme- 
diately fled  to  Berwick.  Ad  am  son  and 
Montgomery  sat  in  this  infamous  parlia- 
ment as  bishops,  directing  the  despotic 
measures  against  the  church  and  the 
kingdom. 

The  acts  passed  by  this  parliament, 
known  as  "  the  Black  Acts  of  1584," 
were  to  the  following  effect : — That  to 
decline  the  judgment  of  his  majesty  01 
of  the  privy  council  in  any  matter  was 
treason :  That  those  were  guilty  of  the 
same  crime  who  should  impugn  or  seek 
the  diminution  of  the  power  and  authority 
of  the  three  estates  of  parliament:  [By 
this,  all  that  the  Church  had  done  in  the 
abolition  of  Prelacy  was  declared  trea- 
sonable]. That  all  subjects  were  prohi- 
bited from  convening  any  assembly,  ex- 
cept the  ordinary  courts,  to  consult  or  de- 
termine on  any  matter  of  state,  civil  or 
ecclesiastical,  without  the  special  com- 
mandment and  license  of  his  majesty: 
[This  was  intended  for  the  suppression 
of  Presbyteries,  Synods,  and  General 
Assemblies.]  That  commissions  should 
be  given  to  the  bishops,  along  with  such 
others  as  the  king  might  appoint  to  pu 


A.  D.  1587.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


91 


order  in  all  ecclesiastical  matters  in  their 
dioceses  :  and,  That  none  should  pre 
sume,  in  private  or  public,  in  sermons 
or  familiar  conferences,  to  censure  the 
conduct  of  the  king,  his  council,  and  pro- 
ceeding's, under  the  penalties  of  treason 
able  offences,  to  be  executed  with  al 
rigour.  These  BLACK  ACTS,  containing 
the  very  essence  of  despotism,  were  pas- 
sed on  the  22d  of  May,  publicly  pro- 
claimed on  the  25th,  and  basely  submit- 
ted to  by  the  nobility,  barons,  and  gentry, 
being  opposed  alone  by  the  ministers, 
the  dauntless  guardians  of  civil  and  reli- 
gious liberty.  "  There  was  a  spirit 
awakened  in  Scotland,  mightier  far  than 
acts  of  parliament  or  the  influence  of  the 
court.  The  spirit  of  her  ministers  was 
not  crushed :  they  fought  on  steadily  to 
the  end."* 

Great  was  the  sufferings  and  protract- 
ed the  struggle  of  the  Church.  Up- 
wards of  twenty  ministers  were  compel- 
led to  save  their  lives  by  a  flight  to  Eng- 
land. A  bond  was  drawn  up  by  Adam- 
son,  to  be  subscribed  by  all  ministers 
within  forty  days,  obliging  themselves  to 
submit  to  the  king's  power  over  all  es- 
tates, spiritual  and  temporal,  and  to  the 
bishops,  under  the  pain  of  losing  their 
stipends ;  with  certification,  that  they 
who  did  not  submit  within  the  given 
time  shoud  not  be  received  afterwards, 
but  underlie  the  penalty  without  relief. 
The  most  of  them  refused  to  subscribe ; 
but  an  ambigious  and  deceptive  clause 
was  introduced  by  Adamson,  by  which 
several  were  beguiled  into  subscription. 

[1585.1  But  as  the  arrogance  and  ty- 
ranny of  Arran  were  boundless,  and  as 
the  kingdom  in  general  sympathized 
with  the  suffering  ministers,  and  as  even 
James  himself  began  to  grow  weary  of 
his  domineering  favourite,  it  became  evi- 
dent that  a  change  of  administration  must 
speedily  ensue.  The  banished  lords  re- 
turned from  England  in  October  1 585  ; 
crowds  of  supporters  flocked  to  them  from 
all  quarters  ;  they  advanced  towards  Stir- 
ling, where  the  king  and  Arran  then 
were ;  and  entering  the  town,  Arran  fled, 
and  the  king  received  them  into  favour, 
and  deprived  his  unworthy  minion  of  all 
his  previous  ill-got  power  and  honours. 

By  this  new  change  of  administration 

Dean  of  Faculty  Hope— Speech,  Auchterarder 
Case,  p.  203. 


the  Church  was  at  once  rescued  from  di- 
rect persecution  ;  but  the  lords  were  more 
intent  on  securing  their  own  interests  with 
the  capricious  and  yet  obstinate  monarch, 
than  on  restoring  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges of  which  the  Church  had  been  de- 
prived by  Arran's  infamous  parliament. 
They  excused  themselves  by  the  com- 
mon plea  of  temporising  insincerity,  that 
it  was  not  expedient  yet  to  annoy  the 
king  by  pressing  the  abolition  of  Prelacy, 
to  which  he  was  so  much  attached. 
And,  at  the  same  time,  the  Church  was 
somewhat  divided,  in  consequence  of 
some  ministers  having  been  induced  to 
subscribe  the  servile  bond  of  the  Black 
Acts.  Animadversions,  supplications, 
and  declarations,  passed  between  the  king 
and  the  Assembly,  which  met  in  Decem- 
ber ;  but  nothing  of  a  definite  nature  was 
concluded. 

[1586.]  In  April,  1586,  the  synod  of 
Fife  excommunicated  Adamson,  pretend- 
ed archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  ;  and  Ad- 
amson retaliated  by  excommunicating 
Andrew  Melville,  his  nephew  James, 
and  some  other  ministers.  This  matter 
was  brought  before  the  Assembly  in  May, 
and  after  long  and  sharp  controversy, 
the  king  used  every  method  to  gain  his 
purpose,  by  intimidation,  by  flattery  of 
individuals,  and  by  deceptive  promises, 
the  sentence  was  held  to  be  regarded  as 
not  pronounced,  many  protesting  against 
this  deliverance.  The  king  was  pecu- 
liarly urgent  with  the  Assembly  to  have 
the  pre-eminence  of  bishops  over  their 
brethren  recognized,  if  not  on  the  ground 
of  jurisdiction,  yet  on  that  of  order ; 
but  the  utmost  he  could  obtain  was  the 
answer,  "  That  it  could  not  stand  with 
the  word  of  God ;  only  they  -must  toler- 
ate it,  if  it  be  forced  upon  them  by  the 
civil  authority.* 

[1587.]  Scarcely  anything  of  marked 
importance  occurred  during  the  year 
1 587.  Some  slight  contests  there  were,  in- 
deed, between  the  king  and  the  ministers, 
respecting  praying  for  Queen  Mary,  who 
was  still  alive,  but  her  life  placed  in  the 
most  imminent  peril,  in  consequence  of 
the  jealousy  of  Elizabeth  and  the  plots 
of  the  Papists.  By  a  parliament  held  in 
July,  such  lands  of  the  Church  as  had 
not  been  already  bestowed  inalienably 
upon  the  nobles  or  landed  gentry,  were 

*  Calderwood,  p.  512. 


92 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND, 


ICHAP.  IIL 


annexed  to  the  crown. 
ing  the  Church  lands 


This  act,  detach 
from  all  connec 


tion  with  ecclesiastical  persons,  was  a 
fatal  blow  to  the  order  of  bishops,  ren- 
dering the  subsequent  endeavours  of 
James  and  hi-s  successors  to  restore  them 
to  their  pristine  dignity  and  authority  ut- 
terly hopeless.  It  might  have  proved  a 
fertile  source  of  revenue  to  the  crown, 
had  not  the  facile  disposition  of  James 
led  him  to  bestow  the  titles  to  these  land 
lavishly  on  almost  any  one  who  requested 
them  ;  as,  being  generally  held  at  that 
time  by  annuitants,  he  could  not  himself 
immediately  obtain  possession,  and  little 
valued  property  in  prospect.  But  he  ac- 
companied his  own  prodigal  act  with  one 
of  injustice,  in  conferring,  along  with 
these  Church  lands,  the  patronages  which 
had  formerly  belonged  to  their  ecclesias- 
tical proprietors,  and  which  he  thus  ar- 
bitrarily converted  into  lay  patronages. 
Of  this  arbitrary  conduct  even  Sir  George 
Mackenzie  says,  "  There  could  be  no- 
thing so  unjust  as  these  patronages." 
Against  them  the  Church  promptly  and 
strongly  protested,  in  the  Assembly 
which  met  in  August  the  following  year.* 
[1588.]  The  year  1588  was  one  of 
great  importance  for  Scotland  and  for 
Europe.  We  have  had  occasion  to  refer 
to  the  leagues  of  the  popish  sovereigns 
for  the  utter  destruction  of  Protestantism, 
in  which  both  the  queen-regent  and 
Queen  Mary  were  deeply  implicated,  and 
on  account  of  which  they  were  continu- 
ally the  objects  of  jealousy  and  distrust 
to  their  Protestant  subjects.  Nor  did 
King  James  escape  similar  suspicion  and 
distrust.  In  the  early  part  of  his  reign, 
when  guided  by  his  favourites  Lennox 
and  Arran,  it  was  currently  believed 
that  the  former  was  in  correspondence 
with  the  popish  sovereigns  on  the  Conti- 
nent, and  that  the  proceedings  of  James 
against  the  Church  were  chiefly  intended 
either  to  overthrow  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, and  reintroduce  Popery,  or  at  Jeast 
to  secure  the  support  of  the  great  Conti- 
nental powers  in  his  pretensions  to  the 
throne  of  England  on  the  death  of  Eliz- 
abeth. And  although  there  is  no  rea- 
son to  suppose  that  James  did  really  in- 
tend the  overthrow  of  the  reformed  re- 
ligion in  this  country,  yet  a  certain  sus- 

•  Calderwood,  p  227 ;  Booke  of  the  Universal!  Kirk, 
p  335. 


picion  respecting  his  own  stability  on  the 
Scottish  throne,  in  case  of  his  mother's 
liberation,  induced  him  to  desire  to  keep 
on  favourable  terms  with  the  popish 
sovereigns,  and  that  party  in  his  own 
realm.  While  the  death  of  Mary  relieved 
him  from  one  cause  of  his  embarrass- 
ment, it  tended  to  throw  him  into  another 
line  of  policy  scarcely  more  favourable 
to  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland. 
Keeping  in  view  his  succession  to  the 
English  throne,  he  thought  it  necessary 
to  conciliate  the  English  Church  as  far 
as  possible,  by  making  known  his  deci- 
ded preference  to  a  prelatical  form  of 
church  government.  To  this,  indeed, 
his  own  despotic  principles  naturally  in- 
clined him,  having  found  by  experience 
how  much  more  easily  a  bench  of  bishops, 
seated  among  the  temporal  lords,  might 
be  brow-beaten  or  caj oiled,  than  a  free 
Assembly  of  high  principled  and  fear- 
less Presbyterian  ministers. 

The  same  considerations  led  him  to 
concur  readily  in  the  political  schemes  of 
Elizabeth.  And  as  Philip  of  Spain,  after 
long  preparation,  was  now  putting  in  mo- 
tion the  whole  power  of  his  vast  empire 
for  the  dethronement  of  the  English 
queen,  the  Scottish  monarch  consented  to 
make  common  cause  with  her  against 
the  common  enemy  of  the  Protestant 
faith.  Nobly  did  the  Scottish  Church 
exert  herself  in  this  dark  and  threatening 
period.  An  extraordinary  meeting  of 
;he  Assembly  was  called,  to  deliberate 
what  steps  ought  to  be  taken  in  this  omi- 
nous aspect  of  public  affairs.  A  deputa- 
ion  was  sent  to  the  king,  to  rouse  him  to 
due  activity ;  and  though  he  at  first 
seemed  inclined  to  resent  this,  as  an  in- 
erference  with  his  administration,  yet 
he  formidable  nature  of  the  impending 
danger  induced  him  to  name  a  committee 
of  the  privy  council,  to  co-operate  with 
he  commissioners  of  the  Church  in  pro- 
viding for  the  public  safety.  A  solemn 

d  of  allegiance  and  mutual   defence 
was  framed,   approved  by  his  majesty, 
zealously  promoted  by  the  ministers  of 
he   Church,   and   sworn  by  all  ranks, 
mitting  the  kingdom  together  by  a  sa- 
cred and  patriotic  tie.      The  Spanish  ar- 
mada, fondly  termed  invincible,  was  soon 
fter  checked  and  baffled  by  the  deter- 
mined courage  and  persevering  energy 
f  the  English  fleet,  then  smitten  and 


1591.1 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


93 


scattered  over  the  stormy  ocean  by  the 
avenging1  hand  of  Omnipotence. 

[1589.]  This  signal  deliverance,  and 
the  zeal  and  energy  displayed  by  the 
Church  in  the  hour  of  danger,  produced 
a  beneficial  influence  upon  both  the  king 
and  the  nation.  An  insurrection  attempt- 
ed by  the  popish  party,  of  whom  the 
Earls  of  Huntly,  Errol,  and  Crawford 
were  the  leaders,  was  speedily  put  down  ; 
and  the  king  was  earnestly  urged  to  sup- 
press Popery,  and  especially  to  expel 
from  the  kingdom  the  Jesuit  emissaries 
of  the  king  of  Spain.  And  the  Church, 
putting  forth  its  own  powers,  excommu- 
nicated Patrick  Adamson,  for  performing 
the  ceremony  of  marriage,  uniting  the 
popish  Earl  of  Huntly  to  a  lady  of  the 
Lennox  family. 

On  the  22d  of  October,  the  same  year, 
the  king  set  sail  for  Norway,  to  meet  the 
princess  of  Denmark,  to  whom  he  had 
been  previously  contracted;  and  their 
marriage  was  solemnized  at  Upsal,  on 
the  24th  of  November.  Before  he  de- 
parted he  had  appointed  a  provisional 
government  to  conduct  public  affairs  dur- 
ing his  absence ;  nominating  Robert 
Bruce,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh, 
an  extraordinary  member  of  the  privy 
council ;  and  declaring  that  he  reposed 
more  confidence  in  him  and  his  brethren, 
for  preserving  the  country  in  peace,  than 
he  did  in  all  his  nobility.  Nor  was  he 
disappointed.  During  the  six  months 
that  the  king  was  absent,  the  kingdom 
exhibited  a  scene  of  unwonted  tranquillity ; 
and  the  king  was  so  sensible  of  the  valu- 
able services  of  the  Church,  that  in  his 
letters  to  Bruce,  he  declared  that  he  was 
"  worth  the  quarter  of  his  kingdom." 

[1590.]  When  the  king  returned  in 
May  1590,  he  took  the  earliest  opportu- 
nity of  acknowledging  his  grateful  sense 
of  the  valuable  services  rendered  to  him 
by  the  Church,  and  gave  promise  of  re- 
moving all  remaining  grievances,  and 
providing  better  measures  for  the  future. 
In  the  Assembly  which  met  in  August, 
he  pronounced  his  celebrated  panegyric 
on  the  purity  of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
"  He  praised  God  that  he  was  born  in 
such  a  time  as  in  the  time  of  the  light  of 
the  Gospel,  and  in  such  a  place  as  to  be 
king  in  such  a  Kirk,  the  sincerest  Kirk 
in  the  World."  "  The  Kirk  of  Geneva," 
continued  he,  "  keepeth  Pash  and  Yule. 


What  have  they  for  them?  they  have  no 
institution.  As  for  our  neighbour  Kirk 
in  England,  their  service  is  an  evil-said 
mass  in  English  ;  they  want  nothing  of 
the  mass  but  the  liftings.  I  charge  you, 
my  good  people,  ministers,  doctors,  elders, 
nobles,  gentlemen,  and  barons,  to  stand  to 
your  purity  ;  and  I,  forsooth,  so  long  as  I 
brook  my  life  and  crown,  shall  maintain 
the  same  against  all  deadly."  This 
speech  was  received  by  the  Assembly 
with  a  transport  of  joy,  "  there  was  no- 
thing heard  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  but 
praising  God,  and  praying  for  the  king."* 

[1591.]  Nothing  of  public  importance 
occurred  in  the  year  1591,  except  the  re- 
cantation of  Patrick  Adamson,  whose 
dissolute  life  had  at  length  so  disgusted 
the  king,  that  he  ceased  to  protect  and 
support  him  ;  and  the  miserable  victim  of 
ambition  was  reduced  to  such  extremities, 
as  to-be  supported  by  the  charity  of  An- 
drew Melville,  the  man  whom  he  had  so 
often  maligned  and  persecuted  ;  and  who, 
in  his  time  of  distress,  pitied,  relieved,  and 
forgave  him.  The  unhappy  man,  tor- 
tured by  remorse,  and  wasted  by  im- 
morality, sunk  into  dotage,  and  died  early 
in  the  following  year.f 

An  incident  took  place  the  same  year, 
which  we  should  not  have  deemed  of 
sufficient  importance  to  mention,  had  it 
not  been  for  the  reflex  value  given  to  it 
by  the  occurrence  of  modern  times.  It 
was  a  collision  between  the  judicatories 
of  the  Church  and  the  Court  of  Session. 
The  transaction  was  of  a  somewhat  com- 
plicated nature.  Graham  of  Hallyards, 
it  appears,  had  corrupted  a  notary  public 
to  authenticate  by  his  signature  a  forged 
instrument,  by  means  of  which  Graham 
intended  to  defraud  the  feuars  of  some 
property  belonging  to  his  wife.  The 
matter  becoming  suspected,  the  notary 
was  imprisoned,  and  during  his  confine- 
ment confessed  to  Patrick  Simpson  of 
Stirling,  the  minister  by  whom  he  was 
visited,  that  he  had  been  guilty  of  the 
crime.  Graham  accused  Simpson  of 
having  suborned  the  poor  notary;  and 
the  Assembly  took  up  the  case,  as  impli- 
cating the  character  of  the  minister.  The 
Lord  President,  and  two  other  Lords  of 
Session,  appeared  before  the  Assembly, 
requiring  them  not  to  proceed  with  a 
cause  which  was  within  the  jurisdiction 

'  Calrterwood,  p.  286.  t  Ibid.,  pp.  259-264. 


94 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


ICHAP.  in. 


of  the  Court  of  Session,  and  already  be- 
fore that  court.  The  Assembly  declared 
that  they  had  no  intention  to  interfere 
with  any  civil  matter ;  but  that,  as  the 
case  in  question  related  to  the  character 
of  a  minister,  and  to  his  discharge  of  his 
pastoral  functions,  it  was  ecclesiastical, 
and  belonged  primarioto  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Church.  Another  attempt  was 
made  by  the  Court  of  Session  to  set  aside 
this  determination  ;  but  the  Lord  Justice 
Clerk  being  "  demanded  if  he  acknow- 
ledged the  judgment  and  jurisdiction  of 
the  Kirk  or  not  ?"  he  answered,  "  that  he 
acknowledged  with  reverence  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Assembly  in  all  causes  ap- 
pertaining to  them  ;  objecting,  however, 
that  this  was  a  civil  cause,  and  that  there- 
fore the  Lords  were  primario  judices" 
The  Assembly  repelled  the  objection, 
found  themselves  judges  in  the  first  in- 
stance, and,  notwithstanding  the  protest 
of  the  Lord  Justice  Clerk,  proceeded  to 
try  and  determine  the  case.  The  civil 
court  thought  proper  to  relinquish  any 
farther  direct  interference,  but  tried  the 
cause  in  their  own  way,  and  left  the 
Church  to  do  the  same;  which  seems, 
indeed,  to  be  the  proper  mode  of  avoiding 
collisions  between  co-ordinate  jurisdic- 
tions.* 

[1592.]  On  the  22d  of  May  1592,  the 
General  Assembly  met  at  Edinburgh, 
Robert  Bruce,  moderator.  As  the  king 
had  appeared  more  favourable  to  the 
Church  ever  since  he  had  experienced  its 
power  to  promote  the  peace  of  the  coun- 
try during  his  absence  in  Norway,  this 
was  thought  a  fitting  time  to  procure  an 
amicable  settlement  of  the  protracted  con- 
flicts between  the  Church  and  the  court. 
Articles,  embodying  the  chief  requests  of 
the  Church,  were  accordingly  drawn  up 
and  presented  to  the  king.  When  the 
parliament  met  in  June,  the  same  year, 
these  articles  were  taken  into  considera- 
tion, and  an  act  was  passed,  greatly 
through  the  influence  of  the  Chancellor 
Maitland,  not,  indeed,  granting  all  that 
the  Church  desired,  but  of  a  much  more 
complete  and  satisfactory  nature  than  any 
previous  legislative  enactment. 

The  act  1592  ratified  the  General  As- 
semblies, Synods,  Presbyteries,  and  par- 
ticular Sessions  of  the  Church ;  declar- 

*  Spotswood,  p.  384  :  Booke  of  the  Universal!  Kirk, 
pp.  354,  355  ;  Baillie,  Vindication,  pp.  62,  63. 


ing  them,  with  the  jurisdiction  and  dis- 
cipline belonging  to  them,  to  be  in  all 
time  coming  most  just,  good,  and  godly, 
notwithstanding  whatsoever  statutes,  acts, 
and  laws,  canon,  civil,  or  municipal, 
made  to  the  contrary.  It  ratified  and  em- 
bodied also  some  of  the  leading  proposi- 
tions in  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline, 
relating  to  the  power  of  these  judicatories. 
It  appointed  General  Assemblies  to  bo 
held  once  every  year,  or  oftener,  pro  re  na- 
ta,  as  occasion  should  require ;  the  time  and 
place  of  next  meeting  to  be  appointed  by 
his  majesty  or  his  commissoner,  or,  pro- 
v  ded  neither  of  them  should  be  present, 
by  the  Assembly  itself.  It  declared  that 
the  act  of  the  parliament  1584,  respecting 
the  royal  supremacy,  should  be  in  nowise 
prejudicial  to  the  privileges  of  the  office- 
bearers of  the  Church  concerning  heads 
of  religion,  matters  of  heresy,  excommu- 
nication, the  appointment  or  deprivation 
of  ministers,  or  any  such  essential  cen- 
sures, warranted  by  the  Word  of  God. 
And  it  declared  the  act  of  the  same  par- 
liament, granting  commission  to  bishops 
and  other  judges  appointed  by  his  majes- 
ty in  ecclesiastical  causes,  to  be  null,  and 
of  no  avail,  force,  or  effect  in  time  com- 
ing ;  and  ordained  presentations  to  be  di- 
rected to  presbyteries,  who  should  have 
full  power  to  give  collation  to  benefices, 
and  to  manage  all  ecclesiastical  causes 
within  their  bounds,  provided  they  ad- 
nitted  such  qualified  ministers  as  were 
presented  by  his  majesty  or  other  lay  pa- 
trons. In  another  part  of  the  same  act  it 
was  provided,  that  in  case  a  presbytery 
should  refuse  to  admit  a  qualified  minis- 
ter presented  by  the  patron,  it  should  be 
lawful  to  the  patron  to  retain  the  whole 
fruits  of  that  benefice  in  his  own  hands. 
Such  were  the  main  provisions  of  the 
celebrated  act  1592  ;  and,  notwithstanding 
several  imperfections,  both  in  what  it  en- 
acts and  in  what  it  omits,  it  was  then,  and  • 
has  ever  since  been  regarded,  as  THE 

GREAT  CHARTER  OF  THE    CHURCHOF  SCOT- 
IA AND.* 

*  It  deserves  to  be  peculiarly  remarked,  that  some 
of  the  peculiarities  of  the  act  1592,  c,  116,  are  directly 
favourable  to  the  Church  in  that  very  respect  in  which 
they  have  been  thought  unfavourable.  No  express 
mention  is  made  of  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline,  but 
certain  of  its  main  topics  are  ratified,  while  others  are 
apparently  passed  over.  Hence  it  has  been  argued, 
that  nothing  has  been  ratified  to  the  Church  but  what 
is  specifically  mentioned  in  the  act  itsejf,  and  that 
every  other  proposition  in  the  Book  of  Discipline  must 
be  held  to  have  been  rejected.  The  true  reason  of  this 
peculiarity  in  the  act  appears  to  be  the  following:— 


A.  D.  1592  ] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


95 


By  this  act  of  parliament  the  Church 
of  Scotland  was  placed  in  a  much  better 
position  for  promoting  the  public  welfare 
which  is  the  great  end  of  any  Church 
than  she  had  previously  occupied.  Noi 
that  she  regarded  any  parliamentary  en 
actment  as  the  basis  of  her  religious  con^ 
stitution,  but  as  merely  a  legal  recogni 
tion  of  those  sacred  and  intrinsic  powers, 
which  she  had  always  claimed  as  belong- 
ing to  her  by  scriptural  institution,  and 
the  gift  of  her  Divine  Head  and  King 
and  which  she  had  already,  in  her  Books 
of  Discipline,  stated,  proved,  and  put  into 
execution  on  the  sole  authority  of  the 
Word  of  God.  The  attentive  reader 
must  have  perceived  how  steadily  the 
Church  pursued  her  course,  amidst  the 
ever-shifting  phases  of  the  political  world ; 
at  one  time  countenanced  and  supported  ; 
at  another,  opposed,  calumniated,  and 
persecuted,  according  to  the  varying 
character  and  aims  of  successive  civil  ad- 
ministrations. But  while  politicians  in- 
trigued, rose  into  power,  plunged  into 
criminal  excesses,  fell,  and  perished,  the 
Church  displayed  the  calm  grandeur  of 
an  institution  resting  upon  the  fixed 
principles  of  eternal  truth,  and,  whether 
suffering  or  triumphant,  maintaining  her 
integrity,  and  following  with  firm, 
though  bleeding  steps,  the  path  of  right, 
of  mercy,  and  of  love  to  God  and  man. 
From  this  statesmen  might  have  learned 
— will  they  yet  learn  ? — that  the  Church 
may  be  cast  down,  but  cannot  be  destroy- 
ed ;  that  their  own  devices  "against  her 
will  but  issue,  sooner  or  later,  in  their 
own  ruin ;  that  even  sound  political  sa- 
gacity might  warn  them  not  to  incur  the 
hazard  of  shattering  into  fragments  their 
own  frail  schemes  of  human  expediency 
against  the  adamantine  strength  of  sacred 
principles  ;  and  that  their  wisest  measure 


When  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline  was  laid  before 
the  privy  council,  certain  articles,  chiefly  those  relating 
to  government  and  jurisdiction  by  Assemblies,  Synods, 
and  Presbyteries,  were  referred  to  farther  considera- 
tion, whilst  others  were  at  once  ratified.  Now,  on 
comparing  the  copy  of  the  Book  of  Discipline  in  Spots- 
wood,  where  the  marginal  comments  of  the  privy 
council  are  given,  with  the  act  1592,  it  is  remarkable 
that  none  of  those  marked  "  agreed"  are  contained  in 
the  act,  while  the  chief  of  those  marked  "referred" 
are.  From  this  the  conclusion  seems  inevitable,  that 
having  already  agreed  to  these  in  the  privy  council,  it 
was  not  held  necessary  to  specify  any  but  those  which 
had  been  left  for  future  consideration,  and,  conse- 
quently, that  partly  by  the  concurrence  of  the  privy 
council  in  1578,  and  partly  by  the  act  1592,  thus  com- 
bined, the  whole  of  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline  was 
ratified,  and  became  the  law  of  the  land,  as  well  as  the 
law  of  the  Church. 


would  be,  to  secure  to  a  spiritual  Church 
the  freest  and  fullest  possible  develope- 
ment  of  its  own  sacred  laws  and  disci- 
pline, assured  that  they  would  thereby 
best  promote  that  which  ought  to  be  their 
chief  object, — the  true  welfare  of  the 
nation. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


FROM  THE  GREAT  CHARTER  OP  THE  CHURCH, 
IN  1592,  TO  THE  RATIFICATION  OF  THE  FIVE 
ARTICLES  OF  PERTH,  IN  THE  YEAR  1621. 

Remarks  on  the  Act  1592— Detection  of  the  Conspiracy 
of  the  Popish  Lords— Duplicity  of  the  King— Ex- 
communication of  the  Popish  Lords  by  the  Synod  of 
File— Act  of  Abolition — Secret  Motives  of  the  King — 
Ratification  of  the  Synod's  Sentence  by  the  Assem- 
bly—Support given  10  the  King  by  the  Church— Pro- 
posal of  a  regular  arrangement  for  fixed  and  local 
Stipends— Reforming  Assembly  of  1596— Renewal 
of  the  National  Covenant— Fresh  Alarms  from  the 
Popish  Lords— Deceitful  conduct  of  the  King— Inter- 
view between  the  King  and  Andrew  Melville— Jeal- 
ousy between  the  Court  and  the  Church — Proceed- 
ings against  David  Black — He  declines  the  Jurisdic- 
tion of  the  Civil  Court,  in  the  first  instance— The 
Church  addresses  the  King— A  Tumult  in  Edinburgh 
—  Proceedings  of  the  Court— The  Ministers  of  Ed- 
inburgh expelled— First  Corrupt  General  Assembly 
held  at  Perth — Commissioners  of  the  Church  ap- 
pointed to  deliberate  with  the  King — Proposal  to  ad- 
mit Representatives  from  the  Church  into  Parliament, 
1697— Partially  carried  in  1598— Completed  in  1600— 
Three  Ministers  secretly  appointed  to  Bishoprics — 
The  Basilicon  Doron — The  Cowrie  Conspiracy — In- 
jurious Consequences  to  the  Church— Robert  Bruce 
banished  by  the  King— The  Covenant  virtually  re- 
newed by  the  King — Assembly  of  1602,  the  last  free 
Assembly — Case  of  Semple — The  Accession  of  James 
to  the  Throne  of  England— Hampton  Court  Confer- 
ence— Proposals  for  a  Union  of  Scotland  and  Eng- 
land— Alarm  of  the  Church — Arbitrary  Prorogation 
of  the  Assembly — Held  at  Aberdeen  in  1605,  notwith- 
standing the  Royal  Prorogation — Banishment  of  the 
Ministers — Parliament  restores  the  Temporalities  of 
Bishops  in  1606 — Andrew  Melville  summoned  to  Lon- 
don, imprisoned,  and  banished — Constant  Moderators 
appointed— Parliament  restores  the  Civil  Jurisdic- 
tion to  Bishops  in  1609— Court  of  High  Commission  in 
1610— The  Assembly  restores  the  Ecclesiastical  Juris- 
diction of  Bishops  in  1610— This  Act  ratified  by  Par- 
liament in  1612— New  Confession  of  Faith  in  1616— 
Calderwood  banished— Five  Articles  of  Perth  in  lt>18 
—Ratified  by  Parliament  in  1621— Reflections. 

ALTHOUGH  the  act  of  parliament  passed 
n  the  year  1592,  and  commonly  known 
is  the  Great  Charter  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  was  then,  and  must  always  be, 
egarded  as  a  very  important  measure, 
giving  legislative  sanction  to  most  of  the 
hief  principles  of  the  government  and 
iiscipline  of  the  Church,  yet  it  was  not 
vithout  several  decidedly  serious  defects, 
t  was  evasive  in  its  recognition  of  the 
Book  of  Discipline,  as  if  leaving  it  open 
D  dispute  whether  the  engrossing  of  some 
f  the  provisions  of  that  book,  formerly 
referred,"  was  to  be  regarded  as  an  im- 


96 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


plicit  sanction  of  the  whole,  seeing  that 
the  privy  council  had  already  "  agreed" 
to  the  rest ;  or  whether  it  might  not  be 
held  that  every  part  was  excluded  except 
what  was  expressly  mentioned.  The 
former  view  must  have  been  that  which 
was  entertained  by  the  Church,  and 
which  not  merely  every  man  of  candour 
will  entertain,  but  which  also  every  clear 
reasoner  will  see  to  be  necessary,  other- 
wise the  act  is  self-contradictory  and  ab- 
surd. But  still,  the  ambiguity  of  the  act 
in  that  respect  has  given  occasion  to  the 
legal  sophist,  in  several  periods,  to  bring 
forward  specious  objections  against  the 
discipline  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  on 
the  plea  of  its  wanting  full  statutory  au- 
thority. Another  decided  evil  was  the 
clause  which  half  prohibited  the  Assem- 
bly from  meeting  except  when  the  time 
and  place  of  its  next  meeting  had  been 
appointed  by  his  majesty  or  his  commis- 
sioner ;  its  own  authority  being  enough 
only  when  neither  the  king  nor  his  re- 
presentative was  present.  This  after- 
wards enabled  the  king  repeatedly  to  sus- 
pend its  meetings  altogether  ;  and,  when 
it  did  meet  without  his  previous  appoint- 
ment, gave  some  colour  to  his  hostile 
proceedings  against  its  leading  members. 
But  the  most  injurious  part  of  the  act 
1592  was  that  which  imposed  upon  both 
the  Church  and  the  people  the  intolera- 
ble yoke  and  enslaving  fetters  of  lay  pa- 
tronage. How  fatal  the  "  binding  and 
astricting"  clause  has  been  to  the  Church, 
her  whole  subsequent  history  testifies, 
and  perhaps  no  period  more  so  than  the 
present. 

The  reader  will  perceive  that  these  de- 
fects in  this  enactment  left  the  Church 
still  exposed  to  danger  on  the  very  points 
on  which  she  had  been  always  most 
fiercely  and  perseveringly  assailed.  The 
freedom  of  the  Assembly,  and  its  right 
to  meet  for  the  discharge  of  its  important 
duties  whenever  necessity  required,  had 
been  gainsaid  by  Secretary  Lethington  in 
Queen  Mary's  days ;  had  been  questioned 
by  the  Regent  Morton,  and  had  been  for 
a  time  neutralized  or  overborne  by  King 
James,  during  the  period  of  the  tulchan 
bishops.  This  was  again  placed  in  peril, 
and  that  too,  by  a  regular  legislative  enact- 
ment, on  the  strength  of  which  the  king 
might  proceed  to  greater  severities  and 
more  plausibly  than  had  been  formerly 


done.  The  evasive  nature  of  the  recog- 
nition of  the  Book  of  Discipline  showed 
the  unchanged  hostility  entertained  by  the 
king  and  the  nobility  against  a  system 
of  moral  and  religious  discipline  too  pure 
and  uncompromising  to  find  favour  in 
the  estimation  of  dissolute,  haughty,  and 
worldly-minded  men.  That  the  enforce- 
ment of  ecclesiastical  discipline  would  still 
be  resisted,  was  therefore  abundantly  ap- 
parent, notwithstanding  the  evasive  sanc- 
tion of  the  act  of  parliament.  And  it  was 
equally  evident  that,  by  the  rigid  reten- 
tion of  lay  patronages,  the  king  and  the 
nobility  were  determined  to  keep  pos- 
session of  the  means  whereby  they  might 
either  corrupt  the  Church,  or  contrive  to 
hold  fast  her  patrimony  within  their  sac- 
rilegious grasp. 

But  although  there  thus  remained  these 
strong  elements  of  antagonism  between 
the  king  and  the  Church,  there  was  no 
urgent  reason  why  they  might  not  have 
continued  in  a  state  of  dormancy  for  an 
indefinite  length  of  time.  That  the 
Church  did  not  wish  to  urge  matters  to 
an  immediate  contest,  was  evident  from 
the  very  fact  of  her  receiving  the  act 
1592,  defective  as  it  was,  without  oppo- 
sition, and  even  with  gratitude.  And 
had  the  king  been  sincere  in  his  expres- 
sions of  friendship  and  estimation,  he 
needed  not  to  have  provoked  hostility  by 
an  early  and  harsh  enforcement  of  the 
harmful  powers  which  that  act  enabled 
him  to  retain.  Their  mere  existence  in 
the  statute*-book  ought  to  have  been 
enough  to  satisfy  him  that  the  Church 
could"  not,  even  were  she  disposed,  make 
any  dangerous  encroachments  upon  his 
cherished  prerogatives.  And  had  they 
been  allowed  to  remain  solely  as  latent 
but  complete  preventive  checks  against 
any  sudden  democratic  movement  of  the 
Church,  the  whole  of  what  even  his 
jealousy  of  his  arbitrary  prerogative 
deemed  necessary  might  have  been  peace- 
fully secured  ;  and  when  that  jealousy 
had  subsided,  he  might  have  removed 
these  defects  from  the  enactment,  and 
thereby  perfected  the  constitution  of  the 
country,  by  the  harmonious  agreement 
and  mutually  supporting  connection  of 
Church  and  State;  exerting  themselves 
in  their  respective  spheres,  undisturbed 
by  mutual  jarrings  and  suspicions,  for 
the  advancement  of  the  great  end  of  both 


A.  D.  1592.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


97 


— the  promotion  and  the  security  of  the 
civil  and  sacred  welfare  of  the  nation. 
Such  was  not,  however,  to  be  the  case. 
A  short  time  was  sufficient  to  show  that 
James  had  caused  the  elements  of  strife 
to  be  retained  in  the  act  1592,  expressly 
for  the  purpose  of  putting  them  into  ex- 
ecution on  the  earliest  opportunity,  for 
the  overthrow  of  a  Church  whose  prin- 
ciples, spirit,  and  discipline  were  too 
sacred,  independent,  and  pure,  to  suit  the 
taste  and  comport  with  the  habits  of  a 
monarch  at  once  crafty  and  despotic,  and 
of  courtiers  both  avaricious  and  dissolute. 
It  may  seem,  strange  that  James,  who  had 
experienced  so  much  treachery  on  the 
part  of  his  nobility,  and  been  exposed  to 
personal  danger  from  their  factious  and 
daring  attempts  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
had  found  such  constant  fidelity  to  his 
cause,  and  zeal  in  his  behalf,  in  every 
time  of  peril,  from  the  Church,  notwith- 
standing his  injurious  treatment  of  it, — 
that  with  such  strong  and  repeated  proofs 
which  was  the  more  trustworthy  party, 
he  could  still  favour  the  schemes  of  the 
treacherous  and  selfish  aristocracy,  and 
distrust  and  persecute  the  faithful  and 
disinterested  Church.  But  it  has  always 
been  the  fault  and  the  misfortune  of  kings 
and  statesmen  to  give  their  countenance 
to  sycophants  and  mercenary  tools,  whom 
they  can  manage  and  employ  for  any 
purpose,  however  guilty  and  base,  rather 
than  to  men  whose  principles  are  too  lofty 
for  them  to  comprehend,  and  whose  in- 
tegrity is  beyond  their  power  to  move. 
And  James  knew  well  that  he  could 
mould  and  bias  his  courtiers  by  the  arti- 
fices of  that  "  kingcraft"  in  which  he 
thought  himself  a  most  accomplished 
adept ;  but  that  in  the  high-souled  minis- 
ters of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  when 
met  together  in  their  own  free  General 
Assembly,  he  encountered  men  whom 
neither  his  arts  could  blind  nor  his  threat- 
enings  overawe.  Hence  his  determina- 
tion to  retain,  even  in  the  act  recognising 
and  ratifying  the  liberty  of  the  Church, 
a  seeming  innocuous  clause,  by  which 
he  might  be  able  to  prohibit  the  meetings 
of  the  Assembly,  whenever  he  appre- 
hended from  it  a  decided  opposition  to 
his  schemes  ;  or  to  call  it  together  when 
he  should  have  succeeded  in  corrupting 
its  members  by  means  of  the  patronage- 
enforcing  clause. 

13 


The  preceding  remarks  we  have 
deemed  it  expedient  to  make,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  placing  before  our  readers  clearly 
the  position  of  the  Church  after  the  pass- 
ing of  the  great  charter  of  1592,  and  the 
dangers  still  to  be  apprehended  from  the 
defects  of  that  enactment,  and  the  perni- 
cious elements  which  it  contained.  But 
we  must  now  resume  the  narrative,  and 
trace  the  progress  of  events. 

The  act  1592  almost  took  the  Church 
by  surprise.  The  ministers  had  striven 
so  long  for  a  legislative  ratification  of  the 
liberty  of  the  Church,  of  General  Assem- 
blies, Synods,  and  Presbyteries,  and  of 
discipline,  and  had  met  so  many  disap- 
pointments, evasions,  and  direct  violations 
of  the  most  solemn  promises  from  the 
ruling  powers,  that  though  they  contin- 
ued to  strive,  they  seem  almost  to  have 
ceased  to  expect  success.  They  appear 
to  have  acted  on  the  great  general  prin- 
ciple, that  for  the  discharge  of  known 
duty  man  is  responsible, — for  success 
he  is  not ;  and  that  therefore  their  duty 
was  to  continue  their  exertions,  and  leave 
the  result  to  God,  in  whose  hands  are  the 
issues  of  all  events.  Yet  they  have  been 
censured  for  accepting  a  measure  which 
fell  so  far  short  of  what  they  sought  to 
obtain,  and  which  contained  elements 
capable  of  being  roused  into  the  most 
pernicious  activity.  But  it  should  be  con- 
sidered that  men  who  are  very  far  above 
taking  expediency  as  their  rule  in  mat- 
ters of  duty,  may,  with  a  safe  conscience, 
accept  of  a  measure  comparatively  de- 
fective, for  which  they  could  not  have 
striven  ;  regarding  it  as,  though  not  a 
satisfactory,  and  consequently  not  a  final 
settlement,  yet,  upon  the  whole,  a  great 
advancement  towards  a  better  state  of 
matters  than  had  previously  existed,  and 
containing  a  ratification  of  the  most  es- 
sential of  their  own  leading  principles: 
Such  appear  to  have  been  the  sentiments 
of  the  most  active  and  influential  of  the 
ministers  when  this  very  important  act 
was  passed  ;  and  while  they  disapproved 
of  those  points  in  it  which  have  been  spe- 
cified, still,  as  it  went  beyond  their  gene- 
ral expectation,  they  received  it  with  joy 
and  gratitude.  It  may  be  mentioned  also 
that,  between  the  passing  of  the  act  and 
its  being  publicly  proclaimed,  the  ene- 
mies of  the  Church  attempted  to  deny 
that  any  such  measure  either  had  been 


98 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


or  would  be  enacted  by  the  parliament ; 
and  their  very  hostility  and  opposition 
would  tend  to  secure  for  it  the  more  ready 
and  cordial  acceptation  by  all  who  were 
friendly  to  the  Church.* 

A  very  short  time  elapsed,  after  the 
passing  of  this  act,  when  the  Church  had 
again  occasion  to  show  that  her  intrinsic 
powers  had  not  been  fettered  by  an  act 
which  professed  to  ratify  her  freedom ;  and 
that  to  enter  into  a  solemn  compact  with 
the  State  was  not  to  lay  aside  her  native 
spiritual  independence,  and  to  assume  a 
gilded  yoke.  Towards  the  end  of  the 
year  1592,  the  jealousy  of  all  sound- 
hearted  Protestants,  and  especially  of  the 
ministers, — those  vigilant  guardians  both 
of  the  purity  of  religion  and  of  the  pub- 
lic welfare, — was  strongly  excited,  partly 
by  the  known  presence  and  activity  of 
priests  and  Jesuits  within  the  kingdom, 
and  partly  by  indefinite  intimations  of 
danger  from  abroad.  The  sense  of  im- 
pending peril,  the  more  alarming  on  ac- 
count of  its  unascertained  character  and 
extent,  alarmed  the  country  in  general, 
but  seemed  to  give  no  uneasiness  to  the 
king.  An  extraordinary  meeting  of  the 
ministers  was  convoked  in  Edinburgh 
on  the  15th  of  November,  and  measures 
were  framed  calculated  to  provide  for  the 
safety  of  the  Church  and  kingdom,  by 
exerting  the  utmost  vigilance  for  the  de- 
tection of  the  popish  machinations ;  and 
to  these  measures  the  king  gave  his  ap- 
probation. 

The  necessity  and  the  wisdom  of  these 
precautions  became  very  soon  evident. 
Andrew  Knox,  minister  of  Paisley,  hav- 
ing received  secret  intelligence  respecting 
one  of  the  popish  emissaries,  hastened  to 
the  island  of  Cumray,  accompanied  by  a 
number  of  Glasgow  students  and  some 
neighbouring  gentlemen,  and  seized 
George  Ker,  brother  of  Lord  Newbattle, 
as  he  was  on  the  point  of  embarking  for 
Spain.  A  number  of  letters  were  found 
in  his  possession  from  priests  in  Scot- 
land ;  and  several  blanks  subscribed  by 
the  popish  Earls  of  Huntly,  Errol,  and 
Angus,  with  a  commission  to  William 
Crighton,  a  Jesuit,  to  fill  up  the  blanks, 
and  address  them  to  the  persons  for 
whom  they  were  intended.  Graham  of 
Fintry  was  soon  afterwards  apprehended ; 
and  being  both  examined  before  the  privy 

*  Melville's  Diary  pp.  198,  and  201. 


council,  they  testified  to  the  genuineness 
of  the  signatures,  and  confessed  the  na- 
ture and  extent  of  the  conspiracy.  It. 
was,  indeed,  one  of  a  most  perilous  and 
flagrant  character.  The  king  of  Spain 
was  to  have  landed  thirty  thousand  men 
on  the  west  coast  of  Scotland,  part  of 
whom  were  to  invade  England,  and  the 
remainder,  in  concert  with  the  forces 
which  the  three  earls  promised  to  have 
in  readiness,  were  to  suppress  the  Pro- 
testants, and  to  procure  the  re-establish- 
ment of  the  Romish  religion  in  Scot- 
land.* 

[1593.]  The  privy  council  and  the 
ministers  of  Edinburgh  having  thus  re- 
ceived proof  positive  of  the  dangerous 
conspiracy  existing  in  the  kingdom,  is- 
sued letters  calling  upon  the  well-affected 
to  hasten  to  the  capital,  for  the  purpose 
of  consulting  what  steps  were  to  be  taken 
in  a  matter  of  such  a  formidable  charac- 
ter. At  the  same  time  they  earnestly  be- 
sought the  king,  who  was  at  the  time  ab- 
sent, to  hasten  to  Edinburgh,  and  aid  his 
faithful  subjects  in  the  defence  of  the 
commonwealth.  The  Earl  of  Angus, 
unaware  that  the  conspiracy  had  been 
detected,  happening  to  come  to  the  capi- 
tal at  the  same  time,  was  seized  and  com- 
mitted to  the  castle.  Upon  his  majesty's 
arrival,  instead  of  thanking  his  people 
for  the  zeal  and  vigilance  which  they 
had  displayed  in  behalf  of  the  religion 
and  liberties  of  the  country,  he  broke  out 
into  peevish  and  ill-timed  complaints  of 
their  conduct  in  seizing  the  Earl  of  An- 
gus, and  in  convoking  the  lieges  without 
his  previous  command,  which  he  resented 
as  a  grievous  encroachment  upon  his  pre- 
rogative. They  answered,  as  such  mea 
might  have  been  expected  to  answer, 
"  That  it  was  no  time  to  attend  on  warn- 
ings when  their  religion,  prince,  country, 
lives,  lands,  and  all  were  brought  into 
jeopardy  by  such  treasonable  dealings." 
But  when  their  whole  proceedings  wer.e 
detailed,  and  the  full  nature  and  extent 
of  the  conspiracy  made  known  to  him, 
his  petulant  fume  passed  off,  he  called 
Angus  "  a  traitor  of  traitors,"  and  de- 
clared that  the  crime  of  the  conspirators 
was  too  great  for  his  prerogative  to  par- 
don, promising  to  proceed  to  trial  of  the 
accused  "  with  all  diligence  and  se- 
verity." 

*  Melville's  Diary,  p  205;  Calderwood,  pp.  275-280. 


A.  D.  1593.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


99 


James  now  thought  it  necessary  to  act 
with  at  least  the  appearance  of  sincerity 
A  proclamation  was  issued,  specifying 
the  general  nature  of  the  detected  con- 
spiracy, and  commanding  all  who  hated 
subjection  to  foreign  tyranny  to  abstain 
from  intercourse  with  popish  priests,  on 
pain  of  treason  ;  and  to  hold  themselves 
in  readiness  to  defend  the  country,  "  as 
they  should  be  certified  by  his  majesty, 
or  otherwise  find  the  occasion  urgent." 
And  as  some  suspicion  of  the  king's  sin- 
cerity had  been  excited  by  his  first  ex- 
pression of  displeasure  with  the  prompt 
zeal  of  his  people,  he  thought  proper  to 
pass  an  act  of  council,  prohibiting  all 
from  attempting  to  procure  the  pardon  of 
the  conspirators.  The  nation  immedi- 
ately testified  its  delight  with  the  king's 
conduct,  by  framing  and  extensively  sub- 
scribing a  bond  in  defence  of  religion 
and  the  government,  and  preparing  zeal- 
ously to  protect  and  support  the  king  and 
the  public  peace.  The  king  marched 
northwards  against  the  conspirators  ;  but 
they  merely  concealed  themselves  from 
immediate  apprehension  ;  and  the  king, 
notwithstanding  his  own  act  of  privy 
council,  received  favourably  those  who 
were  sent  to  intercede  in  behalf  of  the 
detected  traitors. 

The  General  Assembly  met  at  Dun- 
dee on  the  24th  of  April,  according  to 
their  own  previous  arrangement,  and 
without  waiting  to  be  called  together  by 
his  majesty.  The  proceedings  of  that 
Assembly,  although  of  no  great  moment, 
furnished  sufficient  indication  of  the 
growing  jealousy  between  the  king  and 
the  Church.  The  Assembly  appointed 
commissioners  to  present  to  the  king  an 
address  and  'petition,  containing  several 
articles  in  regard  to  which  they  craved 
redress.  One  was,  that  he  would  adopt 
strong  measures  for  the  suppression  of 
the  popish  party,  and  in  the  meantime 
that  they  should  be  excluded  from  all 
public  official  situations,  and  denied  ac- 
cess to  his  majesty's  presence.  Another 
was,  that  his  majesty  would  consider  the 
great  prejudice  done  to  the  Church  by 
the  erection  of  the  tithes  of  different  pre- 
lacies into  titular  lordships.  The  king, 
on  the  other  hand,  by  his  commissioner, 
directed  the  attention  of  the  Assembly  to 
that  part  of  the  act  1592  which  required 
its  meetings  to  be  held  by  the  appoint- 


ment of  his  majesty,  intimating  that  he 
could  not  with  honour  see  that  provision 
infringed  ;  and  further,  requested  them 
to  make  an  act  prohibiting  any  minister, 
on  pain  of  deposition,  from  uttering  in 
public  any  animadversions  on  the  con- 
duct of  his  majesty  or  the  privy  council. 
The  Assembly  agreed  to  the  provision 
of  the  act  1592,  it  being  reserved  to  them 
to  meet  on  their  own  authority,  provided 
his  majesty  or  his  commissioner  were 
not  present,  and  ordained  that  no 
minister  "  utter  any  rash  or  irreverent 
speeches  against  his  majesty  or  council, 
but  that  all  their  public  admonitions  pro- 
ceed upon  just  and  necessary  causes,  in 
all  fear,  love,  and  reverence,  under  pain 
of  deposition."*  These  proceedings 
could  give  little  satisfaction  to  either 
party,  and  indicated  but  too  plainly  a 
mutual  distrust,  likely  ere  long  to  come 
to  an  open  rupture.  Some  steps  were 
taken  by  that  Assembly  to  prevent  fur- 
ther dilapidation  of  Church  property,  and 
for  the  enforcement  of  discipline  and  the 
maintenance  of  public  morality  and 
peace. 

The  parliament  met  in  July,  and  pro- 
ceeded with  the  trial  of  the  popish  lords  ; 
but  Ker  had  been  permitted  to  escape  a 
short  while  previously;  and  the  parlia- 
ment listened  to  the  offers  of  submission 
made  by  the  conspirators,  and  rejected 
the  bill  of  attainder  against  them,  on  the 
pretext  of  want  of  evidence.  Great  and 
general  was  the  dissatisfaction  caused  by 
this  injudicious  lenity  to  men  guilty  of 
repeated  acts  of  treason  ;  and  strong  sus- 
picions arose  in  the  minds  of  many  that 
his  majesty's  own  attachment  to  the  Pro- 
testant faith  was  but  hollow  and  insin- 
cere. The  synod  of  Fife,  at  its  meeting 
in  September,  determined  to  take  such 
steps  as  were  competent  to  it,  as  a  church 
court,  towards  counteracting  the  injurious 
lenity  of  the  king  and  parliament.  On 
the  ground  that  the  Earls  of  Angus  and 
Errol  had,  when  students  at  St.  Andrews, 
within  the  bounds  <5f  that  synod,  sub- 
scribed the  Confession  of  Faith,  and 
thereby  rendered  themselves  amenable 
to  its  jurisdiction,  and  that  Huntly  had 
murdered  the  Earl  of  Murray  within  its 
bounds,  the  synod  of  Fife  proceeded  to 
pass  the  sentence  of  excommunication 
against  these  apostate  conspirators,  and 

•  Booke  of  the  Universall  Kirk,  pp.  385,  386. 


100 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP  IV. 


sent  intimation  of  what  had  been  done 
throughout  the  country.  Intimation  was 
also  given,  that  a  general  meeting  of 
commissioners  from  the  different  counties 
of  the  kingdom,  consisting  of  noblemen, 
gentlemen,  burgesses  and  ministers,  was 
to  be  held  at  Edinburgh  on  the  17th  of 
October.  The  king  was  extremely  an- 
noyed with  these  measures.  They  were 
so  completely  in  unison  with  his  former 
declarations  against  the  popish  conspira- 
tors, and  so  naturally  resulting  from  the 
bond  of  defence  previously  subscribed 
with  his  concurrence,  that  he  could  not 
justly  find  direct  fault  with  them,  and  yet 
so  contrary  to  his  recent  treatment  of  the 
traitors  that  he  could  not  approve  of  them. 
With  his  usual  craft,  he  attempted  to 
tamper  with  several  of  the  noblemen  and 
the  ministers,  to  prevent  the  intimation 
of  the  sentence  of  excommunication,  and 
also  to  impair  the  effect  of  the  coming 
convention.  Not  succeeding  in  his 
schemes,  he  again  dissembled  ;  and  be- 
ing about  to  proceed  to  the  borders  to 
suppress  some  seditious  and  turbulent  af- 
fairs, he  promised  that  he  would  show 
no  favour  to  the  conspirators. 

On  the  very  same  day  on  which  this 
promise  was  given,  the  king  admitted  the 
conspirators  to  his  presence  at  Fala,  and 
made  arrangements  with  them  respect- 
ing their  trial.  The  convention  appoint- 
ed commissioners  to  follow  James  to  Jed- 
burgh,  and  lay  their  complaints  before 
him.  The  reception  given  by  his  ma- 
jesty to  his  faithful  and  zealous  subjects 
was  very  different  from  that  which  he 
had  granted  to  the  traitors  a  few  days  be- 
fore. He  termed  the  convention  an  un- 
lawful meeting,  complained  of  the  sen- 
tence of  excommunication,  and  even 
threatened  to  call  a  parliament  for  the 
purpose  of  overthrowing  Presbyterian 
and  restoring  Prelacy.  When  he  had 
expended  his  wrath  in  idle  threats,  he 
grew  calmer,  and  returned  to  the  petition 
of  the  commissioners  a  written  answer, 
containing  promises  sufficiently  fair,  but 
as  idle.*  It  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  upon 
the  wretched  tergiversation  of  the  king 
in  this  very  important  matter.  A  con- 
vention of  estates  was  held  at  Linlithgow 
in  October,  and  arrangements  were  made 
for  the  final  trial  of  the  rebel  lords  at 
Holyrood-house  in  the  following  month. 

*  Melville's  Dairy,  p.  208. 


The  conclusion  of  the  trial  was  the  pass 
ing  of  what  was  termed  an  "  act  of  aboli- 
tion," by  which  the  popish  lords  were 
ordained  to  give  satisfaction  to  the 
Church,  and  to  embrace  the  Protestant 
faith,  or  else  to  leave  the  kingdom  within 
a  limited  time  ;  the  process  against  them 
was  dropped  and  consigned  to  oblivion  ; 
and  they  were  declared  "  free  and  unac- 
cusable  in  all  time  coming"  of  the  crimes 
laid  to  their  charge,  provided  they  did 
not  for  the  future  enter  into  any  treason 
able  correspondence  with  foreigners. 

This  arrangement  was  equally  unsat- 
isfactory to  the  Church  and  to  the  greater 
part  of  the  nation.  It  was  well  under- 
stood at  that  time,  and  might  be  still,  that 
the  determined  adherents  of  Popery 
could  easily  obtain  absolution  from  Rome 
for  any  oaths  or  concessions  made  to  Pro- 
testants, provided  they  continued  to  plot 
the  destruction  of  the  Protestant  religion ; 
and  therefore,  that  to  think  of  binding 
such  men  with  oaths  and  protestations, 
however  solemn,  was  about  as  wise  as  to 
think  of  fettering  a  beast  of  prey  with  a 
skein  of  rotten  silk.  Nor  was  it  without 
reason  that  James  was  himself  distrusted. 
He  had  repeatedly  broken  his  most  sol- 
emn pledges,  and  brought  his  word  into 
such  suspicion,  that  the  more  earnestly 
he  protested,  the  less  he  was  believed. 
Besides,  the  ruling  motives  of  his  whole 
policy  were  well  known  to  such  men  as 
Andrew  Melville  and  Robert  Bruce. 
They  were  aware  of  his  secret  inter- 
course with  England,  for  the  purpose  of 
promoting  his  succession  to  the  throne  of 
that  kingdom  ;  and  they  knew  that  he 
would  hesitate  at  nothing,  however  base 
and  deceptive,  which  seemed  likely  to 
forward  his  views.  He  knew  that  there 
was  a  strong  popish  party  still  in  Eng- 
land, and  he  was  desirous  of  conciliating 
them  and  procuring  their  support,  which 
he  sought  to  do  by  his  lenient  treatment 
of  his  own  popish  rebels.  To  this  it  may 
be  added,  that  the  political  principles  of 
papists  were  more  agreeable  to  a  mo- 
narch so  devoted  to  despotic  power  and 
uncontrolled  prerogative  as  James,  than 
could  possibly  be  the  free  spirit  which 
lived  and  breathed  in  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Scotland.  For  the  same  rea 
son  Episcopacy  obtained  his  peculiar  fa- 
vour ;  as  his  cunning  enabled  him  to 
perceive,  that  he  might  more  easily  exer- 


A.  D.  1594.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF    SCOTLAND. 


101 


else  an  influence  upon  prelates  who  de 
rived  from  him  their  wealth  and  titles 
and  who,  as  seekers  of  such  selfish  pre 
eminence,  were  likely  to  be  worldly 
minded  and  sycophantish  men,  than  he 
could  ever  hope  to  do  upon  ministers 
who,  deriving  nothing  from  him,  owed 
him  nothing  but  natural  allegiance.  And 
he  had  another  reason  for  wishing  to  re- 
store Prelacy  ;  he  thought  that  his  doing 
so  would  recommend  him  to  the  favour 
and  support  of  the  English  prelates,  who 
both  hated  and  feared  the  Presbyterian 
Church  government  of  Scotland,  as  a 
standing  rebuke  to  their  own  unscrip- 
tural  system.  All  these  reasons  combined 
to  induce  this  crafty  yet  weak-minded 
monarch  to  favour  the  treacherous  abet- 
tors of  despotism,  civil  and  religious,  and 
to  discountenance  the  friends  of  genuine 
freedom, — a  line  of  policy  which  he  pur- 
sued throughout  his  life,  and  left  as  a 
dire  heritage  to  his  successors,  and  which 
they  followed  with  infatuated  pertinacity, 
till  the  ill-omened  race  reaped  the  bane- 
ful fruits  of  generations  of  falsehood  and 
oppression,  and  became  extinct  after  years 
of  exiled,  discrowned,  unhonoured,  and 
unpitied  wretchedness. 

[1594.]  It  is  for  the  civil  historian  to 
relate  the  minor  turmoils  of  the  nation  ; 
such  as  those  caused  by  the  turbulent 
and  ambitious  earl  of  Bothwell,  the  suc- 
cessor in  title  and  in  character  of  him  by 
whom  Darnley  was  murdered  and  Mary 
disgraced  and  ruined,  but  an  illegitimate 
scion  of  the  royal  race,  being  a  grandson 
of  James  V.  The  only  reason  why  such 
events  are  mentioned  here  is,  that  their 
effects  were  not  unfrequently  felt  in  eccle- 
siastical matters  ;  as,  for  example,  where 
Bothwell,  anxious  to  gain  strength,  pre- 
tended to  befriend  the  Church,  and 
thought  thereby  to  procure  the  support  of 
individual  ministers  at  least,  if  not  of  the 
Assembly,  so  completely  did  the  Church 
stand  aloof  from  him  and  his  measures, 
that  he  was  able  to  deceive  and  ensnare 
but  one  minister;  and  upon  the  complaint 
of  the  king,  that  minister  was  deposed, 
till  he  should  satisfy  his  majesty  and  the 
Church.* 

The  same  Assembly  which  so  readily 
testified  its  abhorrence  of  treason,  by 
punishing  one  of  its  own  members  who 
had  been  accused  of  favouring  that  crime, 

"  Booke  of  the  Universal!  Kirk.  p.  408. 


dealt  in  the  same  manner  with  those 
higher  delinquents  whose  greater  offence 
the  king  seemed  more  willing  to  forgive. 
The  Sentence  of  excommunication  pro- 
nounced against  the  conspirators  by  the 
synod  of  Fife,  was  approved  and  ratified 
by  the  Assembly  ;  but  Lord  Home,  who 
had  also  been  excommunicated,  appear- 
ing and  confessing  his  offence,  abjured 
popery,  and  was  released  from  the  sen- 
tence. It  deserves  to  be  remarked,  that 
the  moderator  of  the  Assembly,  Andrew 
Melville,  not  being  satisfied  with  Lord 
Home's  professions  of  repentance,  but 
doubting  their  sincerity,  felt  conscientious 
scruples  respecting  pronouncing  the  act 
of  the  absolution ;  and  the  Assembly, 
with  a  due  regard  to  his  feelings,  ap- 
pointed another  person  to  discharge  that 
duty.  In  more  modern  times,  men  who 
made  no  pretension  to  tenderness  of  con- 
science themselves,  showed  no  such  tol- 
eration of  the  conscientious  convictions 
and  difficulties  of  others.  Yet  this  is  not 
strange,  though  deplorable  ;  for  men  nat- 
urally estimate  others  by  their  own  stan- 
dard ;  and  he  who  knows  that  for  him  to 
plead  tenderness  of  conscience  would  be 
hypocrisy,  regards  that  plea  in  others  as 
entitled  to  no  better  name. 

Another  instance  of  the  loyalty,  public 
spirit,  and  energy  of  the  Church  may  be 
stated.  The  popish  lords,  who  had  pre- 
viously entered  into  a  treasonable  corres- 
pondence with  the  King  of  Spain,  and 
who  had  been  so  leniently  treated  by 
James,  were  again  detected  continuing 
their  treacherous  plots.  The  king,  irri- 
tated into  sincerity,  gave  commission  to 
the  Earl  of  Argyle  to  march  against  the 
;raitors,  and  subdue  them  by  force,  while 
tie  himself  proposed  to  proceed  by  Aber- 
deen, to  see  the  command  fully  executed. 
Argyle  encountered  the  rebel  lords,  but 
sustained  a  partial  defeat.  On  the  day  af- 
ter this  conflict  the  king  left  Edinburgh, 
and  marched  towards  Aberdeen,  taking 
with  him  Andrew  and  James  Melville, 
and  some  other  ministers,  to  witness  his 
zealous  discharge  of  his  determination  to 
suppress  wholly  the  popish  conspirators. 
But  before  any  decisive  measures  had 
seen  taken,  the  money  raised  by  the  king 
for  the  support  of  the  army  was  so  far 
expended,  that  the  troops  were  on  the 
)oint  of  being  disbanded  for  want  of  pay. 
.n  this  emergency,  James  Melville  was 


102 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


sent  back  to  Edinburgh  for  the  purpose 
of  inducing  the  ministers  to  raise,  by  the 
contributions  of  their  congregations,  a 
sum  of  money  to  assist  the  king.  '  This 
mission  he  accomplished  with  extraordi- 
nary speed  and  success,  and  thereby  ena- 
bled the  king  to  keep  his  forces  together 
till  the  object  of  the  expedition  was  ef- 
fected, by  the  demolition  of  the  strong 
holds  of  the  conspirators.  Even  this  was 
nearly  defeated  by  the  vacillation  of  the 
unstable  monarch.  Scarcely  had  James 
Melville  left  the  camp,  when  James  was 
on  the  point  of  frustrating  the  whole 
scheme,  by  yielding  to  the  advice  of  those 
who  wished  him  to  spare  the  rebels. 
The  energy  and  high  principle  of  An- 
drew Melville  prevailed  even  in  the  coun- 
cils of  the  camp,  and  saved  his  sovereign 
from  this  disgrace.  A  little,  a  very  little 
real  wisdom  might  have  enabled  James 
to  perceive  who  were  his  best  friends  and 
wisest  councillors,  and  upon  whom  he 
might  with  the  greatest  confidence  depend 
in  any  time  of  emergency  ;  but  unfortu- 
nately for  himself  and  the  kingdom,  he 
loved  flattery  better  than  advice,  and  pre- 
ferred courtly  sycophants  to  bold  and 
honest  patriots. 

[1595.]  An  Assembly  was  held  at 
Montrose  in  June  1595,  in  which  no 
matters  of  great  importance  were  trans- 
acted ;  but  some  suggestions  were  brought 
forward,  containing  the  germs  of  much 
possible  good,  although  afterwards  em- 
ployed for  evil.  It  was  proposed  that  the 
acts  of  Assembly  should  be  examined, 
and  those  which  had  special  reference  to 
the  practice  of  the  Church  extracted,  and 
joined  with  the  Book  of  Discipline,  for 
the  information  and  guidance  of  all  min- 
isters throughout  the  kingdom.  The  pro- 
posal was  not  carried  into  execution  ;  but 
it  served  to  show  how  completely  the 
Book  of  Discipline  was  regarded  by  the 
Church  as  her  standard  of  government. 
A  commission  was  also  given  to  certain 
brethren  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  the 
revenues  of  the  Church  in  every  presby- 
tery, to  prevent  dilapidations,  and  to  se- 
cure that  they  should  be  expended  in  the 
support  of  the  ministry,  according  to 
their  original  destination.  But  the  sug- 
gestion of  greatest  moment  arose  from  a 
desire  to  provide  a  remedy  for  an  abuse 
which  had  been  productive  of  great  in- 
jury to  the  cause  of  religion.  From  the 


time  of  the  regent  Morton's  administra- 
tion it  had  been  customary  for  men  in 
power  to  endeavour  to  throw  two  or 
three  parishes  into  one,  appointing  but 
one  minister  for  all,  and  retaining  the 
fruits  of  the  remaining  benefices  in 
their  own  hands  ;  and  also  to  change  the 
amount  of  the  teind  (or  tithe)  from  year 
to  year,  so  as  not  unfrequently  to  compel 
the  minister  to  leave  his  charge  from  posi- 
tive want  of  the  necessaries  of  life.  The 
act  of  annexation,  and  the  erection  of  tit- 
ular lordships,  had  greatly  increased  the 
process  of  spoliation.  To  remedy  these 
grievances  the  Assembly  proposed  that 
some  of  the  most  intelligent  of  the  min- 
isters from  every  province  should  make 
themselves  well  acquainted  with  the  af- 
fairs of  their  own  districts,  and  then  con- 
vene in  Edinburgh,  and  draw  up  a  state- 
ment respecting  the  number  of  parish 
churches  which  ought  to  be  in  each  pres- 
bytery, the  amount  of  available  tithes,  by 
whom  held,  and  on  what  tenure ;  that, 
acting  upon  the  certain  knowledge  thus 
acquired,  a  continuing  form,  or  durable 
arrangement,  might  be  made,  by  which 
such  injurious  proceedings  might  for  the 
future  be  prevented.  This  "  constant 
plat,"  as  it  was  termed,  might  have  been 
productive  of  much  good  had  it  been 
carried  into  effect ;  but  the  king,  seeing 
the  anxiety  of  the  Church  to  have  the 
arrangement  made,  availed  himself  of  it 
as  a  measure,  by  promising  to  ratify 
which  he  might  induce  the  ministers  to 
comply  with  some  ensnaring  scheme  of 
his  own. 

[1596.]  The  year  1596  is  peculiarly 
memorable  in  the  history  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland.  "  It  had,"  says  James  Mel- 
ville, "  a  strange  mixture  and  variety ; 
the  beginning  thereof  with  a  show  of 
profit,  in  planting  the  churches  with  per- 
petual local  stipends  ;  the  midst  of  it  very 
comfortable  for  the  exercise  of  reforma- 
tion and  renewing  the  covenant ;  but  the 
end  of  it  tragical,  in  wasting  the  Zion  of 
our  Jerusalem,  the  church  of  Edinburgh, 
and  threatening  no  less  to  many  of  the 
rest.*  The  first  thing  which  occupied 
the  attention  of  the  Assembly  was  an 
overture  from  John  Davidson,  minister 
of  Prestonpans,  concerning  the  necessity 
of  reforming  the  many  prevalent  corrup- 
tions of  the  Church  and  the  country. 

•  Melville's  Dairy,  p.  222. 


A.  D.  1596.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


103 


The  overture  met  with  unanimous  appro- 
bation, the  conscience  of  every  man  pres- 
ent convincing  him  of  his  own  need 
of  humiliation  and  repentance.  Order 
was  given  that  a  written  form  of  confes- 
sion should  be  drawn  up,  containing  an 
enumeration  of  the  evils  to  be  reformed, 
under  the  four  following  heads :  corrup- 
tions in  the  persons  and  lives  of  the  min- 
isters of  the  gospel ;  offences  in  his  ma- 
jesty's house ;  the  common  corruptions 
of  all  estates  ;  and  offences  in  the  courts 
of  justice.  On  the  motion  of  Melville, 
the  means  to  be  employed  for  reforming 
ministers,  and  the  censures  to  be  inflicted 
on  them  for  particular  acts  of  delinquency, 
were  specified.  As  confession  is  the  pri- 
mary step  of  reformation,  the  members 
of  Assembly  agreed  to  meet  by  them- 
selves, for  the  purpose  of  jointly  confes- 
sing their  sins,  and  "  making  promise  be- 
fore the  Majesty  of  God"  to  amend  their 
conduct.  They  met  accordingly  in  the 
Little  Church,  on  Tuesday  the  30th  of 
March.  John  Davidson,  the  author  of 
the  overture,  was  chosen  to  preside  and 
lead  their  devotional  exercises.  So  deeply 
searching  were  his  words,  that  they 
wrought  conviction  in  every  heart ;  and 
his  earnest  and  humble  confession  of  sin 
drew  tears  of  sincere  penitence  from 
every  eye.  While  they  were  in  this 
frame  of  mind,  he  called  upon  them  to 
pause,  and  in  the  privacy  of  their  own 
souls  to  acknowledge,  each  man  for  him- 
self, his  personal  guilt  before  God.  For 
a  quarter  of  an  hour  a  solemn  stillness 
reigned,  broken  only  by  deep-drawn  sighs 
and  heavy,  half-stifled  sobs,  as  each  man 
searched  apart  the  dark  chambers  of  his 
own  bosom.  After  another  fervent  prayer 
and  impressive  address,  they  rose  from 
their  seats  at  his  desire,  and  lifting  up 
their  right  hands,  they  renewed  their 
covenant  with  God,  "protesting  to  walk 
more  warily  in  their  ways,  and  to  be 
more  diligent  in  their  charges."  "  There 
have  been  many  days,"  says  Calderwood, 
"  of  humiliation  for  present  judgments,  or 
imminent  dangers  ;  but  the  like  for  sin 
and  defection  was  never  seen  since  the  re- 
formation."* 

As  this  solemn  confession  of  sin  re- 
garded the  nation,  that  it  might  be  done 
nationally,  the  Assembly  ordained  that  it 

Calderwood,  pp.  317,  318;  Melville's  Dairy,  pp.  232, 
233-  Booke  or  the  Universal!  Kirk,  pp.  426-429. 


should  be  repeated  in  the  several  synods 
and  presbyteries,  and  that  it  should  also 
be  extended  to  congregations.  This  or- 
dinance was  obeyed  with  such  a  degree 
of  readiness  and  fervour,  and  with  such 
manifestations  of  sincere  contrition,  as 
proved  that  it  both  sprang  from  and  was 
accompanied  by  the  all-pervading  power 
of  the  Spirit  of  God.  At  Dunfermline 
the.  synod  of  Fife  met,  and  conducted  the 
duties  of  the  solemn  transaction  in  a 
peculiarly  impressive  manner.  The 
synod  was  addressed  by  David  Fergu- 
son, one  of  the  first  six  ministers  engaged 
in  the  Reformation,  and  now  the  sole 
survivor ;  who,  after  giving  a  brief  ac- 
count of  the  perils  that  had  been  encoun- 
tered, and  difficulties  surmounted  in  that 
great  work,  urged  his  younger  brethren 
to  fidelity  and  zeal  in  their  less  hazardous 
toils  and  duties.  Many  a  dark  and 
stormy  day  had  the  reforming  patriarch 
seen  and  struggled  through;  and  his 
grave  words  must  have  sounded  to  his 
younger  brethren  like  the  voice  of  warn- 
ing, admonition,  and  encouragement, 
breathed  forth  to  his  sons  by  a  departing 
father. 

Men  of  the  world  may  smile  at  the 
thought ;  but  we  do  not  hesitate  to  say. 
that  we  regard  this  solemn  confession  of 
sin  and  renewal  of  the  covenant  as  an  ex- 
press means  employed  by  Divine  Provi- 
dence to  prepare  the  Church  for  the 
wasting  conflict  in  which  'she  was  soon 
to  be  engaged, — the  fiery  trial  through 
which  she  was  soon  to  pass.  It  was  the 
communication  of  spiritual  strength  ena- 
bling her  to  live  through  a  period  of 
dreary  oppression  and  prostrate  suffering, 
without  which  she  must  have  perished ; 
like  the  food  given  to  Elijah  by  the  angel, 
to  sustain  him  in  his  journey  through  the 
wilderness,  which  would  otherwise  have 
been  "  too  great  for  him." 

The  attempt  to  establish  the  mode  of 
supporting  the  ministry  on  a  firm  and 
satisfactory  basis,  called  by  the  writers 
of  that  period  the  "  constant  plat,"  occu- 
pied a  portion  of  the  attention  of  the 
Assembly.  The  scheme  proposed  for 
consideration  was  drawn  up  by  Secretary 
Lindsay,  and  may  be  seen  at  length  in 
Melville's  Diary.*  It  deserves  the  atten- 
tion of  public  men  yet,  containing  many 
suggestions  which,  if  carried  into  effect, 

*  Melville's  Dairy,  pp.  223-229. 


104 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


would  greatly  promote  the  welfare  of  the 
community.  But  its  principles  were  too 
sound,  and  its  arrangements  too  liberal, 
to  gain  the  favour  of  the  king  and  his 
avaricious  courtiers  ;  who,  having  seized 
upon  what  even  this  scheme  terms  "  the 
patrimony  of  the  Church,"  could  not  be 
prevailed  upon  to  make  restitution  of  the 
pillage.  The  main  principles  of  Lind- 
say's scheme  were  the  same  as  those 
which  had  been  proposed  by  Knox  and 
the  early  reformers : — That  the  whole 
tithes  should  be  regarded  as  the  patri- 
mony of  the  Church;  and  that  they 
should  be  expended  in  the  support  of  the 
ministers  of  the  gospel,  a  national  system 
of  education,  and  the  poor  of  the  land. 
Could  this  scheme  have  been  carried  into 
effect,  it  must  have  prevented  many  evils, 
and  produced  benefits  altogether  incalcu- 
lable. It  would  have  placed  the  minis- 
ters in  that  happy  medium,  congenial  to 
the  spirit  of  Presbytery,  alike  remote 
from  the  evils  and  temptations  of  wealth 
and  of  poverty, — rendering  the  return  of 
Prelacy  impracticable,  and  delivering  the 
Church  from  those  insidious  arts  by 
which  James  sought  to  gain  the  aid 
of  the  poor  and  the  ambitious.  It  might 
also  have  produced  such  a  harmonious 
adjustment  of  all  the  great  interests  of  the 
community, — at  once  cultivating  the  na- 
tional mind  and  mitigating  the  bitter  evils 
of  poverty  and  want, — as  would  have 
secured  the  peace  and  happiness  of  the 
commonwealth  to  a  degree  that  never  yet 
has  been  experienced  in  any  age  or 
country.  But,  like  every  scheme  of 
Christian  benevolence  devised  by  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  and  from  time  to 
time  re-produced  by  her  friends,  it  was 
frustrated  by  the  narrow  and  selfish 
views  of  kings  and  statesmen,  who  seem 
never  yet  to  have  learned  that  to  secure 
the  nation's  good,  and  not  their  own 
aggrandisement,  is  the  very  end  of  their 
public  being,  and  that,  indeed,  their  own 
true  welfare  and  that  of  the  community 
are  one. 

To  proceed  with  our  narrative :  Ru- 
mours of  a  near  impending  Spanish  in- 
vasion began  to  pervade  the  kingdom. 
While  men's  minds  were  in  a  state  of 
great  anxiety  on  account  of  these  tidings, 
and  after  the  king  had  himself  given  or- 
ders for  military  musters,  and  urged  the 
ministers  to  exhort  their  people  to  take 


arms,  provide  supplies,  and  prepare  to 
meet  the  meditated  attacks, — while  the 
public  mind  was  in  this  state  of  tremulous 
excitement,  an  additional  element  of 
alarm  was  given  by  the  tidings  that  the 
popish  lords  had  secretly  entered  the 
kingdom.  The  affairs  of  the  court 
tended  to  increase  the  public  distrust  and 
anxiety.  Since  the  death  of  Chancellor 
Maitland  the  administration  of  affairs  had 
been  entrusted  to  eight  persons,  com- 
monly called  Octavians,  the  greater  part 
of  whom  were  either  known  or  suspected 
Papists.  It  was  at  once  believed  that 
they  were  privy  to  the  return  of  the  con- 
spirators, and  would  exert  themselves  to 
procure  for  those  traitors  both  indemnity 
and  admission  to  his  majesty's  councils  ; 
in  which  case  the  nation  might  speedily 
be  exposed  to  all  the  horrors  of  a  popish 
persecution,  of  which  it  had  not  yet  lost 
the  remembrance. 

It  soon  appeared  that  these  suspicions 
were  too  well  founded.  A  meeting  of 
the  privy  council  was  summoned  at  Falk- 
land, to  take  into  consideration  an  offer 
of  submission  by  Huntly,  for  himself  and 
his  associates.  Certain  ministers,  whom 
the  court  judged  more  complying  than 
the  rest,  were  invited  to  attend  this  meet- 
ing, to  give  their  advice.  Plausible  argu- 
ments were  employed  by  the  friends 
of  the  exiled  noblemen,  to  induce  the 
council  to  sanction  their  return,  lest,  like 
Coriolanus  and  Themistocles,  they  should 
join  the  enemies  of  their  country  :  but 
Andrew  Melville,  who  had  of  his  own 
accord  joined  the  other  ministers,  uttered 
a  bold  and  strong  remonstrance  against 
receiving  into  favour  convicted  traitors 
and  popish  apostates,  enemies  at  once  of 
their  native  country  and  of  the  gospel. 
Melville  was  commanded  to  withdraw, 
his  presence  not  having  been  required, 
which  he  did,  having  thus  first  exoner- 
ated his  conscience.  The  council  came  to 
the  resolution  that  Huntly  might  be  re- 
stored upon  his  acceding  to  such  con- 
ditions as  the  king  and  council  should 
prescribe.  This  resolution  gave  so  much 
offence,  that  the  king  thought  proper 
twice  to  declare  publicly  that  he  did  not 
mean  to  act  upon  it ;  yet  a  short  time 
afterwards  a  convention  of  estates  was 
held  at  Dunfermline,  and  the  Falkland 
resolution  there  approved  of  and  ratified. 

His  majesty's  manifest  breach  of  faith 


A.  D.  1596.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


105 


increased  the  public  alarm  so  greatly,  that 
the  commissioners  of  the  Assembly  and 
some  country  gentlemen  met  at  Cupar  in 
Fife,  and  appointed  a  deputation  to  wait 
on  the  king,  and  petition  him  to  prevent 
the  evil  consequences  which  must  result 
from  such  proceedings.  It  had  been 
agreed  that  James  Melville  should  be  the 
person  to  address  his  majesty,  because  of 
his  courteous  manner,  and  the  favourable 
regard  which  the  king  had  shown  him. 
Scarcely  had  he  begun  to  speak  when 
the  king  interrupted  him,  challenged  the 
meeting  at  Cupar  as  seditious,  and  ac- 
cused them  of  exciting  causeless  fears  in 
the  minds  of  the  people.  As  James  Mel- 
ville was  beginning  a  reply,  couched  in 
his  mildest  terms,  his  uncle,  .Andrew, 
finding  that  the  occasion  demanded  a  full 
and  uncompromising  statement  of  first 
principles,  quitted  the  subordinate  posi- 
tion which  he  had  been  willing  for  the 
time  to  occupy,  and  confronting  the  king, 
began  to  address  him.  James  endeav- 
oured authoritatively  to  command  Mel- 
ville to  silence  ;  but  his  high  spirit  was 
roused,  and  could  not  be  overborne. 
Seizing  the  king's  robe  by  the  sleeve,  in 
the  earnestness  of  his  mind  and  action, 
and  terming  him  "  God?  s  silly  vassal"  he 
addressed  him  in  a  strain  such  as  few 
kings  have  ever  had  the  happiness  to 
hear,  "  uttering  their  commission  as  from 
the  mighty  God." 

"  Sir,"  said  he,  "  we  will  always  hum- 
bly reverence  your  majesty  in  public  ; 
but  since  we  have  this  occasion  to  be  with 
your  majesty  in  private,  and  since  you 
are  brought  in  extreme  danger  of  your 
life  and  crown,  and  along  with  you  the 
country  and  the  Church  of  God  are  like 
to  go  to  wreck,  for  not  telling  you  the 
truth  and  giving  you  faithful  counsel,  we 
must  discharge  our  duty,  or  else  be  trai- 
tors both  to  Christ  and  you.  Therefore, 
Sir,  as  divers  times  before  I  have  told  you, 
so  now  again  I  must  tell  you,  there  are 
two  kings  and  two  kingdoms  in  Scot- 
land :  there  is  King  James,  the  head 
of  the  commonwealth,  and  there  is  Christ 
Jesus,  the  King  of  the  Church,  whose 
subject  James  the  Sixth  is,  and  of  whose 
kingdom  he  is  not  a  king,  nor  a  lord,  nor 
a  head,  but  a  member.  Sir,  those  whom 
Christ  has  called  and  commanded  to 
watch  over  his  Church,  have  power  and 
authority  from  Him  to  govern  his  spirit- 
14 


ual  kingdom,  both  jointly  and  severally ; 
the  which  no  Christian  king  or  prince 
should  control  and  discharge,  but  fortify 
and  assist ;  otherwise  they  are  not  faithful 
subjects  of  Christ  and  members  of  his 
Church.  We  will  yield  to  you  your 
place,  and  give  you  all  due  obedience ; 
but  again,  I  say,  you  are  not  the  head  of 
the  Church ;  you  cannot  give  us  that 
eternal  life  which  we  seek  for  even  in 
this  world,  and  you  cannot  deprive  us  of 
it.  Permit  us  then  freely  to  meet  in  the 
name  of  Christ,  and  to  attend  to  the  inter- 
ests of  that  Church  of  which  you  are  the 
chief  member.  Sir,  when  you  were  in 
your  swaddling  clothes,  Christ  Jesus 
reigned  freely  in  this  land,  in  spite  of  all 
his  enemies.  His  officers  and  ministers 
convened  and  assembled  for  the  ruling 
and  welfare  of  his  Church,  which  was 
ever  for  your  welfare,  defence  and  pres- 
ervation, when  these  same  enemies  were 
seeking  your  destruction.  Their  assem- 
blies since  that  time  continually  have 
been  terrible  to  these  enemies,  and  most 
stedfast  to  you.  And  now,  when  there  is 
more  than  extreme  necessity  for  the  con- 
tinuance and  discharge  of  that  duty,  will 
you  (drawn  to  your  own  destruction  by  a 
most  pernicious  counsel)  begin  to  hinder 
and  dishearten  Christ's  servants  and 
your  most  faithful  subjects,  quarrelling 
them  for  their  convening,  and  the  care 
they  have  of  their  duty  to  Christ  and 
you,  when  you  should  rather  commend 
and  countenance  them,  as  the  godly  kings 
and  emperors  did  ?  The  wisdom  of  your 
counsel,  which  I  call  devilish,  is  this,  that 
you  must  be  served  by  all  sorts  of  men, 
to  come  to  your  purpose  and  grandeur, 
Jew  and  Gentile,  Papist  and  Protestant ; 
and  because  the  Protestants  and  ministers 
of  Scotland  are  over  strong,  and  control 
the  king,  they  must  be  weakened  and 
brought  low  by  stirring  up  a  party  against 
them,  and,  the  king  being  equal  and 
indifferent,  both  should  be  fain  to  flee  to 
him.  But.  Sir,  if  God's  wisdom  be  the 
only  true  wisdom,  this  will  prove  mere 
and  mad  folly  ;  His  curse  cannot  but 
light  upon  it ;  in  seeking  both  ye  shall 
lose  both  ;  whereas  in  cleaving  uprightly 
to  God,  His  true  servants  would  be  your 
sure  friends,  and  He  would  compel  the 
rest  counterfeitly  and  lyingly  to  give  over 
themselves  and  serve  you."* 

•  Melville's  Dairy,  pp.  245,  246. 


106 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


CHAP.  IV. 


The  dignity  and  power  of  these  high 
sentiments  overbore  the  petulant  anger 
of  the  king ;  his  heart  was  awed,  and 
his  soul  felt  for  a  space  the  hallowed 
ene^Ty  of  sacred  truth.  He  uttered  no 
wrathful  reply  ;  he  attempted  not  to  dis- 
pute the  principles  to  which  he  had  been 
compelled  to  listen ;  but  declaring  that 
the  popish  lords  had  returned  without 
his  previous  knowledge,  he  pledged  his 
word  that  the  proposals  which  they  had 
made  to  the  privy  council  should  not  be 
received  till  they  left  the  kingdom,  and 
that  even  then  he  would  show  them  no 
favour  before  they  satisfied  the  Church. 
So  ended  that  remarkable  interview  be- 
tween the  king  and  Melville,  in  which 
the  latter  gave  free  expression  to  the  sen- 
timents and  principles  which  the  Church 
of  Scotland  has  always  held  as  essential 
to  the  constitutional  freedom  and  purity 
of  the  Christian  Church.  That  such 
pinciples  would  not  find  favour  in  the 
eyes  of  an  arbitrary  monarch,  was  not 
surprising;  but  that  men  who  at  least 
affect  to  be  strenuous  advocates  of  religious 
and  civil  liberty,  should  reprehend  them 
as  lawless  and  rebellious,  might  well  ex- 
cite feelings  of  indignant  astonishment, 
were  it  not  for  the  painful  truth,  that  men 
of  the  world  will  not  perceive  and  ac- 
knowledge the  inseparable  connection  be- 
tween religious  freedom  and  civil  liberty, 
the  former  as  the  sacred  cause,  the  latter 
as  the  effect.  Religious  freedom  cannot 
long  exist  without  producing  civil  liber- 
ty; and  civil  liberty  can  neither  come 
into  being  without  religious  liberty,  nor 
survive  it,  even  for  a  day.  The  Church 
was  then,  and  evermore  must  be,  the 
parent  and  the  guardian  of  liberty,  sa- 
cred and  civil,  and  therefore  doubly  dear 
to  every  free-born  and  free-hearted 
Christian  man. 

The  solemn  pledge  of  the  king  was 
soon  found  to  be,  as  formerly,  a  frail  secu- 
rity. Steps  for  restoring  the  popish  con- 
spirators were  taken,  of  which  public  in- 
timation sufficiently  intelligible  was  given, 
by  the  invitation  of  the  Countess  of  Hunt- 
ly  to  the  baptism  of  the  Princess  Eliza- 
beth, and  the  appointment  of  Lady  Living- 
ston, an  adherent  to  the  Romish  Church, 
to  have  charge  of  the  person  of  the  royal 
infant.  These  ominous  proceedings  were 
not  unmarked  by  the  nation's  vigilant 
guardians.  The  commissioners  of  the 


Assembly  met  at  Edinburgh  in  October, 
and  wrote  circular  letters  to  all  the  pres- 
byteries, pointing  out  the  imminent  dan- 
gers of  the  present  crisis,  and  specifying 
the  measures  necessary  to  be  taken,  to 
me<H,  and,  if  possible,  to  avert  the  peril. 
These  remedial  measures  were,  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  day  of  humiliation  and 
prayer, — the  renewal  of  the  excommuni- 
cation of  the  popish  conspirators, — the 
summoning  of  a  certain  number  of 
ministers  from  different  parts  of  the  king- 
dom, to  form,  along  with  the  presbytery 
of  Edinburgh,  an  extraordinary  council 
of  the  church,  to  receive  information,  de- 
liberate, and  convoke,  if  necessary,  a 
meeting  of  the  General  Assembly. 

This  energetic  procedure  of  the 
Church  convinced  the  court  that  some- 
thing more  than  mere  deceit  would  be 
necessary  for  the  subversion  of  religious 
and  civil  liberty.  It  was  therefore  deter- 
mined to  make  a  direct  assault  upon  the 
privileges  of  the  Church,  hoping  thereby 
forcibly  to  subdue,  since  they  could  not 
guilefully  delude  her.  This  intention 
came  first  to  the  knowledge  of  the  com- 
missioners at  an  interview  which  they 
had  requested  with  the  king,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  endeavouring  to  remove  the 
jealousies  which  existed  between  them. 
On  that  occasion,  the  king  told  them 
plainly,  that  there  could  be  no  agreement 
between  him  and  them,  "  till  the  marches 
of  their  jurisdiction  were  rid,"  and  un- 
less the  following  points  were  yielded  to 
him  : — That  the  preachers  should  not  in- 
troduce matters  of  state  into  their  ser- 
mons ;  that  the  General  Assembly  should 
not  be  convened  without  his  authority 
and  special  command  ;  that  nothing  done 
in  it  should  be  held  valid  until  ratified 
by  him  in  the  same  manner  as  acts  of 
parliament ;  and  that  none  of  the  church 
courts  should  take  cognizance  of  any  of- 
fence which  was  punishable  by  the  crim- 
inal law  of  the  land.  Some,  even  in 
the  present  day,  will  think  that  the 
Church  ought  at  once  to  have  assented 
to  these  conditions.  But  those  who  are 
adequately  acquainted  with  the  history 
of  that  period  will  be  well  aware,  that  to 
have  done  sor would  have  been  putting 
it  into  the  king's  power  to  establish  at 
once  a  pure  despotism  ;  while  those  who 
have  studied  the  nature  of  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction,  as  contradistinguished  from 


A.  D.  159G.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


107 


that  of  civil  courts,  must  also  know,  that 
to  have  complied  with  the  king's  de- 
mands would  have  been  yielding-  up  the 
very  essence  of  every  thing  which  con- 
stitutes a  Church,  and  placing  all  mat- 
ters of  doctrine,  government,  and  disci- 
pline, entirely  under  his  control.  Such 
an  institution  as  that  would  have  been 
might  have  been  termed  the  king's 
Church,  but  could  have  been  no  longer 
the  Church  of  Christ. 

The  slighest  shadow  of  doubt  respect- 
ing the  ultimate  designs  of  the  court,  if 
any  had  still  remained,  was  soon  removed 
by  the  information  that  David  Black, 
minister  of  St.  Andrews,  had  been  sum- 
moned to  answer  before  the  privy  coun- 
cil for  certain  expressions  said  to  have 
been  used  by  him  in  his  sermons.  It 
was  now  evident  that  the  entire  over- 
throw of  the  liberties  of  the  Church  was 
intended  ;  and  the  commissioners  resolv- 
ed to  make  a  firm  and  united  resistance 
to  this  premeditated  attack.  They  wrote 
to  the  presbyteries  to  warn  them  against 
any  attempt  to  disunite  them,  directing 
their  attention  particularly  to  those  sub- 
jects likely  to  be  controverted,  and  to  the 
acts  of  privy  council  and  parliament  by 
which  the  liberties  of  the  Church  had  re- 
ceived the  sanction  of  the  civil  powers. 
To  avoid,  if  possible,  a  direct  collision, 
they  endeavoured  to  persuade  the  king 
to  abandon  the  prosecution  of  Black ; 
but  finding  all  their  efforts  ineffectual, 
and  being  well  aware  that  if  they  did 
not  resist  this  attempt,  it  would  speedily 
become  a  precedent  for  subjecting  the 
whole  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  to  the 
arbitrary  will  of  the  king,  they  came  to 
the  resolution  of  advising  Black  to  de- 
cline the  judgment  of  the  privy  council, 
as  incompetent  to  decide,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, on  the  accusation  brought  against 
him.  A  declinature  having  been  drawn 
up  to  that  effect,  it  was  sent  through  the 
presbyteries,  and  in  a  very  short  time 
subscribed  by  upwards  of  three  hundred 
ministers. 

There  was  now  an  open  and  avowed 
contest  between  the  civil  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal authorities  ;  and  not  merely  the  peace 
of  the  kingdom,  but  the  interests  of  re- 
ligion for  generations  were  involved  in 
the  issue.  The  Church  displayed  an 
extraordinary  degree  of  unanimity  in 
this  dangerous  crisis  •  even  those  who 


were  not  peculiarly  distinguished  for 
zeal  in  ordinary  cases  cast  aside  their 
lethargy,  and  joined  warmly  in  the  de- 
fence of  the  threatened  right  of  the 
Church.  Spots  wood  himself  was,  or 
seemed  to  be,  peculiarly  forward  to  de- 
fend the  men  and  the  cause,  whom  he 
was  afterwards  more  than  suspected  of 
at  that  very  time  secretly  betraying,  and 
whom  he  afterwards  basely  and  falsely 
calumniated.  Previous  to  giving  in  his 
general  declinature,  Black  was  summon- 
ed before  the  council,  super  inquirendis, 
about  unspecified  matters  into  which  in- 
quiry was  to  be  made  ;  and  when  he  ob- 
I  jected  to  this  mode  of  procedure  as  in- 
!  quisitorial  and  illegal,  he  was  then  told 
I  that  the  accusation  was  restricted  to  mat- 
ters complained  of  by  the  English  am- 
bassador, as  assailing  the  character  of 
Elizabeth.  So  trivial  was  the  first  form 
of  accusation,  that  even  the  king  said  he 
"  did  not  think  much  of  the  matter ;  only 
he  should  take  some  course  for  pacifying 
the  English  ambassador  ;  but  take  heed 
that  you  do  not  decline  the  judicatory ;  for 
if  you  do,  it  will  be  worse  than  any 
thing  that  has  fallen  out."  The  Eng- 
lish ambassador  was  easily  pacified  ;  but 
that  did  not  serve  the  king's  purpose ; 
and  accordingly  a  new  charge  was 
brought  against  him,  ranging  over  the 
alleged  improper  language  of  the  three 
preceding  years.  In  vain  did  Black  pro- 
duce testimonials  from  the  provost  and  the 
professors  of  St.  Andrews ;  the  council 
was  determined  to  proceed.  On  the  day 
fixed  for  hearing  the  cause,  he  was  as- 
sisted by  Pont  and  Bruce ;  but  the 
council  rejected  the  declinature,  disre- 
garded the  testimonials,  found  the 
charges  against  him  proved,  and  sen- 
tenced him  to  be  confined  beyond  the 
Tay,  until  his  majesty  resolved  what 
farther  punishment  should  be  inflicted. 

This  unjust  and  oppressive  sentence 
was  not  pronounced  without  a  very 
solemn  warning  having  been  previously 
given  by  the  Church.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  Black's  trial,  the  commissioners 
presented  to  the  king  and  council  an  ad- 
dress, containing  their  deliberate  senti- 
ments respecting  the  nature  of  the  con- 
test in  which  they  were  engaged,  and  the 
momentous  consequences  which  it  in- 
volved. A  portion  of  this  document 
must  be  given,  for  the  vindication  of  the 


108 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IV, 


Church  of  Scotland  from  the  calumnies 
of  her  enemies,  and  for  the  exposition  of 
the  truly  Christian  and  patriotic  senti- 
ments by  which  the  ministers  were  ani- 
mated. 

"  We  are  compelled,  for  clearing  of 
our  ministry  from  all  suspicion  of  such 
unnatural  affection  and  offices  towards 
your  majesty  and  the  state  of  your 
majesty's  country,  to  call  that  great  Judge 
who  searcheth  the  hearts,  and  shall  give 
recompence  to.  every  one  conform  to  the 
secret  thought  thereof,  to  be  judge  be- 
twixt us  and  the  authors  of  all  these  ma- 
licious calumnies.  Before  His  tribunal 
we  protest,  that  we  always  bore,  now 
bear,  and  shall  bear,  God  willing,  to  our 
life's  end,  as  loyal  affection  to  your  ma- 
jesty as  any  of  your  majesty's  best  sub- 
jects within  your  majesty's  realm,  of 
whatsoever  degree  ;  and,  according  to 
our  power  and  calling  shall  be,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  as  ready  to  procure  and 
maintain  your  majesty's  welfare,  peace 
and  advancement,  as  any  of  the  best  af- 
fectioned  whosoever.  We  call  your 
majesty's  own  heart  to  record,  whether 
you  have  not  found  it  so  in  effect  to  your 
majesty's  straits,  and  if  your  majesty  be 
not  persuaded  to  find  the  like  of  us  all, 
if  it  shall  fall  out  that  your  majesty  have 
occasion  in  these  difficulties  to  have  the 
trial  of  the  affection  of  your  subjects 
again.  Whatsoever  we  have  uttered, 
either  in  our  doctrine  or  in  other  actions 
toward  your  majesty,  it  hath  proceeded 
of  a  zealous  affection  toward  your  majes- 
ty's welfare,  above  all  things  next  to  the 
honour  of  God,  as  we  protest ;  choosing 
rather  by  the  liberty  of  our  admonitions 
to  hazard  ourselves,  than  by  our  silence 
to  suffer  your  majesty  to  draw  on  the 
guiltiness  "of  any  sin  that  might  involve 
your  majesty  in  the  wrath  and  judgment 
of  God.  In  respect  whereof  we  most 
humbly  beseech  your  majesty  so  to  es- 
teem of  us  and  our  proceedings,  as  tend- 
ing always,  in  great  sincerity  of  our 
hearts,  to\he  establishing  of  religion,  the 
surety  of  your  majesty's  estate  and  crown 
(which  we  acknowledge  to  be  insepar- 
ably joined  therewith),  and  to  the  com- 
mon peace  and  welfare  of  the  whole 
country.  We  persuade  ourselves,  that 
howsoever  the  first  motion  of  this  action 
might  have  proceeded  upon  a  purpose  of 
your  majesty  to  have  the  limits  of  the 


spiritual  jurisdiction  distinguished  from 
the  civil,  yet  the  same  is  entertained  and 
blown  up  by  the  favourers  of  those  that 
are,  and  shall  prove  in  the  end,  the 
greatest  enemies  that  either  your  majesty 
or  the  cause  of  God  can  have  in  this 
country;  thinking  thereby  to  engender 
such  a  misliking  betwixt  your  majesty 
and  the  ministry  as  shall  by  time  take 
away  all  farther  trust,  and  in  end  work 
a  division  irreconcilable,  wherethrough 
your  majesty  might  be  brought  to  think 
your  greatest  friends  to  be  your  enemies, 
and  your  greatest  enemies  to  be  your 
friends.  There  is  no  necessity  at  this 
time,  nor  occasion  offered  on  our  part, 
to  insist  on  the  decision  of  intricate  and 
unprofitable  questions  and  processes  ;  al- 
beit, by  the  subtle  craft  of  adversaries  of 
your  majesty's  quietness,  some  absurd 
and  almost  incredible  suppositions 
(which  the  Lord  forbid  should  enter  in 
the  part  of  Christians,  let  be  in  the 
hearts  of  the  Lord's  messengers)  be 
drawn  in  and  urged  importunately  at 
this  time,  as  if  the  surety  and  privilege  of 
your  majesty's  crown  and  authority  royal 
depended  on  the  present  decision  thereof. 
We  must  humbly  beseech  your  majesty 
to  remit  the  decision  thereof  to  our  law- 
ful Assembly,  that  might  determine  there- 
upon according  to  the  Word  of  God. 
For,  this  we  protest  in  the  sight  of  God, 
according  to  the  light  that  he  hath  given 
us  in  his  truth,  that  the  special  cause  of 
the  blessing  that  remaineth  and  hath  re- 
mained upon  your  majesty  and  your 
majesty's  country,  since  your  coronation, 
hath  been,  and  is,  the  liberty  which  the 
Gospel  hath  had  within  your  realm; 
and  if  your  majesty,  under  whatsoever 
colour,  abridge  the  same  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, the  wrath  of  the  Lord  shall  be 
kindled  against  vour  majesty  and  the 
kingdom,  which  we,  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  forewarn  you  of,  that  your 
majesty's  and  your  council's  blood  lie  not 
upon  us."* 

These  solemn  and  evidently  heart- 
wrung  remonstrances  had  no  effect  upon 
James  and  his  council :  they  were  so  in- 
tent upon  their  great  design  of  humbling 
the  Church,  that  the  earnest  pathos  and 
fervent  piety  of  the  ministers  made  no  im- 
pression upon  their  callous  and  haughty 
hearts.  Still,  with  astonishing  forbear- 

*  Calderwood,  pp.  344,  345. 


A.  D.  1596. ] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


109 


ance  and  patience,  the  commissioners  of 
the  Church  continued  to  strive  for  peace, 
if  it  could  be  obtained  without  the  aban- 
donment of  sacred  principles.  Again 
they  sought  an  interview  with  his  majes- 
ty, for  the  purpose  of  attempting  an 
agreement ;  but  nothing  would  satisfy 
the  king,  except  the  complete  submission 
of  Black  to  every  point  of  his  accusation. 
The  ministers  answered  with  sad  and 
solemn  earnestness,  "  that  if  the  matter 
concerned  only  the  life  of  Mr.  Black,  or 
that  of  a  dozen  others,  they  would  have 
thought  it  of  comparatively  trifling  im- 
portance ;  but  as  it  was  the  liberty  of  the 
Gospel,  and  the  spiritual  sovereignty  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  that  was  assailed,  they 
could  not  submit,  but  must  oppose  all 
such  proceeding,  to  the  extreme  hazard 
of  their  lives."  This  declaration,  uttered 
by  Bruce  in  his  grave  and  serious  man- 
ner, moved  the  heart  of  the  king  for  a 
moment,  till  he  even  shed  tears ;  and 
that  night  he  pondered  anxiously  and 
rested  little,  perceiving  that  his  attempt 
was  likely  to  be  followed  by  consequences 
which  he  had  not  anticipated.*  But  his 
courtly  parasites  soon  regained  their  as- 
cendency :  the  Lord  President  Seaton 
persuaded  him  that  he  could  not,  without 
loss  of  honour,  abandon  the  prosecution  ; 
his  remorse  passed  away  ;  and  again  he 
prosecuted  .his  designs,  with  even  in- 
creased asperity  and  violence. 

The  king,  by  a  proclamation,  ordered 
the  commissioners  of  the  Asssembly  to 
leave  Edinburgh,  declaring  their  powers 
unwarranted  and  illegal ;  and  an  act  of 
council  was  passed,  ordaining  the  minis- 
ters, before  receiving  payment  of  their 
stipends,  to  subscribe  a  bond,  in  which 
they  promised  to  submit  to  the  judgment 
of  the  king  and  the  privy  council  as  often 
as  they  were  accused  of  seditious  or  trea- 
sonable doctrine ;  and  commanding  all 
magistrates  in  burghs,  and  noblemen  and 
gentlemen  in  country  parishes,  to  inter- 
rupt and  imprison  any  preachers  whom 
they  should  hear  uttering  such  language 
from  pulpits.  At  the  same  time  a  circu- 
lar missive  was  prepared,  for  calling  a 
convention  of  Estates,  and  a  General 
Assembly,  to  be  held  at  Edinburgh,  on 
the  15th  of  the  following  February,  to 
take  into  consideration  "  the  whole  order 


"  Oaklerwood,  p.  349;  Life  of  Bruce  ;  Livingstone's 
Memorable  Characters,  p.  74. 


and  policy  of  the  Kirk."  From  this  it 
was  perfectly  evident  that  the  entire  over- 
throw of  the  Presbyterian  Church  was 
intended. 

On  the  17th  of  December,  a  rumour 
being  spread  that  the  Earl  of  Huntly  had 
arrived  in  the  capital,  and  been  admitted 
to  the  presence  of  the  king,  the  ministers 
and  the  citizens  became  greatly  alarmed ; 
which  was  increased  by  the  fact,  that 
a  charge  had  just  been  given  to  twenty- 
four  of  the  most  zealous  of  the  towns- 
men  to  remove  from   Edinburgh.      In 
this  state  of  excitement  an  evil-disposed 
person  (supposed  to  be  an  emissary  of 
that  courtier  party  called  the  Cubicutars) 
gave  an  alarm  that  the  Papists  were  com- 
ing to  massacre  the  Protestants.    Absurd 
as  this  outcry  would  have  appeared  in  a 
cooler  moment,  it  was  enough  to  raise  a 
temporary  tumult,  through  the  combined 
influence  of  fear  and  imagination.      No 
injury,  however,  was  done  to  any  one, 
either  in  person  or  property  ;  and  by  the 
exertions  of  the  ministers  and  the  magis 
trates  the  tumult  was  speedily  quieted 
This  tumult,  although  utterly  insignifi- 
cant in  itserf,  gave  the  king  and  the  cour 
tiers  the  opportunity  for  which  they  had 
so  long  wished,  of  a  colour  to  their  own 
violent    proceedings.       Next    morning 
early  the  king  quitted  Holyrood-house 
and  hastened  to   Linlithgow.     Immedi- 
ately upon  his  departure,  a  proclamation 
was  issued,  requiring  all  in  public  office 
to  repair  to  him  at  Linlithgow,  and  com- 
manding all  strangers  instantly  to  leave 
the  capital.     Fiercer  proclamations  im- 
mediately followed.     The   ministers  of 
Edinburgh  were  ordered  to  enter  into 
confinement   in  the   castle  j  the  magis- 
trates  were   commanded   to   apprehend 
them  ;  and  the  tumult  was  declared  to  be 
"  a  cruel  and  barbarous  attempt  against 
his  majesty's  royal  person,  his  nobility, 
and  council,  at  the  instigation  of  certain 
seditious  ministers  and  barons  ;"  and  all 
who  had  been  accessory  to  it,  or  should 
assist  them,  were  declared  to  be  liable  to 
the  penalties  of  treason.     A  short  time 
afterwards  the  king  entered  Edinburgh 
at  the  head  of  a  hostile  array,  as  if  he  had 
been   taking  possession   of  a  captured 
town,  breathing  forth  denunciations  of 
vengeance,  and  threatening  to  raze  the 
city  to  the  ground,  and  to  erect  a  monu- 
ment where  it  stood,  to  perpetuate  the 


110 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP  IV. 


memory  of  such  an  execrable  treason  ! 
The  terrified  citizens  crouched  before  the 
storm  of  royal  wrath,  surrendered  all 
their  rights  civil  and  sacred,  subscribed 
such  a  bond  as  the  king  pleased  to  im- 
pose, and  being  sufficiently  humbled  and 
enslaved,  were,  by  what  Spotswood  terms 
his  majesty's  unparalleled  "grace  and 
clemency,"  restored  to  favour. 

1597.  During  this  royal  and  courtly 
paroxysm  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh 
were  advised  by  their  friends  to  with- 
draw from  the  capital ;  which  they  re- 
luctantly did,  after  Bruce  had  written  a 
very  able  and  eloquent  apology  for  him- 
self and  his  colleagues.  This  apology 
was  copied  by  Spotswood  himself,  to  aid 
in  its  dissemination,  and  in  the  copying 
he  contrived  to  "  give  it  a  sharper  edge."* 
A  letter  written  by  the  Edinburgh  min- 
isters to  Lord  Hamilton,  requesting  him 
to  intercede  with  the  king  in  behalf  of 
the  Church,  was  also  falsified,  as  there  is 
strong  reason  to  believe,  by  the  same 
treacherous  hand,  while  Spotswood  was 
all  the  time  pretending  the  utmost  zeal  in 
defending  the  liberties  of  the  Church. 
It  were  well  that  every  reader  of  Spots- 
wood  were  aware  of  the  deceitful  and 
perfidious  part  acted  by  that  designing 
and  ambitious  man,  that  they  might  know 
how  little  trust  is  to  be  reposed  in  any  of 
his  statements,  and  that  writers  on  the 
prelatic  side  might,  for  very  shame,  cease 
to  repeat  his  gross  and  malicious  fabrica- 
tions. 

Affairs  being  in  this  condition, — the 
ministers  of  Edinburgh  in  exile  or  con- 
cealment, the  citizens  humbled  and  pros- 
trate, and  a  false  imputation  cast  upon  the 
whole  conduct  of  the  Church, — the  king 
proceeded  to  the  execution  of  his  long- 
cherished  scheme.  Fifty-five  questions 
respecting  the  government  and  discipline 
of  the  Church,  drawn  up  by  Secretary 
Lindsay,  were  published  in  the  name  of 
the  king,  and  a  convention  of  estates  and 
a  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly  were 
called  by  royal  authority,  to  meet  at 
Perth  in  the  end  of  February,  to  consider 
these  questions.  But  the  spirit  of  the 
Church  was  not  yet  broken.  Answers 
to  his  majesty's  propositions  were  pre- 
pared by  the  synods,  of  Lothian  and  Fife  ; 
and  while  the  king  was  requested  to  pro- 
rogue the  extraordinary  meeting  which 

*  Calderwood,  p.  369. 


he  had  called,  the  Presbyteries,  in  case 
he  should  not  comply,  were  instructed  in 
the  line  of  conduct  which  they  should 
pursue  ;  and  not  a  minister  of  any  note 
could  be  prevailed  upon  to  subscribe  the 
bond  of  submission  framed  and  promul- 
gated by  the  king.* 

This  prompt  and  energetic  conduct 
convinced  the  king  that  sheer  power 
would  never  enable  him  to  triumph  over 
men  who  could  suffer  and  die,  but  not 
violate  their  duty  to  God.  But  there  was 
yet  one  resource  ;  the  General  Assembly 
might  be  vitiated  by  the  introduction  of 
fjjse,  ambitious,  and  unprincipled  bre- 
thren, and  thereby  the  Church  made  to 
fall  by  a  suicidal  blow.  Sir  Patrick 
Murray,  one  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  bed- 
chamber, was  sent  to  the  northern  parts 
of  the  kingdom,  to  visit  the  presbyteries 
of  Angus,  and  Aberdeenshire,  and  to  in- 
duce the  ministers  of  those  remote  dis- 
tricts to  subscribe  his  majesty's  bond,  and 
to  come  to  Perth  to  the  ensuing  Assem- 
bly. Partly  by  flatteries  and  misrepre- 
sentations, and  partly  by  striving  to  raise 
a  spirit  of  jealousy  in  the  northern  minis- 
ters against  the  ascendancy  of  their  south- 
country  brethren,  the  royal  emissary  sped 
so  well,  that,  when  the  Assembly  met,  it 
was  found  that  the  royal  assentators 
formed  a  majority. 

The  first  struggle  was  on  trhe  question, 
whether  this  was  a  lawful  Assembly? 
and  after  a  debate  of  three  days,  the 
affirmative  was  carried  by  a  majority  of 
votes,  some  even  of  the  south-country 
ministers  being  corrupted  by  the  royal 
intrigues.  His  majesty's  questions  were 
next  taken  into  consideration  ;  and  such 
answers  were  given  to  the  leading  propo- 
sitions, which  alone  were  laid  before 
them,  as  enabled  the  king  to  introduce 
his  measures  in  a  more  plausible  manner 
than  formerly,  with  the  seeming  sanction  j 
of  the  Church. f  Thus  did  the  king  suc- 
ceed in  partially  accomplishing  by  strat- 
agem and  "  kingcraft,"  to  use  his  own  j 
term,  what  force  and  persecution  could  j 
not  effect. 

The  next  meeting  of  the  Assembly  | 
was  held  at  Dundee,  by  the  kings  ap-  ! 
pointment,  in  May  ;  and  notwithstanding 
all  his  majesty's  artifice,  and  the  aid  of  his 

northern  battalions,  it  was  with  the  utmost 

• 

*  Melville's  Dairy,  pp.  256,  257. 

t  Booke  of  the  Universal]  Kirk,  pp.  443,  444. 


A.  D.  1598.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


Ill 


difficulty  that  he  was  able  to  carry  his 
measures.  The  Assembly  of  Perth  was 
declared  lawful,  with  an  explanation  ;  its 
acts  were  approved,  but  with  certain  qual- 
ifications ;  and  the  additional  answers 
now  given  to  the  king's  questions  were 
very  guardedly  expressed.  To  advance 
his  schemes  with  an  Assembly  so  much 
on  its  guard,  required  all  the  peculiar 
cunning  of  the  crafty  monarch ;  but  craft 
was  his  element,  and  false  pretences  were 
his  weapons  ;  and  thus  he  prevailed  over 
men  who  were  too  honest  themselves 
thoroughly  to  understand  his  guile.  He 
requested  them  to  appoint  a  committee  of 
their  number,  with  whom  he  might  ad- 
vise on  certain  important  affairs  which 
they  could  not  at  present  find  leisure 
to  determine,  such  as  the  arrangements 
to  be  made  respecting  the  ministers  of 
Edinburgh  and  St.  Andrews,  the  plant- 
ing of  vacant  churches  in  general,  and 
the  providing  of  local  and  fixed  stipends 
for  the  ministers  throughout  the  king- 
dom. To  this  the  Assembly  agreed,  and 
nominated  fourteen  ministers,  to  whom, 
or  any  seven  of  them,  they  granted 
power  to  convene  with  his  majesty,  for 
the  above  purposes,  and  to  give  him  ad- 
vice "  in  all  affairs  concerning  the  weal 
of  the  Church,  and  entertainment  of  peace 
and  obedience  to  his  majesty  within  his 
realm."*  This  was  indeed,  as  Calder- 
wood  says,  "  a  wedge  taken  out  of  the 
Church,  to  rend  her  with  her  own  forces." 
It  enabled  the  king  to  frame  and  mature 
his  devices,  and  to  introduce  them  into 
the  Church  through  what  might  be 
termed  his  ecclesiastical  council.  By 
their  means  also,  he  called  before  him 
presbyteries,  reversed  their  decisions,  and 
restored  one  suspended  minister  to  his 
office, — a  species  of  direct  interference 
with  ecclesiastical  government  to  which 
at  least  one  parallel  might  be  pointed  out, 
with  this  important  difference — that  what 
the  king  prevailed  on  his  ecclesiastical 
council  to  do,  a  modern  civil  court  has 
done  of  itself. 

Availing  himself  of  the  advantage  he 
had  gained,  James  induced  his  ecclesias- 
tical council  to  present  a  petition  to  the 
parliament  which  met  in  December,  re- 
questing that  the  Church  might  be  repre- 
sented, and  have  a  voice  in  the  supreme 
council  of  the  nation.  This  petition  the 

*  Booke  of  the  Universal!  Kirk,  p.  461. 


f  ing  induced  the  parliament  to  grant ; 
and  it  was  declared  that  Prelacy  was  the 
third  estate  of  the  kingdom  ;  that  such 
ministers  as  his  majesty  should  please  to 
raise  to  the  dignity  of  prelates  should 
have  full  right  to  sit  and  vote  in  parlia- 
ment; and  that  bishoprics,  as  they  be- 
came vacant,  should  be  conferred  on 
none  but  such  as  were  qualified  and  dis- 
posed to  act  as  ministers  or  preachers. 
This  spiritual  power  to  be  exercised  by 
bishops  in  the  government  of  the  Church, 
was  left  by  parliament  to  be  arranged  by 
his  majesty  and  the  General  Assembly. 
Thus  the  introduction  of  episcopacy  was 
attempted  to  be  concealed  under  the  pre- 
text of  giving  to  the  Church  a  vote  in 
;he  national  councils,  for  the  security  of 
tier  rights  and  the  advancement  of  her 
welfare. 

It  will  be  observed  by  the  attentive  and 
intelligent  reader,  that  even  in  this  inno- 
vation there  was  an  intermixture  of  con- 
stitutional propriety.  It  was  so  contrived 
that  the  proposal  for  representatives  in 
parliament  came  first  from  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  Church ;  and  when  the 
parliament  agreed  to  the  request,  its  en- 
actment provided  only  that  all  ministers 
appointed  to  prelacies  should  have  vote 
in  parliament ;  that  is,  it  restored  the  po- 
litical rank  of  prelates,  but  left  to  the 
Church  its  own  province  untouched,  to 
restore  or  not  the  prelatic  office.  And 
had  the  Church  not  been  so  much  cor- 
rupted by  the  king,  but  refused  to  allow 
ministers  to  accept  of  prelacies,  the  act  of 
parliament  must  have  remained  a  dead 
letter,  and  the  scheme  proved  abortive. 
It  may  be  added,  that  the  king  had  a 
double  object  in  view  in  the  matter, — , 
both  to  obtain  the  means  of  silencing  the 
bold  and  free  admonitions  and  censures 
of  the  Church,  by  subjecting  the  ecclesi- 
astical to  the  civil  judicatories,  and  to  ac- 
quire a  body  of  creatures  of  his  own 
within  the  parliament,  by  whose  assis- 
tance he  might  control  all  its  proceed- 
ings. The  measure  in  short,  was  a 
deadly  blow  aimed  at  the  very  heart  of 
liberty,  civil  and  religious,  as  subsequent 
events  ere  long  very  clearly  proved. 

[1598.]  Measures  being  thus  far  pre- 
pared, the  next  step  was  to  prevail  upon 
the  Church  to  accede  to  the  arrange- 
ment proposed  by  the  act  of  parliament  j 
and  for  this  purpose  the  commissioners, 


1.2 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


who  were  wholly  gained  over  by  the 
king,  wrote  a  circular  letter  to  their 
brethren,  putting  the  most  plausible  con- 
struction on  the  scheme,  and  in  particular 
representing  it  as  essential  to  the  procuring 
of  legislative  sanction  to  the  "  constant 
plat," — the  provision  for  a  permanent 
ministry  and  fixed  local  stipends.  This 
letter  gave  rise  to  long  and  keen  debates 
in  the  several  synods,  particularly  in  that 
of  Fife,  where  it  was  strongly  opposed 
by  both  the  Melvilles,  by  the  venerable 
reforming  patriarch  Ferguson,  and  by 
Davidson,  who,  pointing  out  clearly  that 
the  proposed  parliamentary  voter  was  a 
bishop  in  disguise,  exclaimed,  "  Busk, 
busk,  busk  him  as  bonnilie  as  ye  can, 
and  fetch  him  in  as  fairlie  as  ye  will,  we 
see  him  weill  eneuch  ;  we  see  the  horns 
of  his  mitre."* 

A  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly 
was  convoked  by  the  king,  at  Dundee, 
in  the  Month  of  March  1598,  expressly 
for  the  purpose  of  taking  the  late  act  of 
parliament  into  consideration.  The  most 
strenuous  exertions  were  made  by  his 
majesty  to  get  the  Assembly  packed  and 
constructed  according  to  his  mind.  The 
Aberdeenshire  legion  was  again  impor- 
tunately summoned  to  the  scene ;  his 
own  ecclesiastical  council  was  thorough- 
ly trained  for  its  appointed  task ;  every 
means  had  been  used  to  bring,  as  elders 
from  the  presbyteries,  those  noblemen 
and  gentlemen  who  had  already  voted 
for  the  measure  in  parliament ;  and  even 
after  the  Assembly  met,  several  days 
were  spent,  before  entering  into  business 
by  fris  majefty,  in  holding  private  per- 
sonal intercourse  with  the  members,  en- 
deavouring to  corrupt,  intimidate,  or  ca- 
jole them  into  compliance.  Not  even 
then  did  he  venture  to  proceed  with  his 
pernicious  scheme,  till  he  had  banished 
Andrew  Melville,  not  only  from  the  As- 
sembly, but  even  out  of  the  town.  The 
business  was  then  introduced  by  a  speech 
from  his  majesty  himself;  in  which, 
after  descanting  complacently  on  the 
great  services  he  had  rendered  the 
Church,  and  his  anxiety  still  farther  to 
promote'  her  welfare,  which,  he  alledged, 
could  only  be  done  by  the  proposed  mea- 
sure, he  solemnly  disclaimed  any  inten- 
tion of  bringing  in  popish  or  Anglican 
bishops,  averring  that  his  sole  object  was, 

'  Melville's  Dairy,  p.  289. 


that  some  of  the  best  and  wisest  of  the 
ministry  chosen  by  the  General  Assem- 
bly, should  have  a  place  in  the  privy 
council  and  parliament,  to  sit  in  judgment 
on  their  own  affairs,  and  not  to  stand,  as 
they  had  too  long  stood,  at  the  door, 
like  poor  suppliants,  disregarded  and  de- 
spised.* 

The  question  was  put  in  this  form, — 
"  Whether  it  was  necessary  and  expedi- 
ent, for  the  welfare  of  the  Church,  that 
the  ministry,  as  the  third  estate  of  this 
realm,  should,  in  the  name  of  the  Church, 
have  a  vote  in  parliament."  A  warm 
and  protracted  debate  ensued,  all  the  best 
and  ablest  ministers  rejecting  earnestly 
that  elevation  to  wealth,  rank,  and  power, 
which  weak,  worldly-minded,  and  ambi- 
tious men  so  greatly  covet.  It  was  at 
length  carried  in  the  affirmative,  by  the 
slender  majority  of  ten,  after  all  the  arti- 
fices which  the  king  had  employed,  and 
carried  chiefly  by  the  votes  of  the  elders, 
a  number  of  whom,  it  was  asserted,  had 
no  commission.  A  protest  was  then 
given  in  by  Davidson  against  the  pro- 
ceedings of  this  and  the  two  foregoing 
Assemblies,  on  the  ground  of  their  not 
being  free,  but  overawed  by  the  king, 
and  restricted  in  their  due  and  wonted 
privileges  ;  to  which  protest  upwards  of 
forty  ministers  adhered.  It  was  then 
agreed  by  the  Assembly,  that  fifty-one 
ministers  should  be  chosen  to  represent 
the  Church,  according  to  the  ancient 
number  of  the  bishops,  abbots,  and  priors  ; 
and  that  their  election  should  belong 
partly  to  the  king  and  partly  to  the 
Church.  But  when  resolutions  respect- 
ing the  manner  of  electing  the  parlia- 
mentary representatives,  the  duration  of 
their  commission,  their  names  and  reve- 
nues, were  proposed,  many  of  the  king's 
party  began  to  waver,  alarmed  at  the 
consequences  of  their  own  act;  and  it 
was  deemed  expedient  to  leave  these  mat- 
ters for  further  consideration  by  the  pres- 
byteries, synods,  and  the  next  Assembly, 
which  was  appointed  to  meet  at  Aber- 
deen in  July  1599. 

Numerous  meetings  and  conferences 
were  held  throughout  the  kingdom  ;  and 
the  more  that  the  measure  was  investiga- 
ted, the  less  was  it  approved  of  by  the 
ministers.  In  a  conference  held  at  Falk- 
land, the  whole  measure  met  such  a  de- 

•  Calderwood,  p.  418. 


A.  D.  1600.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


113 


cided  opposition,  that  the  king  thought 
proper  to  prorogue  the  appointed  meet- 
ing of  Assembly,  and  had  recourse  again 
to  that  private  influence  to  which  he 
owed  his  previous  success. 

[1599.]  In  November  1599,  another 
conference  was  held  at  Holyrood-house, 
called  by  the  king,  and  attended  by 
ministers  from  all  parts  of  the  country. 
The  whole  subject  was  then  fully  dis- 
cussed, chiefly,  it  appears,  for  the  purpose 
of  ascertaining  the  arguments  likely  to 
be  used  against  the  measure  in  the  next 
Assembly,  that  the  court  party  might  be 
prepared  with  their  answers.  The  sub- 
stance of  this  remarkable  conference  is 
given  by  James  Melville  in  his  Diary, 
and  will  well  repay  a  careful  perusal,  by 
those  who  wish  to  ascertain  the  real  sen- 
timents of  the  Church  of  Scotland  at  this 
memorable  period  of  her  history.  The 
conclusion  of  this  conference  was,  that 
James,  finding  the  discussion  going  de- 
cidedly against  him,  broke  it  off  in  anger, 
threatening  that  he  would  leave  the  re- 
fractory ministers  to  sink  deeper  and 
deeper  into  poverty  ;  and  would,  besides, 
of  his  own  authority,  put  into  the  vacant 
bishoprics  persons  who  would  accept  of 
them,  and  who  would  do  their  duty  to 
him  and  to  his  kingdom.* 

[1600.1  On  the  28th  day  of  March 
1600,  the  General  Assembly  met  at  Mon- 
trose.  The  most  intense  interest  was  felt 
by  the  whole  kingdom  in  the  meeting 
and  the  proceedings  of  this  Assembly ; 
as  it  was  manifest  that  upon  its  decision 
would  depend  the  continuation  or  the 
overthrow  of  the  Presbyterian  form  of 
church  government  in  Scotland.  The 
previous  conferences  had  made  both  par- 
ties, aware  of  each  other's  arguments,  and, 
in  a  great  measure,  of  each  other's 
strength  ;  and  each  appears  to  have  en- 
tertained strong  expectations  of  success. 
On  the  one  hand,  the  staunch  Presbyte- 
rians, holding  firm  by  the  great  princi- 
ples of  the  Reformation,  by  the  acts  of 
parliament  formerly  passed  in  their  fa- 
vour, and,  above  all,  by  the  clear  and 
plain  language  of  Scripture,  confided  in 
the  goodnes*  of  their  cause,  and  trusted 
m  the  support  of  their  divine  Head  and 
King.  On  the  other,  the  court  party, 
aware  of  the  dislike  entertained  by  the 
sovereign,  the  nobility,  and  all  the  looser- 

*  Melville's  Dairy,  pp.  296-30a 

15 


living  part  of  the  community,  against  the 
strictness  and  impartiality  of  Presbyte- 
rian discipline,  and  knowing  the  influ- 
ence which  the  temptations  of  wealth, 
rank,  and  power  must  always  exercise 
upon  the  selfish  minds  of  poor  and  am- 
bitious men,  trusted  that,  by  these  con- 
siderations, and  by  the  personal  exertions 
of  the  crafty  monarch  himself,  the  tri- 
umph of  their  measure  would  be  secured. 
Andrew  Melville  had  been  chosen  by 
the  presbytery  of  St.  Andrews  as  one  of 
their  representatives,  and  went  accord- 
ingly to  Montrose  ;  but  the  king,  dread- 
ing his  influence  and  his  power  of  argu- 
ment, strictly  prohibited  him  from  taking 
his  seat  in  the  Assembly.  He  remained, 
nevertheless,  in  the  town,  and  gave  his 
brethren  the  benefit  of  his  advice,  during 
the  course  of  the  proceedings.  After 
some  preliminary  business  had  been  ar- 
ranged, the  Assembly  proceeded  to  the 
consideration  of  that  which  was  the  great 
object  of  its  meeting, — the  propriety  of 
ministers  voting  in  parliament.  The 
opponents  of  the  measure  brought  for 
ward  a  formidable  train  of  arguments 
against  it,  such  as  its  supporters  felt  it 
impossible  to  answer ;  who  thereupon 
had  recourse  to  evasions,  and  deceptive 
endeavours  to  draw  their  antagonists 
from  their  impregnable  position.  The 
king,  perceiving  his  party  evidently 
losing  ground,  and  the  whole  scheme 
exposed  to  imminent  peril,  interposed  his 
arbitrary  authority,  declaring  that  the 
preceding  Assembly  iiad  already  deci- 
ded the  general  question  in  the  affirma- 
tive, that  its  decision  must  be  held  final 
on  that  point,  and  that  they  had  only  to 
determine  respecting  minor  arrangements. 
This  interference  on  the  part  of  his  ma- 
jesty saved  his  measure  from  defeat ;  for 
there  is  reason  to  think,  that  if  the  gene- 
ral question  had  been  then  put  to  the 
vote,  the  whole  scheme  would  have  been 
negatived.  For,  on  the  subordinate  but 
kindred  question,  whether  the  parliamen- 
tary voters  should  retain  their  place  for 
life,  or  be  annually  elected,  it  was  car- 
ried, in  spite  of  all  the  influence  of  the 
court,  by  a  majority  of  three,  in  favour 
of  annual  election.  Yet  James,  in  the 
exercise  of  his  favourite  '-king-craft," 
prevailed  upon  the  clerk  *to  draw  up  the 
minute  stating  that  vote  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  essentially  to  change  its  meaning, 


114 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


and  virtually  to  grant  the  very  thing 
which  it  was  intended  to  reject ;  and  in 
this  vitiated  form  he  contrived  to  procure 
for  it  the  sanction  of  the  Assembly,  to- 
wards the  close  of  its  sittings,  when  its 
vigilance  was  diminished.* 

To  render  the  introduction  of  this 
measure  somewhat  less  intolerable  than 
it  would  otherwise  have  been,  the  court 
party  agreed  to  all  the  "  caveats"  or  cau- 
tions which  •  had  been  proposed  in  the 
conference  at  Falkland,  for  protecting  the 
liberties  of  the  Church,  and  guarding 
against  the  introduction  of  Prelacy.  The 
voters  were  to  have  the  name,  not  of 
bishops,  but  of  commissioners  of  the 
Church,  in  parliament.  The  General 
Assembly,  with  the  advice  of  synods  and 
presbyteries,  were  to  nominate  six  in 
each  province,  of  whom  his  majesty 
should  choose  one,  as  the  ecclesiastical 
representative  of  that  province.  The 
commissioner  was  to  be  allowed  the  rents 
of  the  benefice  to  which  he  should  be 
presented,  after  provision  had  been  made 
out  of  them  for  the  churches,  colleges, 
and  schools.  And,  that  he  might  not 
abuse  his  power,  it  was  provided, — That 
he  should  not  propose  any  thing  to  par- 
liament, convention,  or  council,  in  the 
name  of  the  Church,  without  her  express 
warrant  and  direction,  nor  consent  to  the 
passing  of  any  act  prejudicial  to  the 
Church,  under  the  penalty  of  deposition 
from  his  office:  That  at  each  General 
Assembly  he  should  give  an  account  of 
the  manner  in  which  he  had  discharged 
his  commission,  and  submit,  without  ap- 
peal, to  the  censure  of  the  Assembly, 
under  the  pain  of  infamy  and  excommu- 
nication :  That  he  should  rest  satisfied 
with  the  part  of  the  benefice  allotted  to 
him,  without  encroaching  upon  what 
was  assigned  to  other  ministers  within 
his  province :  That  he  should  not  dilapi- 
date his  benefice,  nor  dispose  of  any  part 
of  its  rents,  without  the  consent  of  the 
General  Assembly :  That  he  should  per- 
form all  the  duties  of  the  pastoral  office 
within  his  own  particular  congregation, 
subject  to  the  censures  of  the  presby- 
tery and  synod  to  which  he  belonged : 
That  in  all  parts  of  ecclesiastical  govern- 
ment and  discipline,  he  should  claim  no 
more  power  or  jurisdiction  than  what  be- 

•  Calderwood,  pp.  438,  439;  M'Crie's  Life  of  Melville 
;fi.  pp.  58-62. 


longed  to  other  ministers,  under  the  pain 
of  deprivation  :  That  in  meetings  of  pres- 
bytery and  other  church  courts  he  should 
behave  himself  in  all  things,  and  be  sub- 
ject to  censure,  in  the  same  manner  as 
his  brethren :  That  he  should  have  no 
right  to  sit  in  the  General  Assembly 
without  a  commission  from  the  presby- 
tery :  That,  if  deposed  from  the  office  of 
the  ministry,  he  should  lose  his  vote  in 
parliament,  and  his  benefice  should  be- 
come vacant :  And  that  the  very  fact  of 
ambitiously  soliciting  the  office  should 
itself,  on  conviction,  be  a  sufficient  cause 
of  deposition  and  all  its  consequences. 
It  was  ordained,  that  these  "  caveats" 
should  be  inserted,  "  as  most  necessary 
and  substantial  points,"  in  the  body  of  an 
act  of  parliament  to  be  made  for  confirm- 
ing the  vote  of  the  Church;  and  that 
every  commissioner  should  subscribe  and 
swear  to  observe  them,  when  he  was  ad- 
mitted to  that  peculiar  appointment.* 

It  will  be  admitted  that  these  regula- 
tions were  well  adapted  to  render  the 
king's  measures  as  harmless  as  possible, 
if  strictly  observed.  But,  to  use  the  words 
of  Spotswood,  "  it  was  neither  the  king's 
intention,  nor  the  minds  of  the  wiser  sort, 
to  have  these  cautions  stand  in  force ; 
but,  to  have  matters  peaceably  ended,  and 
the  reformation  of  the  policy  made  with- 
out any  noise,  the  king  gave  way  to  these 
conceits."f  And  yet  these  "  conceits" 
were  publicly  ratified  by  act  of  Parlia- 
ment, and  Spotswood  himself,  as  well  as 
others  of  "the  wiser  sort,"  solemnly  swore 
to  observe  them.  But  to  such  an  accom- 
plished master  of  "  king-craft"  as  James, 
and  to  such  worldly-wise  churchmen  as 
Spotswood  and  his  coadjutors,  the  viola- 
tion of  national  faith,  and  the  direct  per- 
jury of  men  styling  themselves  ministers 
of  the  gospel,  seemed  but  a  slight  sacri- 
fice to  make  for  the  introduction  of  their 
beloved  Prelacy  into  a  church  and  a 
kingdom,  both  of  which  cordially  ab- 
horred and  dreaded  its  very  name  and 
nature,  as  equally  a  corruption  of  the 
Christian  ministry  and  an  instrument  of 
political  despotism. 

The  perfidious  designs  of  the  king  and 
the  "  wiser  sort"  were  very  soon  dis- 
played. A  meeting  of  the  commission 
ers  of  the  General  Assembly  was  called 

w  Booke  of  the  Universal!  Kirk,  pp.  482-487, 
t  Spotswood,  *).  435. 


A.  D.  1600.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


115 


by  the  king  in  the  month  of  October  fol- 
lowing-, to  have  their  advice  respecting 
the  settlement  of  ministers  in  Edinburgh, 
and  to  consult  on  other  matters  to  be  pro- 
posed to  parliament  for  the  good  of  the 
Church  and  kingdom.  Pursuing  his 
usual  policy,  the  king  got  James  Mel- 
ville and  two  other  ministers  appointed 
on  a  committee  to  transact  some  other 
business  ;  and  during  their  absence,  he, 
with  the  consent  of  those  present,  sum- 
marily nominated  David  Lindsay,  Peter 
Blackburn,  and  George  Gladstanes,  to 
the  vacant  bishoprics  of  Ross,  Aberdeen, 
and  Caithness.  This  transaction  was 
carefully  concealed  from  the  absent  mem- 
bers until  the  meeting  was  dissolved ; 
and  the  bishops  appointed  in  this  clan- 
destine manner  sat  and  voted  in  the  en- 
suing parliament,  in  direct  violation  of 
the  cautions  to  which  they  had  so  lately 
given  their  consent.  But  these  cautions, 
though  thus  early  violated,  and  though 
their  protective  power  was  thus  proved 
to  be  ineffectual  to  prevent  the  lawless 
deeds  of  a  treacherous  king  and  perfidi- 
ous churchmen,  were  not  therefore  of  no 
avail.  Their  enactment  served  to  show 
the  mind  and  the  principles  of  the  purer 
part  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  ;  and,  re- 
maining on  the  statute-book  unrepealed, 
like  the  clause  of  the  convention  of  Leith 
subjecting  bishops  to  the  General  Assem- 
bly, they,  together  with  that  clause,  be- 
ing revived  and  called  into  operation  in 
better  times,  gave  to  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land the  means  and  the  power  of  depo- 
sing and  excommunicating  her  perjured 
betrayers. 

If  the  Church  of  Scotland  had  been  in 
my  doubt  respecting  the  arbitrary  inten- 
tions of  the  king,  that  doubt  must  have 
been  completely  dispelled  by  two  differ- 
ent works  published  by  the  royal  author 
about  this  time.  These  were,  his  Free 
Law  of  Free  Monarchies,  and  his  Basil- 
icon  Doron,  or  instructions  of  the  king 
to  his  son,  Prince  Henry.  In  the  former 
of  these  productions  his  majesty  expresses 
with  abundant  clearness  his  notions  of  a 
free  monarchy,  which  according  to  him, 
is  the  government  of  "  a  free  and  abso- 
lute monarch,"— a  king  free  to  do  what 
he  pleases, — in  short,  a  perfect  despotism, 
in  which  the  arbitrary  will  of  the  sove- 
reign is  above  all  law  with  a  parlia- 


ment to  register  and  execute  his  com- 
mands, and  a  people  his  passively-obedi- 
ent and  unresisting  slaves.  In  the  latter, 
the  Basilicon  Doron,  the  extent  and  na- 
ture of  the  king's  hatred  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  was  revealed,  as  may  be 
seen  from  the  propositions  extracted  from 
that  treatise,  and  condemned  by  the  sy- 
nod of  Fife.  These  propositions  were 
the  following : — That  the  office  of  a  king 
is  of  a  mixed  kind,  partly  civil  and  partly 
ecclesiastical :  That  a  principal  part  of 
his  function  consists  in  ruling  the  Church: 
That  it  belongs  to  him  to  judge  when 
preachers  wander  from  their  text ;  and 
that  such  as  refuse  to  submit  to  his  judg- 
ment in  such  cases  ought  to  be  capitally 
punished :  That  no  ecclesiastical  assem- 
blies ought  to  be  held  without  his  con- 
sent :  That  no  man  is  more  to  be  hated 
of  a  king  than  a  proud  puritan :  That 
parity  among  ministers  is  irreconcilable 
with  monarchy,  inimical  to  order,  and 
the  mother  of  confusion  :  That  puritans 
had  been  a  pest  to  the  commonwealth 
and  Church  of  Scotland,  wished  to  en- 
gross the  civil  government  as  tribunes  of 
the  people,  sought  the  introduction  of  de- 
mocracy into  the  State,  and  quarrelled 
with  the  king  because  he  was  a  king  : 
That  the  chief  persons  among  them 
should  not  be  allowed  to  remain  in  the 
land:  And  that  parity  in  the  Church 
should  be  banished,  Episcopacy  set  up, 
and  all  who  preached  against  bishops 
rigorously  punished.* 

Surely  no  man  of  common  intelligence 
and  candour  will  deny  that  the  Church 
of  Scotland  had  good  reason  to  be  jealous 
of  a  monarch  who  could  pen  such  gross 
slanders  and  outrageous  opinions ;  and 
yet,  at  the  very  same  time,  the  royal  dis- 
sembler was  publicly  and  loudly  declar- 
ing that  nothing  was  farther  from  his 
mind  than  the  introduction  of  the  prelatic 
system  into  Scotland!  But  oaths  and 
laws  were  in  his  view  fetters  of  iron  to 
Presbyterian  ministers  and  the  commu- 
nity, and  threads  of  gossamer  to  kings 
and  prelates.  The  policy  of  principle  he 
knew  not,  because  he  was  himself  un- 
principled ;  but  the  policy  of  falsehood, 
cunning,  and  sycophancy,  he  well  under- 
stood and  practised,  and  crowded  its 
whole  essence  into  his  favourite  ecclesi 

-  Melville's  Diary,  p.  295. 


116 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP  IV. 


astico-political  aphorism,  "  No  bishop,  no 
king"  which  his  own  comment  explains 
to  mean,  No  bishop,  no  despot. 

An  event  occurred  in  the  same  year, 
1600,  the  consequences  of  which  proved 
exceedingly  detrimental  to  the  Church  of 
Scotland.  This  was  that  mysterious 
event  known  in  history  by  the  name  of 
the  Govvrie  conspiracy,  the  true  nature  of 
which  has  never  been  fully  unveiled. 
Leaving  the  discussion  of  such  topics  to 
the  civil  historian,  to  whose  province  they 
belong,  we  proceed  to  state  the  baneful 
consequences  to  the  Church  arising  out 
of  this  strange  conspiracy.  An  order 
was  issued  by  the  privy  council,  com- 
manding all  ministers  to  give  thanks  for 
his  majesty's  deliverance,  according  to  a 
prescribed  form;  and  for  not  using  the 
very  words  of  that  form,  the  ministers  of 
Edinburgh  were  called  before  the  coun- 
cil, and  candidly  acknowledged  that  they 
were  not  thoroughly  convinced  of  Gow- 
rie's  treason,  although  they  respected  the 
king's  account  of  the  matter,  and  were 
willing  to  express  thankfulness  that  he 
had  been  delivered  from  danger,  provided 
they  were  not  at  the  same  time  obliged  to 
express  any  opinion  respecting  its  nature 
and  extent.  Five  of  them  were  immedi- 
ately banished  from  the  capital,  and  pro- 
hibited from  preaching  in  Scotland.  Of 
these,  four  soon  submitted ;  but  the  re- 
maining one,  Robert  Bruce,  not  being 
convinced,  would  not  violate  his  con- 
science by  saying  what  he  did  not  be- 
lieve, and  was  banished  from  the  king- 
dom. He  was  afterwards  allowed  to  re- 
turn to  his  native  country,  but  not  to 
Edinburgh;  and  his  offence  was  never 
forgiven, — an  offence  in  which  nearly  all 
the  kingdom,  and  almost  every  historian, 
shared.  After  his  return  he  was  banished 
for  a  time  to  Inverness ;  then  allowed  to 
reside  in  his  own  house  at  Kinnaird, 
near  Stirling ;  then  removed  to  the  vi- 
cinity of  Glasgow,  watched  and  perse- 
cuted by  the  bishops,  and  beloved  and 
revered  by  every  good  and  pious  man 
throughout  the  kingdom,  many  of  whom, 
and  among  others  the  celebrated  Alexan- 
der Henderson,  owed  their  conversion  to 
his  instrumentality.  But  James  could 
never  forgive  him  for  two  dire  offences  ; 
he  had  rendered  great  services  to  his 
country,  and  he  had  been  injured  by  the 
king;  for  the  one  the  sovereign  hated 


him,  because  it  could  neither  be  denied 
nor  compensated  ;  and  for  the  other,  be- 
cause it  is  natural  for  malignant  men  to 
hate  those  whom  they  injure.  To  this 
may  be  added,  that  the  king  bore  towards 
Bruce  that  instinctive  antipathy  which 
men  of  little  minds  cherish  against  those 
in  the  presence  of  whom  their  dwarfish 
intellect  shrinks  into  its  native  insignifi- 
cance, rebuked  and  crouching.* 

A  considerable  number  of  the  minis- 
ters throughout  the  country  were  brought 
into  much  trouble  on  account  of  their  ex- 
pressing sympathy  with  the  ministers  of 
Edinburgh,  and  with  Bruce  in  particu- 
lar. And  it  deserves  to  be  mentioned, 
that  the  king  availed  himself  of  the  con- 
fusion and  distress  into  which  this  affair 
had  cast  the  Church,  for  completing  his 
eversive  schemes ;  for  it  was  while  James 
Melville  and  two  of  his  like-minded 
brethren  were  conversing  with  the  per- 
secuted ministers  of  Edinburgh,  that 
James  nominated  three  of  his  creatures 
to  the  vacant  bishoprics,  as  above  related.! 

[1601.]  A  meeting  of  the  General 
Assembly  was  held  at  Burntisland  in 
May  1601,  by  the  appointment  of  James, 
who  called  it  two  months  earlier  than  had 
been  previously  arranged.  He  was  in- 
duced, probably,  to  take  this  step,  partly 
in  consequence  of  the  failure  of  an  em 
bassy  which  he  had  sent  to  Rome  to  pro- 
pitiate the  papal  influence,  and  partly 
because  of  the  odium  which  he  had 
incurred  by  the  slaughter  of  the  Earl  of 
Gowrie,  the  accusation  of  treason  against 
whom  the  mass  of  the  nation  could  not  be 
induced  to  believe.  To  this  Assembly 
James  Melville  sent  a  letter,  pointing  out 
very  faithfully  the  corruptions  still  re- 
maining in  the  Church  and  nation,  and 
urging  his  brethren  to  fidelity  in  the  dis- 
charge of  their  public  duty ;  but  this 
letter  the  king  thought  proper  to  suppress. 
A  letter  to  the  same  effect,  but  expressed 
in  stronger  terms,  written  by  the  venera- 
ble John  Davidson,  was  read  in  the 
Assembly,  contrary  to  his  majesty's  incli- 
nation. Davidson's  letter  was  instrumen- 
tal in  leading  the  Assembly  back  to  the 
sacred  ground  so  frequently  occupied  by 
its  predecessors.  They  entered  into  a 
serious  deliberation  on  the  "  causes  of  the 
general  defections  from  the  purity,  zeal, 
and  practice  of  the  true  religion  in  all 

"  CalderwooA  T>p.  444-446.       t  Ibd.,  pp.  445,446. 


A.  D.  1G02.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


117 


estates  of  the  country,  and  how  the  same 
may  be  most  effectually  remedied."  The 
king  himself  either  yielded  to,  or  for  a 
short  while  participated  in,  the  general 
feeling.  He  rose  up  and  addressed  the 
Assembly  with  great  appearance  of  sin- 
cerity, tears  moistening  his  eyes  as  he 
spoke.  He  confessed  his  offences  and 
mismanagement  in  the  government  of  the 
kingdom ;  and  lifting  up  his  hand,  he 
vowed  in  the  presence  of  God  and  of  the 
Assembly,  that  he  would,  by  the  grace 
of  God,  live  and  die  in  the  religion  pre- 
sently professed  in  the  realm  of  Scotland, 
defend  it  against  all  its  adversaries,  min- 
ister justice  faithfully  to  his  subjects, 
reform  whatever  was  amiss  in  his  person 
or  family,  and  perform  all  the  duties  of  a 
good  and  a  Christian  king  better  than  he 
had  hitherto  performed  them.  At  the 
request  of  his  majesty,  the  members  of 
Assembly  in  a  similar  manner  renewed 
their  vows  ;  and  it  was  ordained  that  this 
mutual  vow  should  be  intimated  from  the 
pulpits  on  the  following  Sabbath,  to  con- 
vince the  people  of  the  good  dispositions 
of  his  majesty,  and  the  cordiality  subsist- 
ing between  him  and  the  Church.* 

Various  other  matters  were  transacted 
in  this  Assembly,  of  little  public  impor- 
tance, with  one  exception, — a  proposal  to 
review  and  improve  the  common  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible,  and  the  metrical  version 
of  the  Psalms.  Into  this  proposal  the 
king  entered  with  great  cordiality,  availed 
himself  of  the  opportunity  of  displaying 
his  acquaintance  with  the  Scriptures,  and 
his  knowledge  of  their  original  lan- 
guages, and  subsequently  set  himself  to 
the  task  of  attempting  a  new  poetical  ver- 
sion of  the  Psalms. 

Although  the  king  had,  in  the  Assem- 
bly held  at  Burntisland,  made  the  most 
solemn  declaration  of  love  to  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  yet  as  soon  as  his  fit  of  devo- 
tion, and  perhaps  of  remorse,  wore  off, 
he  returned  to  his  course,  and  continued 
to  prosecute  his  measures  for  the  subver- 
sion of  that  Church  which  he  so  often 
swore  to  maintain.  Upon  the  represen- 
tation of  his  parasite  Gladstanes,  he  con- 
fined Andrew  Melville  within  the  pre- 
cincts of  the  College  of  St.  Andrews  ; 
and  he  continued  to  demand  from  Bruce 
concessions  which  he  well  knew  that 

*  Melville's   Dairy,  pp.  329-331 ;    Caldorwood,  pp. 
447-456 ;  Booke  of  the  Universal!  Kirk,  pp,  491-499. 


upright  man  could  never  make,  that  he 
might  have  some  pretext  for  continuing 
to  prosecute  and  oppress  him.  And  when 
the  synod  of  Fife  met,  and  proceeded, 
with  accustomed  sincerity  and  boldness, 
to  express  complaints  and  animadversions 
respecting  public  matters,  the  king  en- 
deavoured first  to  circumvent,  and  then  to 
intimidate  James  Melville,  in  neither  of 
which  attempts  did  he  succeed. 

[1602.]  The  Assembly  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  meet  in  July  1602,  at  St.  An- 
drews ;  but  the  king,  on  his  own  author- 
ity, postponed  it  till  November,  changing 
the  place  of  meeting  to  the  chapel  at 
Holyrood-house.  This  arbitrary  mode 
of  dealing  with  the  meetings  of  the 
Assembly  excited  considerable  apprehen- 
sion, numbers  of  the  most  faithful  minis- 
ters regarding  it  as,  what  in  all  proba- 
bility it  was  intended  for, — a  mode  of 
familiarizing  the  minds  of  the  ministers 
generally  with  the  idea  that  the  meeting 
of  the  Assembly  was  wholly  dependent 
on  the  pleasure  of  his  majesty,  and  might 
be  postponed  indefinitely,  or  altogether 
disallowed,  whenever  he  should  think 
proper.  A  protestation  against  this  arbi- 
trary procedure  was  given  in  by  James 
Melville.  Yet  when  the  Assembly  feirly 
entered  upon  its  duties,  it  was  soon  appa- 
rent that  a  great  number  of  the  ministers 
were  still  true  Presbyterians.  Several 
important  acts  were  passed  concerning 
the  visitation,  examination,  and  censure 
of  synods,  presbyteries,  pastors,  and  con- 
gregations ;  and  regulations  were  framed 
of  a  very  searching  nature,  well  calcu- 
lated to  test  the  conduct  and  character  of 
the  Church,  both  office-bearers  and  ordi- 
nary members,  and  to  prevent  that  laxity 
of  discipline  and  morals  which  the  pre- 
latic  party  were  but  too  certain  to  intro- 
duce, should  their  machinations  be  suc- 
cessful. 

In  this  Assembly's  records  we  find 
mention  of  a  case  of  some  importance,  as 
indicative  of  the  views  of  the  Church, 
respecting  the  appointment  of  ministers 
at  that  period.  The  synod  of  Glasgow 
brought  a  complaint  against  Mr.  George 
Sernple,  who  had  been  presented  to  the 
parish  of  Killelane,  and  whom  the  synod 
had  forbidden  to  intermeddle  with  the 
ministry  in  that  parish,  for  various  rea- 
sons, but  especially  on  account  of  a  great 
dislike  which  several  of  the  parishioners 


118 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


entertained  against  him.  The  Assembly 
inquired  into  the  case,  acquitted  Mr.  Sem 
pie  of  the  charges  brought  against  his 
character  in  general ;  but,  in  respect  of 
the  great  dislike  between  him  and  the 
parishioners.  "  think  it  not  good  that  he 
be  planted  minister  at  the  said  kirk,  and 
therefore  ordained  him  to  desist  there- 
from, and  demit  the  presentation  made  to 
him  of  the  benefice  thereof."* 

This  Assembly  was  the  last  which 
was  recognised  by  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land as  a  free  and  lawful  Assembly,  from 
that  time  till  the  year  1638.  And  indeed 
even  the  Assembly  of  1602  can  scarcely 
be  called  a  free  Assembly.  It  was  held 
in  the  very  precincts  of  the  palace ;  some 
of  the  most  influential  men  in  the  Church 
were  violently  prevented  from  attending 
it ;  and  on  several  occasions  the  king 
and  his  minions  interrupted  the  proceed- 
ings when  these  began  to  take  a  course 
of  which  the  despotic  monarch  and  his 
flatterers  did  not  approve ;  as,  for  instance, 
when  an  accusation  was  brought  against 
Spotswood,  that  he  had  been  present  at 
the  superstitious  and  idolatrous  popish 
service  of  the  mass,  when  he  was  recently 
in  France,  the  court  party  interfered,  and 
contrived  to  prevent  the  process  against 
him  from  going  forward. 

[1603.]  On  the  last  day  of  March  1603, 
intelligence  of  the  death  of  Glueen  Eliza- 
beth having  reached  Scotland,  James  was 
proclained  king  of  Scotland,  England, 
France,  and  Ireland :  and  in  the  High 
Church  of  Edinburgh  on  the  following 
Sabbath,  he  addressed  the  assembled  peo- 
ple, and  once  more  declared  his  approba- 
tion of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  disclaim- 
ing all  intention  of  making  any  farther 
alteration  in  its  government.  But  even 
in  the  moment  of  his  exultation  on  ac- 
count of  his  easy  accession  to  such  an 
increase  of  wealth  and  power,  he  relented 
not  in  his  determination  to  perpetrate  the 
punishments  which  he  had  inflicted  on 
Bruce  and  Davidson,  unless  they  would 
confess  themselves  guilty  of  an  offence  in 
a  matter  in  which  they  saw  nothing  guilty 
or  offensive.  If  they^  could  have  flattered 
and  falsified,  they  might  easily  have  re- 
gained his  favour ;  that  is,  they  might 
have  regained,  by  ceasing  to  deserve  it ; 
but  because  they  could  not  be  other  than 
honest  and  conscientious  men,  they  could 

*  Booke  of  the  Universall  Kirk,  p.  529. 


not  recover  the  favour  of  their  vain,  weak- 
minded,  and  obstinate  sovereign. 

The  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland 
had  little  reason  to  expect  that  its  govern- 
ment and  discipline  would  obtain  addi- 
tional favour  from  a  sovereign  who  had 
long  plotted  their  overthrow,  now  that  he 
had  obtained  a  vast  accession  of  wealth 
and  power,  and  was  surrounded  by  the 
dignitaries  of  the  prelatic  Church  of  Eng- 
land. Still,  it  was  not  from  the  English 
bishops,  so  much  as  from  their  own 
treacherous  countrymen,  that  the  Scottish 
ministers  were  most  apprehensive  of  dan- 
ger ;  according  to  the  well-known  fact, 
that  the  renegade  becomes  the  greatest 
zealot.  The  Hampton  Court  conference 
between  the  High  Church  party  and  the 
puritan  Non-conformists,  which  took 
place  soon  after  James's  arrival  in  Lon- 
don, indicated  with  sufficient  distinctness 
what  might  be  expected  5  especially  when 
his  majesty,  in  his  first  speech  in  parlia- 
ment, expressed  his  tender  indulgence  of 
papal  errors,  and  his  utter  detestation  of 
the  puritans,  with  "their  confused  form 
of  policy  and  parity,"  whom  he  termed 
"  a  sect  insufferable  in  any  well-governed 
commonwealth."  The  proposal  for  a 
union  of  the  two  kingdoms  gave  addi- 
tional alarm  to  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
who  saw  in  such  a  measure,  especially 
after  the  utterance  of  such  sentiments,  the 
greatest  danger  to  the  Presbyterian  estab- 
lishment. 

In  this  dangerous  juncture  the  synod 
of  Fife  again  put  itself  boldly  in  the  front 
of  the  conflict.  When  the  Scottish  par- 
liament met  to  deliberate  upon  the  propo- 
sal for  a  union,  the  synod  of  Fife  applied 
'oi  liberty  to  hold  a  General  Assembly  ; 
and  when  this  was  declined,  the  synod 
addressed  the  commissioners  of  the  As- 
sembly, reminded  them  of  their  duty  and 
their  responsibility  to  the  Church  at  all 
times,  and  particularly  in  this  hour  of 
danger.  They  adjured  the  commission- 
ers to  defend  the  government  of  the 
hurch  of  Scotland,  as  not  resting  upon 
conventional  grounds,  capable  of  being 
changed  or  altered,  but  upon  Divine  au 
hority,  equally  as  the  other  articles  of 
religion  did  ;  declaring  that  they  would 
rather  suffer  death  itself  than  see  the 
overthrow  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
This  spirited  remonstrance  had  a  most 
>eneficial  effect.  The  parliament  passed 


A.  D.  1605.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


119 


an  act  in  conformity  with  its  views,  de- 
claring-, that  the  commissioners  for  the 
union  should  have  no  power  to  treat  of 
any  thing  that  concerned  the  religion  and 
ecclesiastical  discipline  of  Scotland. 
This,  it  may  be  remarked,  was  of  the 
very  same  nature  as  the  celebrated  Act 
of  Security,  passed  about  a  century  after- 
wards, as  the  basis  of  the  union  then 
really  formed ;  and  we  shall  have  occa- 
sion to  show  how  little  such  an  act  was 
able  to  accomplish  directly  the  purpose 
for  which  it  was  intended,  but  yet,  as  in 
the  other  instances,  of  how  much  service 
it  may  finally  be  productive.  A  great 
constitutional  principle,  law  or  declara- 
tion, may  remain  for  any  indefinite  length 
of  time  not  dead  but  dormant ;  and  may 
at  length  be  aroused  into  potential  activ- 
ity, so  as  to  realize  the  full  developement 
of  that  precious  germ  which  it  so  long 
preserved. 

[1604.]  Events  very  soon  proved  that 
the  dangers  dreaded  by  the  Church  were 
not  imaginary.  When  the  time  ap- 
proached that  the  General  Assembly 
should  meet,  which  had  been  appointed 
to  be  on  the  last  Tuesday  of  July  1604, 
at  Aberdeen,  his  majesty  prorogued  it  till 
the  conferences  respecting  the  union 
should  be  over,  and  postponed  its  meeting 
till  the  same  month  of  the  following 
year.  But  the  presbytery  of  St.  Andrews 
being  resolved  to  exonerate  themselves 
from  the  blame  of  allowing  their  sacred 
rights  to  be  violated  without  remon- 
strance, enjoined  their  representatives  to 
keep  the  appointed  meeting,  notwith- 
standing the  royal  prorogation,  which 
they  accordingly  did ;  and  finding  none 
present  to  assist  them  in  holding  an  As- 
sembly, they  took  a  formal  protest  that 
they  had  done  their  duty,  and  that  the 
danger  to  the  privileges  and  rights  of  the 
Church,  arising  from  the  cowardly  neg- 
lect of  others,  should  not  be  imputed  to 
them. 

This  bold  and  faithful  conduct  acted 
like  the  kindling  of  a  beacon  in  the  time 
of  a  threatened  invasion.  The  next  meet- 
ing of  the  Synod  of  Fife  bore  the  aspect 
s>f  a  General  Assembly,  so  many  dele- 
gates from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom  as- 
sembled, to  consult  what  course  should 

*  Calderwood,  pp.  479-482:  M'Crie's  Life  of  Mel  vile, 
rol.  i.  pp.  108, 109. 


now  be  taken  in  defence  of  their  reli- 
gious liberties.  This  synodical  meeting, 
and  an  extraor-dinary  one  subsequently 
held  at  Perth,  went  as  direct  to  the  cause 
of  these  evils  as  they  constitutionally 
could,  charging  not  the  king,  but  the 
parliamentary  bishops,  with  hindering 
the  meeting  of  the  Assembly,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  prolonging  their  own  powers, 
and  of  evading  the  censures  which  their 
conduct  had  deserved.  It  was  resolved 
that  petitions  should  be  sent  from  all  the 
synods,  requesting  his  majesty  to  allow 
the  Assembly  to  meet  for  the  transaction 
of  important  business.  The  terror  and 
wrath  of  the  parliamentary  bishops  and 
expectant  commissioners  were  great; 
and  Gladstanes  procured  an  order  from 
the  king  to  throw  the  two  Melvilles  into 
prison,  in  revenge  for  their  activity, — an 
order  which  the  privy  council  did  not 
deem  it  expedient  at  the  time  to  execute. 

[1605.]  But  the  king  had  resolved  upon 
his  course ;  and  when  the  time  for  the 
meeting  of  the  General  Assembly  again 
drew  near,  it  was  again  prorogued,  not- 
withstanding the  numerous  petitions  sent 
to  court,  requesting  its  meeting  to  be  al- 
lowed. And,  as  if  to  remove  all  doubt 
respecting  his  design,  his  majesty,  in  pro- 
roguing the  Assembly,  mentioned  no 
time  for  its  next  meeting.  This  rendered 
it  evident  that  nothing  less  than  its  entire 
suppression  was  intended,  and,  by  inev- 
itable consequence,  the  overthrow  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland,  and  the 
erection  of  Prelacy.  This  was  directly 
contrary  to  the  act  of  parliament  1592, 
in  which  it  was  expressly  stipulated  that 
the  Assembly  should  meet  at  least  once 
every  year  ;  it  was  contrary  even  to  the 
acts  of  parliament  and  Assembly  passed 
for  the  introducing  of  commissioners  of 
the  church  into  parliament,  who  were 
annually  to  render  to  the  Assembly  an 
account  of  their  conduct,  subject  to  cen- 
sure and  deposition  if  they  had  acted  im- 
properly. The  suppression  of  the  meet- 
ing of  Assembly  was  a  virtual  bestowal 
of  permanence  in  their  function  on  these 
parliamentary  bishops  and  commission- 
ers, and  to  that  extent  was  directly  ever- 
sive  of  the  constitution  and  government 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  It  was 
therefore  imperatively  necessary  for  the 
hurch  now  to  oppose  these  perfidious 


120 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


and  arbitrary  encroachments,  and  to  de- 
fend her  sacred  liberties,  or  to  be  for  ever 
enslaved. 

When  the  Assembly  was  thus  pro- 
rogued, the  time  of  its  meeting  was  so 
near  at  hand  that  several  presbyteries 
had  already  chosen  their  representatives. 
The  interval  was  too  short  to  admit  of 
such  deliberations  and  transmission  of 
opinions  as  would  have  enabled  the 
whole  Church  to  act  in  a  body,  and  ac- 
cording to  one  systematic  plan  ;  but  nine 
presbyteries  resolved  to  send  their  repre- 
sentatives to  Aberdeen,  with  instructions 
to  constitute  the  Assembly,  and  adjourn 
it  to  a  particular  day,  without  proceeding 
to  transact  any  business.  For  it  was  still 
hoped  that  his  majesty  might  be  pre- 
vailed upon  to  alter  his  course  ;  and  the 
Church  was  extremely  reluctant  to  take 
any  exasperating  steps,  but  merely  to 
secure  formally  its  sacred  and  statutory 
rights. 

On  the  2d  of  July  1605,  nineteen  min- 
isters met,  after  sermon  in  the  session- 
house  of  Aberdeen  ;  and  the  king's  com- 
missioner, Straiton  of  Lauriston,  pre- 
sented to  them  a  letter  from  the  lords  of  the 
privy  council,  addressed  "  To  the  brethren 
of  the  ministry  convened  at  their  Assembly 
in  Aberdeen."  The  very  address  of  this 
letter  not  only  authorized  the  Assembly, 
but  rendered  it  necessary,  that  it  should 
be  formally  constituted  before  the  letter 
could  with  propriety  be  read.  This  was 
done  accordingly  ;  and  while  they  were 
engaged  in  reading  the  letter,  a  messen- 
ger-at-arms  entered,  and,  in  the  king's 
name,  charged  them  to  dismiss,  on  the 
pain  of  rebellion.  The  Assembly  de- 
claring their  readiness  to  comply  with 
this  order,  requested  the  commissioner  to 
name  a  day  and  place  for  their  next 
meeting  ;  and  upon  his  refusal,  the  mod- 
erator appointed  the  Assembly  to  meet 
again  in  the  same  place  on  the  last  Tues- 
day of  September  ensuing,  and  then  dis- 
solved the  meeting  with  prayer.  It  was 
afterwards  pretended  by  the  commis- 
sioner, that  he  had  prohibited  the  Assem- 
bly by  open  proclamation  at  the  market- 
cross  of  Aberdeen  on  the  day  before  it 
met ;  but  when  Andrew  Melville  charged 
him,  in  presence  of  the  king,  with  hav- 
ing falsified  the  date,  he  had  nothing  to 
answer,  and  could  not  produce  a  single 


person  who  had  heard  the  proclamation 
on  that  day.* 

Is  there  one  man  who  understands  the 
principles  and  values  the  rights  of  reli- 
gious and  civil  liberty,  that  will  condemn 
the  proceedings  of  this  much  calumnia- 
ted Assembly  ?  The  right  of  the  minis- 
ters of  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  meet  at 
least  once  a-year  in  a  General  Assembly, 
had  been  always  asserted,  had  been  se- 
cured by  acts  of  parliament,  and  had  re- 
ceived repeatedly  the  express  sanction  of 
his  majesty.  And  when  these  sacred 
rights  and  legislative  enactments  were 
attempted  to  be  destroyed  by  the  arbitrary 
will  of  the  sovereign,  on  the  bare  au- 
thority of  a  royal  proclamation,  the  min- 
isters of  the  Church  of  Scotland  would 
have  been  unworthy  of  the  names  they 
bore,  the  station  they  occupied,  and  the 
great  cause  in  defence  of  which  they 
stood  forth,  had  they  acted  in  any  other 
manner  than  they  did, — had  they  not  con- 
fronted every  danger,  rather  than  submit 
to  measures  which  aimed  at  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  perfect  despotism.  It  does 
not  seem  too  much  to  say,  that  these  high 
principled  Christian  ministers  were  the 
chosen  instruments,  in  the  hand  of  the 
Divine  Head  and  King  of  the  Church, 
for  the  preservation  of  that  sacred  prin- 
ciple,— the  right  of  the  office-bearers  and 
members  of  the  Christian  Church  to 
meet  and  deliberate  respecting  religious 
matters,  and  to  exercise  a  spiritual  juris- 
diction therein,  free  from  all  civil  control. 
And  though  for  a  time  the  strong  arm  of 
power  might  crush  the  devoted  defenders 
of  that  sacred  principle,  the  principle  it- 
self, when  once  fully  made  known  and 
resolutely  asserted,  was  indestructible, 
because  it  was  true,  and  because  God  was 
its  defender. 

The  wrath  of  the  king,  when  informed 
of  the  meeting  of  the  Assembly  at  Aber- 
deen, knew  no  bounds.  He  instantly 
sent  orders  to  Scotland  to  proceed  with 
the  utmost  rigour  against  the  ministers 
who  had  presumed  to  contravene  his 
command.  Fourteen  of  the  most  emi- 
nent were  sent  to  prison  to  wait  their 
trial,  John  Forbes,  moderator  of  the  late 
Assembly,  and  John  Welsh,  son-in-law 
of  Knox,  being  confined  in  separate  dun- 
geons in  the  castle  of  Blackness.  Acting 

•  Calderwood,  pp.  492-494. 


A.  D.  1GOG  ] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


121 


according  lo  the  principles  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  they  declined  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  privy  council  in  a  matter 
purely  ecclesiastical;  and  this  being,  as 
formerly,  regarded  as  an  aggravation  of 
their  offence,  they  were  indicted  to  stand 
trial  for  high  treason  before  the  Court  of 
the  Justiciary  at  Linlithgow.  The  able 
defence  of  Forbes  and  Welsh,  supported 
by  the  legal  reasonings  of  Thomas  Hope, 
and  countenanced  by  Andrew  Melville, 
could  not  avail  to  rescue  the  victims  from 
the  gripe  of  the  tyrant.  Every  species  of 
corruption  was  employed  by  James's  un- 
worthy minions  to  secure  a  verdict  against 
them,  which  was  at  length  obtained  by  a 
majority  of  no  more  than  three.* 

Six  eminently  pious  and  able  ministers 
were  thus  condemned  and  cast  into  prison, 
to  wait  his  majesty's  pleasure  what  sen- 
tence should  be  pronounced.  Eight  more 
remained  for  trial ;  and  the  relentless  des- 
pot sent  orders  to  proceed  without  delay 
to  a  repetition  of  the  same  perversion  of 
law  and  justice.  But  the  heart  of  Scot- 
land began  to  swell  with  sympathy  for 
the  sufferers  ;  and  the  privy  council  sent 
intimation  to  the  king,  that  it  would  not 
be  safe  to  proceed  with  the  trial  in  the 

? resent  temper  and  feeling  of  the  nation, 
ames  yielded  to  the  remonstrance  so  far 
as  to  release  the  eight  ministers  from 
prison,  but  banished  them  to  the  remotest 
parts  of  the  kingdom.  The  six  who  had 
been  convicted,  after  suffering  fourteen 
months'  imprisonment  in  the  Castle  of 
Blackness,  were  banished  into  France. 

Such  were  the  first-fruits  of  the  intro- 
duction of  Prelacy  into  Scotland, — the 
violation  of  acts  of  parliament,  the  cor- 
ruption of  courts  of  justice,  and  the  ban- 
ishment of  ministers  eminently  distin- 
guished by  personal  piety,  and  by  success 
in  the  discharge  of  their  sacred  duties  ; 
and  so  early  was  the  foundation  laid  in 
Scottish  experience  for  what  has  become 
a  national  proverb, — "  that  prelatic  Epis- 
copacy never  appeared  in  Scotland  but  as 
a  persecutor." 

[1606.1  In  trie  month  of  February 
1606,  an  evasive  attempt  was  made  by 
the  king,  at  the  instigation  of  the  bishops, 
to  procure  the  consent  of  the  synods  to 
five  articles,  intended  to  secure  the  bish- 
ops and  commissioners  from  the  conse- 
quences of  their  violation  of  all  the  cau. 

•  Calderwood,  pp.  499-516. 

16 


tions  they  had  sworn  to  observe,  and  also 
to  admit  the  power  which  the  king 
claimed  over  the  meetings  of  the  General 
Assembly.  But  although  the  synods  were 
cunningly  summoned  to  meet  on  the 
same  day  all  over  the  kingdom,  so  that 
there  could  be  no  interchange  of  opinion 
among  them,  the  result  was,  that  only 
one  synod,  that  of  Angus,  assented  to  the 
proposed  articles. 

A  parliament  was  held  at  Perth  in 
August  the  same  year,  for  the  purpose 
chiefly  of  proceeding  with  the  restoration 
of  Prelacy.  In  order  to  effect  this,  it  was 
necessary  to  repeal  the  statute  annexing 
the  temporalities  of  bishoprics  to  the 
crown,  and  to  restore  them  to  those  who 
should  be  nominated  to  the  episcopal  of- 
fice. This  intention  becoming  known, 
the  ministers  from  all  quarters  repaired 
to  Perth,  remonstrated  against  this  de- 
sign, and  finally  gave  in  a  protest  to  each 
of  the  three  estates.  This  protest  was 
signed  by  forty-two  ministers,  three  of 
whom  not  long  afterwards  accepted  bish- 
oprics, to  their  perpetual  disgrace.  The 
protest  itself  may  be  seen  in  Calderwood, 
and  also  in  the  introduction  to  Stevenson  ; 
and  deserves  an  attentive  perusal,  as  an 
able  embodiment  of  the  opinions  enter- 
tained by  the  leading  men  in  the  Church 
at  that  period, — opinions  which  all  ages 
would  do  well  to  cherish.  An  arrange- 
ment was  made  between  the  nobility  and 
the  prelatic  party  to  the  following  effect: 
That  the  wealth  and  lands  formerly  pos- 
sessed by  abbots,  priors,  &c.,  in  virtue  of 
which  those  persons  had  voted  in  parlia- 
ment, and  as  representing  which  so  many 
commissioners  of  the  Church  had  re- 
cently been  admitted  to  sit  and  vote, 
should  be  alienated  from  the  Church,  and 
erected  into  temporal  lordships  ;  and  that, 
on  the  other  hand,  there  should  be  seven- 
teen prelacies  erected,  and  the  bishops 
restored  to  all  their  ancient  honours,  dig- 
nities, privileges,  and  prerogatives.  In 
the  preamble  to  the  strange  and  arbitrary 
act  by  which  this  base  arrangement  was 
ratified,  and  which  was  for  a  considera- 
ble time  kept  as  secret  as  possible,  his  ma- 
jesty is  recognized  as  "absolute  prince, 
judge,  and  governor  over  all  estates, 
persons,  and  causes,  both  spiritual  and 
temporal.* 

A  short  while  previous  to  the  meeting 

•  Act  Parl.  Scot.  iv.  pp.  231-283 ;  Calderwood,  p.  532. 


122 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


of  parliament,  letters  were  sent  by  the 
king  to  six  of  the  most  distinguished  of 
the  ministers  who  had  not  been  already 
sejzed  on  account  of  the  Aberdeen  As- 
sembly. These  six  were,  Andrew  and 
James  Melville,  William  Scott,  John  Car- 
michael,  William  Watson,  James  Bal- 
four,  Adam  Colt,  and  Robert  Wallace. 
They  were  commanded  to  repair  to  Lon- 
don, that  his  majesty  might  treat  with 
them  concerning  such  things  as  would 
settle  the  peace  of  the  Church,  and  would 
justify  to  the  world  the  measures  which 
his  majesty,  after  such  extraordinary 
condescension,  might  find  it  necessary  to 
adopt  for  repressing  the  obstinate  and 
turbulent.  The  ministers  had  little  doubt 
what  would  be  the  issue.  The  course  of 
the  king's  conduct  in  times  past  pointed 
out  with  sufficient  plainness  what  was 
his  probable  design.  Like  the  tyrant  of 
antiquity,  James  knew  that  the  safest 
method  of  reducing  a  nation  to  slavery 
was  to  begin  by  cutting  off  its  leading 
and  free-spirited  men.  Bruce  and  Welsh 
were  already  in  exile ;  and  if  the  Mel- 
villes  could  also  be  removed,  he  might 
secure  the  comparatively  easy  accom- 
plishment of  his  favourite  scheme, — the 
overthrow  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
and  the  establishment  of  Prelacy. 

The  heart  sickens  at  the  very  recital 
of  such  a  continued  course  of  royal 
knavery  and  prelatic  treachery  ;  and  we 
feel  compelled  to  trace  with  more  rapid 
and  summary  course  the  remaining 
stages  of  this  disgraceful  period  of  our 
national  history.  When  the  six  minis- 
ters arrived  at  London,  they  were  admit- 
ted to  an  interview  with  the  king,  and 
questioned  respecting  their  opinion  of  the 
Assembly  which  met  at  Aberdeen,  not- 
withstanding the  royal  prorogation. 
Every  endeavour  was  used  to  draw  them 
into  the  use  of  language  which  might 
furnish  a  plausible  pretext  for  instituting 
proceedings  against  them ;  and  at  length, 
on  the  despicable  charge  against  Andrew 
Melville,  of  having  written  an  epigram 
censuring  pointedly  the  superstitious  cere- 
monies which  he  had  been  compelled  to 
witness  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  he  was 
brought  to  trial  as  guilty  of  a  treasonable 
act.  Notwithstanding  the  singularly  able 
and  eloquent  defence  of  Melville,  he  was 
committed  to  the  Tower,  subjected  to  a 


tedious  imprisonment  of  four  years,  and 
at  length  allowed  to  go  to  Sedan,  where 
he  remained  till  his  death.  His  nephew 
was  also  prohibited  from  returning  to 
Scotland,  and  the  remaining  four  from 
returning  to  their  parishes,  although  not 
implicated  in  the  offence  charged  against 
him ;  but  thus  the  crafty  tyrant  contrived 
to  cut  down  the  tallest. 

The  king  and  his  bishops  thinking 
themselves  now  tolerably  secure  of  car- 
rying their  measures,  hastened  with 
keen  speed  to  the  work.  Missives  were 
addressed  by  the  king  to  the  several  pres- 
byteries, informing  them  that  an  Assem- 
bly was  to  be  held  at  Linlithgow  on  the 
10th  of  December,  and  naming  the  per- 
sons whom  they  were  to  send  as  repre- 
sentatives. Thus  even  the  choice  of 
their  own  representatives  was  to  be  taken 
away  before  the  king  could  expect  to 
threaten  or  cajole  the  Presbyterian  minis- 
ters into  the  reception  of  his  beloved  Pre- 
lacy. Some  of  the  presbyteries  refused 
to  grant  any  commission  to  the  king's 
nominees ;  and  others  strictly  prohibited 
them  from  taking  part  in  the  decision  of 
any  ecclesiastical  question.  When  this 
packed  Assembly  met,  a  letter  from  his 
majesty  was  read,  recommending  the 
appointment  of  constant  moderators  of 
presbyteries,  and  that  the  bishops  should 
be  the  moderators  of  the  presbyteries 
within  whose  bounds  they  resided. 
Even  in  this  carefully-selected  Assembly 
it  required  all  the  art  of  the  king's  com- 
missioner, and  a  repetition  of  the  deceit- 
ful protestations  and  cautions  of  the  per- 
jured prelates,  to  carry  a  measure  so  re- 
pugnant to  every  Presbyterian  principle. 
It  was  carried,  however ;  and  when  sent 
to  his  majesty  to  be  ratified,  it  returned 
with  an  interpolation,  appointing  the 
bishops  to  be  moderators  of  provincial 
synods,  as  well  as  of  presbyteries  Le- 
gal charges  were  sent  to  all  the  synods 
and  presbyteries  to  admit  the  constant 
moderators  ;  and  the  synod  of  Angus 
confirmed  its  bad  pre-eminence  by  being 
the  only  one  that  did  not  refuse.*  Fierce, 
violent,  and  outrageous  were  the  at- 
tempts made  by  the  king's  agents  to  force 
the  bishops  as  constant  moderators  upon 
the  synods  and  presbyteries,  and  in  al- 
most every  instance  unsuccessfully, 

*  Calderwood,  pp.  550-554. 


A.  D.  1610.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


123 


though  many  ministers  were  thrown  into 
prison,  and  disgraceful  tumults  raised  by 
the  prelatic  party. 

[1607.]  The  whole  of  the  year  1607 
was  employed  by  the  prelates  and  their 
supporters  in  their  endeavour  to  force  the 
constant  moderators  upon  synods  and 
presbyteries,  by  every  method  which 
craft  could  devise  or  tyranny  execute. 

[1608.]  But  the  bishops  perceiving 
that  these  forcible  measures  were  rous- 
ing the  spirit  of  the  country,  had  recourse 
to  a  stratagem  which  wrought  more  ef- 
fectually. A  conference  was  held  at 
Falkland,  between  the  Prelatists  and  the 
faithful  presbyterians,  with  the  pretext  of 
attempting  to  come  to  an  amicable  ar- 
rangement, and  put  an  end  to  the  strifes 
and  divisions  by  which  the  country  was 
distracted.  Following  up  this  policy,  an 
Assembly  was  held  at  Linlithgow  about 
the  end  of  July,  in  which  the  Prelatists 
repeated  their  wish  for  a  peaceful  and 
amicable  discussion  on  the  points  in  dis- 
pute, some  of  them  pretending  that  they 
began  to  be  of  opinion  that  Prelacy  was 
more  agreeable  to  Scripture  than  the 
Presbyterian  form  of  church  government. 
This  fallacious  pretext  produced  the  de- 
sired effect.  It  lulled  many  6*f  the  vigi- 
lant Presbyterians  into  security,  or  di- 
rected their  attention  to  speculative  dis- 
cussions, while  their  wily  antagonists 
were  pressing  forward  their  machina- 
tions practically. 

[1609.]  A  parliament  was  held  at 
Edinburgh  in  1609,  in  which  the  bish- 
ops were  present,  but  none  of  the  minis- 
ters received,  intimation  of  its  meeting, 
that  they  might,  as  usual,  present  their 
requests  to  the  national  legislature. 
Considerable  progress  was  accordingly 
made  by  the  prelates  in  the  prosecution 
of  their  measures.  Spots  wood,  now  arch- 
bishop of  Glasgow,  was  made  a  Lord  of 
Session  ;  and  the  bishops  were  empower- 
ed to  modify  and  fix  the  stipends  of  minis- 
ters,— a  power  which  they  did  not  scruple 
to  employ  for  the  pupose  of  bribing  ad- 
herents, and  of  starving  antagonists. 
Thus  were  the  bishops  restored  by  Par- 
liament to  the  civil  jurisdiction  formerly 
held  by  the  popish  prelates. 

[1610.]  On  the  1 6th  of  February  1610 
a  commission  was  given  under  the  great 
seal  of  the  two  archbishops  of  St.  An- 
drews and  Glasgow,  to  hold  two  courts 


of  high  Commission.  These  courts,  it 
may  be  mentioned  here,  were  united  in 
1615,  when  Spots  wood  was  translated  to 
St.  Andrews,  and  thereby  became  pos- 
sessed of  what  in  popish  times  had  been 
the  primacy.  Never  was  a  more  tyran- 
nical court  insticuted  than  that  of  High 
Commission.  It  was  regulated  by  no 
fixed  laws  or  forms  of  justice,  and  was 
armed  with  the  united  terrors  of  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  despotism.  It  had  the 
power  of  receiving  appeals  from  any  ec- 
clesiastical judicatory  ;  of  calling  before 
it  all  persons  accused  of  immorality, 
heresy,  sedition,  or  an  imaginary  offence ; 
or  finding  them  guilty  upon  evidence 
which  no  court  of  justice  would  have  sus- 
tained ;  and  of  inflicting  any  punishment 
either  civil  or  ecclesiastical,  or  both, 
which  it  thought  proper.  "  As  it  exalted 
the  bishops  far  above  any  prelate  that 
ever  was  in  Scotland,  so  it  put  the  king 
in  possession  of  what  he  had  long  desired, 
namely,  the  royal  prerogative  and  abso- 
lute power  to  use  the  bodies  and  goods 
of  his  subjects  at  his  pleasure,  without 
form  or  process  of  law :  so  that  our  bish- 
ops were  fit  instruments  of  the  over- 
throw of  the  freedom  and  liberty  both  of 
the  Church  and  realm  of  Scotland."* 

An  Assembly  was  held  at  Glasgow  on 
the  8th  of  June,  the  same  year.  Pre- 
vious to  its  meeting,  the  king,  by  the  di- 
rection of  the  bishops,  sent  circular  let- 
ters to  the  presbyteries,  nominating  as  on 
a  former  occasion,  their  representatives  ; 
and  the  Earl  of  Dunbar  was  sent  from 
London  as  king's  commissioner,  well  pro- 
vided with  golden  persuasives  to  use  in 
lack  of  better  arguments.  His  majesty's 
dictatorial  letter  was  read;  threats  and 
promises  were  plentifully  employed ; 
and  at  length  the  whole  of  the  prelatic 
measures  were  carried,  only  five  votes 
being  given  against  them.  The  Aber- 
deen Assembly  of  1 605  was  condemned ; 
the  right  of  calling  and  dismissing  As- 
semblies was  declared  to  belong  to  the 
royal  prerogative  ;  the  bishops  were  de- 
clared moderators  of  diocesan  synods, 
and  all  presentations  to  benefices  were 
appointed  to  be  directed  to  them  ;  and 
the  power  of  excommunicating  and  ab- 
solving offenders,  and  of  visiting  the 
churches  within  their  respective  dioceses, 

*  Melville's  Hist,  of  Decl.  Age.  pp.  270-276;  Calder- 
wood,  pp.  616-619. 


124 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IV 


was  conferred  on  them.  Thus  did  this 
packed,  and  intimidated,  and  bribed  con- 
vention (often  called  the  Angelical  As- 
sembly, in  allusion  to  the  angels,  a  gold 
coin  used  in  bribing  the  mercenary  prela- 
tists),  consent  to  the  introduction  of  the 
corrupt  and  corrupting  prelatic  system 
of  church  government.  Not  more  strong- 
ly contrasted  are  Prelacy  and  Presbytery 
in  their  forms  and  ceremonies,  than  in 
the  methods  by  which  they  were  estab- 
lished in  Scotland.  The  faithful  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel,  open  and  manly  ar- 
gument, and  the  pure  lives  of  its  teachers, 
were  the  means  employed  by  Presbytery 
to  fix  itself  in  the  heart  of  Scotland :  ar- 
bitrary power,  dissimulation,  perfidy, 
treachery,  corruption,  and  persecution, 
were  the  methods  by  which  Prelacy  was 
introduced,  nourished,  and  confirmed. 
Till  these  facts  have  perished  from  the 
records  of  history, -little  else  will  be  re- 
quired by  any  right-hearted  and  unpre- 
judiced man,  to  enable  him  to  answer  the 
question,  Which  of  the  two  systems  is  of 
human  invention,  and  which  of  divine 
institution  ? 

The  perfidious  acts  of  the  Glasgow 
Assembly  were  kept  for  a  time  concealed 
till  the  prelates  were  ready  to  have  them 
enforced.  Yet  great  opposition  was 
made  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  and 
the  persecution  of  faithful  ministers  was 
resumed.  Spotswood,  Lambe,  and 
Hamilton,  went  to  London  to  obtain  con- 
secration of  their  episcopal  functions,  and 
that  they  might  afterwards  legitimately 
consecrate  their  prelatic  brethren. 

[1612.]  Nearly  two  years  elapsed  be- 
tween the  Glasgow  Assembly  and  the  ra- 
tification of  its  acts  by  the  parliament,  in 
October  1612;  but  in  the  ratification  the 
acts  were  so  far  changed  as  to  render 
them  more  according  to  the  wish  of  the 
prelates,  especially  of  Spotswood,  who 
directly  asserts  that  this  act  rescinded  and 
annulled  that  of  1592.*  By  the  influ- 
ence of  the  same  ambitious  man,  also,  the 
Courts  of  High  Commission  were  subse- 
quently united  in  1615,  and  he  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  this  prelatic  inquisi- 
tion. 

[1616.]  No  Assembly  was  held  till 
August  1616,  when  it  was  summoned  to 
meet  at  Aberdeen.  It  is  chiefly  remark- 
able on  account  of  a  new  Confession  of 

*  Spotswood,  p.  518. 


Faith,  drawn  up  by  the  prelatic  party, 
sufficiently  orthodox  in  its  doctrines,  but 
meagre  and  evasive  in  respect  of  church 
government  and  discipline,  for  a  very 
evident  reason.*  By  this  accommoda- 
ting Assembly  the  popish  lords  were  re- 
ceived into  favour,  and  subscribed  the 
new  Confession.  The  prelatic  party  had 
indeed  outgrown  the  patriarchs  of  the 
Reformation. 

[1617.]  In  1617  the  king  paid  a  visit 
to  his  ancient  kingdoms  ;  expecting,  pro- 
bably, to  find  matters  more  to  his  liking 
under  the  prelatic  sway  than  formerly. 
He  soon  found,  however,  that  the  ancient 
spirit  was  not  wholly  fled.  A  considera- 
ble number  of  the  ministers  gave  in  a 
protestation  against  a  proposal  that  the 
king,  with  the  advice  of  the  prelates  and 
some  of  the  ministry,  should  have  power 
to  enact  ecclesiastical  laws  |  and  when 
David  Calderwood  was  summoned  be- 
fore the  Court  of  High  Commission  on 
account  of  this  protestation,  he  declined 
its  jurisdiction.  Some  sharp  altercation 
passed  between  him  and  the  king,  which 
Calderwood  has  himself  recorded  in  a 
very  graphic  manner,  f  The  result  was, 
that  he  was  banished  out  of  the  kingdom, 
and  compelled  to  depart  during  the 
stormy  winter  weather,  the  king  coarsely- 
saying,  that  should  he  be  drowned  it 
would  save  him  from  a  worse  fate.  A 
sort  of  Assembly  was  held  at  St.  Andrews 
in  the  end  of  October,  for  the  purpose  of 
completing  the  prelatic  innovations  ;  but 
it  proved  rather  premature,  and  that  com- 
pletion was  reserved  for  tne  following 
year. 

[1618.]  On  the  25th  of  August  1618, 
the  General  Assembly  met  at  Perth,  in 
obedience  to  the  royal  mandate.  During 
the  preceding  summer  months,  every 
possible  device  which  craft  or  despotism 
could  suggest,  had  been  used  to  prepare 
such  an  Assembly  as  would  be  sufficiently 
subservient ;  and  when  the  Assembly 
met,  nothing  was  left  undone  to  ensure  a 
prelatic  triumph.  They  met  in  what  was 
called  the  Little  Kirk,  in  which  a  long 
table  was  placed  in  the  centre,  benches 
arranged  on  each  side  of  it,  and  at  the 
head  a  cross  table,  with  chairs  for  his 
majesty's  commissioners  and  the  modera- 
tor. The  nobility,  gentry,  and  prelates 
placed  themselves  on  the  benches,  leaving 

*  Calderwood,  pp.  666-673.    t  Calderwood,  pp.  681-683, 


A.  D.  1621.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


125 


the  ministers  to  stand  behind  them,  un- 
accommodated with  seats,  as  if  indicating 
the  subordinate  part  which  they  were  to 
perform  ;  and  Spotswood  took  the  mode- 
rator's chair,  without  being  elected  to 
that  office.  When  it  was  proposed  that 
the  moderator  should  be  elected  accord- 
ing to  the  usual  order  of  procedure,  Spots- 
wood  would  not  permit  it,  on  the  ground 
that  as  the  Assembly  was  held  within  the 
bounds  of  his  diocese,  he  was  entitled  to 
preside.  The  ministers  were  then  re- 
quired to  give  in  their  commissions  ;  but 
these  commissions  were  not  examined 
publicly,  so  that  it  could  not  be  known 
whether  they  were  all  genuine  or  not, 
till  the  conclusion  of  the  proceedings, 
when  it  was  ascertained  that  many  of 
them  were  not  legal.  The  question  was 
asked  by  some  of  the  ministers,  whether 
all  the  noblemen,  barons,  and  burgesses 
present  were  to  vote,  since  many  of  them 
had  no  commissions  as  elders.  Spots- 
wood  answered,  that  all  who  had  come 
in  compliance  with  his  Majesty's  missives 
should  vote,  although  this  was  directly 
contrary  to  the  constitution  of  the  Assem- 
bly. The  dean  of  Winchester  was  then 
introduced,  who  read  a  long  letter  from 
the  king,  strongly  recommending  the 
measures  which  he  proposed,  and  warmly 
expostulating  with  the  Church  on  account 
of  its  reluctance  to  comply  with  his  sug- 
gestions. The  dean  followed  up  this 
letter  with  a  speech,  strenuously  urging 
compliance  with  all  the  king's  desires 
and  suggestions,  in  a  strain  of  sycophan- 
tic adulation. 

The  struggle  immediately  began  be- 
tween the  faithful  ministers  and  the  inno- 
vating prelatic  party.  A  private  con- 
ference was  held  for  the  purpose  of  put- 
ting the  proposed  articles  into  regular 
form  for  the  consideration  of  the  Assem- 
bly. In  the  conference  Spotswood  en- 
deavored to  procure  the  sanction  of  these 
articles  by  a  vote,  which  would  have  pre- 
cluded the  liberty  of  reasoning  in  the 
Assembly,  and  in  this  he  was  partially 
successful.  When  the  articles  were  laid 
before  the  Assembly  on  the  27th,  a  scene 
of  tyrannical  violence  ensued,  such  as  has 
been  seldom  equalled.  Spotswood  ad- 
dressed the  Assembly  in  the  most  haughty 
and  domineering  style,  urging  submission 
to  his  majesty's  desires,  commanding  im- 
plicit and  immediate  obedience,  deriding 


the  idea  that  any  ministers  would  submit 
to  be  expelled  from  their  parishes  and 
stipends  rather  than  yield,  and  assuring 
them  that  the  people  would  not  support 
them,  or,  if  such  a  thing  should  happen, 
"  wishing  that  the  king  would  make  him 
a  captain,  and  never  one  of  these  brag- 
gers  would  come  to  the  field."  Others 
of  the  prtlates  followed  in  a  similar  strain 
and  spirit ;  and  every  attempt  made  by 
the  faithful  Presbyterians  to  reason  and 
argue  was  overborne  by  the  rude  clam- 
ours and  taunting  jeers  of  the  haughty 
barons  and  more  naughty  prelates.  A 
protestation  against  such  a  course  of  pro- 
cedure was  given  in  by  some  of  the 
ministers  ;  but  after  a  few  sentences  had 
been  read  it  was  cast  aside  and  neglected. 
The  vote  was  then  loudly  demanded  by 
the  self-chosen  moderator,  and  the  king's 
letter  was  again  read,  to  overawe  the 
opposing  ministers.  In  putting  the  vote 
the  question  was  often  crouched  in  these 
terms  : — "  Will  you  consent  to  these  arti- 
cles, or  disobey  the  king .?"  and  Spots- 
wood  even  declared,  that  whosoever  voted 
against  these  articles,  his  name  should  be 
marked  and  transmitted  to  his  majesty. 
Thus  surrounded  by  the  half-armed  re- 
tainers of  the  nobility,  and  threatened 
with  the  vengeance  of  the  king,  the 
ministers  were  compelled  to  proceed  to 
the  vote  in  the  midst  of  confusion  and 
alarm.  Even  then  many  stood  true  and 
unshaken ;  but  the  Five  Articles  of 
Perth,  as  they  are  usually  called,  were 
carried  by  a  majority, — one  nobleman, 
Lord  Ochiltree,  one  doctor,  and  forty-five 
ministers,  voting  in  the  negative.  These 
Five  Articles  were,  —  kneeling  at  the 
communion, — the  observance  of  holidays, 
— episcopal  confirmation, — private  bap- 
tism,— and  the  private  dispensation  of 
the  Lord's  Supper.  Thus  by  a  formida- 
ble combination  of  fraud  and  violence, 
the  king  and  his  minions  succeeded  in 
perpetrating  another  glaring  innovation 
upon  the  government,  discipline,  and 
ritual  of  the  Presbyterian  Church ;  yet 
so  narrowly,  that  if  none  had  voted  ex- 
cept those  who  had  commissions,  the 
attempt  would  have  been  defeated.* 
These  articles  being  thus  forcibly  carried 
in  the  Assembly,  the  Court  of  High 
Commission  set  about  enforcing  their 
observance,  by  means  of  civil  penalties  ; 

*  Calderwood,  pp.  697-713. 


126 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


thus  yielding  another  practical  proof,  that 
civil  and  religious  liberties  perish  or  exist 
together. 

[1621.]  Trusting  that  the  spirit  of  the 
nation  was  now  subdued,  after  three  years 
of  High  Commission  tyranny,  the  parlia- 
ment was  summoned  to  meet  in  Edin- 
burgh on  the  25th  of  July  1621,  chiefly 
for  the  ratification  of  the  Five*  Articles 
of  Perth.  The  faithful  ministers  who 
still  survived  to  watch  over  the  welfare 
of  the  Church,  endeavoured  to  move  the 
parliament  by  earnest  remonstrances,  but 
in  vain  ;  the  course  was  predetermined, 
and  the  result  prepared.  At  length  all 
preliminary  arrangements  being  com- 
pleted, the  parliament  proceeded  to  vote 
for  the  ratification  or  rejection  of  the  Five 
Articles,  without  deliberation,  and  as  if 
they  had  formed  but  one  topic.  Even 
then  the  opposition  was  very  strong. 
Fifteen  lords  and  fifty-four  commission- 
ers of  shires  and  burghs  voted  against 
the  measure,  and  it  was  carried  by  a 
small  majority.  On  Saturday  the  4th  of 
August  1621,  this  vote,  subversive  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland,  was 
thus  carried,  chiefly  by  means  of  men 
who  had  solemnly  sworn  to  maintain 
what  they  had  thus  conspired  to  over- 
throw. This  day,  sadly  memorable  in 
the  annals  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
was  marked  also  by  a  singular  coincident 
event,  recorded  by  the  historians  of  that 
time.  The  morning  had  been  lowering 
and  gloomy,  and  as  the  day  advanced  the 
gloom  waxed  deeper  and  deeper,  as  the 
gathering  clouds  seemed  to  concentrate 
their  huge  voluminous  masses  around 
over  the  city.  At  the  very  moment  when 
the  Marquis  of  Hamilton  and  the  Lord 
High  Commissioner  rose  to  give  the  for- 
mal ratification  to  the  acts,  by  touching 
them  with  the  sceptre,  a  keen  blue  flash 
of  forked  lightning  blazed  through  the 
murky  gloom,  followed  instantaneously 
by  another  and  another,  so  dazzingly 
bright  as  to  blind  the  startled  and  terri- 
fied parliament,  in  the  act  of  consumma- 
ting its  guilty  deed.  Three  terrific  peals 
of  thunder  followed  in  quick  succession, 
appalling  the  trembling  conclave,  as  if 
the  thunder-voice  of  heaven  were  utter- 
ing denouncements  of  vengeance  against 
the  insulters  of  the  dread  majesty  on  high. 
Then  descended  hailstones  of  prodigious 
magnitude,  and  sheeted  rains  so  heavy 


and  continuous,  as  to  imprison  for  an  hour 
and  a-half  the  parliament  whic'h  had  per- 
petrated this  act  of  treason  against  the 
King  of  kings,  by  subjecting  His  Church 
to  an  earthly  monarch.  This  dark  and 
disastrous  day  was  long  known  in  Scot- 
land by  the  designation  of  "  BLACK  SAT- 
URDAY,"— "black  with  man's  guilt  and 
with  the  frowns  of  heaven."* 

We  have  now  reached  the  close  of 
another  period  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land's eventful  history, — a  period  full  of 
instruction  for  the  thoughtful  Christian 
reader.  It  is  painful  to  peruse  the  records 
of  a  crafty  monarch's  fraud  and  tyranny, 
— of  aristocratic  selfishness  and  avarice, 
— of  the  perjury  and  deceit  of  ambitious 
and  sycophantic  churchmen,  longing 
for  prelatic  pre-eminence  in  wealth  and 
power, — and  of  the  sufferings  to  which 
the  true-hearted  and  noble-minded  de- 
fenders of  the  Church  of  Scotland  were 
exposed,  as  they  strove  faithfully,  though 
ineffectually,  to  maintain  her  principles 
and  defend  her  rights.  Yet  it  affords  a 
signal  illustration  of  the  great  truth,  that 
the  Church  of  Christ  and  the  world  are 
each  other's  natural  antagonists,  and  that 
the  more  closely  a  Church  cleaves  to  its 
Divine  Head  and  King,  obeying  His 
precepts  and  following  His  example,  the 
more  certain  is  it  to  incur  the  hostility  of 
crafty,  irreligious,  and  wordly-minded 
men  of  every  rank  and  station.  It  shows 
also,  that  the  greatest  danger  a  Church 
has  to  encounter  is  that  arising  from 
internal  corruption.  King  James  could 
not  overthrow  the  Church  of  Scotland 
till  he  had  gained  over  some  of  its  minis- 
ters, and  thereby  succeeded  in  corrupting 
its  courts,  so  as  to  obtain  its  own  apparent 
sanction  to  his  successive  invasions  of  its 
rights  and  privileges.  And  it  deserves 
also  to  be  remarked,  that  even  when  zeal- 
ously working  the  ruin  of  the  Church, 
there  was  in  all  the  crafty  despot's  mea- 
sures a  strange  tacit  recognition  of  one  of 
the  leading  principles  which  he  sought  to 
overthrow, — the  independent  right  of  the 
Church  to  regulate  its  own  procedure 
on  its  own  authority.  Every  one  of  the 
destructive  acts  by  which  Presbytery  was 
overthrown  and  Prelacy  introduced,  was 
so  contrived  as  to  have  its  origin  in  some 
court  or  commission  of  the  Church, — 
never  first  in  a  civil  court ;  thereby  prac- 

*  Calderwood,  p.  783 ;  Spotswood,  p.  542. 


A.  D.  1621.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


127 


tically  admitting,  not  only  that  the  Church 
courts  were  possessed  of  complete  co-ordi- 
nate jurisdiction,  but  even  that  they  were 
supreme  in  ecclesiastical  matters.  When 
the  parliament  even  seemed  to  take  the 
primary  step,  it  was  only  in  affairs  mani- 
festly civil,  such  as  the  restoration  of  the 
civil  emoluments  and  civil  jurisdiction  to 
prelates ;  but  the  existence  of  the  prelatic 
function  itself,  and  the  elevation  of  minis- 
ters to  the  prelacy,  were  matters  with 
which  the  parliament  did  not  interfere, 
till  the  Church  had  been  induced  to  pass 
the  acts  which  were  competent  alone 
to  her  jurisdiction.  The  hatred  shown 
by  the  king  to  declinatures  of  civil  juris- 
diction in  matters  ecclesiastical,  may  be 
regarded  as  a  proof  that  he  was  aware 
how  constitutionally  sound  and  reli- 
giously just  was  the  claim  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church ;  and  that  he,  as  a  tyrant, 
detested  it  the  more,  because  of  its  consti- 
tutional and  sacred  character. 


CHAPTER  V. 


FROM  THE  RATIFICATION  OF  THE  FIVE  ARTI- 
CLES OF  PERTH,  IN  THE  YEAR  1621,  TO  THE 
NATIONAL  COVENANT  IN  1638. 


Despotic  Letter  from  the  King. — Conduct  of  his  Ma- 
jesty and  the  Prelates. — John  Welch. — Robert  Bruce. 
— Proceedings  of  the  Court  of  High  Commission 
against  the  Ministers,  Universities,  Probationers, 
and  People.— David  Dickson.— Robert  Boyd.— Rob- 
ert Blair. — The  People  and  Magistrates  of  Edinburgh. 
—Death  of  King  James.— Charles  I.— Despotic  Tem- 
per and  proceedings  of  Charles. — Changes  in  the 
Courts  of  Session  and  Justiciary. — Commission  of 
Teinds. — Proposed  Act  of  Revocation. — Intention  to 
assimilate  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  that  of  Eng- 
land.— Ambition  and  Rashness  of  the  younger  Pre- 
lates.—Revivals  of  Religion  at  Irvine,  Stewton,  and 
Shotts. — Growth  of  Arminianism  among  the  Pre- 
latic Party.— Visit  of  the  King  to  Scotland.— "  Act 
anent  the  Royal  Prerogative  and  the  Apparel  of 
Churchmen." — Fraudulent  manner  in  which  it  was 
carried. — Edinburgh  made  a  Bishopric. — Trial  of 
Balmerino. — Diocesan  Courts  of  High  Commission. 
— Book  of  Canons. — Pride  and  Ambition  of  the  Pre- 
lates.—The  Liturgy. — Riot  in  Edinburgh  at  its  In- 
troduction.—Arbitrary  Conduct  of  the  Prelates. — 
The  Feelings  of  the  Kingdom  roused.— Alexander 
Henderson.— The  Presbyterians  crowd  to  Edinburgh. 
— The  Privy  Council. — Commotions. — Violent  Pro- 
clamations.— Increased  Agitation. — The  Presbyteri- 
ans accuse  the  Prelates  of  being  the  direct  Cause  of 
all  the  National  Troubles.— The  Formation  of  the 
Four  Tables. — Deceitful  Proceedings  of  the  Privy 
Council.— Evasive  Proclamations. — Pernicious  Ad- 
vice given  to  the  King  by  Spotswood  and  Laud. — 
Conduct  of  the  Earl  of  Traquair.— Skilful  Manage- 
ment of  the  Presbyterians.— Duplicity  of  the  Privy 
Council.— Injudicious  Proclamation.— THE  NATIONAL 
COVENANT. 

DURING  the  interval  which  elapsed  be- 
tween the  passing  of  the  Five  Articles  of 
Perth  in  the  Assembly  1618,  and  their 


ratification  by  the  parliament  of  1621, 
there  had  been  a  continual  struggle  be- 
tween the  prelates  and  the  Presbyterian 
ministers ;  the  former  endeavouring  to 
enforce  obedience  to  fhese  articles  by  the 
authority  of  the  Court  of  High  Commis- 
sion ;  the  latter  protesting,  refusing  obe- 
dience, and  resisting,  notwithstanding  the 
sufferings  to  which  they  were  exposed. 
But  still  something  was  wanting  to  com- 
plete the  power  of  the  prelates,  and  to 
give  a  more  legal  aspect  to  their  aggres- 
sions ;  for  the  minds  of  men  in  general' 
revolted  against  the  glaring  tyranny  of 
the  High  Commission, — a  court  depend- 
ing solely  upon  the  arbitrary  will  and 
command  of  the  sovereign,  but  not  recog- 
nised by  constitutional  law.  The  act  of 
parliament  ratifying  the  Five  Articles  of 
Perth  supplied  what  had  been  wanting, 
and  gave  a  constitutional  sanction  to  the 
despotism  and  the  treachery  of  these  sub- 
versive measures.  It  was  not  the  inten- 
tion of  either  the  king  or  the  prelates  to 
allow  this  power  to  remain  unemployed. 
A  short  time  after  the  passing  of  the  act, 
Spotswood,  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews, 
received  a  letter  from  the  king,  not  merely 
giving  full  warrant  to  proceed  to  extrem- 
ity in  the  enforcement  of  the  Five  Arti- 
cles, but  even  urging  forward  men  who 
were  already  abundantly  disposed  to 
tyrannize  over  and  persecute  their  bre- 
thren. "  The  greatest  matter,"  said  the 
king,  in  this  remarkable  letter,  "  the  pur- 
itans had  to  object  against  the  church 
government  was,  that  your  proceedings 
were  warranted  by  no  law,  which  now, 
by  this  last  parliament,  is  cutted  short ;  so 
that  hereafter  that  rebellious,  disobedient, 
and  seditious  crew  must  either  obey  or 
resist  God,  their  natural  king,  and  the 
law  of  the  country.  It  resteth  therefore 
to  you  to  be  encouraged  and  comforted 
by  this  happy  occasion,  and  to  lose  no  more 
time  to  procure  a  settled  obedience  to  God, 
and  to  Us,  by  the  good  endeavours  of 
our  commissioner,  and  our  other  true- 
hearted  subjects  and  servants.  The 
sword  is  now  put  into  your  hands  :  go  on 
therefore  to  use  it,  and  let  it  rust  no  longer, 
till  ye  have  perfected  the  service  entrusted 
to  you."*  Such  were  the  instructions  of 
the  infatuated  king  to  his  not  less  infatu- 
ated prelatic  minions,  for  the  destruction 
of  a  Church  which  he  had  termed  "  the 

•  Calderwood,  p.  784. 


128 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP  IV 


sincerest  Church  in  the  world,"  and  had 
repeatedly  sworn  to  defend.  And  the 
enormity  of  these  instructions  is  certainly 
not  diminished,  if,  as  Calderwood  sug- 
gests, and  other  authors  more  distinctly 
assert,  this  letter  was  actually  a  mere 
transcript  of  one  sent  to  the  king  by 
Spotswood,  to  be  copied  and  returned  to 
Scotland,  stamped  with  the  royal  author- 
ity^— a  procedure  which  it  appears,  was 
often  adopted  by  the  treacherous  and 
tyrannical  Scottish  prelates.*  A  letter 
of  a  similar  import  was  also  sent  to  the 
privy  council,  commanding  all  the  offi- 
cers of  state  to  conform,  under  pain  of 
dismission  ;  and  enjoining  them  to  see 
that  all  persons  filling  any  subordinate 
official  station,  members  of  the  Courts  of 
Session  and  Justiciary,  advocates,  sheriffs, 
magistrates  of  burghs,  and  e^en  clerks 
and  sheriff-officers,  should  render  im- 
plicit obedience,  or  be  declared  incapable 
of  holding  office. 

The  Court  of  High  Commission  was 
not  composed  of  men  likely  to  let  the 
sword  of  double  despotism  which  had 
been  put  into  their  hands  rust  for  want  of 
being  used.  Its  freshly  whetted  edge 
was  directed  keenly  against  the  faithful 
ministers,  and  against  all  who  refused  to 
mould  their  faith  according  to  acts  of  par- 
liament. And,  as  if  for  the  very  purpose 
of  proving  that  the  cruelty  of  the  king 
and  of  the  prelates  was  equally  fierce  and 
implacable,  its  effects  were  exhibited  al- 
most simultaneously  by  his  majesty  and 
by  them.  The  celebrated  John  Welch, 
who  had  suffered  a  banishment  of  four- 
teen years  duration  on  account  of  the  part 
he  took  in  the  prorogued  Assembly  of 
Aberdeen  in  1605,  had  fallen  into  such  a 
state  of  ill  health,  that  a  return  to  his  na- 
tive country  was  recommended,  as  the 
only  means  of  saving  his  life.  By  great 
solicitations  he  obtained  permission  to 
return  to  London ;  but  when  his  wife,  a 
daughter  of  John  Knox,  obtained  an 
interview  with  the  king,  and  requested 
that  her  dying  husband  might  be  allowed 
to  breathe  once  more  his  native  air,  his 
majesty, -with  coarse  oaths,  refused,  tfn- 
less  she  would  persuade  her  husband  to 
submit  to  the  bishops.  "  Please  your 
majesty,"  replied  the  heroic  matron,  lift- 
ing up  her  apron,  and  holding  it  forth  as 

•  Wodrow's  Collection  of  Lives,  particularly  the 
lives  of  Gladstanes  and  Spotswood. 


if  in  the  act  of  receiving  her  husband's 
dccolated  and  falling  head,  "  I  would 
rather  kep  [receive]  his  head  there  !" — 
James  would  not  even  permit  the  dying 
man  to  preach,  till,  hearing  that  he  was 
at  the  point  of  death,  he  in  mockery  sent 
permission  then,  when  he  believed  it 
could  not  be  accepted.  But  Welch  joy- 
fully hastened  to  embrace  the  opportunity 
of  once  more  proclaiming  the  glad  tid- 
ings of  salvation  ;  and  having  preached 
long  and  fervently,  returned  to  his  cham- 
ber, and  within  two  hours  rested  from  his 
labours,  and  escaped  from  the  cruel  and 
insulting  tyranny  of  his  oppressors. 

About  the  same  time  Robert  Bruce, 
who  had  been  residing  for  some  years  in 
his  own  house  at  Kinnaird,  having  been 
permitted  to  return  from  Inverness,  was 
accused  of  seditious  conduct,  and  of  trans- 
gressing the  bounds  of  his  confinement. 
He  was  imprisoned  for  a  time  in  the  Cas- 
tle of  Edinburgh,  and  then  sentence 
passed  that  he  should  again  be  sent  to 
Inverness,  and  restricted  to  that  town  and 
four  miles  around  it  during  the  king's 
pleasure  ;  this  sentence  being  accompa- 
nied by  the  sneering  expression,  "  We 
will  have  no  more  popish  pilgrimages  to 
Kinnaird," — in  allusion  to  the  frequent 
intercourse  between  Bruce  and  the  most 
pious  people  of  the  surrounding  country, 
who  resorted  to  Kinnaird  to  enjoy  the 
benefit  of  his  instructive  conversation. 
The  prelatic  party  exulted  in  the  oppor- 
tunity of  inflicting  their  mean  malicious 
vengeance  upon  a  man  whom  the  king, 
in  an  unwonted  fit  of  truth  and  gratitude, 
had  pronounced  worth  the  quarter  of  his 
kingdom.  But  what  was  meant  as  a 
punishment  to  him,  became  a  precious 
blessing  to  the  people  of  Inverness  and 
its  vicinity,  who  acquired  then  a  relish 
for  the  pure  gospel,  which  there  is  reason 
to  believe,  has  never  since  been  lost. 

[1622.] — Not  contented  with  these  se- 
vere proceedings  against  the  venerable 
fathers  of  the  Church,  the  prelates  direct- 
ed their  attention  to  every  minister  of 
eminence  throughout  the  kingdom,  re- 
quiring from  each  submission  to  the  Perth 
Articles.  They  had  a  twofold  purpose 
in  demanding  urgently  the  compliance  of 
such  men :  by  far  the  majority  of  the 
people  regarded  these  articles  with  ex- 
treme dislike  ;  and  the  prelates  were  well 
aware,  that  if  they  could  prevail  upon  the 


A.  D.  1G23.J 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


129 


best  ministers  to  subscribe,  those  ministers 
would  either  bring  with  them  the  people 
who  were  strongly  attached  to  them,  or 
they  would  lose  that  popular  influence 
which  they  possessed.  There  was  an- 
other alternative  which  they  seem  not  to 
have  taken  into  their  calculation;  they 
do  not  appear  to  have  thought  it  probable 
that  those  ministers  would  continue  to  re- 
sist, braving  the  terrors  of  the  Court  of 
High  Commission,  and  by  their  suffer- 
ings increasing  the  popular  detestation  of 
the  prelatic  system,  much  more  than  all 
their  arguments  could  have  done.  They 
were  aware  that  they  would  themselves 
have  yielded  to  any  measure,  when,  by 
so  yielding,  they  would  both  escape  per- 
sonal suffering  and  obtain  the  prospect  of 
personal  wealth,  rank  and  power ;  and 
they  could  not  conceive  nor  credit  the 
higher  principles  of  their  antagonists. 
But  it  has  often  been  the  lot  of  cunning 
men  to  overreach  themselves ;  and  such 
was  the  lot  of  the  Scottish  prelates.  The 
prelates  held  a  Court  of  High  Commis- 
sion early  in  January  1622,  and  com- 
menced their  despotic  course  .by  sum- 
moning before  them  the  Rev.  Messrs. 
Dickson  of  Irvine,  Dunbar  of  Ayr,  Row 
of  Carnock,  Murray  of  Dunfermline,  and 
Johnstone  of  Ancrum.  All  these  were 
men  of  great  piety,  much  beloved  by  their 
people,  and  highly  respected  in  the  dis- 
tricts of  the  country  where  they  respec- 
tively resided.  Their  submission  was 
therefore  earnestly  desired  by  the  prelates ; 
or,  at  least,  their  forcible  removal  to  dis- 
tant parts  of  the  country,  where,  being 
unknown,  they  would  possess  little  influ- 
ence, and  their  oppressors  would  the  more 
easily  carry  forward  their  pernicious  de- 
signs. 

Of  all  these  ministers,  the  case  of  Mr. 
David  Dickson  of  Irvine  seems  to  have 
excited  the  most  attention.  This  eminent 
man  was  assailed  by  the  prelates  at  one 
time  in  the  language  of  entreaty,  at  an- 
other in  that  of  fierce  vituperative  threats, 
to  induce  him  to  submit.  His  own  con- 
gregation employed  every  effort  for  his 
protection  ;  and  the  earl  of  Eglinton  per- 
sonally entreated  the  prelates  not  to  re- 
move him  from  his  charge.  But  all  en- 
treaties were  ineffectual ;  he  had  declined 
the  jurisdiction  of  that  despotic  court,  the 
High  Commission,  and  this  was  an 
offence  which  could  not  be  forgiven.  He 
17 


was  banished  to  Turriff,  in  the  synod  of 
Aberdeen,  where,  however,  he  continued 
to  exercise  his  ministry,  greatly  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  inhabitants  of  that  district, 
till  he  was  afterwards  permitted  to  return 
to  Irvine.  The  other  ministers,  whose 
names  were  mentioned  above,  were  also 
subjected  to  similar  penalties,  some  being 
banished  to  one  part  of  the  country,  others 
to  another,  and  only  one,  so  far  as  appears, 
permitted  to  remain  in  his  own  parish, 
but  strictly  prohibited  from  passing  be- 
yond its  boundaries.* 

The  tyranny  of  the  prelatic  party  fell 
not  less  heavily  on  the  people  than  on  the 
ministers  ;  for  the  people  were  every 
where  as  much  opposed  to  compliance 
with  the  Perth  Articles  as  their  pastors 
could  be,  and  in  some  places  much  more 
so  ;  for  in  every  parish  where  the  minis- 
ter was  prelatic  the  opposition  was  of 
course  made  by  the  people  alone.  In 
such  instances  the  prelatic  ministers  strove 
to  persuade,  or  to  force,  the  people  to  com- 
ply with  the  Five  Articles  of  Perth ;  and 
as  the  article  which  commanded  kneeling 
at  the  communion  was  that  which  was 
most  exposed  to  public  observation,  it 
gave  rise  to  the  greatest  part  of  the  con- 
tentions by  which  the  peace  of  the  coun- 
try was  destroyed.  Many  most  disgrace- 
ful scenes  of  strife  and  confusion  took 
place,  even  at  the  communion-table,  in 
consequence  of  the  prelatic  party  attempt- 
ing forcibly  to  compel  the  people  to  sub- 
mit to  what  they  justly  regarded  as  an  at- 
titude not  warranted  by  Scripture,  and 
bearing  a  close  resemblance  to  the  idola- 
trous service  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 
Notwithstanding  all  their  exertions,  they 
could  not  prevail  upon  the  people  to  com- 
ply. A  few,  and  those  in  general  the 
least  respectable  in  character,  did  gratify 
the  prelates  by  adopting  their  superstitious 
ceremonies  ;  but  by  far  the  greater  num- 
ber either  ceased  to  communicate  at  all, 
or  resorted  to  the  churches  of  those  min- 
isters who  continued  to  follow  the  simple 
and  scriptural  customs  of  their  fathers. 

The  universities  did  not  escape  the 
vigilance  of  the  prelates,  who  were  aware 
of  the  influence  which  the  opinions  of 
eminent  professors  naturally  exercise 
upon  the  minds  of  their  students.  The 
celebrated  Robert  Boyd  of  Trochrigg  was 
first  obliged  to  leave  Glasgow  College, 


Calderwood,  pp.  792-794. 


130 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  V. 


in  consequence  of  the  hostility  of  Arch- 
bishop Law  ;  and  having  been  appointed 
principal  of  Edinburgh  College,  the  pre- 
latic  party  complained  to  the  king,  and 
obtained  from  his  majesty  a  positive  com- 
mand to  the  magistrates  to  urge  Mr.  Boyd 
to  conform  to  the  Perth  Articles,  on  pain 
of  being  expelled  from  his  office.  He 
accordingly  removed,  to  the  joy  of  the 
prelatists,  and  to  the  great  grief  both  of 
the  students  and  of  the  religious  part  of 
the  inhabitants.  About  the  same  time 
Mr.  Robert  Blair  was  deprived  of  his  pro- 
fessorship in  Glasgow,  and  obliged  to  re- 
tire to  Ireland,  where  he  became  minister 
of  Bangour,  and  was  honoured  in  being 
made  the  instrument  of  much  spiritual 
good  in  that  country.  In  addition  to  the 
removal  of  true  Presbyterians  from  the 
professorships,  the  prelatic  party  did  all 
in  their  power  to  corrupt  the  young  as- 
pirants to  the  ministry ;  proceeding  even 
to  the  extent  of  exacting  an  oath  from 
these  young  students,  before  investing 
them  with  the  office  of  preaching,  that 
they  would  conform  to  the  Perth  Articles, 
and  submit  to  the  prelatic  form  of  Church 
government.  This  ensnaring  oath  they 
rigidly  enforced  ;  and  if  any  conscientious 
young  man  expressed  unwillingness  to 
bind  himself  by  such  an  obligation,  he 
was  at  once  rejected.  By  this  process  it 
was  hoped,  that  all  the  growth  of  the 
Church  would  be  directed  into  the  prelatic 
channel,  so  that  within  the  course  of  an- 
other generation  it  would  become  univer- 
sal, and  Episcopacy  would  be  as  firmly 
settled  in  Scotland  as  in  England. 

The  prelates  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
aware  of  some  symptoms  which  even 
then  .were  beginning  to  appear,  and 
speedily  assumed  a  formidable  aspect. 
Of  these,  the  two  most  important  were, 
the  alienation  of  the  nobility,  and  the  in- 
creasing direct  hostility  of  the  people. 
Even  so  early  as  the  Perth  Assembly  of 
1618,  the  prelates  had  given  offence  to 
the  nobility  by  their  haughty  and  over- 
bearing manners ;  and  as  prosperity  did 
not  tend  to  abate  their  insolence,  it  soon 
became  intolerable  to  the  proud  Scottish 
barons.  An  ill-suppressed  jealousy  from 
that  time  prevailed,  which  waited  but  an 
opportunity  to  rise  into  open  strife, — so 
soon,  at  least,  as  the  selfish  interests  of 
the  rival  parties  should  manifestly  bear 
m  opposite  directions.  That  the  people 


were  opposed  to  all  their  proceedings, 
the  prelatic  party  were  well  aware  ;  but 
considering  themselves  "lords  over  God's 
heritage,"  they  disregarded  equally  the 
entreaties  and  the  expressions  of  dissatis- 
faction addressed  to  them  by  the  poor 
suffering  congregations  of  the  oppressed 
Presbyterian  Church.  Spotswood  and 
his  coadjutors  thought  that  these  popular 
discontents  would  soon  subside,  when 
they  had  succeeded  in  removing  from 
their  parishes  the  most  eminent  of  the 
ministers  who  refused  to  conform  to  the 
Articles  of  Perth.  And  when  they  were 
not  startled  by  sudden  outbursts  of  popular 
indignation,  they  flattered  themselves  that 
the  kingdom  was  acquiescing  in  their 
measures,  or  at  least  passively  submitting 
to  what  could  not  any  longer  be  success- 
fully opposed.  They  might  have  heard, 
from  time  to  time,  of  private  meetings  for 
prayer,  among  the  more  pious  ministers 
and  their  adherents ;  but  they  seem  in 
general  to  have  despised  those  private 
meetings,  being  themselves  ignorant  of 
the  sacred  might  of  prayer.  They  do 
not  seem  to  have  marked  the  difference 
between  a  ripple  on  the  surface,  and 
a  deep,  calm  under-current:  the  ripple 
dies  away  with  the  breeze  that  produced 
it ;  but  the  under-current  moves  steadily 
on,  imperceptible  to  the  eye,  but  irresisti- 
ble in  its  silent  and  viewless  power. 

[1623.]  The  tyranny  of  the  prelates 
continued  throughout  the  year  1623,  dis- 
placing non-conforming  ministers,  insult- 
ing congregations,  enforcing  the  oppres- 
sive enactments  of  previous  years,  and  re- 
laxing those  only  which  had  been  made 
against  papists.  The  intercourse  at  that 
time  existing  between  his  majesty  and  the 
court  of  Spain,  during  the  negotiations 
for  the  marriage  of  the  prince  to  the  Span- 
ish infanta,  may  have  been  the  cause  of 
this  toleration  to  the  adherents  of  the  Pa- 
pal Church ;  but  certainly  it  had  no  ten- 
dency to  gratify  the  people  of  Scotland, 
who  saw  more  favour  shown  to  the  cor- 
rupt Church  of  Rome  than  to  their  own, 
although  the  one  was  prohibited,  and  the 
other  established,  by  the  most  solemn  na 
tional  enactments. 

[1624.]  A  contest  arose  in  Edinburgh 
in  1624,  which  excited  considerable  at 
tention,  and  had  no  slight  effect  in  deep 
ening  and  confirming  the  popular  feeling 
against  the  prelatic  party.  It  had  been 


A.  D.  1G25] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


131 


customary  for  many  years,  that,  previous 
to  the  communion  Sabbath,  a  day  was  ap- 
pointed on  which  all  who  were  at  enmity 
with  each  other  were  summoned  to  ap- 
pear before  the  kirk-session,  that  they 
might  be  exhorted  to  lay  aside  their 
strife,  give  and  accept  forgiveness,  and 
thereby  prepare  to  make  the  communion 
indeed  a  feast  of  mutual  love.  It  was 
usual  at  the  same  time  to  institute  some 
general  inquiries  into  the  conduct  of  the 
members  of  the  session,  both  minister  and 
elders,  with  regard  to  the  manner  in 
which  they  had  discharged  their  duties, 
each  member  withdrawing  during  the  in- 
quiry into  his  course  of  life  and  behaviour. 
While1  engaged  in  the  discharge  of  this 
customary  investigation,  one  of  the  citi- 
zens complained  that  Mr.  William  Forbes, 
recently  appointed  minister  of  one  of  the 
city  churches,  had  taught  that  there 
might  easily  be  a  reconciliation  effected 
between  the  Church  of  Rome  and  the 
Protestant  Churches.  This  complaint 
was  repeated  by  other  respectable  citizens, 
who  requested  that  Mr.  Forbes  might  be 
questioned  by  the  presbytery,  whether  he 
really  meant  to  teach  doctrines  subversive 
of  the  Reformation. 

Forbes,  who  had  been  brought  from 
Aberdeen  to  Edinburgh  expressly  on  ac- 
count of  his  high  prelatic  opinions,  was 
excessively  indignant  that  the  people 
should  presume  to  express  disapprobation 
of  his  doctrine.  And  his  brethren  mak- 
ing it  a  common  cause,  applied  to  Spots- 
wood,  and  through  him  obtained  from  the 
king  an  order  empowering  a  select  num- 
ber of  the  privy  council  to  try  those  citi- 
zens for  their  conduct  in  expressing  dis- 
approbation of  the  doctrine  of  the  minis- 
ters ;  and,  in  particular,  for  having  re- 
quested that  the  communion  might  be  ob- 
served in  the  former  manner,  and  not  ac- 
cording to  the  Articles  of  Perth.  The 
result  was,  that  William  Rigg,  one  of 
the  magistrates  of  Edinburgh,  was  depriv- 
ed of  his  office,  and  imprisoned  in  the 
Castle  of  Blackness  till  he  should  pay  a 
ruinous  fine ;  and  five  other  highly  res- 
pectable citizens  were  punished,  some  by 
imprisonment,  others  by  banishment  to 
remote  parts  of  the  country. 

The  prelatic  party  being  somewhat 
alarmed  by  the  spirit  manifested  in  this 
trial,  complained  to  the  king  that  several 
of  the  non-conforming  ministers  who  had 


been  deprived  of  their  parishes,  were  in 
the  habit  of  resorting  to  Edinburgh,  and 
holding  "  private  conventicles,"  whereby 
the  people  were  stirred  up,  and  the  public 
peace  disturbed.  In  answer  to  this  com- 
plaint, the  king  sent  a  proclamation,  pre- 
pared, says  Calderwood,  as  was  constant- 
ly reported,  by  the  archbishop  of  St.  An- 
drews; in  which,  after  reprehending,  in 
very  severe  terms,  the  conduct  of  the  citi- 
zens in  listening  to  the  "  turbulent  persua- 
sions of  restless  ministers,  either  deprived 
from  their  functions,  or  confined  for  just 
causes,"  he  strictly  prohibited  all  such 
privats  conventicles.  A  short  while  af- 
terwrards  his  majesty  sent  a  letter  of  cen- 
sure to  the  magistrates  of  Edinburgh, 
reprehending  them  severely  for  not  giv- 
ing obedience  to  the  Perth  Articles,  and 
for  remissness  in  the  enforcement  of  these 
articles  upon  others ;  threatening  to  re- 
move from  the  town  the  Courts  of  Session 
and  Justiciary,  if  these  orders  were  not 
more  punctually  obeyed. 

Every  attentive  reader  of  history  must 
often  be  struck  with  the  close  similarity 
in  language  and  sentiment  of  men  who 
lived  in  periods  very  remote  from  each1 
other.  It  seems  that  oppressors  are  al- 
ways the  men  who  most  loudly  complain 
of  resistance :  the  despot  most  vehemently 
exclaims  against  rebellion  ;  and  the  sub- 
verters  of  pure  religion  cry  out  against 
the  turbulence  of  restless  ministers.  But 
it  appears  to  be  very  natural,  and  certain- 
ly it  is  very  easy,  for  men  to  disguise  a 
bad  cause  under  a  good  name,  and  to  try- 
to  blacken  a  good  cause  by  fixing  upon  it 
an  offensive  designation. 

[1625.]  King  James  had  determined  to 
have  Christmas  celebrated  with  extreme 
pomp  and  ceremony,  as  a  public  triumph; 
and  had  given  orders  to  that  effect ;  but 
the  plague  breaking  out  in  Edinburgh, 
suspended  his  scheme.  As  Easter  ap- 
proached he  renewed  his  commands,  to 
prepare  for  celebrating  the  communion 
on  that  day,  in  conformity  with  the  Arti- 
cles of  Perth,  threatening  very  severe 
punishment  to  all  who  should  refuse  im- 
plicit obedience.  But  the  close  of  his 
despotic'  career  was  at  hand.  On  the 
27th  of  March  1625,  he  departed  this  life, 
leaving  behind  him  a  kingdom  sunk  from 
glory  to  disgrace  through  his  mean  mis- 
government  ;  filled  with  the  elements  of 
private  strife  and  social  discord,  ferment- 


132 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  V. 


ing  and  heaving  onward  to  a  revolution ; 
— a  son,  the  inheritor  of  his  despotic  prin- 
ciples, and  of  all  the  evils  which  they 
had  engendered; — and  a  name,  lauded 
by  a  few  prelatic  flatterers,  who  could 
term  their  "  earthly  creator"  the  "  Solo- 
mon of  the  age,"  but  scorned  by  the 
haughty,  mocked  by  the  witty,  despised 
by  men  of  learning  and  genius,  and  not 
hated,  only  because  pitied  and  deplored, 
by  the  persecuted  yet  loyal  and  forgiving 
Church  of  Scotland. 

The  death  of  King  James  paralyzed 
the  power  of  the  prelatic  party  for  a  time, 
and  allowed  many  of  the  persecuted 
Presbyterians  to  escape  from  actual,  and 
also  from  threatened  sufferings.  The 
proceedings  against  the  Edinburgh  citi- 
zens were  suspended,  Robert  Bruce  re- 
turned from  Inverness,  David  Dickson 
was  allowed  to  resume  without  interrup- 
tion the  discharge  of  his  ministry  at 
Irvine,  and  many  other  sufferers  for  the 
sake  of  truth  and  conscience  obtained  a 
temporary  respite.  The  direct  reason  of 
this  cessation  of  the  prelates  from  their 
tyrannical  procedure  was,  that  the  Court 
of  High  Commission  expired  with  the 
monarch,  from  whose  arbitrary  will  it  de- 
rived its  existence.  The  people  of  Scot- 
land could  not  fail  to  perceive,  that  the 
prelates  were  the  instigators,  and  even 
the  perpetrators,  of  all  the  judicial  despo- 
tism under  which  they  had  so  long 
groaned ;  so  that  this  very  cessation  of 
their  sufferings  would  increase  their  de- 
testation of  the  system  under  which  they 
had  suffered,  and  of  the  men  by  whom 
these  sufferings  had  been  inflicted. 

Although  the  death  of  one  sovereign 
and  the  accession  of  another  caused  a 
suspension  of  the  active  progress  of  pre- 
latic domination,  till  the  intentions  of  the 
new  monarch  should  be  known,  and 
allowed  a  brief  breathing  time  to  the 
ministers  and  people,  yet  the  relief  was 
but  slight,  and  the  favourable  hopes  enter- 
tained by  the  Presbyterians  were  soon 
clouded  with  doubts.  Soon  after  his  ac- 
cession to  the  throne,  Charles  I.  wrote  to 
Archbishop  Spotswood,  directing  him  to 
proceed  with  the  affairs  of  the  Church  as 
formerly,  and  assuring  him  that  it  was 
his  majesty's  special  will  to  have  all  the 
laws  enforced  which  had  been  enacted  in 
the  former  reign  concerning  ecclesiastical 
affairs;  and,  as  if  to  remove  all  remain- 


ing doubt  respecting  his  intentions,  the 
king  issued  a  proclamation  on  the  1st  of 
August,  commanding  conformity  to  the 
Perth  Articles,  and  ordering  severe  and 
rigorous  punishment  to  be  inflicted  on  all 
who  dared  to  disobey.  Next  month,  Sep- 
tember, a  royal  letter  was  sent  to  the 
town-council  of  Edinburgh,  commanding 
them  to  choose  for  magistrates  those  only 
who  observed  the  Articles  of  Perth.  By 
this  arbitrary  command  a  sufficiently  plain 
indication  was  given  of  the  principles 
held  by  the  young  king,  and  a  proof  that 
he  meant  to  carry  into  effect  that  despo- 
tism which  his  father  held  in  theory,  but 
wanted  firmness  and  tenacity  of  purpose 
to  enforce. 

'The  greater  firmness  of  purpose  by 
which  Charles  was  characterized  im- 
pelled him  to  the  adoption  of  more  deci- 
sive, but  also  more  dangerous  measures, 
than  those  which  his  father  had  em- 
ployed. One  of  these,  essential  to  his 
future  schemes,  was  at  the  same  time  both 
ungracious  in  itself,  and  calculated  to  ex- 
cite the  jealousy  of  the  nobles  with  regard 
to  a  matter  in  which  they  felt  peculiarly 
sensitive.  Charles  was  well  aware,  thai 
if  he  expected  Prelacy  to  take  ere  long 
the  same  high  ground  in  Scotland  which 
it  occupied  in  England,  he  must  not 
merely  secure  to  the  prelates  their  titles, 
but  also  reinstate  them  in  the  possession 
of  their  wealth  and  power.  The  first 
step  towards  the  execution'of  that  de6ign 
was  taken  in  November  1625,  when  by 
proclamation  his  majesty  revoked  all  the 
deeds  of  his  father  in  prejudice  of  the 
Crown.  This,  it  was  tolerably  evident, 
was  preparatory  to  a  resumption  of  those 
crown  lands,  many  of  them  previously 
church  lands,  which  his  father  had 
erected  into  temporal  lordships,  and  be- 
stowed upon  his  unworthy  favourites, 
and  upon  others  whose  support  he  wished 
to  secure.  But  as  no  direct  consequences 
immediately  followed  the  proclamation, 
the  jealousy  of  the  nobles  partially  sub- 
sided, though  it  did  not  entirely  pass 
away. 

[1626.]  Although  the  king's  attention 
was  very  much  occupied  with  the  Spanish 
war  in  which  he  was  engaged  with  little 
success,  and  also  with  those  beginnings 
of  resistance  to  his  arbitrary  conduct  in. 
England  which  ought  to  have  warned 
him  to  desist  from  his  dangerous  course, 


A.  D.  1628.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


133 


he  nevertheless  found  leisure  to  interfere 
in  Scottish  affairs  enough  to  increase  the 
dissatisfaction  already  prevalent.  The 
Scottish  nobles  were  not  sufficiently  ser- 
vile for  a  monach  so  arbitrary.  He  re- 
solved, therefore,  to  make  extensive 
changes  throughout  the  whole  public 
administration  of  the  kingdom,  removing 
men  of  independent  mind,  and  introduc- 
ing those  who  would  be  subservient  to 
his  will.  He  remodelled  the  Courts  of 
Session  and  the  Justiciary,  the  privy 
council,  and  the  Lords  of  the  Exchequer, 
placing  several  of  the  prelates  in  the  two 
latter  departments ;  and  he  erected  a 
Commission  of  Grievances,  which  occu- 
pied the  position  of  the  Star  Chamber  in 
England,  reviving  also  the  Court  of  High 
Commission,  created  in  the  former  reign. 
By  these  changes  the  king  hoped  to  cut 
off  all  opposition,  and  to  obtain  the  means 
of  carrying  all  his  measures  into  execu- 
tion. 

These  alterations  having  been  made, 
and  a  little  time  allowed  for  the  new 
officials  to  become  acquainted  with  their 
duties,  a  convention  of  estates  was  held  in 
July  the  same  year,  for  the  purpose  of 
proceeding  with  the  recovery  of  the  tithes 
and  the  church  lands.  But  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  nobility  was  still  too  strong ; 
and  all  that  the  convention  did  was 
naming  four  of  each  estate  as  a  commis- 
sion, to  examine  the  state  of  the.  teinds,  to 
ascertain  who  were  the  proprietors,  and 
by  what  tenure  they  were  held.  The 
titulars  and  possessors  of  teinds  not  relish- 
ing this  intended  inquiry,  sent  the  Earls 
of  Rothes,  Linlithgovv.  and  London,  as  a 
deputation  to  endeavour  to  prevail  upon  the 
king  to  abandon  that  measure ;  but  their 
efforts  proved  ineffectual. 

About  the  same  time  Charles  did  one 
of  the  few  even  seemingly  prudent  acts 
of  his  strangely  imprudent  life.  He  or- 
dained that  such  of  the  ministers  as  had 
been  admitted  before  the  Assembly  of 
1618,  should  not  be  compelled  to  conform 
to  the  Perth  Articles,  provided  they  did 
not  publicly  assail  the  king's  authority 
and  the  form  of  church  government ; 
and  that  all  who  had  been  banished,  con- 
fined, or  suspended,  should  be  restored  to 
their  charges  on  the  same  condition  ;  but 
that  conformity  should  be  strictly  enforced 
on  all  who  had  been  admitted  since  1618, 
and  on  every  new  entrant  into  the  minis- 


try. This  measure  was  one  of  deep  and 
dangerous  policy  j  and  its  steady  opera- 
tion would  have  been  far  more  deadly  to 
the  Presbyterian  Church  than  the  most 
direct  and  fierce  persecution.  But  the 
intolerant  zeal  of  the  prelates  could  not 
endure  this  wary  policy,  even  on  account 
of  what  made  it  dangerous, — its  lenient 
aspect.  It  is  probable  that  this  scheme 
was  devised  by  Spots  wood ;  but  the 
younger  prelates,  and  those  who  expected 
to  reach  the  prelacy,  were  beginning  to 
obtain  a  greater  influence  with  the  king 
than  his  more  aged  and  sagacious  coun- 
sellors. 

[1627.]  Early  in  the  year  1627,  com- 
missioners from  the  Church  were  sent  to 
the  king,  to  supplicate  his  majesty  for 
certain  important  alterations  and  improve- 
ments in  ecclesiastical  matters.  An  at- 
tempt was  made  to  give  to  this  deputation 
the  aspect  of  being  a  full  representation 
of  the  whole  Church,  both  the  Prelatic 
and  the  Presbyterian  parties  ;  but  the 
overbearing  conduct  of  the  prelatists 
caused  the  Presbyterian  commissioner  to 
withdraw,  so  that  the  purpose  remained 
unaccomplished. 

The  commissioners  for  the  teinds  also 
prosecuted  their  labours,  but  with  little 
success.  Yet  a  tolerably  complete  return 
of  the  state  of  teinds  throughout  the 
country  having  been  obtained,  it  was  re- 
solved that  every  man  should  have  liberty 
to  purchase  back  his  own  teind  at  a  rea- 
sonable price,  and  all  were  required  to 
come  to  the  commissioners  for  that  pur- 
pose. Although  this  measure  was  intro- 
duced at  first  with  a  view  to  prepare  for 
the  restoration  of  Prelacy  to  all  its  golden 
honours,  it  has  proved,  on  the  whole, 
very  beneficial  to  the  Church  and  the 
people  of  Scotland,,by  being  instrumental 
in  removing  the  obstacles  which  the  me- 
thod of  levying  tithes  in  kind  opposes  to 
national  prosperity  and  peace. 

[1628.]  In  the  spring  of  1628,  a  meet- 
ing of  synod  was  held  in  Edinburgh,  in 
which,  after  long  and  earnest  reasoning, 
it  was  resolved  to  send  a  deputation  to  his 
majesty,  to  entreat  release  from  the  com- 
pulsive obligation  to  comply  with  the 
Perth  Articles,  especially  that  of  kneeling 
at  the  communion,  to  which  the  people 
could  not  be  brought  to  submit.  But  the 
king  expressed  himself  highly  displeased 
that  the  people  durst  presume  to  petition 


134 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  V. 


agairvst  a  measure  which  had  his  appro- 
bation ;  and  commanded  that  condign 
punishment  should  be  inflicted  on  the 
petitioners,  to  deter  others  from  the  like 
presumption.  The  result  was,  there  was 
no  communion  at  Edinburgh  that  year. 

The  king  seems  to  have  thought  that 
the  public  mind  was  now  sufficiently  pre- 
pared for  the  act  of  revocation  which  he 
meditated.  In  order,  however,  to  intro- 
duce it  as  plausibly  as  might  he,  he  pri- 
vately purchased  the  abbey  of  Arbroath 
from  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton,  and  the 
lordship  of  Glasgow  from  the  Duke  of 
Lennox,  and  gave  them  to  the  two  arch- 
bishops of  St.  Andrews  and  Glasgow, 
giving  to  the  transaction  such  an  aspect 
as  if  these  two  noblemen  had  voluntarily 
surrendered  that  property.  By  this  and 
several  similar  private  purchases  of  es- 
tates, Charles  hoped  to  induce  the  nobility 
and  gentry  to  comply  with  the  act  of  re- 
vocation. But  when  he  sent  the  Earl  of 
Nithsdale  to  propose  the  measure  to  a 
convention  of  estates,  with  this  induce- 
ment, that  those  who  would  willingly  sub- 
mit should  experience  his  majesty's 
favour,  while  the  most  rigorous  proceed- 
ings should  be  instituted  against  those 
who  refused,  the  nobility  instantly  de- 
termined to  resist,  and  to  employ  force  if 
arguments  should  not  prevail.  It  was 
resolved  at  a  private  meeting  of  the  irri- 
tated barons,  that  if  Nithsdale  should  con- 
tinue to  press  the  measure,  he  and  his 
adherents  should  be  assailed  and  put  to 
death  in  the  open  court.  So  determinedly 
was  this  purpose  entertained,  that  Lord 
Belhaven,  a  man  blind  by  very  age,  re- 
quested to  be  placed  beside  one  of  Niths- 
dale's  party,  and  he  would  make  sure  of 
that  one.  Being  set  beside  the  Earl  of 
Dumfries,  and  holding  him  fast  with  one 
hand,  apologizing  for  doing  so,  as  neces- 
sary for  support  in  his  blindness,  he 
clutched  fast  with  the  other  the  hilt  of  a 
dagger,  which  he  kept  concealed  in  his 
bosom,  ready  to  plunge  it  into  the  heart 
of  his  victim,  should  the  signal  for  vio- 
lence be  given.  But  the  Earl  of  Niths- 
dale read  enough  in  the  stern  and  frown- 
ing looks  of  the  Scottish  barons  around 
him,  to  induce  him  to  suppress  the  main 
part  of  his  instructions,  and  to  give  up  the 
attempt  as  hopeless.* 

*  Burnet's  History  of  his  own  Times,  folio  edition  of 
1724,  pp.  20,  21. 


[1629.J  Nothing  of  peculiar  public  im- 
portance occurred  during  the  year  1629, 
— nothing,  indeed,  except  the  continua- 
tion of  the  insolence  displayed  and  the 
persecutions  inflicted  on  the  Presbyterian 
ministers  and  people  by  the  prelates. 
Some  attempts  were  made  to  induce  the 
king  himself  to  interpose  in  behalf  of  his 
suffering  people ;  but  he  paid  no  atten- 
tion to  the  statement  of  grievances  which 
they  laid  before  him.  Previous  to  this 
time  there  had  been  some  symptoms  of 
division  in  the  prelatic  party,  although 
Spotswood  continued  to  be  regarded  as  its 
head  ;  but  now  the  younger  prelates  be- 
gan to  undermine  his  influence  with  the 
king.  The  most  active  of  these  intriguers 
was  John  Maxwell,  at  that  time  one 
of  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh,  and  soon 
afterwards  bishop  of  Ross.  This  able 
and  unscrupulous  man  contrived  to  work 
himself  into  the  confidence  of  the  notori- 
ous Laud,  by  whose  pernicious  counsels 
the  king  was  almost  entirely  guided.  In 
this  manner  there  arose  a  decided  and 
growing  dissention  among  the  prelates  ; 
and  the  violence  of  the  younger  and  more 
impetuous  party  had  the  effect  of  stimu- 
lating the  rash  despotism  of  the  king,  and 
increasing  the  hostility  of  the  nobles,  who 
could  not  brook  the  insolence  and  pride 
of  these  haughty  churchmen. 

[1630.]  In  the  year  1630,  Maxwell, 
who  had  been  at  London  on  some  private 
commission,  brought  down  from  the  king 
a  letter  to  Spotswood,  directing  him  to 
convene  the  other  prelates,  and  the  most 
prelatic  of  the  ministers,  and  to  inform 
them,  that  it  was  his  majesty's  pleasure 
that  the  whole  ord'er  of  the  Church  of 
England  should  be  received  in  Scotland. 
"  This,"  Wodrow  says  in  his  life  of  Spots- 
wood,  "  was  the  first  motion  for  the  Eng- 
lish liturgy  in  Scotland,  in  King  Charles's 
reign."  The  most  prudent  of  the  pre- 
lates, apprehensive  of  the  consequences, 
opposed  this  measure  as  too  dangerous, 
considering  the  already  excited  state  of 
the  country,  and  it  was  postponed.  In 
July  the  same  year,  at  a  convention  of 
estates,  the  non-conforming  ministers 
gave  in  a  paper  of  grievances,  of  which 
they  craved  redress  ;  but  though  it  was 
supported  by  several  of  the  nobility,  it 
was  not  permitted  to  be  read. 

[1631.]  The  year  1631  is  chiefly  re- 
markable for  the  progress  made  by  the 


A.  D.  1632.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


135 


commissioners  of  teinds,  in  the  discharge 
of  their  duty.  The  landed  proprietors 
began  to  perceive  the  advantage  of  ob- 
taining possession  of  their  own  teinds  at 
a  moderate  price,  and  many  accordingly 
applied  to  the  commissioners,  and  made 
the  purchase.  Some  attempts  were  made 
this  year  by  the  prelatic  party  to  intro- 
duce organs,  choristers,  surplices,  and  the 
other  mummeries  of  the  cathedral  service, 
with  little  success. 

[1632.]  Some  changes  took-  place 
among  the  prelates  this  year,  by  which, 
instead  of  being  strengthened,  they  were 
hurried  forward  to  their  suicidal  doom. 
Law,  archbishop  of  Glasgow,  died,  and 
Lindsay,  bishop  of  Ross,  was  appointed 
to  succeed  him,  and  Maxwell  was  raised 
to  the  bishopric  of  Ross.  But  this  pro- 
motion only  opened  the  way  to  others,  to 
which  his  elevation  to  the  prelacy  ren- 
dered him  eligible  ;  and  in  a  short  time 
Maxwell  became  a  lord  of  session,  a  lord 
of  exchequer,  and  a  member  of  the  privy 
council ;  by  which  accumulation  of  of- 
fices, belike,  he  thought  that  he  was  most 
convincingly  proving  the  scriptural  char- 
acter of  Prelacy,  and  his  own  indubitable 
claims  to  the  sacredness  of  pure  apostoli- 
cal succession ! 

All  further  innovations  were  sus- 
pended for  a  time,  in  consequence  of  his 
majesty  having  intimated  that  it  was  his 
intention  to  visit  his  ancient  kingdom 
next  year,  to  be  formally  crowned  king 
of  Scotland,  and  to  make  all  the  arrange- 
ments which  might  be  desirable  for  pro- 
moting the  peace  and  happiness  of  that 
portion  of  his  dominions.  The  prepara- 
tions for  that  visit,  which  were  made  on 
the  most  magnificent  scale,  so  thoroughly 
occupied  the  public  mind,  that  almost 
every  thing  else  was  disregarded,  all  men 
vieing  with  each  other  how  they  might 
best  do  honour  to  the  long-expected  visit 
of  their  native  king. 

The  preceding  brief  outline  of  the  pro- 
gress of  public  events,  from  the  accession 
of  Charles  to  the  year  in  which  he  pur- 
posed to  visit  Scotland,  has  been  given, 
that  the  reader  might  obtain  a  continuous 
view  of  the  external  aspect  of  what  was 
done  or  attempted.  And  for  the  same 
reason  it  is  now  intended  to  retrace  the 
same  period  of  years,  that  a  continuous 
view  may  be  obtained  of  matters  im- 
measurably more  important  than  the  des- 


potism of  kings,  the  plots  of  courtiers, 
and  the  perfidious  ambition  of  prelates. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to 
the  remarkable  effects  which  frequently 
attended  the  preaching  of  Robert  Bruce, 
both  before  he  was  banished  from  Edin- 
burgh, and  in  his  various  places  of  con- 
finement. Had  the  prelates  understood 
the  influence  of  a  man  thus  highly 
honoured  by  success  in  his  divine  Master's 
work,  they  would  have  either  left  him  un- 
touched, or  put  him  to  utter  silence. 
But  while  they  sent  him,  in  the  wanton- 
ness of  their  malicious  power,  from  dis- 
trict to  district  of  the  kingdom,  they  even 
compelled  him  to  kindle  in  many  quar- 
ters that  sacred  fire  by  which  they  were 
destined  to  be  consumed.  Many  able 
and  fervent  young  ministers  were  deeply 
impressed  by  what  they  heard  uttered  by 
the  venerable  man ;  and  thus  his  princi- 
ples were  infused  into  the  minds  of  men 
in  the  rising  prime  of  life,  able  and  wil- 
ling to  expend  their  unbroken  energies 
in  the  sacred  cause.  There  were  few  of 
the  eminent  men  of  that  day  who  did  not 
cheerfully  acknowledge  how  much,  un- 
der God,  they  owed  to  Bruce. 

But  there  were  many  other  ministers 
of  decided  piety,  whose  labours  the  Head 
of  the  Church  also  owned  and  blessed  to 
a  very  great  extent.  Of  these,  David 
Dickson  of  Irvine  deserves  particular 
mention.  It  has  been  already  stated, 
that  he  was  so  greatly  beloved  by  his 
congregation,  that  when  brought  before 
the  court  of  the  tyrannical  prelates,  every 
effort  was  made  by  the  devoted  flock  to 
secure  the  enjoyment  of  their  pastor's 
precious  labours.  They  did  not  at  first 
succeed ;  but  in  the  year  1624,  he  was 
allowed  to  return  to  Irvine,  and  remain 
there  during  their  majesty's  pleasure. 
Suffering  in  Christ's  cause  gives  a  very 
deeply  spiritual  character  to  a  Christain 
minister's  labours.  Soon  after  Mr.  Dick- 
son's  return  to  his  charge,  striking  effects 
began  to  appear  among  his  people,  and 
in  the  adjoining  parish  of  Stewarton, 
where  he  frequently  preached.  This  re- 
markable revival  of  vital  religion  begar/, 
it  appears,  in  1625,  and  lasted  for  about 
five  years.  "  This,"  says  Fleming,  "  by 
the  profane  rabble  of  that  time  was  called 
the  Stewarton  sickness  ;  for  in  that  parish 
first,  but  afterwards  through  much  of 
that  country,  particularly  at  Irvine  under 


136 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH   OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  V 


the  ministry  of  Mr.  Dickson,  it  was  re- 
markable ;  where  it  can  be  said  (which 
diverse  ministers  and  Christians  yet  alive 
can  witness),  that  for  a  considerable  time 
few  Sabbaths  did  pass  without  some  evi- 
dently converted,  or  some  convincing- 
proof  of  the  power  of  God  accompanying 
his  Word.  And  truly  this  great  spring- 
tide, as  I  may  call  it,  of  the  gospel,  was 
not  of  a  short  time,  but  of  some  years'  con- 
tinuance; yea  thus,  like  a  spreading 
moor-burn,  the  power  of  godliness  did 
advance  from  one  place  to  another,  which 
put  a  marvellous  lustre  on  those  parts  of 
the  country,  the  savour  whereof  brought 
many  from  other  parts  of  the  land  to  see 
its  truth."* 

Another  token  for  good  to  the  suffer- 
ing Church  of  Scotland  occurred  in  the 
year  1628.  At  a  meeting  of  the  synod 
in  Edinburgh  in  the  spring  of  that  year, 
it  had  been  agreed  upon  to  apply  to  his 
majesty  that  a  general  fast  might  be  held 
all  over  the  kingdom.  The  ostensible 
causes  adduced  for  this  proposal  by  the 
prelates,  were  the  dangerous  state  of  Pro- 
testant Churches  abroad,  the  prevalence 
of  vice  and  immorality  at  home,  and  to 
implore  the  divine  blessing  upon  his 
majesty's  arms  being  at  that  time  invol- 
ved in  hostilities  both  with  France  and 
with  the  House  of  Austria.  To  these 
causes,  the  Presbyterians  naturally  ad- 
ded the  consideration  of  their  own  suffer- 
ing state,  and  of  the  oppressive  innova- 
tions forced  upon  the  people.  Much  of 
the  searching  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
seems  to  have  been  granted  to  both 
ministers  and  people  during  their  solemn 
fast;  and  many  felt,  that  in  humbling 
themselves  before  God,  and  making  an 
earnest  confession  of  sin,  both  national 
and  individual,  they  obtained  a  strength 
not  their  own, — a  spiritual  strength, — 
preparing  them  for  greater  sufferings, 
and  giving  earnest  of  final  deliverance. 
And  let  any  truly  pious  person  imagine 
the  contrast  between  the  cold,  formal,  and 
insincere  services  of  the  prelatists,  and 
the  deep,  earnest,  heart-wrung  supplica- 
tions of  the  Presbyterian  sufferers,  breath- 
ing the  very  essence  of  spiritual  contri- 
tion, and  he  cannot  fail  to  perceive  one 
mighty  cause  of  the  disrespect  with  which 
the  former  were  regarded,  and  the  power- 

*  Fleming's  Fulfilling  of  the  Scriptures,  vol.  i.  p.  355. 


ful  hold  which  the  latter  possessed  of  the 
nation's  heart. 

In  no  individual  instance  probably, 
was  the  converting  power  of  the  Spirit 
more  signally  displayed  than  at  the  Kirk 
of  Shotts,  on  Monday  the  21st  of  June 
1630.  It  appears  that  John  Livingstone, 
a  young  man  of  about  twenty-seven  years 
of  age,  who  was  at  that  time  domestic 
chaplain  to  the  Countess  of  Wigton,  had 
gone  to  attend  the  dispensation  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  at  the  Kirk  of  Shotts. 
There  had  been  a  great  confluence  of 
both  ministers  and  people  from  all  the  ad- 
joining country  ;  and  the  sacred  services 
of  the  communion  Sabbath  had  been 
marked  with  much  solemnity  of  manner 
and  great  apparent  depth  and  sincerity 
of  devotional  feeling.  When  the  Mon 
day  came,  the  large  assembly  of  pious 
Christians  felt  reluctant  to  part  without 
another  day  of  thanksgiving  to  that  God 
whose  redeeming  love  they  had  been  com- 
memorating. Livingstone  was  prevail- 
ed upon  to  preach,  though  reluctantly. 
and  with  heavy  misgivings  of  mind,  at 
the  thought  of  his  own  unworthiness  to 
address  so  many  experienced  Christians. 
He  even  endeavoured  to  withdraw  him- 
self secretly  from  the  multitude  ;  but  a 
strong  constraining  impulse  within  his 
mind  caused  him  to  return,  and  proceed 
with  the  duty  to  which  he  had  been  ap- 
pointed. Towards  the  close  of  the  ser- 
mon, the  audience,  and  even  the  preacher 
himself  was  affected  with  a  deep  un- 
usual awe,  melting  their  hearts  and  sub- 
duing their  minds,  stripping  off  inveterate 
prejudices,  awaking  the  indifferent,  pro- 
ducing conviction  in  the  hardened,  bow- 
ing down  the  stubborn,  and  imparting  to 
many  an  enlightened  Christian,  a  large 
increase  of  grace  and  spirituality.  "  It 
was  known,"  says  Fleming,  "  as  I  can 
speak  on  sure  ground,  that  nearly  five 
hundred  had  at  that  time  a  discernible 
change  wrought  on  them,  of  whom  most 
proved  lively  Christians  afterwards.  It 
was  the  sowing  of  a  seed  through  Clydes- 
dale, so  that  many  of  the  most  eminent 
Christians  of  that  country  could  date 
either  their  conversion,  or  some  remark- 
able confirmation  of  their  case,  from  that 
day."* 

*  For  a  more  full  account,  see  Gillies's  Collections, 
ol.  i.  p.  310,  et  sen. ;  and  Fleming's  Fulfilling  of  the 
Scriptures,  vol.  i.  pp,  355, 356. 


A.  D.  1632.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


,37 


Mr.  Livingstone,  the  honoured  instru- 
ment by  which  this  great  work  was 
wrought,  was  one  of  those  against  whom 
the  tyranny  of  the  suspicious  prelates  had 
been  directed.  He  had  been  called  to  be 
their  pastor  by  the  people  of  Torphichen  ; 
but  because  he  would  not  take  the  oath 
of  conformity  to  the  Perth  Articles,  Spots- 
wood  would  not  allow  him  to  be  con- 
tinued in  the  charge.  This,  indeed,  was 
the  current  policy  of  the  prelates, — a  po- 
licy which  may  generally  be  expected  to 
be  pursued  by  every  party  when  contests 
run  high  and  victory  is  doubtful.  But 
in  the  case  of  the  prelates,  and  indeed  in 
every  case  of  a  contest  between  right  and 
wrong,  the  most  politic  measure  will 
prove  injurious  to  those  who  employ  it. 
When  such  men  as  Livingstone  were  ex- 
cluded from  a  parish  by  the  prelates, 
they  were  actually  compelled  to  extend 
their  influence  over  a  wider  sphere  than 
would  otherwise  have  been  either  possi- 
ble or  right.  And  not  unfrequently,  as 
in  his  case,  they  were  received  into  the 
families  of  some  of  the  nobility,  where 
their  unassuming  manners  and  deep  per- 
sonal piety  produced  the  most  beneficial 
results,  both  to  their  protectors,  and  to  the 
cause  for  which  they  suffered.  In  this 
manner  both  the  ejected  ministers  and 
the  rejected  probationers  tended,  by  their 
fervent  and  widely  diffused  labours,  to 
prepare  the  great  body  of  the  nation  for 
that  struggle  and  revulsion  which  was 
ere  long  to  take  place.  And  when  the 
reader  who  is  at  all  acquainted  with  Scot- 
tish ecclesiastical  history  marks  among 
these  home  missionaries  the  names  of 
Livingstone,  and  Blair,  and  Rutherford, 
and  Douglas,  and  Gillespie,  and  Dunbar, 
and  Hogg,  and  Dickson,  and  many 
others  of  almost  equal  eminence,  he  may 
easily  imagine  how  mighty  must  have 
been  the  influence  which  their  sufferings 
and  their  toils  produced  in  the  very  heart 
of  Scotland. 

There  is  yet  another  general  reflection 
which  must  not  be  omitted,  in  order  to 
complete  our  survey  of  all  the  elements 
then  fermenting  in  the  kingdom.  Soon 
after  the  introduction  of  Prelacy  into 
Scotland  by  the  machinations  of  King 
James,  the  tenets  of  Arminius  began  to 
be  entertained  by  those  worldly-minded 
men,  as  much  more  congenial  to  their 
low  notions  of  Christianity,  and  their 
18 


own  characters  and  habits.  But  Armin- 
ianism  made  little  progress  till  after  the 
ratification  of  the  Five  Articles  of  Perth, 
when  the  prelatic  party  felt  themselves 
secure,  and  ventured  to  follow  more  open- 
ly the  bent,  of  their  inclination.  In  the 
meantime,  a  large  proportion  of  the 
Church  of  England  had  greedily  imbibed 
these  erroneous  tenets,  thereby  widen- 
ing the  division  between  them  and  the 
party  called  Puritans.  As  soon  as  the 
Arminian  party  were  headed  by  the  cun- 
ning, narrow-minded,  bigoted  and  malev- 
olent Laud,  they  advanced  with  rapid 
strides  to  the  possession  of  uncontrolled 
power  in  the  kingdom,  and  especially  in 
the  favour  of  the  Sovereign.  The 
younger  Scottish  prelates,  headed  by 
Maxwell,  set  themselves  to  emulate  Laud, 
and  almost  surpassed  him  in  their  ardent 
advocacy  of  Arminianism.  But  however 
this  might  recommend  them  to  the  king 
and  the  English  prelates,  it  had  a  very 
different  effect  among  their  own  country- 
men in  general.  For  the  erroneous 
tenets  of  Arminius,  however  plausible  m 
the  eyes  of  men  of  superficial  minds,  will 
never  stand  the  scrutiny  of  a  searching 
intellect,  if  directed  to  the  investigation 
with  warm  and  real  interest.  Least  of 
all  will  such  tenets  give  satisfaction  to  a 
heart  on  which  the  light  of  God's  Word 
has  shone,  revealing  its  desperate  wick- 
edness,— to  a  soul  which  has  been  quick- 
ened from  its  deadness  in  sin  by  the  life- 
giving  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  so 
far,  therefore,  as  Arminianism  prevailed 
among  the  prelatic  party,  to  that  extent 
were  they  regarded  as  weaklings  and 
aliens,  by  the  manly  and  searching  intel- 
lect of  Scotland;  and  in  so  far  as  vital  reli- 
gion revived  and  was  diffused  throughout 
the  kingdom,  to  that  extent  did  the  right- 
hearted  Scottish  nobles  and  peasantry  de- 
test a  system  which  introduced  such  men, 
and  men  who  vitiated  the  oracles  of  the 
living  God,  and  strove  to  reduce  the  Gos- 
pel of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. to  a  code  of 
human  morality. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  to  these 
mighty  elements,  this  further  considera- 
tion, although  it  had  its  influence,  that 
the  men  who  were  the  keenest  sticklers 
for  empty  forms  and  ceremonies,— who 
did  not  hesitate  to  violate  their  oaths,  and 
strive  to  compel  others  to  the  perpetration 
of  the  same  crime,  throwing  a  whole  na 


138 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  V. 


tion  into  suffering  and  confusion  for  the 
attainment  of  what  they  themselves  ad- 
mitted to  be  not  a  matter  of  conscience, 
but  merely  of  convenient  and  seemly  or- 
der,— that  these  men  were  generally  noto- 
rious for  vice,  profligacy,  Sabbath-break- 
ing, and  every  species  of  immorality. 
Had  even  the  cause  been  good,  the  per- 
fidious and  tyrannical  manner  of  its  intro- 
duction, and  the  characters  of  the  men  by 
whom  it  was  introduced,  would  have 
ruined  it  in  the  estimation  of  every  man 
who  had  an  eye  to  discern  and  a  heart 
to  feel. 

Some  of  the  defenders  of  Prelacy  have 
said,  that  Scotland  never  saw  it  in  its  true 
aspect, — that  if  we  had,  we  would  have 
received  it,  and  made  it  cordially  our 
own.  Certainly  Prelacy  never  appeared 
in  Scotland  but  as  a  tyrannical  and  per- 
secuting system  ;  therefore  we  have  little 
cause  to  love  it.  But  we  can  see  it  in 
England,  with  all  its  blushing  honours 
and  unblushing  abuses  thick  upon  it, — 
with  its  clergy  secularized,  and  its  people 
uninstructed  ;  and  what  we  see  of  it  there 
has  no  tendency  to  recommend  it  to  our 
favourable  regard,  or  to  make  us  lan- 
guish for  its  reintroduction  to  Scotland. 

[1633.]  Such  was  the  state  of  Scotland, 
and  of  the  contending  parties  by  which 
it  was  agitated  when  Charles  I.  prepared 
to  pay  a  visit  to  his  ancient  kingdom. 
Had  he  been  disposed  to  inquire  into  the 
state  of  the  country,  with  a  sincere  desire 
to  remedy  all  proved  evils,  and  redress 
all  manifest  grievances, — and  had  he 
been  able  to  lay  aside  his  own  preju- 
dices, or  even  to  prevail  upon  himself  to 
investigate  matters  for  him&elf,  and  not  to 
trust  entirely  to  the  statements  of  persons 
who  were  interested  in  deceiving  him, — 
the  result  might  have  been  most  propi- 
tious. As  it  was,  it  proved  highly  disas- 
trous. Unfortunately  his  whole  conduct 
was  pre-determined  before  he  left  Lon- 
don. He  wished  to  enjoy  the  pageantry 
of  a  Scottish  coronation  ;  he  intended  to 
hold  a  parliament  for  procuring  money ; 
and  he  was  resolved  to  take  measures 
for  reducing  the  Church  of  Scotland  into 
perfect  conformity  with  that  of  England. 
For  the  management  of  the  latter  point 
he  brought  with  him  Laud,  who  may 
not  inaptly  be  designated  his  evil  genius, 
by  whose  malign  influence  he  was  per- 


petually turned  aside  from  the  path  of 
safety,  and  hurried  along  that  of  ruin. 

It  is  not  our  intention  to  describe  the 
pride,  pomp  and  circumstance  of  his 
majesty's  triumphal  procession,  his  en- 
trance into  the  capital  of  his  ancient  king- 
dom, and  the  more  than  semi-popish  pa- 
geantry of  his  coronation.  Suffice  it  to 
state,  that  the  most  enthusiastic  reception 
was  given  to  their  monarch  by  a  people 
who  were  almost  instinctively  loyal,  and 
who  were  prone  to  gratify  him  in  every 
thing  which  their  higher  allegiance  to 
God  could  permit.  Still  even  in  the 
height  of  their  enthusiastic  loyalty,  they 
were  compelled  to  feel,  that  in  the  most 
important  matters  there  existed  no  har- 
mony of  sentiment  and  feeling  between 
their  sovereign  and  them.  The  mani- 
fest preference  shown  by  the  king  to  all 
the  rites,  ceremonies,  and  gaudy  exhibi- 
tions of  Prelacy,  strengthened  the  distrust 
already  entertained,  that  no  good  was  in- 
tended to  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
Ample  proof  was  soon  given  that  these 
apprehensions  were  but  too  well  founded. 

Previous  to  the  meeting  of  parliament 
the  king  arranged  matters  in  the  most 
likely  way  to  secure  the  accomplishment 
of  his  designs.  He  introduced  ten  En- 
glishmen into  the  privy  council  of  Scot- 
land, one  of  whom  was  the  notorious 
Laud.  The  Lords  of  the  Articles  were 
so  chosen  as  to  be  composed  almost  en- 
tirely of  those  who  were  known  to  be 
subservient  to  the  king,  and  ready  to 
comply  with  any  thing  which  he  might 
require.  All  matters  being  thus  arranged, 
the  parliament  met  for  the  despatch  of 
business  on  the  25th  of  June.  Their  first 
act  was  one  granting  to  Charles  a  larger 
subsidy  than  had  ever  before  been  given 
to  a  Scottish  king.  So  far  all  was  har- 
mony and  good-will ;  but  the  next  meas- 
ure aroused  a  different  spirit.  It  was  in- 
tituled, "  An  act  anent  his  Majesty's  Royal 
Prerogative,  and  Apparel  of  Churchmen." 
This  was  a  combination  of  two  acts,  one 
passed  in  1606,  acknowledging  the  king's 
supremacy  over  all  persons,  and  in  all 
causes  ;  and  another  passed  in  1609.  by 
which  King  James  was  empowered  to 
prescribe  apparel  and  vestments  to  all 
judges,  magistrates,  and  churchmen. 
The  act  1606  had  been  but  too  often  en- 
forced, to  the  sad  experience  of  many 


A.  D.  1633.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


139 


banished  ministers  and  destitute  congre- 
gations ;   but  the  act   1609,  concerning 
vestments,   had  been  allowed  to  lie  dor- 
mant.    They  were  now  joined  together 
and  made  one,  in  the  expectation  that  the 
strength  of  the  prerogative  clause  would 
arry  with  it  the  weakness  of  the  other. 
To  this  combined  act  great  opposition 
was  made,  the  Earl  of  Rothes  heading 
tie  opposition.     Rothes  desired  that  the 
cts  might  be   divided,   expressing   his 
willingness  to  vote  for  the  prerogative 
lause,  if  it  stood  alone.     The  king  de- 
lared  that  it  was  now  one  act,  and  that 

must  either  vote  for  it  or  against  it,  as 
uch.  Rothes  began  to  argue,  that  the 
econd  clause  was  contrary  to  the  liber- 
ies  of  the  Church,  and  ought  not  to  be 
urther  considered  until  at  least  the  mind 
)f  the  Church  should  be  ascertained  ; 
>ut  the  king  rudely  interrupted  him,  com- 
nanded  the  vote  to  be  taken  without  fur- 
tier  reasoning,  and,  calling  for  a  list  of 
he  members,  which  had  been  previously 
)repared,  he  sternly  said,  "I  have  all 
-our  names  here,  and  I  will  now  know 
rho  are  good  subjects  and  who  are  bad."* 
The  question  was  then  put ;  Rothes 
>romptly  voted,  "  Not  content."  His  ex- 
imple  was  followed  by  fifteen  earls  and 
ords,  several  barons,  and  forty-four  com- 
missioners of  counties  and  burghs. f 
5ven  Burnet  affirms  that  the  act  was  re- 
iected  by  the  majority  ;  but  the  clerk  of 
register,  knowing  well  the  king's  wish, 
declared  that  it  was  carried  in  the  affirm- 
ative. Rothes  asserted  that  the  contrary 
was  the  case;  but  the  king,  whose  at- 
empt  to  overawe  the  parliament  must 
aave  made  him  aware  of  the  truth,  dis- 
lonourably  supported  the  clerk's  false  as- 
sertion, saying  that  it  must  be  held 
good  unless  the  Earl  of  Rothes  would  go 
:o  the  bar,  and  accuse  him  of  falsifying 
the  record  of  parliament — an  offence 
which  was  capital ;  and  in  that  case,  if 
he  should  fail  in  the  proof,  he  was  liable 
to  the  same  punishment.^  This  perilous 
step  Rothes  declined  to  take  ;  conse- 
quently the  act  was  declared  to  have 
passed,  though  its  power  was  greatly  par- 
alyzed by  the  despotic  and  nefarious  na- 
ture of  the  transaction,  which  speedily 
became  known  to  the  whole  kingdom. 

So   dissatisfied    were  the  lords,  both 

*  Kirkton.  p.  30. 

t  Rutherford's  Letters,  part  iii.  letter  40. 
t  Burnet's  History  of  his  own  Times,  pp.  21,  2? 


vith  this  act  itself,  and  the  forcible  and 
raudulent  manner  in  which  it  had  been 
carried,  that  they  resolved  to  present  to 
he  king  a  supplication,  explaining  and 
excusing  their  conduct,  and  remonstra- 
ing  against  the  manner  in  which  their 
reedorn  to  deliberate  had  been  overborne. 
This  supplication  was  drawn  up  by 
rlague,  the  king's  solicitor,  himself,  as 
Burnet  says,  a  sincere  and  zealous  Pres- 
)yterian.  It  was  read  over  to  Lord  Bal- 
merino  and  the  Earls  of  Rothes  and 

!assilis.  Balmerino  disapproved  of  some 
expressions  in  it,  and  procured  a  copy, 
hat  he  might  deliberately  peruse  and  al- 
er  it,  according  to  his  own  judgment. 
Rothes  carried  a  copy  of  it  to  the  king, 
hat  he  might,  if  possible,  obtain  his  ma- 
jesty's permission  to  present  it,  without 
urther  exciting  his  displeasure  ;  but  the 
dng  would  not  so  much  as  look  upon  it, 
ind  commanded  him  to  proceed  no  fur- 
her  in  that  matter.  Accordingly  it  was 
not  presented,  and  was  regarded  by  its 
authors  as  consigned  to  oblivion.  But  it 
re  long  appeared  that  the  king  and  the 
prelates  could  neither  forget  nor  forgive 
whatsoever  thwarted  them. 

In  the  meantime  the  oppressed  Pres- 
Dyterian  Church  of  Scotland  did  not  neg- 
[ect  the  opportunity  of  his  majesty's  pre- 
sence in  the  kingdom,  and  the  meeting  of 
parliament,  to  endeavour  to  obtain  some 
redress  of  their  grievances.  A  number 
of  the  most  eminent  of  the  ministers  re- 
paired to  Edinburgh,  met  together,  and 
deliberated  in  what  manner  they  ought  to 
proceed.  It  was  resolved  to  present  to  his 
majesty  and  the  parliament  a  petition 
containing  a  full  statement  of  the  griev- 
ances of  the  Church,  expressed  in  the 
most  respectful  terms,  and  humbly  sup- 
plicating redress.  This  petition  was  sup- 

ressed  by  the  clerk  register,  who  was  a 

erce  prelatist ;  upon  which  a  new  pet 
tion  was  prepared,  mentioning  the  one 
given  into  the  hands  of  the  clerk  regis- 
ter, and  requesting  his  majesty  to  cause 
it  to  be  read  and  considered.  That  the 
latter  petition  might  not  also  be  suppres- 
sed, Mr.  Thomas  Hogg,  who  had  been 
deposed  from  his  ministry  at  Dysart,  by 
the  High  Commission,  delivered  it  per 
sonally  to  the  king.  His  majesty  perused 
it  with  unmoved  countenance,  but  re 
turned  no  answer.  Too  well  the  neg 
lected  sufferers  saw  that  no  redress  was 


140 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  V 


to  be  expected  from  the  king :  but  they 
did  not  despair  ;  but  they  presented  their 
supplications  to  the  King  of  kings,  in 
the  full  confidence  that  He  would  not  re- 
ject their  prayers. 

The  remainder  of  the  time  spent  by 
Charles  in  Scotland  tended  but  to  in- 
crease the  alienation  between  him  and  his 
best  subjects.  He  studiously  neglected, 
and  even  insulted,  those  who  had  oppo- 
sed his  designs ;  and  heaped  honours 
upon  those  who  had  showed  themselves 
willing  to  prostrate  the  liberties  of  the 
Church  and  the  kingdom  at  his  feet.  At 
length  he  took  his  departure,  little  grati- 
fied with  the  result  of  a  visit  from  which 
he  had  promised  himself  a  vast  acces- 
sion of  strength.  He  was  already  deeply 
involved  in  contentions  with  his  English 
parliament  j  and  he  seems  to  have  antici- 
pated, that  by  his  visit  to  Scotland  he 
would  secure  the  support  of  that  king- 
dom, and  be  thereby  enabled  to  coerce 
the  people  of  England  into  submission  to 
his  arbitrary  sway.  Little  did  he  under- 
stand the  character  of  either  country,  or 
the  nature  of  the  principles  by  which  at 
that  time  both  were  so  deeply  moved. 
There  seemed,  indeed,  to  rest  upon 
Charles  I.  and  all  his  advisers, — those  at 
least  in  whom  he  most  confided, — a  cloud 
of  infatuation,  concealing  or  distorting 
every  truth,  and  giving  a  delusive  aspect 
to  error. 

Some  may  perhaps  be  disposed  to  say, 
that  the  act  respecting  the  vestments  of 
churchmen  was  not  a  matter  of  such  im- 
portance as  to  justify  the  opposition  made 
to  it.  But  it  must  be  observed,  that  the 
passing  of  such  an  act,  without  consult- 
ing the  Church  on  the  matter,  involved 
the  whole  question  respecting  the  liberty 
of  the  Church  ;  and  especially,  joined  as 
it  was  to  the  clause  respecting  the  royal 
prerogative,  it  implied  no  less  than  that 
the  power  of  dictating  to  the  Church  in 
every  matter,  whether  of  vital  impor- 
tance or  comparatively  trivial,  was  a  part 
of  the  royal  prerogative.  In  fact,  it  vir- 
tually admitted,  and  very  soon  would 
have  rendered  operative,  the  principle, 
that  the  king  was  the  Head  of  the  Church, 
— a  principle  directly  subversive  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  which  has  never 
admitted  any  Head  but  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  alone. 

F1634.J    Previous  to  the  departure  of 


the  king,  he  declared  that  he  had  found 
a  man  whose  high  merits  deserved  that 
a  bishopric  should  be  made  for  him. 
This  man  of  rare  eminence  was  Mr. 
William  Forbes,  one  of  the  ministers  of 
Edinburgh, — the  same  person  who  had 
been  brought  from  Aberdeen  to  the  cap- 
ital, in  consequence  of  his  known  attach- 
ment to  Prelacy  and  Arminianism,  and 
whose  scornful  disregard  of  his  respect- 
able parishioners  had  been  the  cause  to 
them  of  heavy  fines  and  protracted  im- 
prisonment. In  recompense  of  these  mer- 
itorious deeds,  Edinburgh  was  consti- 
tuted a  bishopric,  and  Forbes  appointed 
its  first  prelate, — an  appointment  not  cal- 
culated to  soothe  the  oppressed  and  in- 
sulted citizens.  The  new  bishop  deter- 
mined to  justify  the  choice  of  nis  ma- 
jesty, by  proceeding  immediately,  in  the 
most  rigorous  manner,  to  enforce  obedi- 
ence to  the  Perth  Articles ;  and  issued  a 
circular  order  to  all  the  presbyteries  within 
his  diocese,  commanding  them  to  conform, 
on  pain  of  his  ecclesiastical  censure.  The 
majority  of  the  Edinburgh  presbyteries 
yielded  ;  but  several  others  not  only  re- 
fused to  comply,  but  even  boldly  warned 
the  haughty  prelate  of  the  sinful  and 
dangerous  nature  of  his  own  conduct,  in 
thus  wantonly  aggrieving  the  conscience 
of  both  ministers  and  people  in  matters 
for  which  he  could  find  no  warrant  in  the 
Word  of  God.  Before,  however,  his 
fiery  zeal  had  time  to  proceed  to  the  ex- 
tremities which  he  had  threatened,  he 
was,  happily  for  his  own  memory,  re* 
moved  from  the  scene  by  death,  and  suc- 
ceeded by  Lindsay,  bishop  of  Brechin, 
to  which  latter  see  Sydserf  was  ap- 
pointed. 

An  event  occurred  about  the  same 
time,  the  consequences  of  which  proved 
exceedingly  detrimental  to  the  character 
and  schemes  of  the  king.  It  has  been 
already  mentioned,  that  a  supplication 
had  been  prepared  to  be  presented  to  his 
majesty,  by  those  lords  who  disapproved 
of  the  act  of  parliament  respecting  the 
prerogative  and  the  attire  of  churchmen  ; 
and  that,  theugh  it  was  not  presented, 
Lord  Balmerino  retained  a  copy  of  it  in 
his  own  possession.  It  would  appear 
that  Balmerino  still  entertained  hopes  of 
this  petition  being  useful,  as  explaining 
to  the  king  the  feelings  and  sentiments 
actuating  a  number  of  his  most  faithful 


A.  D.  1637.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


HI 


subjects,  and  had  showed  it  in  confidence 
to  one  Dunmoor,  a  legal  friend  whom  he 
trusted,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  his 
aid  in  modifying  its  phraseology,  so  as  to 
be  as  little  offensive  to  the  king  as  it 
could  possibly  be  rendered.  Dunmoor 
was  allowed  to  take  it  home  with  him,  on 
the  promise  of  keeping  it  concealed  from 
every  one  ;  but  he  so  far  violated  his 
pledge  as  to  show  it  to  Hay  of  Naugh- 
ton,  on  promise  of  secrecy.  Hay  surrep- 
titiously obtained  a  copy,  and  carried  it 
to  Archbishop  Spotswood,  who  immedi- 
ately posted  off  with  it  to  London,  com- 
mencing his  journey,  according  to  his 
custom,  on  a  Sabbath-day.  The  king, 
whose  own  conscience  must  have  se- 
cretly condemned  him  for  the  tyrannical 
and  fraudulent  manner  in  which  he  had 
compassed  the  passing  of  that  act,  and 
instigated  by  Spotswood  and  Laud,  re- 
solved to  wreak  his  vengeance  on  Bal- 
merino.  It  required  some  ingenuity  to 
frame  a  plausible  ground  of  accusation 
against  that  nobleman.  This  the  malig- 
nity of  Spotswood  supplied,  by  the  dis- 
torted application  of  one  of  James's  de- 
spotic acts  respecting  what  is  termed  leas- 
ing-makingj  or  the  crime  of  sowing  dis- 
sention  between  the  king  and  his  sub- 
jects. By  this  act,  writing  or  saying 
any  thing  which  might  tend  to  bring  dis- 
credit on  the  king  and  the  government 
was  declared  capital ;  and  even  to  know 
who  was  the  author  of  any  such  seditious 
matter,  and  not  to  reveal  it,  was  held  to 
involve  equal  guilt,  and  to  expose  to  the 
same  punishment.  But  this  latter  clause 
had  never  been  put  in  execution  ;  and  yet 
on  the  strength  of  it  alone  was  Balme- 
rino  to  be  tried  for  his  life. 

The  management  of  the  trial  was  in- 
trusted to  the  Earl  of  Traquair,  who  was 
at  that  time  rising  rapidly  into  court  fa- 
vour. Traquair  was  not  a  man  to  be  de- 
terred by  any  scruples  of  conscience 
from  the  invidious  and  dangerous  task. 
He  selected  such  a  jury  as  he  thought  he 
could  trust,  and  got  some  of  Balmerino's 
personal  enemies  appointed  to  be  asses- 
sors to  the  justice-general,  that  he  might 
secure  both  the  declaration  of  the  law 
and  the  verdict  of  the  jury.  Balmerino 
defended  himself  with  great  ability. 
When  the  verdict  of  the  jury  was  about 
to  be  required,  Gordon  of  Buckie, — then 
a  very  aged  man,  but  who  had  in  his 


youth  been  distinguished  for  daring  and 
reckless  ferocity  of  character,  shown  es- 
Decially  in  the  murder  of  "  the  bonnie 
Earl  of  Murray,"  the  good  regent's  son, 
— this  aged  homicide  arose,  and  with  a 
tremulous  voice,  desired  them  to  consider 
what  they  were  about.  "  It  was,"  he  said, 
'  a  matter  of  blood,  and  they  would  feel 
he  weight  of  that  as  long  as  they  lived. 
He  had  in  his  youth  been  drawn  into 
shed  blood,  for  which  he  had  the  king's 
pardon  ;  but  it  cost  him  more  to  obtain 
od's  pardon :  it  had  given  him  many 
sorrowful  hours,  both  day  and  night." 
The  tears,  as  he  spoke,  ran  down  his 
furrowed  cheeks ;  and  for  a  time  the 
chill  sensation  of  sympathetic  horror  held 
the  guilty  conclave  silent.*  But  Tra- 
quair, to  break  the  force  of  this  pathetic 
appeal,  reminded  them  that  the  question 
which  they  had  to  determine,  was  simply 
whether  or  not  Balmerino  had  concealed 
his  knowledge  of  the  author  of  a  pro- 
duction said  to  be  seditious.  The  result 
was,  that  seven  of  the  jury  voted  for  ac- 
quittal, and  seven  voted  guilty ;  the  cast- 
ing vote  of  Traquair  secured  the  con- 
demnation of  Balmerino,  and  sentence  of 
death  was  immediately  pronounced, — 
the  execution  to  be  delayed  till  the 
pleasure  of  the  king  should  be  known. 
Intense  had  been  the  interest  excited  by 
this  trial ;  and  no  sooner  was  the  result 
divulged  than  public  indignation  swelled 
to  a  storm.  Secret  meetings  were  held,  at 
which  plans  of  the  most  daring  character 
were  proposed.  It  was  resolved  that  the 
prison  should  be  forced,  and  Balmerino 
set  at  liberty ;  or,  if  that  attempt  failed, 
to  revenge  his  death  by  the  slaughter  of 
that  portion  of  the  jury  by  whose  verdict 
he  had  been  condemned.  Traquair  per- 
ceiving the  danger,  hastened  to  the  king, 
informed  him  of  the  state  of  public  feel- 
ing, and  solicited  a  pardon  for  the  con- 
demned nobleman,  which  his  majesty  re- 
luctantly granted. 

Scarcely  any  thing  could  have  been 
more  injurious  to  the  character  and  the 
schemes  of  the  king  than  this  trial.  It 
not  only  proved  beyond  all  doubt  the  ar 
bitrary  disposition  of  Charles  himself, 
who  could  brook  no  opposition  to  his  de- 
spotic will,  not  even  in  the  constitutional 
form  of  an  humble  supplication  and  re- 
monstrance ;  but  it  also  showed  clearly, 

*  Burnet's  History  of  his  own  times,  pp.  24,  25. 


142 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  V. 


that  the  main  object  at  which  he  aimed, 
in  his  zeal  for  the  establishment  of  Pre- 
lacy in  Scotland,  was,  that  he  might  ob- 
tain in  the  prelates  a  set  of  nominal  lords, 
creatures  of  his  own,  who  would  be 
wholly  subservient  to  his  commands,  and 
enable  him  to  reduce  the  kingdom  to  a 
state  of  utter  slavery.  If  any  thing  had 
been  wanting  either  to  excite  or  to  con- 
firm the  jealousy  of  the  Scottish  nobility, 
who  were  already  irritated  at  the  arro- 
gance of  the  prelates,  it  was  supplied  by 
the  trial  of  Balmerino.  In  it  they  saw 
revealed  the  very  heart  of  his  majesty's 
design, — that  a  change  in  church  gov- 
ernment was  the  means,  but  absolute  des- 
potism the  end,  at  which  he  aimed  ;  and 
much  as  many  of  them  disliked  the  se- 
vere impartiality  of  Presbyterian  disci- 
pline, they  felt  that  they  had  more  in 
common  with  men  who  were  the  friends 
of  freedom,  sacred  and  national,  however 
strongly  opposed  to  that  licentiousness 
which  is  the  bondage  of  the  soul,  than 
they  could  have  with  those  who  could 
indeed  tolerate  all  immoralities,  but  were 
the  banded  foes  of  all  true  liberty,  civil 
and  religious.  Thus  were  the  nobles,  the 
ministers,  and  the  people,  gradually 
drawn  together  into  one  common  cause, 
by  the  infatuated  conduct  of  their  com- 
mon oppressors ;  and  the  remembrance 
of  the  manner  in  which  they  had  in 
former  times  asserted  and  defended  their 
liberties,  began  again  to  suggest  the  idea 
of  a  bond  of  union,  whence  all  parties 
might  derive  mutual  protection  and  sup- 
port. But  the  crisis  was  not  yet  come ; 
and  the  prelatic  party  were  allowed  to 
fill  up  the  measure  of  their  guilt. 

Nor  were  they  slack  in  their  guilty 
career.  They  marked  not  the  tempest 
blackening  around  the  national  horizon  ; 
they  felt  not  the  ground-swell  beginning 
to  heave  beneath  their  feet,  indicative 
of  the  coming  earthquake.  Exulting  in 
their  fallacious  prosperity,  they  continued 
to  urge  forward  with  reckless  haste  the 
measures  which  were  to  issue  in  their 
own  destruction.  Although  they  had  not 
been  yet  able  to  enforce  obedience  to  the 
Perth  Articles,  they  urged  the  propriety 
of  having  a  Book  of  Canons  framed  for 
the  government  of  the  Church,  and  a 
Liturgy  prepared  for  its  form  of  worship. 
This  Spotswood  and  the  older  prelates 
opposed,  regarding  the  attempt  as  yet  too 


dangerous ;  but  the  younger  and  more 
reckless  party,  encouraged  by  Laud,  ex- 
pressed their  confidence  that  the  attempt 
might  be  made  with  perfect  safety.  Some 
difference  of  opinion  also  existed  whether 
the  English  Book  of  Canons  and  Liturgy 
should  be  adopted,  or  one  framed  ex- 
pressly for  Scotland  ;  but  upon  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  more  cautious  party,  that 
the  very  fact  of  these  new  arrangements 
coming  from  England  would  give  them 
the  appearance  of  conveying  a  studied 
insult  to  the  national  feeling  of  indepen- 
dence, and  thereby  greatly  increase  the 
hostility  against  them,  it  was  finally 
agreed  that  a  Book  of  Canons  and  a 
Liturgy  should  be  framed  in  Scotland, 
and  communicated  to  Laud,  Juxon,  and 
Wren,  for  their  revision  and  approval. 
This  matter  was  finally  determined  upon* 
in  September.  About  the  same  time  the* 
Court  of  Exchequer  was  remodelled,  a 
number  of  the  barons  removed,  and  four 
of  the  vacancies  filled  by  the  aspiring 
prelates. 

[1635.1  Early  in  the  year  1635,  pre- 
latic ambition  obtained  another  triumph. 
The  Earl  of  Kinnoul,  lord  chancellor  of 
Scotland,  a  nobleman  of  the  antique, 
mould,  who  had  repeatedly  checked  the 
arrogance  of  the  prelates,  and  on  one 
occasion  had  refused  precedency  to  Spots- 
wood,  even  when  solicited  by  Charles 
himself,  died  in  December  of  the  preced- 
ing year.  The  high  office  thus  left 
vacant  was  conferred  on  Spotswood,  who 
was  thus  raised  to  the  highest  pinnacle 
of  rank  on  which  a  Scottish  subject  could, 
be  placed.  Some  of  the  older  prelates 
dying  about  the  same  time,  several 
changes  took  place,  in  all  of  which  notl 
wisdom,  worth,  and  learning  were  ad- 
vanced, but  men  of  ambitious  and  intrig- ! 
uing  minds  obtained  the  stations  of  great-  j 
est  honour  and  emolument.  Elated  with ! 
this  success,  they  now  proceeded  to  en- 
force an  enlargement  of  their  Court  of  | 
High  Commission,  for  which  his  ma- 1 
jesty's  letters  patent  had  been  a  shorl 
while  previously  obtained.  Before  this 
time  only  archbishops  could  hold  Courts 
of  High  Commission:  now  they  were 
empowered  to  hold  such  courts  in  every  j 
diocese,  each  prelate  in  his  own,  where, 
assuming  to  himself  any  six  ministers,  he 
could  call  before  him  and  sit  in  judgment 
upon  any  person,  of  whatsoever  quality, 


A.  D.  1634.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


,43 


'  These  courts,"  says  Burnet,  "  were 
thought  little  different  from  the  CoUrts  of 
Inquisition."*  Sydserf,  now  made  bishop 
of  Galloway,  immediately  raised  one  of 
these  courts  in  his  diocese,  banished  Gor- 
don of  Earlston  to  a  remote  part  of  the 
kingdom,  suspended  Robert  Glendin- 
ning,  minister  of  Kirkcudbright,  who  had 
reached  the  venerable  age  of  seventy- 
nine,  and  began  that  persecuting  process 
against  Samuel  Rutherford,  which  ended 
in  his  banishment  to  Aberdeen. 

In  April  the  same  year  a  meeting  of 
the  prelates   was   held    in    Edinburgh, 
to   see   what  progress   had  been  made 
in  the  framing  of  the  Book  of  Canons. 
After  the  Scottish  prelates  had  brought  it 
as  near  to  perfection  as  they  could,  it  was 
sent  to  Laud,  under  the  care  of  Maxwell, 
bishop  of  Ross,  the  leader  of  the  younger 
prelates.      Having    obtained    the    high 
benefit  of  Laud's  supervision  and  amend- 
ments, the  Book  of  Canons  was  confirmed 
under  the  great   seal,  by  letters  patent 
bearing  date  23d  May  1635.     The  Book 
of  Canons,  thus  revised  and  sanctioned 
by  the  regal  fiat,  was  sent,  not  to  Edin- 
burgh, but  to  Aberdeen,  that  arsenal  of 
Scotland's  woes,  to  be  printed,  and  then 
circulated  by  the  prelates  throughout  their 
respective   dioceses.     The   canons   con- 
tained in  this  book  were  subversive  of 
the  whole  constitution  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland.     The  first  decrees  excommuni- 
cation against  all  who  should  deny  the 
king's  supremacy  in  ecclesiastical  affairs: 
the  next  pronounces  the  same  penalty 
against  all  who  should  dare  to  say  that 
the  worship  contained   in  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  (a  book  not  yet  pub- 
lished, nor  even  written)  was  supersti- 
tious or  contrary  to  the  Scriptures.    The 
same  penalty  was  decreed  against  all  who 
should  assert  that  the  prelatic  form  of 
church    government    was    unscriptural. 
Every  minister  was  enjoined  to  adhere  to 
the  forms  prescribed  in  the  Liturgy,  on 
pain  of  deposition  ;    which  Liturgy,  as 
before  stated,  was  not  yet  in  existence. 
It  was  decreed  also,  that  no  General  As- 
sembly should  be  called,  but  by  the  king ; 
that  no  ecclesiastical  business  should  even 
be  discussed,  except  in  the  prelatic  courts  ; 
that  no  private  meetings,   which   were 
termed  conventicles,  and  included  pres- 
byteries  and   kirk   sessions,   should  be 
*  Burnet's  History  of  his  own  Times,  p.  26. 


ield  by  the  ministers  for  expounding  the 
Scriptures ;  and  that  on  no  occasion  in 
public  should  a  minister  pour  out  the  ful- 
ness of  his  heart  to  God  in  extemporary 
prayer.  Many  minute  arrangements 
kvere  also  decreed  respecting  the  ceremo- 
nial parts  of  worship,  as  fonts  for  baptism, 
communion-altars,  ornaments  in  church, 
modes  of  dispensing  the  communion  ele- 
ments, the  vestments  of  the  clerical  order, 
and  all  such  other  idle  mummeries  as  the 
busy  brain  of  Laud  could  devise,  or  the 
fantastic  fooleries  of  Rome  suggest.  Such 
are  some  of  the  chief  regulations  in  the 
Book  of  Canons ;  and  yet,  although 
every  Presbyterian  must  have  perceived 
at  once  that  they  were  totally  subversive 
of  the  constitution  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  his  majesty's  declaration  wras 
made,  with  consummate  effrontery,  to 
assume  them  to  have  been  taken  from  the 
acts  of  the  General  Assemblies  held  in 
former  years.* 

Great  was  the  indignation  felt  all  over 
Scotland  when  the  character  of  the  Book 
of  Canons  came  to  be  known  ;  and  innu- 
merable were  the  discussions  respecting 
its  papistical  regulations  which  immedi 
ately  ensued.  The  prelatic  party  en- 
deavoured feebly  to  defend  it ;  but  their 
antagonists  condemned  it  unsparingly 
and  in  the  strongest  terms.  The  nobility 
were  secretly  gratified  to  find  it  so  glar- 
ingly offensive,  believing  that  its  regula- 
tions never  could  be  enforced,  and  per- 
ceiving that  its  failure  must  shake  the 
credit  and  diminish  the  power  of  the  pre- 
lates, whose  ambitious  usurpation  of  the 
highest  offices  in  the  State  they  could  not 
brook.  The  people  almost  universally 
detested  the  Book  of  Canons,  regarding 
it  as  directly  popish,  and  intended  to  pre- 
pare for  the  introduction  of  Popery  itself. 
All  the  hostility,  however,  thus  increased 
and  extended  against  the  prelatic  innova- 
tions, did  not  break  out  into  any  positive 
tumults ;  but  it  gave  an  immense  addi- 
tional power  to  the  deep  under-current  of 
the  popular  mind,  and  pointed  its  course 
directly  against  those  regal  and  prelatic 
measures  which  were  now  universally 
felt  to  be  equally  injurious  to  civil  liberty, 
freedom  of  conscience,  and  the  purity  of 
sacred  worship. 

[1636.]    During  the  year    1636,   the 

*  Stevenson's  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
edition  1840,  pp.  159-164 ;  Cruickshank,  vol.  i.  p.  41; 
Neale's  History  of  the  Puritans,  vol.  ii  p.  277,  &c. 


144 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH   OF   SCOTLAND 


[CHAP.  V 


contending  parties  seemed  to  be  silently 
mustering  their  strength,  preparatory  to  a 
conflict  which  should  prove  fatal  to  the  one 
or  the  other.  But  there  was  this  very  signi- 
ficant difference  between  the  modes  of  pre- 
paration, that  the  prelatic  party  strained 
every  nerve  to  obtain  an  accession  to  that 
political  and  civil  power  which  was 
already  exorbitant,  and  upon  which  alone 
they  seemed  to  rely  for  support  in  the 
hour  of  peril ;  while  the  Presbyterians 
were  doubly  earnest  in  their  prayers  to 
God,  in  whose  wisdom  to  guide,  arid 
strength  to  uphold  them,  they  placed  all 
their  confidence.  The  only  other  me- 
thod adopted  by  the  ministers  was,  that 
of  informing  their  people  of  the  nature 
and  course-  of  the  proceedings  which  the 
prelatic  party  were  urging  forward  with 
such  high-handed  tyranny.  Attempts 
have  often  been  made  to  convict  these 
pious  men  of  the  grave  crime  of  neglect- 
ing the  most  important  duty  of  their 
office,  the  preaching  of  salvation  through 
the  Redeemer,  and  converting  the  pulpit 
into  a  place  for  uttering  seditious  and  in- 
flammatory harangues.  This  is  an  accu- 
sation easily  made,  but  fortunately  as 
easily  refuted.  The  writings  of  these 
culumniated  men  still  exist,  and  never 
have  been  surpassed  for  the  heart-search- 
ing earnestness  of  practical  piety,  purity, 
and  depth  of  devotional  feeling,  loftiness 
of  spirituality,  and  even  peace-loving  gen- 
tleness of  temper,  which  they  contain  and 
display.  To  prove  this  statement,  nothing 
more  is  necessary  than  to  direct  the  rea- 
der to  the  letters  of  Samuel  Rutherford, 
the  greater  part  of  which  were  written  in 
those  very  stormy  times,  and  many  of 
them  while  he  was  himself  suffering  per- 
secution because  of  his  refusal  to  yield  to 
prelatic  despotism.  And  would  these 
watchmen  of  our  Zion  have  been  guilt- 
less, if  they  had  neglected  to  warn  those 
over  whom  they  had  been  appointed 
overseers,  that  days  of  sharp  and  fiery 
trial  were  at  hand  ?  Would  they  have 
been  true  shepherds,  if  they  had  seen  the 
wolf  about  to  break  in  upon  fhe  fold,  and 
given  no  alarm?  True,  their  silence 
would  have  been  more  favourable  to  the 
wolfish  invaders  ;  and,  no  doubt,  by  a 
wolfish  conclave  their  loud  and  earnest 
warnings  would  be  vehemently  censured 
and  condemned.  But  let  those  who  still 
re-echo  and  renew  these  accusations  be- 


ware, lest  they  bring  upon  themselves  the 
suspicion,  or  confirm  the  belief,  that  they, 
too,  belong  to  the  same  ravening  and 
blood-thirsty  herd. 

The  prelates,  as  has  been  already 
stated,  had  procured  admission  to  the 
privy  council,  the  exchequer,  and  the 
courts  of  session  and  justiciary,  so  that 
at  least  the  half  of  the  civil  offices  in  the 
kingdom  were  filled  by  these  aspiring 
churchmen.  The  office  of  lord  high 
treasurer  becoming  vacant,  Maxwell, 
bishop  of  Ross,  grasped  eagerly  at  that 
high  office,  in  addition  to  three  other  civil 
offices  which  he  already  enjoyed.  But 
the  nobility,  disgusted  with  his  insatiable 
ambition,  concurred  in  requesting  the 
king  to  confer  it  on  Traquair,  who  was 
already  in  high  favour  with  the  sovereign. 
Baffled  ambition  is  the  very  spirit  of  im- 
placable revenge.  From  that  time  for- 
ward Ross  and  Traquair  cherished  a 
deadly  mutual  hatred,  and  strove  to 
thwart  each  other's  designs.  The  two 
rivals  strove  to  counterplot  each  other 
about  the  continuation  or  the  breaking  up 
of  the  commission  for  the  teinds  ;  but  in 
this  also  Traquair  proved  an  overmatch 
for  his  antagonist.  The  prelates  had 
begun  to  find,  that  when  the  teinds  were 
valued  and  purchased,  they  lost  the  power 
of  drawing  the  revenues  of  the  diocese 
into  their  own  possession,  nothing  remain- 
ing but  what  was  alloted  for  the  local 
stipends  of  the  ministers.  They  there- 
fore now  wished  the  commission  termi- 
nated, for  their  own  avaricious  ends.  But 
Traquair  persuaded  the  king  to  continue 
that  court,  and  even  contrived  to  persuade 
several  of  the  prelates  to  support  his  views. 

These  contests  for  wealth  and  power 
had  engrossed  the  prelates  so  much  for  a 
time,  that  the  Book  of  Canons  had  been 
allowed  allowed  to  sink  into  comparative 
oblivion.  This  apparent  calm  in  the 
public  mind  the  prelates  seemed  to  regard 
as  a  positive  acquiescence  by  the  nati<jn 
in  the  progressive  changes  of  church 
government  and  discipline  which  they 
vvere  labouring  to  introduce  ;  and  accor- 
dingly came  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
Liturgy  also  might  now  with  perfect 
safety  be  published  and  enforced.  Some 
authors  assert  that  Traquair  encouraged 
them  to  urge  forward  the  Liturgy,  with 
the  very  intention  of  precipitating  their 
ruin ;  but  this  seems  scarcely  credible,  a>* 


A.  D.  1637.J 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


145 


he  was  himself  certain  to  share  in  both 
-he  obloquy  and  the  danger.  However 
that  might  be,  the  prelates  themselves 
were  sufficiently  desirous  of  having  their 
long-contemplated  purpose  accomplished. 
A  Liturgy,  or  Book  of  Public  Worship, 
was  framed  by  the  bishops  of  Ross  and 
Dunblane,  on  the  model  of  the  English 
Prayer-Book,  and  sent  to  London  for  the 
revision  of  Laud.  It  was  returned  with 
innumerable  corrections  and  additions, 
all  tending  to  give  it  a  more  popish  char- 
acter. "  I  have  seen,"  says  Kirkton, 
"the  principal  book,  corrected  with 
Bishop  Laud's  own  hand,  where  in  every 
place  which  he  corrected,  he  brings  the 
word  as  near  the  missal  as  English  can 
be  to  Latin."*  A  proclamation  was 
brought  from  Court  by  the  bishop  of 
Ross,  and  published  by  an  act  of  privy- 
council  in  December  1636,  announcing 
the  completion  of  the  work,  and  command- 
ing all  faithful  subjects  to  receive  with 
reverence,  and  conform  themselves  to, 
the  public  form  of  religious  service  therein 
contained.  To  conform  to  that  Liturgy, 
so  popish  in  its  character,  and  imposed  in 
such  an  arbitary  manner,  was  impossible 
without  being  prepared  to  yield  up  every 
vestige  of  liberty,  civil  and  religious,  and 
to  violate  all  that  conscience  held  most 
sacred. 

[1637.]  Even  after  this  last  element  of 
strife  had  been  thrown  into  the  surcharged 
and  boiling  heart  of  the  community,  the 
long-collected  storm  of  popular  indigna- 
tion did  not  at  once  burst  forth.  The 
proclamation  itself  was  so  far  premature, 
that  the  Liturgy  was  not  yet  printed  off 
and  ready  for  distribution  ;  and  although 
it  had  been  determined  that  the  period  of 
its  universal  adoption  should  be  at  Easter, 
that  period  was  allowed  to  elapse,  except 
that  some  of  the  bishops,  who  had  ob- 
tained early  copies,  began  to  use  the 
Liturgy  in  their  own  churches  about  that 
time.  Some  of  the  more  wary  of  the 
prelates  were  apprehensive  of  the  com- 
ing tempest,  even  by  the  deep  preternatu- 
ral stillness  by  which  it  was  preceded  ; 
while  others  regarded  the  stillness  as  a 
proof  that  the  spirit  of  the  people  was 
broken  and  humbled,  and  that  no  resist- 
ance would  be  made.  In  May  and  June 
a  few  copies  of  the  Liturgy  began  to  ap- 


pear 


and  to  be  circulated  about  the  coun- 

*  Kirkton,  p.  30. 

19 


try  ;  which  gave  to  men  the  opportunity 
of  ascertaining  the  real  character  of  the 
production,  and  of  forming  a  deliberate 
resolution  how  to  act  when  the  crisis 
should  take  place.  In  the  beginning  of 
July  the  prelates  procured  an  order  from 
the  privy  council,  empowering  them  to 
raise  letters  of  horning  (the  technical 
phrase  in  Scottish  law  for  a  kind  of  out- 
lawry) against  the  ministers  who  should 
manifest  reluctance  to  receive  the  Liturgy, 
ordering  them  to  provide  for  the  use  of 
their  parishes  two  copies  of  the  Service 
Book  each,  within  fifteen  days  after  they 
received  the  order,  on  pain  of  being  de- 
clared and  treated  as  rebels  against  the 
king  and  the  law.* 

But  even  in  the  moment  of  the  closing 
struggle  the  spell  of  infatuation  seemed 
to  rest  upon  the  prelates.  In  every  stage 
of  their  proceedings  something  occurred 
which  caused  them  to  throw  away  the 
mask,  and  reveal  their  true  motives, 
proving  that  self-interest,  and  not  zeal  for 
religion,  was  their  ruling  principle.  The 
two  archbishops  of  St.  Andrews  and 
Glasgow,  Spotswood  and  Lindsay,  were 
both  at  that  time  busily  engaged  in  mak- 
ing such  arrangements  as  would  have 
largely  increased  their  revenues,  but 
would  to  the  same  extent  have  diminished 
those  of  the  Duke  of  Lennox  and  the 
Earl  of  Traquair.  To  prevent  this,  Tra- 
quair  exerted  all  his  court  influence  ;  and, 
about  the  middle  of  July,  procured  from 
the  king  an  order  to  dissolve  the  commis- 
sion for  teinds  till  further  advisement. 
By  this  order  all  the  schemes  of  the 
arch  prelates  were  at  once  suspended, 
and  their  golden  harvest  subjected  to  a 
fatal  blight.  Both  resolved  to  journey  to 
London  for  the  purpose  of  endeavouring 
to  procure  redress,  but  thought  that  their 
prospect  of  succeeding  with  his  majesty 
would  be  greatly  promoted  if  they  could 
carry  with  them  the  gratifying  intelli- 
gence that  the  Liturgy  had  been  actually 
introduced  into  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
Up  till  this  time  they  had  been  favourable 
to  delay  till  the  angry  feelings  of  the  peo- 
ple might  subside ;  but  now,  when  their 
pecuniary  interests  were  affected,  they  be- 
came the  most  urgent  to  proceed  imme- 
diately. They  accordingly  procured  his 
majesty's  letter,  requiring  the  Liturgy  to 
be  used  in  all  the  churches  of  Edinburgh, 

•  Baillie's  Letters,  vol.  i.  p.  3. 


146 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  V. 


and  an  act  of  the  privy  council  to  en- 
force obedience  to  the  royal  mandate. 
Spots\vood,  goaded  on  by  his  love  of  mo- 
ney, summoned  the  ministers  together, 
announced  to  them  his  majesty's  pleasure, 
and  commanded  them  to  give  intimation 
from  their  pulpits,  that  on  the  following 
Sabbath,  the  public  use  of  the  Liturgy 
was  to  be  commenced.  One  only  of  the 
ministers,  Mr.  Andrew  Ramsay,  refused ; 
the  rest  promised  obedience. 

This  announcement  sounded  to  Scot- 
land like  a  trumpet-call  to  arms.  During 
the  intermediate  week  all  was  anxious, 
but  no  longer  silent,  expectation.  Several 
brief  but  vigorous  pamphlets  appeared, 
condemning  the  Liturgy,  and  the  prelates 
for  urging  forward  that  daring  innovation 
without  the  sanction  of  either  Parliament 
or  Assembly ;  numerous  meetings  for 
prayer  and  consultation  were  held  simul- 
taneously, though  not  by  concert ;  and 
the  low  murmur  of  indignant  Scotland's 
voice  began  to  be  heard  like  the  awaken- 
ing thunders  on  far  distant  hills,  or  the 
deep  sound  of  the  advancing  ocean-tide. 

The  23d  day  of  July  1637  was  the 
day  on  which  the  perilous  experiment 
was  to  be  made,  whether  the  people  of 
Scotland  would  tamely  submit  to  see  the 
religious  institutions  of  their  fathers  wan- 
tonly violated  and  overthrown,  for  the 
gratification  of  a  despotic  monarch  and  a 
lordly  hierarchy.  Several  of  the  prelates 
were  in  the  capital,  to  grace  the  innova- 
tion with  their  presence.  The  attention 
of  the  public  was  directed  chiefly  to  the 
cathedral  church  of  St.  Giles.  There 
the  dean  of  Edinburgh  prepared  to  com- 
mence the  intended  outrage  on  the  na- 
tional Church  and  the  most  sacred  feel- 
ings of  the  people.  A  deep  melancholy 
calm  brooded  over  the  congregation,  all 
apparently  anticipating  some  display  of 
mingled  wrath  and  sorrow,  but  none 
aware  what  form  it  might  assume,  or 
what  might  be  its  extent.  At  length, 
when  their  feelings,  wound  up  to  the 
highest  pitch,  were  become  too  tremu- 
lously painful  much  longer  to  be  endured, 
the  dean,  attired  in  his  surplice,  began  to 
read  the  service  of  the  day.  At  that  mo- 
ment, an  old  woman,  named  Jenny  Ged- 
des,  unable  longer  to  restrain  her  indig- 
nation, exclaimed,  "  Villain,  dost  thou 
say  mass  at  my  lug  !"  and  seizing  the 
stool  on  which  she  had  been  sitting, 


hurled  it  at  the  dean's  head.  Inslantly 
all  was  tumultuous  uproar  and  confusion. 
Missiles  of  every  kind  were  flying  from 
all  directions,  aimed  at  the  luckless  leader 
of  the  forlorn  hope  of  Prelacy  ;  and  sev- 
eral of  the  most  vehement  rushed  towards 
the  desk,  to  seize  upon  the  object  of  their 
indignation.  The  dean,  terrified  by  this 
sudden  outburst  of  popular  fury,  tore 
himself  out  of  their  hands  and  fled,  glad 
to  escape,  though  with  the  loss  of  his  sa- 
cerdotal vestments.  The  bishop  of  Edin- 
burgh himself  then  entered  the  pulpit, 
and  endeavoured  to  allay  the  wild  tumult, 
but  in  vain.  He  was  instantly  assailed 
with  equal  fury,  and  was  with  difficulty 
rescued  by  the  interference  of  the  magis- 
trates. When  the  most  outrageous  of  the 
rioters  had  been  thrust  out  of  the  church, 
the  dean  attempted  to  resume  the  service  ; 
but  the  tumultuary  din  of  the  mob  on  the 
outside,  shouting  aloud  their  hostile  cries, 
breaking  the  windows,  and  fiercely  bat- 
tering the  doors,  compelled  him  to  termi 
nate  the  mangled  service  abruptly.  Great 
exertions  were  required  to  protect  the 
prelates  from  the  fury  of  the  excited 
rioters,  whose  long-pent  feelings  had  now 
burst  forth  in  a  torrent  of  ungovernable 
violence. 

This  riot,  as  the  reader  will  perceive, 
bears  every  mark  of  having  been  entirely 
an  unpremeditated  burst  of  popular  indig- 
nation. Yet  writers  on  the  prelatic  side 
have  attempted  to  represent  it  as  a  pre- 
concerted scheme  of  the  leading  Presby- 
terian nobility  and  ministers.  It  does  not 
seem  necessary  to  enter  into  the  contro- 
versy further  than  to  state,  that  their  as- 
sertions are  directly  contradicted  by  well 
authenticated  facts  ;  and  that  although 
the  most  searching  investigations  were 
instituted  by  the  magistrates  of  Edinburgh, 
immediately  after  the  riot,  not  the  slight- 
est trace  was  found  of  any  pre-arrange- 
ments  having  been  made,  and  none  but 
the  lowest  of  the  people,  whose  passions 
are  generally  least  under  control,  were 
found  to  have  been  concerned  in  it.  In- 
deed it  was  almost  wholly  confined  to  fe- 
males ;  and  the  utmost  search  of  the 
magistrates  enabled  them  to  detect,  appre- 
hend, and  commit  to  prison,  only  some 
six  or  seven  servant  girls.  It  was,  in 
fact,  merely  the  result  of  a  new  outrage 
given  to  feelings  long  suppressed,  and 
thereby  collected  into  a  degree  of  concen- 


A.  D.  1637.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


147 


trated  strength,  making  their  final  out- 
burst the  more  impetuous,  but  also  the 
more  natural, — like  a  spark  of  fire  thrown 
into  a  high-piled  mass  of  combustible 
materials,  and  causing  a  sudden  and  tre 
mcnduous  explosion.  In  the  church  of 
the  Greyfriars,  where  the  bishop  of  Ar- 
gyle  officiated,  no  other  interruption  was 
that  day  experienced  but  groans  of  deep 
sorrow,  and  the  shriller  wailings  of  lam- 
entation ;  but  had  one  single  word  or 
act  of  violence  been  used,  the  sorrow 
might  have  been  in  an  instant  converted 
into  the  wild  uproar  of  fury ;  for  in  such 
a  state  of  excited  feelings  the  passions  of 
the  heart  can  change  with  the  suddenness- 
of  lightning. 

Great  was  the  consternation  and  aston- 
ishment of  the  prelatic  party  when  this 
unexpected  storm  of  popular  wrath  dash- 
ed the  Liturgy  from  their  trembling 
hands.  They  had  calculated  on  nothing 
worse  than  a  few  weak  and  sullen  mur- 
murs from  the  people,  and  perhaps  the 
obstinate  resistance  of  a  portion  of  the 
ministers  in  different  parts  of  the  country, 
whom  they  could  easily  banish  and  re- 
place by  creatures  of  their  own.  But 
when  matters  began  to  assume  a  more 
serious  aspect  than  they  had  expected, 
they  stood  amazed  and  stupified.  No 
preparation  had  been  made  to  overawe 
and  suppress  popular  tumult ;  and  al- 
though the  rioters  were  mostly  women  of 
the  lowest  ranks,  they  began  to  suspect  a 
more  formidable  body  of  antagonists  ; 
and  their  fears  exaggerated  the  nature 
and  extent  of  their  dangers.  Spotswood, 
whose  cupidity  had  induced  him  to  urge 
forward  the  introduction  of  the  Liturgy, 
and  who  had  hoped  to  carry  the  tidings 
of  its  reception  in  triumph  to  London, 
now  thought  it  expedient  to  extenuate  his 
failure  by  transmitting  to  the  king  an  in- 
flated account  of  the  riot,  casting  all  the 
blame  of  its  occurrence  upon  Traquair, 
who  had  been  detained  from  the  capital 
on  the  eventful  day  by  the  marriage  of  a 
relation.  At  the  same  time  he  put  forth 
his  high  commission  powers  in  the  most 
vehement  manner,  laying  the  town  under 
an  episcopal  interdict,  suspending  all 
public  worship,  even  on  the  hallowed 
day  of  God,  because  the  Liturgy  had 
been  rejected.  This  he  did  without  com- 
municating with  the  privy  council,  who, 
on  their  part,  were  sufficiently  annoyed 


at  what  had  taken  place,  and  not  in  a 
temper  to  tolerate  either  the  folly  or  the 
arrogance  of  the  mortified  and  angry 
primate.  They  accordingly  sent  to  his 
majesty  their  own  account  of  what  had 
taken  place,  extenuating  the  affair,  and 
accusing  the  bishops  of  having  caused  it 
by  all  by  their  own  vanity  and  rashness. 

These  mutual  recriminations  between 
the  privy  council  and  the  prelates  tended 
to  paralyze  the  executive  at  the  very  mo- 
ment when  decision  and  energy  were 
most  required.  Meanwhile,  the  intelli- 
gence of  what  had  taken  place  in  Edin- 
burgh spread  throughout  the  kingdom 
like  the  kindling  of  a  beacon-fire,  and 
gave  the  signal  of  open  resistance  to  this 
invasion  of  their  sacred  rights, — a  signal 
most  willingly  received  by  a  high-minded 
people,  thus  wantonly  injured  in  what 
they  held  most  precious.  They  seemed 
to  perceive,  in  the  paltry  riot  of  Edin- 
burgh, the  cloud  like  a  man's  hand  rising 
out  of  the  sea,  soon  to  cover  the  whole 
skies,  and  descend  in  showers  of  new  life 
and  energy.  The  thrilling  fervour  of 
the  people  told  their  long  oppressed  min- 
isters that  the  day  of  their  deliverance 
was  drawing  near,  and  that  they  had  now 
but  to  guide  that  strong  national  feeling 
which  was  rising  in  its  might,  and  would 
soon,  if  rightly  directed,  burst  through 
and  sweep  away  those  feeble  barriers 
within  which  regal  and  hierarchical  des- 
potism had  striven  to  confine  it.  Nor 
were  they  wanting  in  their  duty  to  the 
people,  to  themselves,  and  to  the  Church 
of  their  fathers,  in  this  momentous  crisis. 

Still  it  was  prelatic  infatuation  that 
forced  on  the  contest.  Foiled  in  Edin- 
burgh, the  prelates  resolved  to  try  wheth- 
er they  might  not  be  more  successful  in 
the  country.  Accordingly  the  two  arch- 
bishops determined  to  compel  all  the 
ministers  within  their  bounds  to  procure 
and  use  the  Liturgy.  Renewing  the 
former  imperious  mandate,  Spotswood 
charged  Alexander  Henderson,  George 
Hamilton,  and  James  Bruce,  the  three 
most  eminent  ministers  within  his  diocese, 
o  purchase  two  copies  of  the  Service 
Book  each,  for  the  use  of  their  parishes, 
within  fifteen  days  after  the  date  of  the 
charge,  under  the  pain  of  rebellion.  The 
archbishop  of  Glasgow  gave  a  similar 
charge  to  all  the  ministers  within  his 
rounds.  This  called  into  the  field  of 


148 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  V, 


action  the  man  who  was  destined  to  be- 
come the  leader  of  his  party.  Alexander 
Henderson  declared  himself  willing  to 
purchase  the  book,  that  he  might  make 
himself  acquainted  with  its  contents  ;  but 
refused  to  promise  that  he  would  use  it 
in  public,  boldly  affirming,  that  in  mat- 
ters which  referred  to  the  worship  of 
God,  no  man  could  be  bound  to  a  blind 
and  servile  obedience.  But  as  the  danger 
to  which  they  were  exposed  by  this 
charge  was  both  formidable  and  near  at 
hand,  the  ministers  resolved  to  apply  to 
the  privy  council  for  a  suspension  of  the 
charge  itself.  Accordingly  Henderson 
hastened  to  the  metropolis,  to  present  a 
petition  in  his  own  name,  and  in  that  of 
his  two  brethren.  He  there  met  with 
William  Castelaw  from  Stewarton,  Rob- 
ert Wilkie  from  Glasgow,  and  James 
Bonar  from  Maybole,  who  had  been  sent 
by  their  respective  presbyteries  for  the 
same  purpose,  chiefly  by  the  advice  of 
David  Dickson  and  the  Earl  of  London. 
This  meeting,  unanticipated,  so  far  as  ap- 
pears, encouraged  the  ministers  to  go  for- 
ward with  their  petitions,  by  making 
them  fully  aware  of  the  rapidly-extending 
harmony  of  sentiment  and  feeling  through- 
out the  kingdom.  On  the  23d  of  August 
they  presented  their  petitions  to  the  coun- 
cil ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  many  letters 
were  addressed  to  the  councillors  by  no- 
blemen and  gentlemen  from  all  parts  of 
the  country,  requesting  that  the  reading 
of  the  Liturgy  might  not  be  forcibly  im- 
posed on  the  ministers.  The  council,  by 
an  act  dated  the  25th,  declared,  that  the 
letters  and  charges  respecting  the  Service 
Book,  extended  only  to  the  buying  there- 
of, and  no  further.  At  the  same  time  the 
council  wrote  to  the  king,  giving  him  a 
tolerably  full  and  fair  account  of  the  state 
of  the  country,  of  the  universal  dissatis- 
faction Avhich  the  attempted  forcible  intro- 
duction of  the  Liturgy  had  caused,  and 
of  the  dangerous  consequences  which 
might  be  dreaded  were  the  attempt  to  en- 
force its  reception  immediately  renewed, 
or  punishment  inflicted  on  those  by 
whom  it  was  opposed.  It  was  left  to  his 
majesty,  after  taking  these  statements  into 
consideration,  to  determine  by  what 
means  these  perilous  commotions  might 
be  best  allayed,  and  their  cause  removed 
or  mitigated.  To  the  petitioners  the 
council  gave  the  additional  satisfaction  of 


a  promise,  that  their  supplication  should 
receive  a  full  answer  on  the  20th  of  Sep- 
tember ensuing. 

The  prelates  were  exceedingly  disap- 
pointed and  enraged  by  these  proceedings 
of  the  council.  They  now  saw  them- 
selves deserted  by  the  nobility,  and  they 
never  had  possessed  the  support  of  the 
people.  But  they  relied  upon  the  influ- 
ence of  Laud  over  the  king,  and  upon 
his  majesty's  despotic  principles,  which 
but  too  thoroughly  coincided  with  their 
own  ;  and  in  the  blind  wrath  of  mortified 
pride  they  determined  to  persevere  in 
their  course.  Partly  by  transmitting 
false  accounts  to  the  king,  and  partly  by 
Laud's  suppressing  all  the  true  accounts 
sent  by  others,  the  prelates  deceived  his 
majesty,  and  induced  him  to  send  a  very 
sharp  reply  to  the  letter  of  the  privy 
council.  In  that  letter  he  severely  re- 
proved the  magistrates  of  Edinburgh  for 
permitting  the  riot,  and  the  privy  council 
itself  for  its  feeble  management  of  public 
affairs  ;  commanding  further,  that  a  suf- 
ficient number  of  the  council  should  re- 
main in  the  capital  till  the  reading  of  the 
Liturgy  should  be  established;  that  no 
magistrate  should  be  chosen  for  any  of 
the  burghs  who  was  not  ready  to  con- 
form, and  that  the  bishops  should  use  the 
Liturgy  in  their  own  churches.* 

The  king's  severe  and  despotic  letter 
again  acted  like  a  spark  thrown  upon  a 
train  of  gunpowder,  or  like  the  kindling 
of  a  beacon.  Roused,  rather  than  intimi- 
dated, the  Presbyterians  crowded  to  Edin- 
burgh from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom,  as 
to  the  spot  on  which  the  country's  wel- 
fare should  be  lost  or  gained.  In  the 
course  of  three  days,  twenty-four  noble- 
men, many  barons,  about  a  hundred 
ministers,  commissioners  from  sixty-six 
parishes,  and  also  from  a  number  of  the 
principal  burghs,  with  many  of  the  gen- 
try from  the  counties  of  Fife,  Stirling, 
Lothian,  Ayr,  and  Lanark,  arrived  in  the 
metropolis,  all  animated  by  the  same 
spirit,  and  resolved  to  defend  the  purity 
and  freedom  of  their  national  religion.! 
Less  than  a  month  had  elapsed  since  the 
petitioners  against  the  prelatic  innovation 

*  To  this  last  command  the  bishop  of  Brechin  yielded 
a  singular  compliance.  He  armed  himself  with  pis 
tols,  and  taking  his  own  family,  all  likewise  armed,  to 
church  before  the  people  were  assembled,  fastened  the 
doors,  and  so  read  the  Liturgy  in  triumph.  (Baillie, 
vol.  i.  p.  24.) 

t  Baillie,  p.  15. 


A.  D.  1G37] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


149 


were  only  four  ministers  ;  and  now  the 
whole  kingdom,  as  by  a  simultaneous 
impulse,  had  started  from  its  apparent 
lethargy  and  poured  its  confluent  streams 
of  living  energy  into  the  capital.  In 
such  a  mighty  and  universal  movement  a 
thoughtful  statesman  would  have  seen, 
MS  Sir  Philip  Sidney  did  in  Holland,  the 
manifested  will  of  God,  and  would  have 
bowed  before  the  sacred  majesty  of  what 
he  thus  perceived  to  be  a  spiritual  ele- 
ment, which  none  but  the  Divine  Spirit 
could  have  caused  so  to  pervade  the 
general  heart  of  the  community.  But 
sacred  principles  are  incomprehensible  to 
men  of  secular  minds. 

Instead  of  all  these  numerous  petitions, 
it  was  thought  expedient  that  one  should 
be  presented,  in  which  all  the  petitioners 
should  express  their  concurrence.  This 
was  done  accordingly,  and  presented  to 
the  privy  council  by  the  Earl  of  Suther- 
land ;  and  although  the  council  declined 
to  give  an  answer  till  they  should  have 
received  his  majesty's  instructions,  the 
petitions  were  given  to  the  Duke  of  Len- 
nox, to  be  by  him  presented  to  the  king. 
Lennox  had  expressed  himself  much  im- 
pressed by  the  extent  of  the  national  feel- 
ing, declaring  that  he  was  sure  his  ma- 
jesty was  greatly  misinformed,  else  he 
never  could  persevere  in  urging  a  mea- 
sure which  was  thus  alienating  the  whole 
of  his  most  faithful  subjects  ;  and  hopes 
were  entertained  that  his  mediation  with 
the  king  would  procure  a  favourable  an- 
swer. But  not  trusting  too  much  to  the 
fallacious  visions  of  hope  and  court  fa- 
vour, the  Presbyterians  wisely  improved 
the  opportunity,  when  so  many  of  them 
were  together,  and  drew  up  several  im- 
portant papers,  detailing  their  principles 
and  opinions,  by  which  their  unexpected 
spontaneous  harmony  of  sentiment  was 
confirmed  into  a  thorough  union  of  heart 
and  mind. 

Soon  after  the  departure  of  the  numer- 
ous supplicants  from  Edinburgh,  some 
popular  commotions  agitated  the  city,  in 
consequence  of  the  conduct  of  the  pro- 
vost, who  was  a  determined  prelatist,  and 
therefore  strove  to  thwart  the  people,  re- 
pressing their  petitions,  and  still  urging 
the  use  of  the  Liturgy,  even  while  it  was 
suspended  in  other  parts  of  the  kingdom. 
These  commotions  were  not,  however, 
now  caused  only  by  the  sudden  impulses 


of  the  lowest  ranks,  but  were  joined  and 
guided  by  many  of  all  classes,  and  were 
sufficiently  formidable  to  overawe  the 
council,  and  constrain  them  to  comply 
with  the  wishes  of  the  citizens.  Their 
petitions  were  received,  and  a  promise 
was  given  that  they  should  receive  his 
majesty's  answer  against  the  17th  of  Oc- 
tober. 

The  intimation  of  this  expected  com- 
munication from  the  king  having  been 
sent  throughout  the  country  by  Archibald 
Johnston  of  Warriston,  advocate,  caused 
the  immediate  reappearance  of  the  Pres 
byterians  in  Edinburgh,  and  in  still  great- 
er numbers  than  formerly.  Commission- 
ers from  above  two  hundred  parishes  pre- 
sented petitions  to  the  privy  council,  be- 
fore the  tenor  of  the  king's  despatches 
had  been  divulged.  The  numerous  peti- 
tioners then  held  meetings  to  deliberate 
what  further  steps  were  necessary  to  be 
taken.  But  as  their  numbers  were  now 
so  great  that  they  could  not  conveniently 
meet  all  in  one  place,  they  separated 
themselves  into  four  divisions,  and  met 
in  as  many  different  places,  each  order — 
noblemen,  gentry,  burgesses,  and  minis- 
ters— meeting  apart  from  the  others. 
Each  of  these  meetings  was  opened  with 
prayer  ;  after  which  all  were  asked  indi- 
vidually, whether  they  disapproved  of  the 
Service  Book.  When  all  had  answered 
that  they  did,  both  on  account  of  its  mat- 
ter, and  the  manner  in  which  it  had  been 
attempted  to  be  imposed  on  the  country, 
the  ablest  and  most  intelligent  proceeded 
to  point  out  more  specifically  the  erro- 
neous character  of  the  book,  and  the  ag- 
gravated nature  of  the  grievances  already 
sustained,  and  still  further  threatened. 
This  judicious  procedure  tended  still 
more  completely  to  concentrate  and  unite 
the  opinions  of  the  petitioners.* 

While  engaged  in  these  deliberations 
they  were  suddenly  informed,  that  an  act 
of  council,  proceeding  upon  his  majesty's 
letters,  had  been  that  instant  proclaimed, 
dissolving  the  standing  committee  of 
privy  council  in  so  far  as  concerned  the 
affairs  of  the  Church,  and  commanding 
the  supplicants  to  leave  town  within 
twenty-four  hours,  under  pain  of  rebel- 
lion. Another  proclamation  almost  im- 
mediately followed,  intended  as  a  punish- 

*  In  these  discussions  Baillie  seems  to  ha*e  acquit- 
ted  himself  sreatly  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  auditors, 
(Baillie,  pit.) 


150 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  V 


ment  to  the  city,  commanding-  the  privy 
council  and  the  Court  of  Session  to  be 
removed  from  Edinburgh  to  Linlithgow 
till  November,  and  thereafter  to  Dundee 
And  still  descending  with  their  vindictive 
measures,  another  proclamation  com- 
manded a  book  written  by  Gillespie,  en- 
titled, "  A  Dispute  against  the  English 
Popish  Ceremonies,"  to  be  called  in  and 
burned.  It  was  not  difficult  to  perceive 
by  what  hands  these  proclamations  had 
been  fabricated.  Indeed,  some  hints  re- 
specting the  probable  character  of  the 
expected  communications  from  his  majesty 
had  previously  been  uttered  by  the  pre- 
lates, who  were  offended  with  the  former 
leniency  of  the  privy  council,  and  had 
represented  to  the  king,  that  the  riots  in 
Edinburgh  had  been  caused  by  ill-affect- 
ed persons  resorting  thither  from  the 
country. 

These  proclamations  had  the  effect  of 
constraining  the  Presbyterian  petitioners 
to  proceed  to  a  bolder  and  more  decisive 
step  than  any  they  had  previously  taken, 
and,  instead  of  continuing  to  act  merely 
on  the  defensive,  to  become  themselves 
assailants.  They  resolved  to  lay  before 
the  privy  council  a  formal  complaint 
against  the  prelates,  accusing  them  di- 
rectly of  being  the  cause  of  all  the  trou- 
bles that  disturbed  the  nation,  by  their 
lawless  and  tyrannical  attempts  to  force 
the  Book  of  Canons  and  the  Liturgy 
upon  an  unwilling  Church  and  people. 
Two  forms  of  the  proposed  complaint 
were  drawn  up,  the  one  by  Lord  Bal- 
merino  and  Alexander  Henderson,  the 
other  by  the  Earl  of  Loudon  and  David 
Dickson,  the  latter  of  which  was  unani- 
mously adopted.  Baillie  acknowledges 
that  he  was  himself  the  only  person  who 
felt  any  difficulty  in  agreeing  to  it,  being 
apprehensive  that  it  went  too  far ;  but 
after  weighing  it  maturely  in  his  mind, 
he  subscribed  it,  and  never  repented  of 
having  done  so.*  It  complained  of  the 
arbitrary  nature  of  the  proclamation  com- 
manding them  to  leave  the  town,  while 
they  were  peaceably  waiting  for  an  an- 
swer to  their  supplication.  It  then  pro- 
ceeded to  point  out  some  of  the  pernicious 
characteristics  of  the  Books  of  Common 
Prayer  and  of  Canons,  as  containing  the 
seeds  of  divers  superstitions,  idolatry,  and 
false  doctrine,  and  as  being  subversive  of 

*  Baillie,  p.  19. 


the  discipline  established  in  the  Church, 
and  confirmed  by  many  acts  of  parlia- 
ment ;  and  it  concluded  by  declaring  the 
belief  of  the  complainers,  that  all  these 
wrongs  had  been  committed  by  the  bish- 
ops, contrary  to  his  majesty's  intention, 
craving  that  these  matters  might  be 
brought  to  trial,  and  decided  according  to 
justice,  and  that  this  complaint  might  be 
fully  represented  to  his  majesty,  that 
their  grievances  and  wrongs  might  be 
redressed,  and  religion  permitted  to  re- 
main as  it  had  been  placed  by  the  princi- 
ples and  arrangements  of  the  Reforma- 
tion.* 

This  important  document  was,  in  the 
course  of  a  few  hours,  subscribed  by 
twenty-four  of  the  nobility,  several  hun- 
dreds of  gentlemen,  all  the  ministers  in 
town,  amounting  to  about  three  hundred, 
and  all  the  commissioners  of  burghs 
present.  Soon  afterwards,  having  been 
sent  to  the  country,  it  was  subscribed  by 
fourteen  nobles  more,  gentlemen  without 
number,  nearly  all  the  ministers  in  the 
kingdom,  and  by  every  town  except 
Aberdeen,  which  still  continued  to  retain 
its  most  unenviable  distinction. 

The  vindictive  proclamation  removing 
the  courts  from  Edinburgh  caused  ano- 
ther temporary  riot,  and  was  the  means 
of  procuring  to  the  citizens  the  restora- 
tion of  those  ministers  who  had  been  de- 
posed on  account  of  their  opposition  to 
the  Liturgy,  and  also  so  much  control 
over  the  town  council  as  to  secure  some 
of  that  body  to  act  as  commissioners 
along  with  the  other  supplicants,  thereby 
restoring  the  link  uniting  the  metropolis 
to  the  rest  of  the  kingdom.  The  favour- 
able results  of  this  riot,  if  riot  it  ought  to 
be  termed,  may  be  partly  attributed  to 
the  open  defence  of  the  conduct  of  the 
citizens  made  by  some  of  the  most  influ- 
ential of  the  nobility,  as  well  as  to  the 
fact  that  people  of  the  highest  respecta- 
bility took  part  in  the  commotion,  and  did 
so  avowedly  on  the  most  sacred  grounds, 
in  the  defence  of  religious  purity  and 
freedom.  "  Let  any  one,"  said  the  Earl 
of  Rothes,  "  who  hath  found  the  com- 
fort, and  knoweth  the  binding  power,  of 
true  religion,  judge  if  this  people  deserve 
that  censure  and  imputation  which  the 
bishops  would  cast  upon  them  for  oppo- 
sing their  project.  Who  pressed  that 

t  Stevenson,  pp.  181, 182. 


A.  D.  1637.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND 


151 


form  of  service  contrary  to  the  laws  of 
God  and  this  kingdom  ?  Who  dared,  in 
their  conventicles,  contrive  a  form  of 
God's  public  worship  contrary  to  that 
established  by  the  general  consent  of  this 
Church  and  state?"  "  If  any  fault  or 
violence  have  been  committed  by  any  of 
the  subjects  in  resisting  or  seeking  the 
abolition  of  that  book,  they  might  retort, 
that  the  bishops  framing,  and  the  council 
authorizing  it,  were  the  first  and  princi- 
pal causes,  necessitating  either  disobe- 
dience to  God,  and  breach  of  our  laws, 
or  else  resisting  those  evils  which  would 
bring  the  judgment  of  God  on  the  land."* 
The  next  meeting  of  privy  council  was 
held  on  the  15th  of  November.  Again 
did  the  Presbyterians  assemble  in  the 
capital,  and  in  still  increased  numbers. 
The  council,  apprehensive  of  a  renewal 
of  tumultuary  commotions  in  the  town, 
requested  the  nobles  to  use  their  influence 
with  their  friends  to  induce  them  to  re- 
turn quietly  to  their  homes.  The  peti- 
tioners signified  their  willingness  to  make 
such  an  arrangement  as  would  allow  the 
greater  part  to  withdraw,  no  more  re- 
maining than  were  requisite  to  conduct 
all  necessary  matters,  and  were  empow- 
ered by  the  whole  to  act  in  their  behalf. 
Following  up  this  suggestion,  which  had 
indeed  been  so  far  practically  employed 
before  as  a  matter  of  convenience,  it  was 
arranged,  that  as  many  of  the  nobility  as 
pleased,  two  gentlemen  from  every  coun- 
ty, one  minister  from  every  presbytery, 
and  one  burgess  from  every  burgh, 
should  form  a  general  commission,  re- 
presenting the  whole  body  of  the  Pres- 
byterians. Still  more  to  concentrate  their 
efforts,  it  was  resolved  that  the  general 
body  of  commissioners  should  meet  only 
on  extraordinary  occasions,  and  a  smaller 
number  should  be  selected,  who  might 
reside  permanently  at  Edinburgh,  watch- 
ing the  progress  of  events,  and  ready  to 
communicate  with  the  whole  body  on 
any  emergency.  This  smaller  commit- 
tee was  composed  of  sixteen  persons — 
four  noblemen,  four  gentlemen,  four 
ministers,  and  four  burgesses  ;  and  from 
the  circumstance  of  their  sitting  in  four 
separate  rooms  in  the  parliament-house, 
they  were  designated  THE  FOUR.  TA- 
BLES. A  member  from  each  of  these 
constituted  a  chief  Table  of  last  resort, 

*  Rothes's  Relation,  p.  15. 


making  a  supreme  council  of  four  mem- 
bers. In  this  manner  was  constructed 
one  of  the  most  active  and  efficient  coun- 
cils that  ever  guided  the  affairs  of  any 
community,  vigilant,  prompt,  and  ener- 
getic, placed  in  the  very  centre  of  the 
body  politic,  conveying  life  and  intelli- 
gence through  its  entire  frame,  and  able 
to  rouse  it  into  instantaneous  action  at  one 
thrilling  call. 

When  these  exceedingly  judicious  ar- 
rangements had  been  completed,  the 
great  body  of  the  petitioners  were  solemn- 
ly exhorted  to  return  to  their  homes,  to 
reform  their  personal  habits,  to  act  accord- 
ing to  their  religious  profession,  and  to 
be  earnest  and  constant  in  faith  and 
prayer  to  Him  in  whose  hands  are  the 
hearts  of  kings,  and  from  whom  alone 
they  could  hope  for  safety  to  the  crown, 
peace  to  the  country,  and  deliverance  to 
the  Church.  These  exhortations  pro- 
duced a  deep  impression  upon  the  assem- 
bled thousands,  and  were  at  once  obeyed. 
The  people  quietly  withdrew  from  the 
scene  of  agitating  anxiety,  committing 
the  cause  of  the  distressed  Church  to  the 
protection  of  its  divine  Head  and  King, 
fearing  God,  and  having  no  other  fear. 

About  the  beginning  of  December  a 
meeting  of  privy  council  was  appointed 
to  be  held  at  Linlithgow,  to  receive  the 
communications  transmitted  from  his  ma- 
jesty by  the  Earl  of  Roxburgh.  The 
Tables  were  instantly  on  the  alert,  and 
summoned  the  whole  of  the  commission- 
ers of  the  Church  to  the  capital,  to  be 
prepared  for  any  emergency,  but  at  the 
solicitation  of  Traquair  and  Roxburgh, 
consented  to  abstain  from  going  to  Lin- 
lithgow. There  is  reason  to  believe  that 
Roxburgh  had  it  in  charge  to  employ 
every  method  by  which  the  Presbyteri- 
ans might  be  weakened  :  such  as,  to  de- 
tach some  of  their  supporters  by  bribes 
and  promises  of  preferment,  and  to  seize 
and  imprison  the  leading  men  whom  he 
could  not  otherwise  influence;  but  the 
first  method  being  indignantly  rejected, 
the  second  was  abandoned  as  too  perilous. 
Three  proclamations  were,  however, 
issued  by  the  council ;  in  one  of  which 
his  majesty  declared  his  abhorrence  of 
Popery,  and  his  determination  to  allow 
nothing  but  what  should  tend  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  religion,  "as  it  is  presently 
professed  within  this  his  majesty's  ancient 


152 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  V, 


kingdom  of  Scotland ;  and  that  nothing 
is,  or  will  be,  intended  to  be  done  therein 
against  the  laudable  laws  of  that  his  ma- 
jesty's native  kingdom."  With  this 
proclamation  the  Presbyterians  saw  no 
reason  to  be  satisfied.  "  It  was  but  too 
evident  that  its  language  was  equivocal, 
and  might  be  interpreted  to  mean,  that 
his  majesty  would  allow  nothing  but 
what  should  tend  to  the  advancement  of 
Prelacy,  and  that  he  regarded  the  laws 
establishing  that  system  as  "  laudable 
laws."  which  nothing  should  be  done 
against.  They  resolved,  therefore,  to 
abide  by  their  own  plain  and  unequivo- 
cal complaints,  and  not  to  allow  them- 
selves to  be  circumvented  and  deceived, 
either  by  the  arts  of  courtiers  or  the  king- 
craft of  the  sovereign. 

In  vain  did  Traquair  and  Roxburgh 
endeavour  to  persuade  the  petitioners  to 
rest  satisfied  with  the  proclamation.  Find- 
ing them  on  their  guard  in  this  matter, 
the  next  attempt  was  to  induce  the  peti- 
tioners to  divide  their  petitions,  and  make 
application  separately,  on  the  plea  that  by 
doing  so  their  conduct  would  bear  less 
the  appearance  of  combination,  and  be 
proportionally  less  offensive  to  the  king. 
But  the  Tables  were  aware  of  the  maxim, 
"  divide  and  conquer,"  and  therefore  re- 
fused to  expose  themselves  and  their  cause 
to  the  danger  of  division  and  defeat.  Yet 
once  more  did  the  council  attempt  to 
draw  the  Presbyterians  into  a  snare,  re- 
questing them  to  abandon  their  accusa- 
tion of  the  prelates,  and  to  limit  their  pe- 
tition to  the  subject  of  the  Book  of  Can- 
ons and  the  Liturgy.  This  stratagem 
also  failed,  in  consequence  of  the  unalter- 
able resolution  of  the  Tables  to  adhere 
to  the  principles  stated  in  their  complaint, 
and  to  regard  the  prelates  as  parties  ac- 
cused of  high  offences  against  the  Na- 
tional Church,  which  they  had  striven  to 
subvert  by  the  introduction  of  a  hierarchy 
not  recognised  in  its  constitution.  The 
privy  council  then  attempted  to  evade  re- 
ceiving the  general  petition  of  the  Tables; 
but  such  was  the  indefatigable  persever- 
ance of  the  Presbyterian  leaders,  that  the 
council  was  in  a  manner  besieged,  and 
compelled  to  receive  the  deputation,  and 
listen  to  their  complaint.  Baillie  has 
preserved  the  speeches  of  the  deputation, 
which  are  indeed  a  noble  specimen  of 
high  religious  principle,  loyalty,  and  elo- 


quence, honourable  alike  to  the  men  and 
to  the  cause.  They  are  said  to  have  pro- 
duced such  an  impression  upon  Lord 
Lorn,  afterwards  Earl  of  Argyle,  as  to 
detach  him  from  the  prelatic  party,  and 
to  incline  him  to  that  of  the  Presbyterians, 
of  which  he  subsequently  proved  a  steady 
and  able  supporter. 

Information  of  the  state  of  affairs  was 
sent  by  the  privy  council  to  the  king, 
through  the  Earl  of  Traquair,  accompani- 
ed by  Hamilton  of  Orbiston,  who  was  ap- 
pointed to  take  charge  of  the  petition  and 
complaint  of  the  Presbyterians.  Some 
faint  hopes  were  entertained,  that  when 
his  majesty  should  receive  full  and  ac- 
curate accounts  of  the  real  state  of  affairs 
in  Scotland,  he  might  be  induced  to  aban- 
don the  pernicious  attempt  to  violate  the 
conscience  of  an  entire  kingdom,  by  forc- 
ing upon  the  people  religious  ceremonies 
to  which  they  were  determinedly  oppos- 
ed ;  and  a  hierarchy  which  they  both  de- 
tested and  feared.  But  unhappily  for 
both  the  king  and  the  kingdom,  an  evil 
agency  was  strenuously  at  work,  prompt- 
ing the  misguided  and  obstinate  monarch 
to  provoke  his  destiny.  Sir  Robert  Spots- 
wood,  president  of  the  Court  of  Session, 
hastened  to  London,  and,  aided  by  Laud, 
prejudiced  the  mind  of  the  king  against 
all  sound  and  wise  council ;  and  the  arch- 
bishop, seconding  his  son's  misrepresenta- 
tions, suggested  that  the  Presbyterians 
would  submit,  were  his  majesty  to  resort 
to  measures  more  decisive  than  any  he 
had  yet  adopted, — that  it  required  but  a 
proclamation  condemning  the  proceeding 
of  the  Tables,  and  prohibiting  them,  un- 
der pain  of  treason,  to  put  an  end  to  the 
whole  opposition.  This  advice  was  but 
too  congenial  to  the  despotic  temper  of 
Charles.  It  prevailed  against  the  opin- 
ions of  those  who  counselled  a  milder 
course ;  and  Traquair  was  commanded 
to  be  in  readiness  to  return  to  Scotland 
early  in  the  following  year,  to  bear  down 
all  opposition,  and  see  his  majesty's  or- 
ders carried  into  effect. 

[1638.]  In  the  beginning  of  February 
1638,  the  Earl  of  Traquair  returned  from 
England,  bearing  with  him  those  arbitra- 
ry commands  with  which  his  majesty 
hoped  to  dishearten  and  disunite  the  Pres- 
byterians. He  was  immediately  request- 
ed by  some  of  the  leading  nobles  to  in- 
form them  respecting  the  nature  of  the 


A.  D.  1638.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


153 


measures  which  he  was  empowered  to 
propose  ;  but  he  declined  to  give  any  an- 
swer till  the  meeting  of  the  privy  council, 
which  was  appointed  to  be  held  at  Ster- 
ling on  the  20th  of  February.  The  Pres- 
byterians, however,  had  already  received 
secret  information  respecting  the  real 
character  of  Traquair's  commission  ;  and 
the  intelligence  having  been  speedily 
sent  throughout  the  country,  great  num- 
bers began  to  flock  to  Sterling-,  to  act  as 
occasion  might  require.  Traquair  en- 
deavoured to  dissuade  them  from  thus  as- 
sembling in  dangerous  numbers ;  and 
they  consented  so  far  as-  to  promise  to 
send  Rord  Rothes  and  Lindsay  only,  as 
a  deputation.  Learning  soon  after  that 
the  intended  proclamation  would  not  only 
prohibit  any  supplicants  from  appearing 
before  the  council,  but  also  would  com- 
mand them  to  be  incarcerated  as  traitors 
if  they  should  attempt  it,  they  changed 
their  plan,  and  determined  to  repair  to 
Sterling  in  such  numbers  as  should  prove 
a  sufficient  mutual  protection.  And  as 
they  were  resolved  that  they  at  least 
would  act  honourably,  whatever  might 
be  the  conduct  of  their  antagonists,  they 
sent  information  of  this  change  of  purpose 
to  Lord  Traquair.  Somewhat  irritated 
at  the  failure  of  his  stratagem,  Traquair 
told  them  that  by  asking  too  much  they 
were  defeating  their  own  object ;  that  if 
they  had  contented  themselves  with  sup- 
plicating- release  from  the  Book  of  Can- 
ons and  the  Liturgy,  they  might  have 
been  successful ;  but  his  majesty  would 
not  suffer  one  of  his  estates  to  be  brought 
under  subjection  to  them.  This  hasty 
answer  confirmed  all  their  apprehensions. 
It  showed  the  king's  determination  to  re- 
tain Prelacy  under  the  designation  of  one 
of  the  estates  of  the  kingdom, — an  estate 
essentially  subservient  to  him,  by  the  dex- 
terous use  of  which  he  might  vitiate  every 
court,  undermine  all  the  bulwarks  of  lib- 
erty, and  succeed  in  establishing  a  perfect 
and  absolute  despotism,  civil  and  religious. 
This,  indeed,  there  is  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve, was  his  majesty's  unavowed  but 
real  design, — a  design  happily  frustrated 
by  the  promptitude,  firmness,  and  energy 
which  God  bestowed  upon  our  Presbyteri- 
an ancestors. 

Traquair  had  now  but  one  resource 
left,  and  that  an  abundantly  mean  one, — 
to  attempt  the  accomplishment  by  stealth 
20 


of  what  dissimulation  and  threats  had 
failed  to  effect.  He  resolved  to  hasten 
under  night  to  Sterling,  and  there  issue 
the  proclamation,  before  the  Presbyteri- 
ans could  arrive,  on  the  morning  of  the 
20th,  which  happened  to  be  a  Monday. 
Even  this  proved  abortive.  His  design 
was  detected  ;  the  zealous  Presbyterians 
sent  two  of  their  number  to  anticipate  this 
new  movement ;  and  when  the  members 
of  privy  council  appeared  in  Sterling  to 
publish  the  proclamation,  they  were  met 
by  the  Lords  Home  and  Lindsay,  who 
read  a  protest,  and  affixed  a  copy  of  it  on 
the  market-cross,  beside  that  of  the  pro- 
clamation, leaving  them  there,  bane  and 
antidote  together. 

Nothing  could  have  been  more  injudi- 
cious than  his  majesty's  proclamation. 
The  Presbyterians  were  all  along  ex- 
tremely unwilling  to  believe,  and  still 
more  so  to  affirm,  that  they  regarded  the 
king  as  in  any  degree  the  direct  cause  of 
their  troubles,  accusing  the  ambitious  and 
corrupt  prelates  of  being  both  the  instiga- 
tors and  the  agents  in  all  the  innovations 
which  had  been  made,  and  the  oppres- 
sions under  which  the  country  had  groan- 
ed, ever  since  the  institution  of  their  in- 
quisitorial and  despotic  Courts  of  High 
Commission.  But  in  this  proclamation 
the  king  declared  « that  the  bishops  were 
unjustly  accused  as  being  authors  of  the 
service  book  and  canons,  seeing  whatever 
was  done  by  them  in  that  matter  was  by 
his  majesty's  authority  and  orders."  The 
proclamation  further  expressed  entire  ap- 
probation of  these  innocent  books ;  con- 
demned all  meetings  and  subscriptions 
against  them,  prohibiting  all  such  pro- 
ceedings, under  pain  of  rebellion ;  and 
ordaining  that  no  supplicant  should  ap- 
pear in  any  town  where  the  council  were 
sitting,  under  pain  of  treason.*  In  this 
manner  did  the  king  openly  take  upon 
himself  all  the  blame  of  those  measures 
against  which  the  great  body  of  the  nation 
had  petitioned  and  complained,  as  if  to 
tell  the  kingdom  that  no  redress  should 
be  granted  to  any  of  their  grievances. 

It  might  have  been  thought  that  the 
depths  of  meanness  and  duplicity  had 
now  been  explored.  But  the  council 
found  a  still  lower  deep.  Great  num- 
bers of  the  Presbyterians  had  arrived  in 
Sterling  before  the  day  was  far  advanced , 

•  Baillie,  pp.  32,  33. 


154 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  M. 


and  the  council  entreated  their  leaders  to 
persuade  them  to  withdraw,  lest  any  tu- 
mult should  arise  ;  promising  that  no  act 
of  ratification  should  be  passed,  and  that 
their  protest  and  declinature  against  the 
prelates  sitting  as  members  of  council 
should  be  received.  Yet  no  sooner  had 
ihe  mass  of  the  supplicants  withdrawn, 
than  the  council  admitted  two  of  the  pre- 
lates, ratified  the  proclamation,  and  re- 
fused to  receive  the  protest  and  declinature ; 
thus  violating  their  own  pledged  honour, 
and  degrading  the  faith  of  courts  beneath 
the  level  of  common  falsehood.  Several 
high-minded  nobles,  who  had  hitherto 
supported  the  prelatic  measures,  recoiled 
from  the  contamination  of  this  act,  and 
soon  afterwards  joined  the  Presbyterians. 
The  publication  of  this  proclamation  in 
other  towns  was  met  with  equal  prompti- 
tude by  a  protest ;  and  thus,  according  to 
the  received  opinions  on  such  matters  in 
Scotland,  the  binding  force  of  the  procla- 
mation was  neutralized,  till  the  subjects 
of  which  it  treated  should  be  freely  and 
fully  discussed  in  Parliament  and  As- 
sembly. 

These  proceedings  hastened  on  the 
crisis.  The  Presbyterians  now  saw 
clearly  that  the  king  himself  was  deter- 
mined to  support  the  prelates,  and  ruin 
them,  if  in  his  power.  Unless,  therefore, 
they  were  prepared  to  bow  their  necks 
beneath  prelatic  despotism  in  the  Church, 
and  arbitrary  power  in  the  State,  they 
must  maintain  their  position  ;  and  to  do 
so  without  a  more  decided  and  permanent 
bond  of  union  than  that  which  the  Tables 
afforded  was  impossible.  So  reasoned  the 
nobility.  On  the  other  hand,  Henderson, 
Dickson,  and  some  more  of  the  leading 
men  among  the  ministers,  looking  more 
deeply  into  the  matter,  became  convinced 
that  the  Church  and  the  nation  were  suf- 
fering the  natural  and  penal  consequences 
of  their  own  defections.  And  calling  to 
mind  how  greatly  God  had  blessed  the  pre- 
vious Covenants,  in  which  the  nation  had 
bound  itself  by  the  most  solemn  obligations 
to  put  away  all  idolatry,  superstition,  and 
immorality,  and  to  worship  God  in  sim- 
plicity and  faithfulness  according  to  his 
own  Word,  they  arrived  at  the  important 
conclusion,  that  their  duty  and  their  safety 
were  the  same,  and  would  consist  in  re- 
turning to  God,  and  renewing  their  cove- 


nant engagements  to  Him  and  His  holy 
law. 

This  great  idea  re-assured  their  minds ; 
yet  they  were  aware  that  it  would  require 
to  be  cautiously  introduced  to  the  notice  of 
the  weaker  and  less  decided  of  the  bre 
thren.  A  public  fast  was  intimated,  in 
which  the  confession  of  the  defections  of 
the  Church  and  nation  formed  naturally  a 
leading  subject  of  the  addresses  which  the 
most  eminent  of  the  ministers  were  se- 
lected to  deliver  to  crowded  audiences  of 
earnest  and  deep  thinking  men.  In  this 
manner  the  idea  of  renewing  the  Cove- 
nant was  infused  into  their  minds,  while 
the  sacred  duties  in  which  they  were  en- 
gaged had  for  a  time  entirely  banished 
all  narrow,  selfish,  and  worldly  consi- 
derations. On  the  immediately  following 
day,  Monday  the  26th  of  February,  the 
subject  was  openly  mentioned  ;  and  it 
was  found  that  already  there  was  a  strong 
and  very  prevalent  inclination  to  renew 
the  Covenant.  Alexander  Henderson 
and  Johnston  of  Warriston  were  ap- 
pointed to  draw  it  up,  and  Rothes,  Lou- 
don,  and  Balmerino  to  revise  it.  The 
utmost  care  was  taken  that  it  should  con- 
tain nothing  which  could  justly  give 
offence  to  even  the  most  tender  and  scru- 
pulous conscience.  Objections  of  every 
kind  were  heard  and  considered,  and 
forms  of  expression  altered,  so  as  to  re- 
move whatsoever  might  seem  liable  to 
objection.  Baillie  and  the 'brethren  of 
the  west  country  appear  to  have  been  the 
most  scrupulous,  but  all  their  difficulties 
were  removed  or  answered. 

The  Covenant  consisted  of  three  parts  ; 
the  first,  the  Old  Covenant  of  1581,  ex- 
actly as  at  first  prepared  ;  the  second,  the 
acts  of  Parliament  condemning  Popery, 
and  confirming  and  ratifying  the  acts  of 
the  General  Assembly, — this  was  written 
by  Johnston  ;  and  the  third,  the  special 
application  of  the  whole  to  present  cir- 
cumstances,— this  was  the  production  of 
Henderson,  displaying  singular  clearness 
of  thought  and  soundness  of  judgment. 

At  length  the  important  day,  the  28th 
of  February,  dawned,  in  which  Scotland 
was  to  resume  her  solemn  covenant  union 
with  her  God.  All  were  fully  aware, 
that  on  the  great  transaction  of  the  day, 
and  on  the  blessing  of  God  upon  it,  would 
depend  the  welfare  or  the  wDe  of  the 


A.  D.  1638.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND 


155 


Church  and  kingdom  for  generations  to 
come.  By  day-break  all  the  commis- 
sioners were  met ;  and  the  Covenant 
being  now  written  out,  it  was  read  over, 
and  its  leading  propositions  deliberately 
examined,  all  being  invited  to  express 
their  opinions  freely,  and  every  objection 
patiently  heard  and  answered.  From 
time  to  time  there  appeared  some  slightly 
doubtful  symptoms,  indicative  of  possible 
disunion  ;  but  these  gradually  gave  way 
before  the  rising  tide  of  sacred  emotion 
with  which  almost  every  heart  was  heav- 
ing. Finally,  it  was  agreed  that  all  the 
commissioners  who  were  in  town,  with 
as  many  of  their  friends  as  could  attend, 
should  meet  at  the  Grayfriars  church  in 
the  afternoon,  to  sign  the  bond  of  union 
with  each  other,  and  of  covenant  with 
God. 

As  the  hour  drew  near,  people  from 
all  quarters  flocked  to  the  spot ;  and  be- 
fore the  commissioners  appeared,  the 
church  and  churchyard  were  densely  fil- 
led with  the  gravest,  the  wisest,  and  the 
best  of  Scotland's  pious  sons  and  daugh- 
ters. With  the  hour  approached  the 
men  ;  Rothes,  Loudon,  Henderson,  Dick- 
son,  and  Johnston  appeared,  bearing  a 
copy  of  the  Covenant  ready  for  signa- 
ture. The  meeting  was  then  constituted 
by  Henderson,  in  a  prayer  of  very  re- 
markable power,  earnestness,  and  spirit- 
uality of  tone  and  feeling.  The  dense 
multitude  listened  with  breathless  rever- 
ence and  awe,  as  if  each  man  felt  him- 
self alone  in  he  presence  of  the  Hearer 
of  prayer.  When  he  concluded,  the 
Earl  of  Loudon  stood  forth,  addressed  the 
meeting,  and  stated,  explained,  and  vindi- 
cated the  object  for  which  they  were  as- 
sembled. He  very  judiciously  directed 
their  attention  to  the  covenants  of  other 
days,  when  their  venerated  fathers  had 
publicly  joined  themselves  to  the  Lord, 
and  had  obtained  support  under  their 
trials,  and  deliverance  from  every  dan- 
ger :  pointed  out  the  similarity  of  their 
position  ;  and  the  consequent  propriety 
and  duty  of  fleeing  to  the  same  high 
tower  of  Almighty  strength  ;  and  con- 
cluded by  an  appeal  to  the  Searcher  of 
hearts,  that  nothing  disloyal  or  treason- 
able was  meant.  Johnston  then  unrolled 
the  vast  sheet  of  parchment,  and  in  a 
clear  and  steady  voice  read  the  Cove- 
nant aloud.  He  finished,  and  stood 


silent.  A  solemn  stillness  followed, 
deep,  unbroken,  sacred.  Men  felt  the 
near  presence  of  that  dread  Majesty  to 
whom  they  were  about  to  vow  allegiance ; 
and  bowed  their  souls  before  Him,  in  the 
breathless  awe  of  silent  spiritual  adora 
tion. 

Rothes  at  length,  with  subdued  tone, 
broke  the  silence,  stating  that  if  any  had 
still  objections  to  offer,  they  should  repair 
if  from  the  south  or  west  parts  of  the 
kingdom,  to  the  west  door  of  the  church, 
where  their  doubts  would  be  heard  and 
resolved  by  Loudon  and  Dickson ;  if 
from  the  north  and  east,  to  the  east  door 
where  the  same  would  be  done  by  Hen- 
derson and  himself,  "Few  came,  pro- 
posed but  few  doubts,  and  these  few 
were  soon  resolved."  Again  a  deep  and 
solemn  pause  ensued  ;  not  the  pause  of 
irresolution,  but  of  modest  diffidence, 
each  thinking  every  other  more  worthy 
than  himself  to  place  the  first  name  upon 
this  sacred  bond.  An  aged  nobleman, 
the  venerable  Earl  of  Sutherland,  at  last 
stepped  slowly  and  reverentially  forward, 
and  with  throbbing  heart  and  trembling 
hand  subscribed  Scotland's  Covenant 
with  God.  All  hesitation  in  a  moment 
disappeared.  Name  followed  name  in 
swift  succession,  till  all  within  the  church 
had  given  their  signatures.  It  was  then 
removed  into  the  churchyard,  and  spread 
out  on  a  level  grave-stone,  to  obtain  the 
subscription  of  the  assembled  multitude. 
Here  the  scene  became,  if  possible,  still 
more  impressive.  The  intense  emotions 
of  many  became  irrepressible.  Some 
wept  aloud ;  some  burst  into  a  shout  of 
exultation  ;  some,  after  their  names,  ad- 
ded the  words,  till  death;  and  some 
opening  a  vein,  subscribed  with  their 
o\vn  warm  blood.  As  the  space  became 
filled,  they  wrote  their  names  in  a  con- 
tracted form,  limiting  them  at  last  to  the 
initial  letters,  till  not  a  spot  remained  on 
which  another  letter  could  be  inscribed. 
There  was  another  pause.  The  nation 
had  framed  a  Covenant  in  former  days, 
and  had  violated  its  engagements :  hence 
the  calamities  in  which  it  had  been  and 
was  involved.  If  they,  too,  should  break 
this  sacred  bond,  how  deep  would  be  their 
guilt!  Such  seem  to  have  been  their 
thoughts  during  this  period  of  silent  com- 
muning with  their  own  hearts  ;  for,  as  if 
moved  by  one  spirit,— and  doubtless  they 


156 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


were  moved  by  the  One  Eternal  Spirit 
— with  low  heart-wrung  groans,  am 
faces  bathed  in  tears,  they  lifted  up  their 
right  hands  to  heaven,  avowing,  by  this 
sublime  appeal,  that  they  had  now  "  joinec 
themselves  to  the  Lord  in  an  everlasting 
COVENANT,  that  shall  not  be  forgotten."* 


CHAPTER  VI. 


FROM  THE  SUBSCRIBING  OF  THE  COVENANT  IN 
1638,  TO  THE  RESTORATION  OF  CHARLES  II 
IN  1660. 

I'h*;  Covenant  Subscribed  throughout  the  Kingdom 
with  great  zeal — Plans  of  the  Prelatists — Applications 
of  both  Parties  to  the  King — The  Covenant  Subscribed 
in  the  Highlands — The  King  resolves  to  enter  into 
temporizing  Negotiations  with  the  Covenanters — The 
Marquis  of  Hamilton  appointed  Lord  Hierh  Commis- 
sioner— Deceitful  and  fruitless  Negotiations  of  Ham- 
ilton— Preparations  for  a  Meeting  of  Assembly — The 
General  Assembly  of  1633  held  at  Glasgow — Struggles 
of  Hamilton — Triumph  of  the  Assembly — Summary 
of  its  most  important  Acts — Reflections — Supplication 
to  the  King — His  Resentment,  Schemes  of  Revenge, 
and  Preparations  for  War — Deliberations  and  Prepa- 
rations of  the  Covenanters— Montrose  at  Aberdeen — 
The  King  resolves  to  invade  Scotland — The  Cove- 
nanters arm — Their  appearance  at  Dunse  Law — The 
King  enters  into  a  Treaty — Defection  of  Montrose — 
The  King  displeased  with  the  Proceedings  of  the  As- 
sembly and  Parliament — Prepares  again  for  War — 
The  Covenanters  prepare  also — Contentions  in  the 
Assembly  respecting  Private  Meetings  of  a  Religious 
Character — Reflections— The  Army  of  the  Covenan- 
ters enter  England — The  Scottish  Commissioners  in 
London — The  Idea  of  Religious  Uniformity  in  the 
TvvoKingdoms  suggested — Repeated  in  the  Assembly 
— Fir.-t  Commission  of  Assembly — The  Covenanters 
resolve  to  enter  into  Treaty  with  the  English  Parlia- 
ment— THE  SOLEMN  LEAGUE  AND  COVENANT — Re- 
flections— The  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines — 
Contemporaneous  Events  in  England  and  Scotland 
— Montrose— Charles  in  the  Army  of  the  Cove- 
nanters— The  Confession  of  Faith — The  Engage- 
ment— Divisions  in  Scotland — Death  of  Charles 
I. — Loyalty  of  the  Covenanters — Charles  II.  pro- 
claimed King — Signs  the  Covenant — Cromwell  in 
Scotland — Suppression  of  the  General  Assembly — 
Internal  State  of  the  Church — Divisions — Resolution- 
ers  and  Protesters — Restoration  of  Charles  II. 

NEVER,  except  among  God's  peculiar 
people  the  Jews,  did  any  national  trans- 
action equal  in  moral  and  religious  sub- 
limity that  which  was  displayed  by  Scot- 
land on  the  great  day  of  her  sacred  Na- 
tional Covenant.  Although  it  was  com- 
puted that  there  could  not  be  less  than 
sixty  thousand  people  from  all  parts  of 
the  kingdom  assembled  at  that  time  in 
Edinburgh,  there  was  not  the  slightest 
appearance  of  confusion  or  tumult ;  and 
->n  the  evening  of  that  solemn  day,  after 
hours  of  the  deepest  and  most  intense 
emotion,  when  every  chord  of  the  heart 
and  every  faculty  of  the  mind  had  been 

*  For  a  more  full  account  see  Baillie's  Letters,  Rothe's 
Relation,  Row's  History,  Alton's  Life  of  Henderson,  &c. 


excited  to  the  utmost  pitch  of  possible  en- 
durance, the  mighty  multitude  melted 
quietly  and  peacefully  away,  each  to  his 
own  abode,  their  souls  rilled  with  holy 
awe  and  spiritual  elevation,  by  the  power 
of  the  sacred  pledge  which  they  had  mu- 
tually given  to  be  faithful  to  their  coun- 
try and  their  God.  What  but  the  Spirit 
of  God  could  have  thus  moved  an  entire 
people  to  the  formation  of  such  a  bond, 
in  which  every  worldly  consideration 
was  thrown  aside,  every  personal  interest 
trampled  under  foot,  every  kind  of  peril 
calmly  confronted,  solely  for  the  main- 
tenance of  religious  truth,  purity,  and 
freedom  ?  Worldly  politicians  might 
well  stand  amazed;  selfish  and  ambitious 
prelates  might  be  confounded  and  ap- 
palled ;  and  a  despotic  sovereign  and  his 
flatterers  might  cherish  fierce  resent- 
ment, when  they  heard  of  the  wonderful 
transaction  :  and  men  of  similar  views, 
characters,  and  feelings,  may  still  pour 
forth  their  virulent  invectives  against 
Scotland's  Covenant,  and  the  men  who 
framed  and  signed  it,  obeying  the  divine 
impulse  by  which  they  were  guided  and 
upheld ;  but  we  do  not  hesitate  to  state 
our  opinion,  that  the  sublime  deed  of  that 
great  day  will  ever,  by  all  who  can  un- 
derstand and  value  it,  be  regarded  as  the 
deed  and  the  day  of  Scotland's  greatest 
national  and  religious  glory. 

On  the  next  day,  the  1st  of  March, 
he  Covenant  was  again  publicly  read 
n  a  large  meeting  of  those  who  had 
come  too  recently  to  the  capital  to  have 
lad  leisure  to  take  its  main  propositions 
nto  sufficiently  deliberate  consideration. 
Freely  were  its  principles  stated,  that  no 
nan  might  bind  himself  to  a  measure  the 
till  nature  of  which  he  did  not  compre- 
lend  ;  and  yet  so  remarkable  was  the 
unanimity  of  the  meeting,  that  about 
hree  hundred  ministers  at  once  added 
heir  names  to  the  large  number  already 
ubscribed.  The  Covenant  was  then 
arried  to  the  most  public  parts  of  the 
ity,  to  afford  an  opportunity  to  people 
[welling  in  the  different  districts  of  ad- 
iing  to  it  their  signatures ;  and  where- 
ver it  appeared,  it  was  hailed  with  joy- 
til  welcome,  as  a  bond  of  unity  and  a 
ledge  of  sacred  peace.  Great  numbers 
are  said  to  have  followed  it  from  place  to 
lace,  imploring  the  blessing  of  God 
upon  it,  with  gushing  tears  and  fervent 


A.  D.  1638.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


157 


supplications,  that   this    return   of  thei 
country  to   its   ancient    covenant  unior 
with  God  might  be  the  means  of  avertin 
the  Divine  indignation,  and  procuring 
deliverance  from  their  calamities.    Copie 
of  it  were  soon  afterwards  written,  anc 
sent  to  every  part  of  the  kingdom,  tha 
by  being  universally  signed,  it  might  be 
come  indeed  a  National  Covenant.      I 
was  almost   everywhere   received   with 
feelings  of  reverence  and  gratitude.     No 
compulsion  was  required  to  induce  men 
to  subscribe  a  bond,   the   placing  their 
names  on  which  they  held  to  be  at  once 
a  high  honour  and  a  solemn  duty ;  nor 
would  compulsion  have  been  permitted 
had  it  been  required.     "  The  matter  was 
so  holy,"  says  the  Earl  of  Rothes,  "  that 
they  held  it  to  be  irreligious  to  use  vio- 
lent  means   for   advancing   so    good   a 
work."     And  in  his  answer  to  the  Aber- 
deen    Doctors,     Henderson     says,   that 
K  some  men   of  no  small    note   offered 
their  subscription,  and  were  refused,  till 
time  should  prove  that  they  joined  from 
love  to  the  cause  and  not  from  the  fear 
of  man."*     Before  the  end  of  April  there 
were  few  parishes  in  Scotland  in  which 
the  Covenant  had  not   been   signed  by 
nearly  all  of  competent  age  and  charac- 
ter.    It  deserves  to  be  stated,  in  confir- 
mation    of    the     thoroughly    religious 
character  both  of  the  Covenant  itself,  and 
of  the  feelings  regarding  it  or  those  by 
whom   it   was   subscribed,  that   Bail  lie, 
Livingstone,   and    every  writer   of  the 
period  of  any  respectability,  agree  in  de- 
claring that  the  subscribing  of  the  Cove- 
nant was  everywhere  regarded  as  a  most 
sacred    act,   and   was    accompanied    in 
many  instances  with  remarkable  mani- 
festations of  spiritual  influence,  and  in  al! 
with  decided  amendment  in  life  and  man- 
ners.    It  awed  and  hallowed  the  soul, 
imparted  purity  to  the  heart,  and  gave 
an  earnest  and  foretaste  of  peace, — that 
peace  which  the  world  can  neither  give 
nor  take  away, — peace  of  conscience  and 
peace  with  God. 

We  do  not  affect  to  conceal  that  some 
slight  instances  of  popular  violence  took 
place  in  some  parts  of  the  country,  where 
either  the  people  had  previously  suffered 
injurious  treatment  from  the  prelates  and 
their  partizans,  or  where  attempts  were 
made  by  that  party  forcibly  to  prevent 

*  Answers  to  the  Aberdeen  Doctors,  &c.,  p.  9. 


the  signing  of  the  Covenant.     But  these 
scenes  of  intemperate  zeal  or  petty  retali- 
ation  were  almost  entirely  the   sudden 
ebullitions  of  passion  among  a  few  women 
and  boys,  unattended  by  serious  conse- 
quences.    Not  an  instance  is  recorded  of 
personal  injury  having  been   sustained 
by  a  prelatist,  but  one,  and  that  to  a  very 
trifling  extent.*     And  when  it  is  remem- 
bered how  long  the  country  had  groaned 
beneath  the  prelatic  yoke, — how  many 
of  the  most  faithful  ministers  had  been 
banished  from  their  attached  congrega- 
tions,— and  how  much  injurious  and  op- 
pressive   treatment    both   ministers   and 
people  had  suffered  from  the  Court  of 
High  Commission, — the  chief  cause  of 
wonder  is,  that  so   little  of  a  vindictive 
spirit  was  displayed  by  the  nation,  when 
arising  in  its  might,  to  shake  off  the  gall- 
ing domination  of  its  proud  oppressors. 
But    this    truly   glorious    blending    of 
strength  and  forbearance,  of  judgment 
and  mercy,  was  merely  a  new  manifesta- 
ion  of  the  Presbyterian  spirit  and  princi- 
ples,  first   shown   at  the    Reformation, 
-vhen  Popery  was  overthrown,  but  the 
Dopish  priesthood  spared, — repeated  in 
:his,  the  Second  Reformation,  when  Pre- 
acy  was  condemned,  but  the  prelatic  fac- 
ion  rarely  exposed  to  the  slightest  degree 
of  that  retaliation    which   they  had  so 
wantonly  provoked, — again  to  be  re-ex- 
libited  in  still  more  trying  circumstances 
)y  the  truly  Christian-minded  Presbyte- 
•ians,  but  never  imitated  by  their  antago- 
nists in  their  periods  of  triumph.     The 
"^resbyterian    Church   of   Scotland   has 
>ften  suffered  persecution,  but  has  never 
>een   guilty   of   committing    that  great 
;rime. 

The  prelates  had  always  declared, 
vhen  urging  forward  their  innovations, 
hat  the  greater  part  of  the  nation  would 
eadily  receive  the  Canons  and  Liturgy, 
nd  that  the  opposition  was  that  merely 
>f  a  very  few,  who  might  be  safely 
lespised  ;  but  now,  when  the  Covenant 
vas  received  with  such  cordiality  and 
gratitude  throughout  the  kingdom,  they 
vere  overwhelmed  with  shame,  conster- 
lation,  and  despair,  mingled  with  bursts 
f  fury  and  passionate  longings  for  re- 
enge.  Spotswood,  who  better  under- 

*  Even  the  prelates,  in  their  artiches  of  information, 
icntion  only  four  instances  of  popular  violence. 
Burnet'H  Memoirs  of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  p.  41.) 
ther  authors  mention  about  as  many  more,  but  not  so 
ell  authenticated. 


158 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND 


[CHAP.  VI. 


stood  the  character  of  his  countrymen 
than  the  younger  prelates,  exclaimed, 
"  Now  all  that  we  have  been  doing  these 
thirty  years  past  is  thrown  down  at  once;" 
arid,  yielding  to  despair,  he  fled  to  Lon- 
don, and  remaining  chiefly  there  in  a 
state  of  gloomy  dejection,  survived  the 
ruin  of  his  pride  and  power  little  more 
than  a  year. 

The  privy  council  felt  almost  equally 
paralyzed.  After  a  deliberation  of  four 
days  at  Stirling,  during  which  they  were 
receiving  hourly  intelligence  of  the  rap- 
idly-extending influence  of  the  Covenant, 
they  resolved  to  send  to  the  king  informa- 
tion of  the  state  of  affairs,  suggesting  the 
necessity  of  listening  to  the  remonstran- 
ces of  the  aggrieved  nation,  and  giving 
promise  of  redress,  to  the  extent  at  least 
of  refraining  from  the  enforcement  of  the 
Book  of  Canons  and  Liturgy,  and  miti- 
gating the  despotic  conduct  of  the  High 
Commission.  About  the  same  time,  the 
Covenanters,  as  they  began  to  be  desig- 
nated, and  as  we  may  henceforth  term 
them,  sent  a  deputation  to  London,  to 
give  his  majesty  a  faithful  representation 
of  the  real  state  of  public  matters,  and  of 
the  views  and  wishes  of  his  oppressed 
subjects.  The  prelates  were  already  in 
London  ;  so  that  the  representatives  of  all 
parties  in  Scotland  were  at  one  time 
within  the  precincts  of  the  court,  afford- 
ing an  opportunity  to  his  majesty  of  ob- 
taining full  and  accurate  information  of 
the  condition  of  the  kingdom,  had  he 
been  disposed  to  seek  it.  But  he  had  al- 
ready listened  to  the  partial  statements  of 
the  prelates,  and  formed  his  determina- 
tion. They,  anxious  to  extenuate  their 
own  failure,  had  still  represented  the 
Covenanters  as  weak  in  station,  influence, 
and  numbers,  and,  however  violent  in 
their  procedure,  forming  but  a  small  fac- 
tion in  the  kingdom.  They  had  sug- 
gested that  the  north  was  steady  to  his 
majesty's  interest ;  and  that  the  south 
was  so  divided,  that  if  the  powerful  fami- 
lies of  Hamilton,  Douglas,  Nithsdale,  and 
some  others,  should  raise  their  forces, 
and  form  a  junction  with  Huntly  and  the 
Highland  chiefs,  the  Covenanters  might 
be  easily  overpowered,  and  the  whole 
kingdom  brought  into  complete  subjec- 
tion to  his  commands.*  Such  were  the 
counsels  of  the  prelates,  who  seem  to  have 

'  Baillie,  vol.  i.  pp.  70,  71. 


regarded  a  civil  war  as  a  slight  matter, 
provided  they  could  recover  that  wealth 
and  power  which  they  had  so  grievously 
abused.  Unfortunately  their  pernicious 
advice  sunk  deep  into  the  mind  of 
Charles,  impelling  him  to  those  measures 
which  involved  the  kingdom  in  the  mis- 
eries of  revolutionary  strife,  and  issued 
in  the  death  of  the  beguiled  and  infatu- 
ated monarch.  Well  indeed  may  Pre- 
lacy canonize  as  a  martyr  the  sovereign 
who  perished,  the  victim  of  its  dark, 
bloody,  and  fatal  policy. 

The  Earl  of  Haddington.  to  whom  the 
Covenanters  had  sent  their  deputation, 
and  with  whom  they  maintained  a  secret 
but  very  constant  correspondence,  was 
aware  of  the  advice  which  had  been 
given  to  the  king,  and  of  the  measures 
which  were  in  contemplation.  Orders 
had  been  given  to  seize  Livingstone  the 
moment  he  arrived,  and  to  throw  him 
into  prison ;  but  Haddington  concealed 
him,  presented  the  supplication  of  the 
Covenanters,  which  was,  however,  re- 
turned unopened  ;  and  sent  the  messen- 
ger back  to  Scotland,  with  private  infor- 
mation of  the  secret  designs  of  the  court. 
The  Covenanters  lost  no  time  in  counter- 
acting the  dangerous  policy  recommend- 
ed by  the  prelates.  Deputations  were 
sent  to  those  districts  of  the  country  where 
the  Covenant  had  been  but  partially 
signed,  and  on  the  support  of  which  the 
prelates  mainly  relied  for  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  their  cause.  These  deputa- 
tions met  with  success  beyond  their  most 
sanguine  hopes.  In  some  of  the  seats  of 
learning,  as  at  St.  Andrews  and  Glasgow, 
the  ministers  and  professors  subscribed 
but  partially ;  but  even  in  these  towns, 
the  magistrates,  burgesses,  and  citizens 
joined  their  countrymen  almost  univer- 
sally. Even  in  the  Highlands  the  Cov- 
enant was  welcomed  with  perfectly  amaz- 
ing cordiality.  Clans  that  rarely  met 
but  in  hostile  strife,  and,  if  they  did  so 
meet,  never  parted  without  exchanging 
blows,  met  like  brothers,  subscribed  the 
bond  of  national  union,  and  parted  in 
peace  and  love.  Nowhere  was  this  un- 
wonted but  most  lovely  sight  more  sig- 
nally displayed  than  at  Inverness.  There 
the  fierce  feuds  of  ages  melted  and  disap- 
peared feeneath  the  warming  and  renew- 
ing power  of  that  Divine  influence  which 
so  strongly  and  brightly  shone  around 


A.  D.  1637.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


159 


he  Covenant,  as  the  snows  melt  from 
their  native  mountains,  when  the  summer 
sun  is  high  in  the  smiling  heavens. 

Thus   did   her  sacred  Covenant  first 
make  Scotland  truly  a  nation,  melting 
and  fusing  into  one  united  mass  the  het- 
erogeneous and  jarring  elements  which 
had  previously  lain  partially  compacted 
together  in  space,  but  uncombined,  and 
mutually  repelling  and  repelled.     Then, 
too,  was  seen  a  portion  of  the  good  which 
God  brings  out  of  what  man  intends  for 
evil ;  for  then  was  seen  some  of  the  fruits 
of  the  zealous  and  faithful  labours,  among 
these  warm-hearted  Highlanders,  of  the 
pious  ministers  who  had  been  from  time 
to  time  torn  away  from  their  own  con- 
gregations, and  banished  to  the  remote 
regions  of  the  north,  there  in  tears  to  sow 
a  seed  which  was  now  springing  up  in 
gladness.     James   and  the  prelates  had 
sent  Bruce,  and   Dickson,  and  Ruther- 
ford, and  others,  to  Inverness,  Aberdeen, 
and  other  Highland  districts,  as  if  to  show 
the  inhabitants  what  true  religion  was, 
and  thus  to  prepare  them  for  the  Cove- 
nant, although  they  did  not  mean  it  so. 
But  such  has  often  been  the  mysterious 
course   of  all-wise  Providence,  to  pour 
contempt  upon  the  wicked  desires  of  un- 
godly men,  overruling  their  machination, 
and  causing  them  to  promote  the  very 
cause  which  they  are  seeking  to  destroy. 
Meanwhile  the  king  was  busily  en- 
gaged  in  concerting  his   schemes  ;  and 
for  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  he  were  truly 
desirous  to  learn  the  real  state  of  matters 
before  he  should  come  to  a  final  determi- 
nation.    He  sent  orders  to  the  Earl  of 
Traquair,  Roxburgh,  and  Lorn,  to  repair 
to   London   without  delay  ;    and  he  re- 
quired from  the  most  eminent  Scottish 
lawyers  a  legal  opinion  whether  the  con- 
duct of  the  Covenanters  were  not  treason- 
able.   Sir  Thomas  Hope,  then  Lord  Ad- 
vocate, and  two  other  distinguished  law- 
yers, gave  their  opinion,  that  there  was 
nothing  decidedly  illegal  in  the  proceed- 
ings  of  the   Covenanters.      Lord  Lorn 
also  spoke  very  strongly  in  defence  of 
these  injured  and  calumniated  men  ;  and 
laid  before  his  majesty  a  full  account  of 
the  actual  state  of  the  country.     About 
the  same  time  the  king  received  the  un- 
welcome intelligence,  that  the  Covenan 
had  been  received  with  enthusiastic  de- 
light, even  in  those  parts  of  the  country 


where  the  prelates  had  assured  him  it 
would  be  indignantly  rejected.  This  ren- 
dered the  prelatic  cry  for  war  a  more 
doubtful  question  ;  especially  as  the  En- 
glish nobility  concurred  in  recommend- 
ing peace,  being  better  aware  of  the 
wide-spriad  discontent  existing  in  that 
kingdom  also,  than  was  its  blindly-obsti- 
nate sovereign. 

Perceiving  that  he  must  for  the  pres- 
nt  abandon  his  warlike  designs,  the  next 
care  of  the  king  was  to  engage  the  Cov- 
enanters in  negociations,  partly  in  the 
hope  of  dividing  them,  and  partly  to  gain 
time  till  he  might  muster  power  enough 
forcibly  to  overwhelm  them.  He  resolved, 
therefore,  to  appoint  a  commissioner  to 
treat  with  his  Scottish  subjects,  to  hear 
their  grievances,  and,  if  he  could  not 
flatter  and  delude  them  into  submission, 
at  least  to  lull  them  into  security,  or  wear 
them  out  by  procrastination.  The  choice 
of  a  person  to  undertake  this  difficult  task 
was  a  matter  of  vital  importance,  as  its 
success  would  greatly  depend  upon  his 
skilful  management.  At  last  the  Mar- 
quis of  Hamilton  was  appointed  lord  high 
commissioner,  and  intrusted  with  the  haz- 
ardous and  disreputable  enterprise  of  at- 
tempting to  deceive  or  overawe  a  nation 
famed  for  courage  and  sagacity,  and  now 
doubly  vigilant  and  thoroughly  united. 
Aware  of  the  perilous  nature  of  the  task, 
Hamilton  would  willingly  have  declined 
it ;  but  the  king  would  take  no  denial, 
and  he  was^  obliged  to  prepare  to  meet  it 
as  he  mighf.  For  this  reason  he  strove 
to  secure  himseJfL^gainst  the  possible 
consequences  of  the  dark  intrigues  in 
which  he  must  be  involved  ;  and  know- 
ing well  the  character  of  those  who  were 
urging  the  king  to  the  adoption  of  hostile 
measures,  one  of  Hamilton's  first  steps 
was  to  secure  the  absence  from  the  court 
of  all  the  Scottish  courtiers,  and  espe- 
cially of  the  prelates.  After  he  had  seen 
them  all  sent  off,  he  left  London  himself; 
but  not  thinking  his  protection  yet  suffi- 
ciently secure,  he  delayed  his  journey  at 
Berwick,  and  remained  there  till  he  had 
procured  from  the  king  private  instruc- 
tions, ample  powers,  and  a  secret  pardon 
for  whatever  he  might  say  or  do  in  the 
matter,  which  might  be  represented  by 
his  enemies  as  contrary  to  the  king's  in- 
tentions. 

In  that  strange  specimen  of  state  diplo- 


160 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


macy,  the  real  intentions  of  the  king  are 
revealed,  and  are  enough  to  cause  any 
man  of  common  honesty  to  blush  for 
shame.  It  states,  that  Hamilton  was  ex- 
pected, and  even  required,  to  enter  into 
the  most  intimate  intercourse  with  the 
Covenanters, — to  pretend  friendship  and 
compassion, — and  to  throw  them  off  their 
guard  and  detect  their  schemes,  that  he 
might  the*  more  easily  circumvent  and 
overpower  them.  "  For  which  end," 
says  his  majesty,  "  you  will  be  necessi- 
tated to  speak  that  language  which,  if 
you  were  called  to  account  for  by  us,  you 
might  suffer  for  it.  These  are  therefore 
to  assure  you,  and,  if  need  be,  hereafter 
to  testify  to  others,  that  whatsoever  ye 
shall  say  to  them  to  discover  their  inten- 
tions, ye  shall  neither  be  called  in  ques- 
tion for  the  same,  nor  yet  it  prove  in  any 
way  prejudicial  to  you."*  It  may  be 
hoped  that  a  high-minded  nobleman, 
such  as  Hamilton,  would  feel  it  indeed  a 
degrading  and  irksome  employment, 
when  thus  required  to  act  the  part  of  a 
spy  and  a  deceiver ;  and  when  courtly 
.and  prelatic  historians  assail  the  Cove- 
nanters in  the  language  of  vituperation 
and  reproach,  they  may  be  reminded  that 
the  whole  conduct  of  Charles  was  a 
tissue  of  despotism  and  treachery,  fatal 
to  his  character  and  ruinous  to  his  cause. 
The  Covenanters  received  warning  of 
the  secret  intentions  of  the  king,  and  of 
the  real  object  of  Hamilton's  commission  ; 
but  though  thus  aware  of  the  treacherous 
devices  to  be  put  in  motion  against  them, 
they  resolved  to  act  as  became  their  sa- 
cred cause,  and,  whilst  guarding  against 
deceit  and  guile,  to  make  their  own 
course  one  of  truth  and  rectitude.  For 
this  reason  they  drew  up  and  promulga- 
ted two  papers,  of  a  public  nature.  The 
one  was  sent  to  the  nobles  at  court,  stating 
plainly  the  articles  required  for  the  peace 
of  the  Church  and  kingdom  of  Scotland, 
that  they  might  be  aware  what  was  de- 
manded, and  be  prepared  to  advise  his 
majesty  accordingly.  The  other  con- 
tained a  general  statement  of  the  plan  of 
procedure  which  would  require  to  be 
followed  in  the  approaching  negociations 
with  the  high  commissioner ;  and  was 
sent  through  the  kingdom,  to  prevent  di- 
vision of  sentiment,  and  to  secure  that 

*  Hardwicke's  State  Papers,  vol.  ii.  p.  141. 


unity  of  heart,  mind,  and  effort,  which 
was  essential  to  their  safety. 

On  the  10th  of  May  the  king  sent  to 
the  Scottish  privy  council  intimation  of 
his  commission  to  the  Marquis  of  Hamil- 
ton, requiring  them  all  to  meet  his  Grace 
at  Dalkeith  on  the  6th  of  June,  to  render 
him  all  due  honour,  and  to  support  him 
in  the  discharge  of  his  high  trust.  The 
Covenanters,  on  their  part,  sent  informa- 
tion of  the  approaching  negociations  to 
all  their  supporters,  requiring  them  to 
come  to  Edinburgh  in  such  numbers  as 
should  protect  them  from  any  meditated 
hostile  attempt.  And  still  placing  their 
trust  in  the  Divine  guidance  and  support, 
a  general  fast  was  appointed  to  be  held 
on  the  3d  of  June,  to  humble  themselves 
before  God,  and  to  supplicate  his  protec- 
tion. The  fast  was  kept  in  the  most  sol- 
emn and  impressive  manner,  and  had  a 
powerful  effect  in  preparing  the  kingdom 
for  the  approaching  struggle,  enabling 
them  to  keep  their  position  on  ground 
avowedly  sacred.  At  the  same  time,  the 
Covenanters,  whose  councils  were  still 
guided  by  the  Tables,  resolved  that  they 
would  not  attend  the  commissioner  at 
Dalkeith,  but  would  remain  in  a  united 
body  at  Edinburgh,  and  by  that  means 
avoid  the  danger  of  being  divided  by  the 
subtle  insinuations  of  their  crafty  oppo- 
nents. Having  received  information  that 
the  king  meant  to  subdue  them  by  force, 
they  judged  it  expedient  to  prevent  that 
force  from  being  concentrated  in  the  heart 
of  the  country ;  and  therefore  placed  a 
guard  on  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh,  that 
it  might  not  receive  any  large  supplies  of 
provisions  and  military  stores. 

Hamilton  at  first  refused  to  come  to 
Edinburgh,  which  was  completely  in  the 
possession  of  the  Covenanters ;  but  after 
some  concessions  had  been  made,  he  con- 
sented to  make  the  Palace  of  Holyrood 
his  residence.  Accordingly  it  was  con- 
certed that  on  the  19th  of  June  the  Mar- 
quis of  Hamilton  should  make  his  public 
entry  into  Edinburgh  in  state,  as  lord 
high  commissioner  from  the  king.  The 
Covenanters  prepared  to  give  him  a  state- 
ly reception.  Both  parties  agreed  that 
he  should  approach  by  Musselburgh, 
along  the  level  sea-line, — i.  circuitous 
route,  but  one  peculiarly  adapted  for  dis- 
play. All  the  nobles  who  had  signed 


A.  D.  1638.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


161 


the  Covenant,  gentry  from  all  parts  of  the 
kingdom,  the  magistrates  of  Edinburgh, 
all  the  ministers  who  had  assembled  in 
the  capital,  and  an  immense  multitude, 
loosely  calculated  at  about  sixty  thousand, 
went  out  to  meet  the  commissioner,  and 
arranged  themselves  along  the  beach, 
covering  the-  undulating  outline  with  a 
more  numerous  assemblage  of  people 
than  had  been  seen  in  Scotland  for  centu- 
ries. As  Hamilton  rode  slowly  along 
the  line  of  this  vast  mass  of  his  collected 
countrymen,  hearing  on  every  side  not 
the  fierce  battle-cry  of  armed  men,  nor 
the  giddy  shouts  of  mere  holiday  rejoic- 
ers,  but  earnest  and  fervent  prayers  for 
the  preservation  of  the  liberties  and  reli- 
gion of  the  country,  he  was  deeply  mov- 
ed, and  could  not  suppress  tears  of  sym- 
pathy, declaring' his  strong  desire  that 
King  Charles  himself  had  been  present 
to  witness  a  scene  so  affecting,  and  even 
sublime.  On  a  little  eminence  near  the 
end  of  this  extended  multitude,  stood  up- 
wards of  five  hundred  ministers,  wearing 
their  cloaks  and  bands,  and  prepared  to 
address  the  commissioner ;  but  when  he 
came  to  the  place  where  they  stood,  he 
declined  receiving  their  addresses  in  pub- 
lic, bowed  to  them,  and  uttering  a  single 
complimentary  sentence,  continued  his 
progress. 

From  what  he  had  seen  on  that  single 
day,  the  commissioner  must  have  learned 
that  the  state  of  Scotland  had  been  griev- 
ously misrepresented  to  his  majesty;  that 
there  were  not,  in  truth,  two  parties  in 
the  country,  but  on  the  one  side  a  Presby- 
terian nation,  and  on  the  other  a  prelatic 
faction,  contemptible  in  numbers,  despica- 
ble in  character,  and  detested  on  account 
of  their  long  career  of  treachery  and  des- 
potism. But  he  knew  that  the  king  had 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  that  base 
and  weak  faction,  and  was  prepared,  for 
their  sakes,  and  to  gratify  his  own  arbitrary 
temper,  to  trample  upon  the  dearest  rights 
and  most  sacred  privileges  of  an  entire 
kingdom;  and  he  was  constrained  to  sup- 
press his  generous  sympathy,  and  to  re- 
sume the  course  of  heartless  and  tortuous 
policy  with  which  he  was  commissioned. 
And  now  began  the  unequal  contest 
between  diplomatic  craft  and  the  straight- 
forward honesty  of  honourable  and  reli- 
gious men. — unequal,  inasmuch  as  the 
wily  dissimulation  of  designing  craft 
21 


is  perpetuaLy  over-reaching  or  betraying 
itself,  while  unbending  integrity  of  pur- 
pose goes  right  onward  to  its  aim,  and, 
having  nothing  to  conceal,  is  in  no  dread 
of  detection.  We  cannot  afford  space  to 
follow  the  contending  parties  through  the 
shifts  and  changes  of  their  varying  nego- 
tiations, but  must  confine  ourselves  to  a 
brief  statement  of  the  most  important  points 
of  the  complicated  proceedings  of  that 
eventful  time. 

In  an  early  interview  which  they  ob- 
tained, the  Covenanters  informed  the  com- 
missioner that  all  negotiations  would 
prove  fruitless,  unless  he  were  empow- 
ered to  grant  a  free  General  Assembly, 
in  which  their. complaints  respecting  the 
innovations  introduced  by  the  prelates, 
and  the  conduct  generally  of  those  men, 
might  be  investigated,  judged  of,  and,  if 
proved  culpable,  censured  and  con- 
demned according  to  their  demerits, — 
and  a  parliament,  by  which  acts  proved 
to  be  unconstitutional  might  be  rescinded, 
and  redresses  authoritatively  and  conclu- 
sively granted.  Hamilton  replied,  that 
he  would  answer  their  statements  and  re- 
quests by  a  proclamation.  They  prompt- 
ly gave  him  to  know,  that  they  would  be 
in  readiness  to  meet  every  proclamation 
with  a  distinct  protest,  to  whatsoever  ex- 
tent it  should  fall  short  of  the  necessities 
of  the  case  and  the  just  demands  of  the 
nation.  The  commissioner  seemed  dis- 
posed to  try  the  resolution  of  the  Cove- 
nanters. He  commanded  preparations 
to  be  made  for  issuing  the  proclamation  ; 
and  the  Covenanters  made  similar  ar- 
rangements to  meet  it  with  their  protest 
the  nobility  and  gentlemen  mustering  in 
considerable  numbers  around  their  offi- 
cial representatives,  each.' man  with  his 
sword  loosened  in  its  sheath,  in  readiness 
to  repel  any  sudden  attack  by  the  mili- 
tary attendants  of  the  commissioner.  See- 
ing the  determined  front  displayed  by  the 
Covenanters,  Hamilton  changed  his  pro- 
cedure, abandoning  the  proclamation, 
and  resuming  the  path  of  crooked  and 
wily  dissimulation.* 

It  is  always  more  difficult  for  a  cun- 
ning man  to  understand  honesty,  than 
for  an  honest  man  to  detect  craft.  Ham- 
ilton could  not  comprehend  the  designs  of 
the  Covenanters ;  but  they  could  easily 
see  through  his  thin  evasions.  He  now 

•Baillie,  Burnet,  and  Steveuson, 


162 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


thought  it  expedient  to  offer  them  both  an 
Assembly  and  a  Parliament,  provided 
they  would  abandon  the  Covenant.  They 
answered,  that  they  would  as  soon  re- 
nounce their  baptism.  And  at  the  request 
of  the  Tables,  Henderson  wrote  an  able 
paper,  containing  a  clear  and  strong 
statement  of  the  reasons  why  they  could 
neither  rescind  nor  alter  in  the  slightest 
degree  their  sacred  Covenant.  Still  more 
completely  to  convince  the  commissioner 
of  the  futility  of  any  such  expectation, 
they  prepared  a  supplication,  in  which 
the  request  of  a  free  General  Assembly 
and  a  Parliament  was  publicly  and  avow- 
edly stated  as  that  without  which  they 
could  not  be  satisfied ;  and  at  the  same 
time  they  caused  another  paper  to  be  ex- 
tensively circulated,  containing  sugges- 
tions of  the  measures  which  it  might  be 
necessary  to  adopt,  should  the  commis- 
sioner resort  to  force,  or  protract  the  ne- 
gotiations to  an  intolerable  length.  In 
these  suggestions  a  significant  hint  was 
given,  that  both  a  General  Assembly  and 
a  Parliament  might  possibly  be  called, 
without  the  royal  authority,  if  that  were 
much  longer  withheld  ;  and  also,  that  if 
violence  were  used  for  enforcing  obedi- 
ence, a  committee  might  be  chosen,  to 
consider  what  was  fit  and  lawful  to  be 
done  for  the  defence  of  their  religion, 
laws,  and  liberties. 

These  bold  and  energetic  measures 
startled  the  commissioner,  and  convinced 
him  that  any  longer  continuation  of  his 
temporizing  policy  would  be  in  vain, 
and  that  his  majesty  must  either  yield  to 
every  one  of  the  main  points  demanded 
by  the  Covenanters,  or  must  prepare  to 
subdue  them  by  open  force.  And  as  his 
instructions  did  not  enable  him  to  proceed 
•to  either  of  these  alternatives,  he  deter- 
mined to  return  to  London,  give  the  king 
a  full  account  of  Scottish  affairs,  ascertain 
•the  state  of  the  royal  preparations  for  the 
commencement  of  hostilities,  and  return 
fully  empowered  to  act  as  necessities 
might  require.  This  was  indeed  the 
•  only  course  which  he  could  now  pursue  ; 
but  even  this  was  to  be  marred  by  double 
dealing.  On  one  day  he  left  town,  and 
proceeded  a  few  miles  on  his  journey :  on 
the  next,  supposing  the  Covenanters  now 
off  their  guard,  he  hastily  returned,  and 
proceeded  to  publish  a  declaration  of  his 
.majesty's  intentions,  plausible,  but  char- 


acteristically evasive.  It  promised  that 
the  Liturgy  should  not  be  pressed  but  in 
a  fair  and  legal  way;  that  the  High 
Commission  should  be  rectified  by  the 
aid  of  the  privy  council,  so  that  it  should 
not  impugn  the  laws,  nor  be  a  just  griev- 
ance to  loyal  subjects ;  and  that  whatso- 
ever concerned  the  peace  and  welfare  of 
the  Church  should  be  taken  into  consid- 
eration in  a  free  Assembly  and  Parlia- 
ment, which  should  be  called  with  his 
majesty's  first  convenience.  The  Cove- 
nanters had  experienced  his  majesty's  du- 
plicity too  often  to  be  deluded  by  so  flimsy 
a  pretext.  They  met  it  therefore  by  a 
protestation,  which  had  been  previously 
prepared  for  any  sudcten  emergency,  and 
which  this  weak  stratagem  gave  them  a 
fair  opportunity  to  publish.  Hamilton 
seems,  nevertheless,  to  have  imagined  he 
had  gained  his  point,  and  pressed  the 
privy  council  to  ratify  this  declaration. 
Many  consented ;  but  the  Covenanters 
having  given  to  each  member  of  council 
a  paper  containing  reasons  against  its 
ratification,  they  were  induced  by  its  pe- 
rusal to  rescind  the  act  of  ratification. 
Rothes,  Montrose,  and  Loudon  obtained 
an  interview  with  the  commissioner  him- 
self, presented  to  him  these  reasons,  and 
urged  upon  him  the  necessity  of  a  more 
frank  and  conciliatory  course.  Hamilton, 
irritated  by  his  failure,  replied  to  them 
in  a  haughty  and  dictatorial  tone.  This 
drew  from  Loudon  the  bold  declaration, 
that  they  knew  no  other  bands  between  a 
king  and  his  subjects  but  those  of  religion 
and  laws :  if  these  were  violated,  men's 
lives  were  not  dear  to  them.  Overborne 
by  threatenings  they  would  not  be,  for 
such  fears  were  past  with  them.*  After 
this  abortive  attempt,  the  Marquis  of  Ham- 
ilton left  Scotland  on  the  8th  of  July,  and 
went  to  London  for  fresh  instructions. 

During  the  course  of  these  fruitless  ne- 
gotiations the  king  maintained  a  constant 
intercourse  by  letters  with  the  commis- 
sioner ;  and  it  is  painful  to  peruse  these 
glaring  proofs  of  the  infatuated  monarch's 
disgraceful  and  perfidious  dissimulation. 
A  few  instances  must  be  given,  in  proof 
of  this  assertion,  and  in  vindication  of  the 
Covenanters.  "  I  give  you  leave  to  flat- 
ter them  with  what  hopes  you  please; 
your  chief  end  being  now  to  win  time, 
until  I  be  ready  to  suppress  them." — "  I 

*  Uaillie,  vol.  i.  p.  92. 


A.  D.  1638.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


163 


have  written  this  to  no  other  end  than  to 
show  you  that  I  will  rather  die  than  yield 
to  those  impertinent  and  damnable  de- 
mands."— "  I  do  not  expect  that  you 
should  declare  the  adherers  to  the  Cove- 
nant traitors,  until  you  have  heard  from 
me  that  my  fleet  hath  set  sail  for  Scotland. 
In  a  word,  gain  time  by  all  the  honest 
means  you  can,  without  forsaking-  your 
grounds." — "  There  be  two  things  in 
your  letter  that  require  answer,  to  wit, 
the  answer  to  their  petition,  and  concern- 
ing the  explanation  of  their  damnable 
Covenant."  In  another  letter,  after  stating 
how  far  his  military  preparations  were  in 
readiness,  and  what  was  their  amount, 
his  majesty  adds, — "  Thus  you  may  see 
that  I  intend  not  to  yield  to  the  demands 
of  those  traitors  the  Covenanters."*  All 
these  and  many  similar  instructions  to  the 
commissioner  to  prevaricate,  to  deceive, 
and  to  gain  time,  while  the  king  was  busy 
levying  forces,  collecting  military  stores, 
preparing  a  fleet,  and  hiring  foreign 
troops  to  suppress  his  faithful  subjects  by 
this  combination  of  treachery  and  power, 
were  sent  to  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton 
privately,  while  that  nobleman  was  en- 
gaged in  pacific  negotiations  with  the 
Covenanters.  History  can  scarcely  fur- 
nish an  equal  instance  of  a  monarch's 
faithlessness,  dissimulation,  and  fore- 
thought despotism.  Bolder  tyranny  the 
world  has  often  seen,  but  rarely  any  so 
deliberately  dishonourable.  And  as 
these  private  instructions  to  the  commis- 
sioner: were  all  to  a  considerable  extent 
known  to  the  Covenanters,  it  cannot  ap- 
oear  strange  tna,  they  received  every  pro- 
posal with  suspicion,  and  expressed  dis- 
trust of  every  declaration,  how  strong 
soever  might  be  its  asseveration,  and  to 
whatsoever  extent  it  might  wear  the  as- 
pect of  sincerity. 

While  the  king  and  the  marquis  were 
using  every  u  honest  means"  to  gain 
time,  the  covenanters  took  care  to  lose 
none.  Aware  that  the  king  intended  to 
send  some  forces  to  the  north,  to  co-oper- 
ate with  those  which  Huntly  was  ex- 
pected to  raise,  they  resolved  to  paralyze 
effectually  that  right  arm  of  prelatic  and 
regal  tyranny,  during  the  breathing 
space  allowed  by  the  absence  of  the  com- 
missioner. And  as  Aberdeen,  by  the  in- 
fluence of  Huntly  and  of  its  cloistered 

*  Burnet'a  Memoirs  of  the  Hamiltons,  pp.  46-68. 


sages,  had  yet  stood  out  against  the  Cov- 
enant, Henderson,  Dickson,  and  some 
others,  were  sent  to  try  whether  the 
dreary  darkness  which  brooded  over  that 
town  and  neighbourhood,  might  not  be 
partially  dispelled.  The  deputation  was 
at  first  but  coldly  welcomed  ;  permission 
to  preach  in  the  city  churches  was  re- 
fused ;  and  the  doctors  strove  to  engage 
them  in  a  fruitless  scholastic  disputation. 
But  the  deputation  was  composed  of  men 
of  energy  and  decision.  They  returned 
brief  answers  to  the  sophistic  subtleties 
of  their  learned  opponents ;  and  since 
the  churches  were  refused,  they  preached 
in  the  open  air,  explained  the  Covenant, 
and  produced  arguments  for  its  subscrip- 
tion. At  the  close  of  their  addresses  the 
Covenant  was  produced  for  signature  ; 
and  that  evening  about  five  hundred  re- 
spectable citizens  adhibited  their  names. 
They  then  traversed  the  adjacent  coun- 
try ;  and  within  little  more  than  a  week, 
forty-four  ministers,  many  gentlemen, 
and  a  large  proportion  of  the  people, 
signed  the  Covenant.  Returning  to  Aber- 
deen, they  again  preached  where  they 
had  done  before,  arid  obtained  a  consid- 
erable number  of  additional  adherents  to 
the  sacred  cause.  Having  thus,  by  the 
powerful  demonstration  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  accompanying  their  exertions,  suc- 
ceeded in  pouring  a  stream  of  light  and 
life  into  those  regions  of  previous  gloomy 
stagnation,  they  returned  to  Edinburgh, 
leaving  in  the  town  and  vicinity  of  Aber- 
deen a  power  sufficient  to  prevent  the 
possibility  of  any  great  hostile  combina- 
tion there. 

The  Marquis  of  Hamilton  returned  to 
Holy  rood-house  on  the  10th  of  August, 
furnished,  indeed,  with  ampler  powers  to 
treat  than  before,  but  still  enjoined  to  use 
every  diplomatic  stratagem.  One  new- 
artifice  by  which  it  was  hoped  the  Cove- 
nanters might  be  divided,  was  the  re-pro- 
mulgation of  the  Confession  or  Covenant 
of  1581.  If  this  could  be  got  numer- 
ously signed,  it  might  either  neutralize 
the  Covenant  recently  produced,  or  so  di- 
vide the  nation  as  to  enable  his  majesty 
to  balance  one  part  of  the  kingdom 
gainst  another,  and  so  to  reduce  both  un- 
der his  power.  But  that  which  was  first 
put  in  operation  was  a  set  of  demands 
which  Hamilton  gave  to  the  Tables,  re- 
quiring written  answers  to  them  before 


164 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI, 


he  would  consent  to  call  an  Assembly. 
These  demands  were  at  first  eleven  in 
number,  but  subsequently  were  reduced 
to  two ;  first,  that  no  layman  should  have 
voice  in  choosing-  the  ministers  to  be  sent 
from  the  presbyteries  to  the  General  As- 
sembly, nor  any  but  the  ministers  of  the 
same  presbytery  ;  the  second,  that  the 
Assembly  should  not  go  about  to  deter- 
mine things  established  by  act  of  parlia- 
ment, otherwise  than  by  remonstrance  or 
petition  to  parliament.  If  Hamilton  could 
have  obtained  the  assent  of  the  Covenant- 
ers to  these  propositions,  his  victory  over 
them  would  have  been  secure.  By  the 
first,  the  ministers  would  have  been  di- 
vided from  the  laity,  and  left  powerless 
in  the  hands  of  their  enemies  ;  by  the 
second,  all  the  innovations  of  James's 
reign  would  have  been  confirmed,  as 
they  had  all  been  ratified  by  parliament. 
But  although  the  leading  Covenanters 
easily  perceived  the  fatal  character  of 
these  propositions,  it  was  not  so  easy  to 
unite  the  whole  body  in  returning  proper 
answers.  The  first  had  nearly  accom- 
plished the  commissioner's  insidious  de- 
sign. Many  of  the  ministers  looked  with 
some  degree  of  jealousy  upon  the  power 
of  the  laymen,  and  would  not  have  been 
displeased  to  see  that  power  diminished. 
For  that  reason  they  were  disposed  to  as- 
sent to  the  first  proposition  ;  while  the 
other  three  Tables  would  by  no  means 
comply  with  any  such  measure.  At 
length,  chiefly  by  the  skilful  manage- 
ment of  Henderson  and  Dickson,  this 
dangerous  discussion  terminated  in  the 
rejection  of  the  commissioner's  demands, 
and  in  the  restoration  of  that  unanimity 
of  sentiment  and  purpose  among  the  Cov- 
enanters which  constituted  their  strength. 
The  danger  thus  encountered,  and  the 
re-union  thus  produced,  both  tended  to 
point  out  to  the  Covenanters  the  path  at 
once  of  duty  and  of  safety.  They  now 
resolved  to  bring  matters  to  a  crisis,  and 
to  compel  the  commissioner  to  abandon 
his  deceitful  policy,  by  avowing  their  de- 
termination, that  if  the  royal  mandate 
were  further  delayed,  they  would  call  a 
General  Assembly,  on  the  sole  authority 
which  every  Christian  Church  must  be 
held  intrinsically  to  possess,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  regulating  all  matters  of  worship 
and  discipline,  according  to  the  institu- 
tions of  the  gospel,  and  the  example  of 


the  apostles.  The  reasons  on  which  this 
decisive  resolution  was  based  were  pub- 
lished in  their  own  defence,  and  for  the 
instruction  of  all  their  adherents,  and  are 
still  deserving  of  a  thoughtful  perusal  by 
every  true  Presbyterian.* 

Hamilton  now  felt  that  temporizing 
policy  would  no  longer  be  endured,  and 
also  that  his  anticipations  of  creating  a 
disunion  among  the  Covenanters  were  at 
an  end.  But  their  demand  went  beyond 
his  powers  to  grant,  and  was  perilous  to 
refuse,  lest  a  refusal  should  impel  them 
to  put  their  purpose  into  immediate  exe- 
cution. He  requested,  therefore,  a  delay 
of  twenty  days,  that  he  might  return  to 
the  king,  and  obtain  a  final  answer,  prom- 
ising to  be  again  in  Scotland  with  his 
majesty's  ultimate  decision  before  the 
20th  of  September.  The  Covenanters 
consented  to  this  delay,  and  employed 
the  intermediate  time  in  sending  instruc- 
tions to  every  presbytery  how  to  proceed 
in  the  election  of  members  for  the  ap- 
proaching Assembly.  This  was  neces- 
sary, in  consequence  of  the  lengthened 
period  which  had  elapsed  since  an  As- 
sembly had  been  held  at  all,  there  hav- 
ing been  none  since  1618  ;  and  as  all 
the  Assemblies  since  1597  had  been  more 
or  less  corrupted  by  regal  interference, 
the  proper  course  of  procedure,  in  the 
calling  of  a  free  Assembly  according  to 
pure  Presbyterian  principles,  had  almost 
sunk  into  oblivion.  These  instructions 
were  of  the  utmost  importance,  both  in 
guiding  the  proceedings  of  the  Cove- 
nanters throughout  the  kingdom,  and  in 
furnishing  them  with  information  on  to- 
pics certain  to  come  under  discussion  in 
the  ensuing  Assembly,  with  which  many 
were  at  that  time  very  little  acquainted. 
Having  taken  these  preliminary  steps,  the 
Covenanters  waited  calmly  the  return  of 
the  commissioner,  and  the  ultimate  an- 
swer of  the  king. 

When  the  commissioner  returned  from 
London,  a  deputation  from  the  tables 
waited  on  him  at  Dalkeith,  and  were  told 
in  general  terms  that  his  majesty  had 
granted  all  their  requests,  but  that  the 
particulars  could  not  with  propriety  be 
divulged  till  they  had  been  communicated 
to  the  privy  council.  The  council  met 
the  same  day,  when  his  majesty's  letter 

*  These  reasons  are  to  be  seen  in  Rstevenacn,  edit.  1840. 
pp.  243,  246. 


A.  D.  1638  ] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


165 


was  produced,  requiring-  them  to  sub 
scribe  the  Covenant  or  Confession  of 
1581,  which,  as  it  contained  chiefly  an 
abjuration  of  Popery,  was  often  termed 
the  Negative  Confession.  The  utmost 
efforts  of  Hamilton  could  not  prevail  upon 
more  than  about  thirty  of  th^  council  to 
subscribe,  and  that  not  till  a  clause  was 
added,  declaring  that  the  subscribers  un- 
derstood it  according  to  its  original  mean- 
ing, when,  as  the  reader  will  recollect, 
even  tulchan  Episcopacy  had  been  con- 
demned and  abolished,  presbyteries 
erected,  and  the  Second  Book  of  Disci- 
pline entered  on  the  records  of  the  As- 
sembly. Even  thus  explained,  the  com- 
missioner entertained  some  hope  that  it 
might  either  cause  division  among  the 
Oovenanters,  or  at  least  produce  a  similar 
compact  union  of  the  royal  and  prelatic 
party;  and  with  this  view  he  published 
an  act  of  council,  calling  upon  all  loyal 
subjects  to  subscribe  the  king's  Covenant, 
with  a  general  bond,  resembling  that  of 
1589.  Commissioners  were  appointed 
to  convey  this  rival  Covenant  through- 
out the  kingdom,  and  every  artifice  was 
employed  to  procure  the  utmost  possible 
number  of  signatures.  But  the  Presby- 
terian Covenanters,  perceiving  clearly 
the  intention  of  the  commissioner,  met 
the  proclamation  of  the  king's  Covenant 
by  a  protestation  and  a  warning  against 
the  ensnaring  tendency  of  this  new  de- 
vice ;*  and  sent  a  deputation  to  every 
presbytery,  with  a  copy  of  the  protesta- 
tion, and  instructions  how  to  act.  So 
successful  were  these  precautionary  mea- 
sures, that  the  king's  Covenant  obtained 
no  more  than  about  twenty-eight  thou- 
sand signatures,  of  which  number  twelve 
thousand  were  procured  in  Aberdeen  and 
its  vicinity  by  the  strenuous  exertions  of 
Huntly.  This  new  stratagem  had  con- 
sequently no  other  effect  than  that  of 
proving,  even  by  an  arithmetical  demon- 
stration, the  weakness  of  the  prelatic 
faction. 

The  next  step  of  the  privy  council  was 
the  publication  of  two  important  acts, — 
the  one  calling  a  General  Assembly  to 
be  held  at  Glasgow  on  the  21st  of  No- 
vember, and  warning  the  bishops  and 
other  commissioners  of  kirks  to  attend  ; 
he  other  summoning  a  parliament  to 

*  This  ai  le  document  is  preserved  by  Stevenson,  pp. 
256,264. 


meet  at  Edinburgh  on  the  15th  day  of 
May  1639,  for  settling  and  confirming 
peace  in  Church  and  State.  The  king's 
declaration  was  then  publicly  proclaimed, 
in  which  his  majesty  prohibited  the  en- 
forcement of  the  Book  of  Canons,  the 
Liturgy,  and  the  Five  Articles  of  Perth  ; 
abolished  the  Court  of  High  Commis- 
sion ;  declared  all  persons  subject  to  the 
trial  and  censure  of  the  competent  judica- 
tory ;  allowing  free  entrance  into  the 
ministry  without  the  taking  of  any  other 
oath  than  that  contained  in  the  act  of 
parliament  ;  granted  a  general  pardon  of 
all  offences  which  had  arisen  out  of  the 
recent  contentions;  appointed  a  fast  to 
avert  the  Divine  displeasure,  and  pro- 
cure a  peaceable  end  to  the  distractions 
of  the  Church  and  kingdom ;  and  re- 
commended the  subscription  of  the  Con- 
fession and  Covenant  of  1581. 

Had  these  terms  been  granted  at  the 
beginning  of  the  negotiations  between  the 
king  and  the  Covenanters,  they  would 
have   given   universal    satisfaction,   and 
been  received  with  equal  joy  and  grati- 
tude.    But  after  the  many  repeated  in- 
stances of  tergiversation  and  insincerity 
which  had  been  detected,  the  Covenan- 
ters were  compelled  to  regard  every  de- 
claration of  the  king's  with  suspicion,  and 
to  look  narrowly  into  every  one  of  his 
promises,   lest   it    should   contain   some 
evasive  expression,  by  which  it  might  be 
nullified,   or   even   reversed.     And   un- 
happily even  this  plausible  declaration  of 
his  majesty's  sentiments  did  contain  such 
neutralizing   and   evasive   elements.     It 
was  understood  to  subject  the  prelates  to 
the  trial  and  censure  of  the  Assembly ; 
but  it  cited  them  to  appear  as  constituent 
members  of  that  very  court  by  which  they 
were  to  be  tried ;  and  the  urgency  with 
which  the  king  pressed  the  subscription 
of  the  Covenant  of  1581,  showed  clearly 
that  he  expected,  by  its  instrumentality, 
to  divide  and  conquer  the  Presbyterian 
Oovenanters  ;  besides  that  the  bond  con- 
ained  an  insidious  clause  for  the  mainte- 
nance  of  religion   "as  at  present  pro- 
fessed,"— a  clause  manifestly  susceptible 
of  such  a  construction  as  would  convert 
t  into  one  for  the  defence  of  Prelacy. 
The   Presbyterians,   therefore,   resolved 
hat  they  would  no  longer  submit  to  such 
altering  in  a  double  sense ;  that  they 
would  take  care  to  have  the  Assembly 


166 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


framed  and  constituted  according  to  th 
fundamental  and  imperishable  principles 
of  the  Presbyterian   Church ;  and  tha 
the  prelates  should  be  tried  and  censurec 
according  to  their  demerits,  and  Prelacy 
itself  entirely  abolished,  so  that  their  Na 
tional  Church  might  be  delivered  from 
bondage  and  oppression,  and  establishec 
once  more  on  a  basis  which  no  law  can 
give,  and  ought  not  to  attempt  removing 
— the  warm  affections  of  an  intelligent 
truly  loyal,  and  earnestly  religious  people! 
Great  anxiety  was  felt  by  all  parties,  in 
the  interval  between  the  calling  and  the 
meeting  of  this  most  important  Genera] 
Assembly.    Notwithstanding  the  artifices 
of  the  commissioner,  and  the  exertions  of 
the  prelatic  party,  the  Covenanters  were 
eminently  successful  in  securing  the  re- 
turn of  the  most  able  and  faithful  of  the 
ministers  as  commissioners,  and  the  most 
zealous  and  influential  of  the  nobility  and 
gentry  as  ruling  elders  ;    so  that  before 
the  Assembly  met  they  were  assured  of 
its  freedom  and  integrity,  so  far  as  de- 
pended upon  the  majority  of  its  members. 
The  mode  in  which  they  were  to  proceed 
against  the  prelates  was  a  matter  which 
required  much  and  careful  deliberation. 
The  Earl  of  Rothes,  and  some  other  lead- 
ing men  of  the  Tables,  petitioned  the  com- 
missioner for  a  warrant  to  command  the 
prelates  to  appear  before  the  Assembly  to 
stand  trial  for  the  offences  charged  against 
them  ;  but  this  he  refused  to  grant.    The 
Covenanters  were   not,  however,  to  be 
thus  defeated  in  a  point  of  such  vital  mo- 
ment.    It  was  arranged  that  a  complaint 
should  be  prepared  in  form  of  a  libel  or 
regular  accusation,  to  be  laid  before  the 
Assembly  by  a  considerable  body  of  the 
nobility,  gentry,  burgesses,  and  ministers, 
who  were  not  members   of  that   court. 
The  accusation  embraced  both  their  offi- 
cial  and   personal  delinquencies.     The 
first  part  of  the  charge  referred  to  the 
"  caveats  "  or  cautions  passed  in  the  As- 
sembly 1600,  and  ratified  by  King  James, 
the  ostensible   object   of  which  was   to 
guard  against  the  abuse  of  their  powers 
by  the  prelates  and  commissioners  of  the 
Church,  at  that  time  introduced  to  parlia- 
ment ;  but  the  real  intention  having  been 
to  delude  the  Church  by  the  semblance 
of  a  security  which  could  be  easily  bro- 
ken through  or  set  aside.      These  ca- 
veats,  however,   had    been    allowed    to 


remain  unrepealed,  and  now  formed  a 
leading  element  in  the  accusation  against 
the  prelatic  party,  by  whom  every  one  of 
them  had  been  repeatedly  violated.  The 
prelates  were  accordingly  charged  col- 
lectively with  having  transgressed  these 
caveats,  usurped  a  lordly  supremacy 
over  the  Church,  taught  heretical  and 
false  doctrines,  and,  personally,  with 
having  been  guilty  of  irreligious  conduct, 
and  the  perpetration  of  the  grossest  im- 
moralities, which  were  distinctly  specified 
according  to  each  individual  case.  The 
accusations  were  sent  to  each  of  the  pre- 
lates, and  also  to  all  the  presbyteries, 
where  they  were  directed  to  be  read  pub- 
licly in  every  church. 

The  prelates  prepared  an  elaborate  de- 
fence, bearing  the  general  form  of  a  de- 
clinature  of  the  Assembly's  jurisdiction, 
with  their  reasons  for  that  line  of  proce- 
dure ;  which  were  said  to  have  been  sent 
to  court,  and  revised  by  the  sovereign's 
own  hand.  All  being  now  nearly  pre- 
pared, and  the  time  at  hand,  the  commis- 
sioner made  his  last  attempt  to  interfere 
with  the  construction  of  the  Assembly, 
by  endeavouring  to  bring  as  many  of  the 
members  as  possible  under  such  legal 
processes  as  might  incapacitate  them  from 
taking  their  seat.  This  was  instantly 
met  by  a  remonstrance  so  strong,  pointed, 
and  resolute,  that  Hamilton  felt  the  inex- 
pediency, and  even  danger,  of  carrying 
;his  last  scheme  into  effect. 

The  only  remaining  part  of  the  pre- 
sarations  made  by  both  parties  is  one 
which  scarcely  falls  within  our  province 
.0  relate,  as  being  more  of  a  civil,  or  ra- 
her  military,  than  of  an  ecclesiastical 
character.  Allusion  has  already  been 
made  to  the  large  naval  and  military 
armaments  in  preparation  by  the  king. 
These  were  vigorously  prosecuted  by  his 
majesty,  in  the  midst  of  all  his  pacific  de- 
clarations :  and  as  this  was  well  known 
o  the  Covenanters,  they  began  to  consi- 
der themselves  entitled  to  prepare  for  the 
lefence  of  their  civil  and  religious  liber- 
ies,  so  manifestly  endangered.  With 
his  view,  arms,  ammunition,  and  provi- 
ions  were  quietly  collected  by  the  no- 
)ility  and  many  of  the  towns  ;  and  Gene- 
•al  Leslie,  a  veteran  officer  of  great  skill 
and  courage,  who  had  served  long  under 
Giustavus,  king  of  Sweden,  was  called 
lome  to  take  command  of  the  army,  if 


A.  D.  1G38.J 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


167 


they  should  finally  be  compelled  to  rise 
in  self-defence. 

The  Marquis  of  Hamilton  was  we] 
aware  that  the  crisis  could  no  longer  be 
retarded ;  but  how  best  to  meet  it  cos 
him  many  an  anxious  thought.  Gladly 
would  he  have  prorogued  the  meeting  of 
Assembly,  but  that  he  was  aware  that  the 
Covenanters  had  determined  to  hold  it 
even  though  he  should  attempt  its  proro 
gation.  He  resolved,  therefore,  at  last  to 
allow  it  to  be  held  according  to  the  pro- 
clamation already  issued,  and  to  do  his 
utmost  to  bias,  control,  or  overawe  it,  so 
as  to  prevent,  if  possible,  the  condemna- 
tion of  the  prelates  ;  and  should  all  his 
efforts  prove  ineffectual,  he  would  dissolve 
it,  with  this  advantage,  that  time  had  been 
gained,  and  his  majesty's  preparations  for 
actual  war  would  be  in  a  state  of  greater 
forwardness. 

On  the  Friday  before  the  meeting  of 
Assembly,  the  Covenanters,  both  those 
who  were  members  of  Assembly  and 
those  who  were  their  friends  and  sup- 
porters, came  in  great  crowds  to  Glas- 
gow j  and  on  the  next  day  the  commis- 
sioner and  his  friends  entered  town  from 
Hamilton,  and  were  met  with  much  ap- 
pearance of  respectful  and  stately  courtesy 
by  the  Presbyterian  chiefs.  The  mar- 
quis had  then  another  opportunity  of  see- 
ing how  completely  the  cause  which  he 
was  commissioned  to  circumvent  or  op- 
press was  the  cause  of  the  Scottish  nation. 
Little  more  than  a  year  had  elapsed  from 
the  time  when  four  humble  petitioners 
met  at  the  door  of  the  privy  council,  to 
supplicate  for  protection  against  the  op- 
pressive conduct  of  the  prelates ;  and  now 
his  majesty's  lord  high  commissioner  be- 
held arrayed  against  the^e  men,  or  rather 
against  that  abjured  system,  the  irresisti- 
ble might  of  -all  the  physical,  mental, 
moral,  and  religious  strength  of  a  united 
people.  We  may  imagine  how  his  heart 
must  have  sunk  within  him  when  he 
contemplated  tne  task  imposed  upon  him 
by  his  infatuated  sovereign, — the  task  of 
deluding  or  coercing  his  sagacious  and 
high-minded  countrymen,  and  of  tram- 
pling in  the  dust  those  civil  and  religious 
liberties  which  were  to  them  dearer  than 
life  itself,  —  a  task  which  no  foreign 
power  had  been  ever  able  by  its  utmost 
efforts  to  achieve,  and  which  he  must 


have  seen  to  be  equally  ungracious  and 
desperate. 

The  Assembly  had  been  indicted  to 
meet  on  the  Wednesday  ;  and  the  three 
intervening  days  were  spent  in  making 
preliminary  arrangements,  and  espe- 
cially, on  the  part  of  the  Covenanters,  in 
humbling  themselves  before  God,  and 
imploring  his  direction  and  support 
through  the  arduous  duties  in  which  they 
were  about  to  engage,  and  for  the  right 
discharge  of  which  they  felt  their  own 
wisdom  to  be  indeed  utterly  insufficient. 
And  it  ought  to  be  carefully  remarked, 
for  the  instruction  of  all  succeeding  ages, 
that  during  the  whole  course  of  their  ne- 
gotiations and  deliberations,  humble  ac- 
knowledgments of  their  own  folly  and 
weakness,  earnest  prayer  to  God,  and 
strong  faith  in  his  heavenly  guidance, 
were  always  the  master  elements  by 
which  their  actions  were  guided  and 
their  hopes  upheld. 

On  Wednesday  the  21st  of  November 
1638,  the  General  Assembly  met,  and 
commenced  the  discharge  of  its  all-im- 
portant duties.  We  cannot  afford  space 
to  give  more  than  the  briefest  outline  of 
its  proceedings ;  which,  however,  is  the 
less  to  be  regretted,  since  the  very  fact  of 
their  extreme  importance  has  caused  them 
to  be  very  fully  recorded  by  many  authors 
whose  works  are  in  general  circulation.* 
Both  parties,  the  commissioner  and  the 
Covenanters,  acted  warily,  yet  firmly, 
from  the  very  first  hour  on  which  the 
Assembly  met.  They  were  equally  well 
aware,  that  a  false  movement  on  either 
side  would  give  to  the  antagonist  an  ad- 
vantage which  it  might  not  be  possible  to 
counteract;  and,  like  two  contending 
armies  led  by  skilful  generals,  they 
watched  each  other's  operations  with 
deep,  calm,  forecasting  prudence,  cool  re- 
solution, and  deliberate  energy.  The 
choice  of  a  moderator  was  to  the  Assem- 
bly, in  such  a  juncture,  a  matter  of  great 
moment,  but  not  of  doubt,  except  on  one 
account.  Alexander  Henderson  was  uni- 
ersally  admitted  to  be  beyond  all  com- 
petition the  fittest  man,  for  knowledge, 
j-ravity,  self-command,  and  soundness  of 
^udgment;  but  they  dreaded  to  lose  his 
ability  in  debate  by  placing  him  in  the 

*  See  Baillie.  Stevenson,  Burnet,  Peterkin's  Record* 
f  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  &c.,  &c. 


168 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


moderator's  chair.  Yet  the  necessity  of 
having  at  their  head  a  man  who  could 
both  direct  their  own  deliberations  and 
defend  them  to  the  commissioner  with 
courtesy  and  firmness,  overruled  all  other 
considerations,  and  he  was  unanimously 
chosen  to  occupy  that  post  of  honour, 
toil,  and  danger. 

The  commissioner  wished  to  have  had 
the  commissions  of  the  members  scruti- 
nized before  the  choice  of  a  moderator ; 
but  this  the  Assembly  very  properly  re- 
sisted, as  without  a  moderator  their  pro- 
ceeding would  have  been  informal  and 
invalid.  Again,  the  regular  course  of 
proceedings  was  interrupted  by  a  propo- 
sal from  his  grace  to  have  the  declinature 
of  the  prelates  read,  before  the  Assembly 
had  been  duly  constituted  ;  but  this,  too, 
was  rejected  on  the  same  general  princi- 
ple. Yet  once  more  did  Hamilton  at- 
tempt to  vitiate  the  court,  by  demanding 
six  assessors  with  him,  to  take  part  in  the 
deliberations,  and  to  vote  on  all  questions  ; 
and  still  the  Assembly  kept  its  position, 
and  would  enter  on  no  public  business 
till  a  moderator  of  their  own  choice  had 
been  formally  placed  in  the  chair.  The 
marquis  at  length  gave  way,  protesting, 
meanwhile,  against  the  decision  of  the 
Assembly  on  each  of  these  points,  and 
being  met  by  counter  protestations ;  and, 
as  above  related,  the  Assembly  chose  for 
its  moderator,  Alexander  Henderson. 
The  choice  of  a  clerk  caused  a  new  strug- 
gle ;  but  again  the  Covenanters  prevailed, 
and  Archibald  Johnston  was  placed  in 
that  office. 

The  contest  still  continued,  and  on  what 
appeared  mere  matters  of  arrangement. 
The  declinature  of  the  prelates  was  now 
brought  forward  by  the  commissioner, 
and  requested  to  be  read  before  proceed- 
ing with  the  trial  of  the  commissions  of 
members  ;  but  as  this  paper  contained  a 
protestation  against  the  whole  members, 
and  would  have  borne  the  aspect  of  a  dis- 
qualification of  them  all,  the  Assembly  re- 
fused to  hear  the  declinature  till  the  com- 
missions had  been  all  tried,  that  the  court 
might  be  placed  in  a  state  of  valid  integri- 
ty before  hearing  a  paper  on  the  contents 
of  which  it  must  pass  judgment. 

These  preliminary  points  having  been 
thus  arranged,  the  decisive  movement 
could  no  longer  be  delayed.  The  declina- 
ture of  the  prelates  was  presented  to  the 


Assembly  by  Dr.  Hamilton  of  Glassford, 
who  appeared  as  their  procurator.  An  in- 
stantaneous effect  took  place,  which  they 
appeared  not  to  have  foreseen.  The  Cov 
enanters  took  instruments,  that  by  this  ve 
ry  declinature  the  prelates  had  acknow- 
ledged their  citation,  had  appeared  by 
their  procurator,  and  that  therefore,  their 
personal  absence  was  wilful.  Dr. Hamilton 
was  accordingly  cited  apud  acta,  and  they 
were  recognised  as  at  the  bar  of  the  As- 
sembly. A  committee  was  then  appoint- 
ed to  answer  the  declinature  ;  arid  when 
the  marquis  protested  against  this  proce- 
dure, a  counter  protest  was  immediately 
produced.  The  next  was  the  seventh 
day  of  the  Assembly's  meeting ;  and 
both  parties  were  conscious,  that  upon 
the  events  of  this  day  would  depend  the 
issue  of  their  long  and  arduous  struggle. 
A  slight  preliminary  skirmish  engaged 
their  attention  on  the  early  part  of  the 
day.  This  was  caused  by  the  Assemb- 
ly's committee  pronouncing  their  opinion 
that  the  five  books  which  had  been  pro- 
duced, purporting  to  be  the  records  of  the 
Church  from  the  time  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, were  genuine  and  authentic.  This 
the  lord  high  commissioner  opposed,  well 
knowing  that  if  these  records  were  sus- 
tained as  authentic  and  authoratative,  they 
would  furnish  principles,  regulations,  and 
precedents  amply  sufficient  to  justify  the 
condemnation  of  the  prelates.  But  the 
Assembly,  deeply  grateful  to  that  divine 
Providence  which  had  signally  preserv- 
ed these  records,  aud  caused  their  resto- 
ration to  the  Church  in  such  a  momen- 
tous crisis  of  its  historj^  received  these 
precious  volumes  gladly,  and  gave  to 
them  the  stamp  of  unanimous  approba- 
tion. The  answers  to  the  declinature  of 
the  prelates  were  then  read,  and  approv- 
ed of  by  the  Assembly,  although  Dr. 
Balcanquhal,  the  commissoner's  clerical 
adviser,  attempted  to  lead  the  discussion 
away  from  the  matter  in  hand,  and  to  in- 
volve them  in  scholastic  subtleties.  The 
moderator  now  put  the  question  to  the  As- 
sembly whether  they  found  themselves 
competent  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  case  of 
the  prelates,  notwithstanding  their  decli- 
nature. The  commissioner  immediately 
declared,  that  he  could  not  permit  the  As- 
sembly to  persevere  in  this  course  of  pro- 
cedure, so  contrary  to  the  express  inten- 
tions of  his  majesty.  He  complained  that 


A.  D.  1G38.] 


H.STORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


J69 


the  Assembly  was  vitiated  by  tbe  intro- 
duction of  what  he  termed  lay  elders,  and 
by  undue  influence  used  in  the  election 
of  members  ;  and  he  required  the  Assem- 
bly to  dissolve,  promising  to  procure  from 
the  king  authority  for  the  meeting  of  an- 
other, in  which  all  such  evils  might  be 
avoided.  Against  this  Henderson,  Rothes, 
and  Loudon  reasoned  and  protested,  ex- 
pressing at  the  same  time  their  deep  re- 
gret if  his  grace  should  forsake  the  As- 
sembly, but  their  determination  to  con- 
tinue its  sittings  till  it  should  have  accom- 
plished those  important  duties  for  the  dis- 
charge of  which  it  had  been  called.  The 
commissioner  put  an  end  to  the  discussion 
by  saying,  "  I  stand  to  the  king's  prerog- 
ative, as  supreme  judge  over  all  causes 
civil  and  ecclesiastical :  to  him  the  Lords 
of  the  clergy  have  appealed,  and  therefore 
I  will  not  suffer  their  cause  to  be  further 
reasoned  here."  This  he  uttered  with 
great  apparent  emotion,  even  with  tears, 
in  which  he  was  joined  by  many,  who 
thought  they  saw  in  his  departure  the 
final  dispelling  of  all  their  hopes  of  a  pa- 
cific settlement  to  those  troubles  by  which 
the  Church  and  the  kingdom  had  been 
so  long  afflicted  and  oppressed. 

The  Marquis  of  Argyle  (the  same  no- 
bleman hitherto  designated  Lord  Lorn, 
but  who  had  succeeded  to  the  higher  title 
by  the  recent  death  of  his  father)  attempted 
to  avert  or  delay  the  crisis,  by  introduc- 
ing a  discussion  respecting  the  two  ap- 
parently conflicting  Covenants  ;  but  Ham- 
ilton waived  the  subject,  and  called  on  the 
moderator  to  dissolve  the  meeting  by 
prayer.  This  Henderson  refused  to  do  ; 
upon  which  the  commissioner  protested 
in  his  majesty's  name  against  whatever 
might  be  done  by  the  Assembly,  declared 
it  dissolved  by  the  same  authority,  and 
prohibited  all  further  proceedings.  The 
Earl  of  Rothes  immediately  produced  a 
protestation  against  the  departure  of  the 
commissioner,  and  his  attempt  to  dissolve 
the  meeting  in  this  summary  manner, 
while  its  most  important  duties  were  still 
unfulfilled.  Argyle  remained  after  the 
commissioner  retired,  and  thus  gave  his 
countenance  to  the  Assembly  in  this  hour 
of  peril.  Nothing  daunted  or  confused 
by  what  had  taken  place,  Henderson  ad- 
dressed the  Assembly  in  a  very  noble 
speech,  full  of  the  calm  magnanimity  of 
the  Christian  character,  and  instinct  with 
22 


the  sacred  principles  of  spiritual  and  eter- 
nal truth.  Several  other  eminent  mem- 
bers of  this  great  Assembly  spoke,  and 
all  in  a  similar  spirit  of  Christian  faith 
and  Christian  fearlessness.  At  this  mo- 
ment of  deep  and  wide-spread  emotion,  an 
incident  occurred,  simple  in  itself,  yet 
rising  into  the  region  of  true  moral  sub- 
limity. Lord  Erskine,  son  of  the  Earl 
of  Mar,  a  young  nobleman  of  high  char- 
acter and  distinguished  talents,  rose  from 
the  gallery  where  he  was  seated  among 
the  youthful  nobility,  and  requested  per- 
mission to  address  the  Assembly.  He 
then  declared,  while  the  starting  tears  at- 
tested the  sincerity  of  his  declaration,  that 
he  had  hitherto  abstained  from  subscrib- 
ing the  Covenant,  against  the  light  and 
the  conviction  of  his  own  conscience ; 
begged  that  he  might  now  be  allowed  to 
affix  his  name  to  that  sacred  bond  ;  and 
implored  the  Assembly  to  pray  that  his 
sin  in  resisting  the  call  of  duty  might  be 
forgiven  him.  Several  others  followed 
the  example  of  this  noble  youth  ;  so  that, 
at  the  very  moment  when  the  frowns  of 
royal  wrath  were  darkening  over  the  As- 
sembly, the  light  of  God's  favour  shone 
upon  it,  and  the  impelling  power  of  the 
Spirit  of  truth,  in  answer  to  their  earnest 
prayers,  sent  to  the  rescue  the  glowing 
energies  of  ingenuous  youth,  like  a  fresh 
stream  of  new  life  pouring  its  warm 
might  into  the  sacred  bosom  of  Scotland's 
reviving  Church. 

The  moderator,  availing  himself  of 
this  encouraging  event,  put  the  question, 
Whether  the  Assembly  would  adhere  to 
the  protestation  against  the  commissioner's 
departure,  and  continue  together  till  they 
should  have  concluded  the  important  busi- 
ness on  account  of  which  they  had  met? 
This  was  'carried  .almost  unanimously; 
there  being  only  three  or  four  opposing 
votes.  The  next  question  was,  Whether 
the  Assembly  found  themselves  compe- 
tent judges  of  the  prelates  and  their  ad- 
herents, notwithstanding  their  declina- 
tures  and  protestation  ;  and  this  also  was 
unanimously  carried  in  the  affirmative,  or, 
if  not  unanimously,  with  only  three  or 
four  dissentient  voices. 

The  struggle  was  now  at  an  end  ;  and 
the  Assembly  proceeded  regularly  and 
calmly  forward  to  the  completion  of  its 
remaining  business.  Next  day  the  Mar- 
quis of  Hamilton  issued  a  proclamation, 


170 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


commanding  the  Assembly  to  dissolve ; 
which  was,  as  usual,  met  by  a  protesta- 
tion, and  no  further  notice  was  taken  of 
the  matter.  The  remaining  deeds  of  the 
Assembly  may  be  stated  in  a  few  senten- 
ces. An  act  was  passed,  annulling  all 
the  corrupt  Assemblies  by  which  Prelacy 
had  been  introduced, — those,  namely,  of 
the  years  1606,  1608,  1610,  1616,  1617, 
and  1618.  Asa  necessary  consequence, 
all  the  innovations  and  changes  made  by 
these  Assemblies  were  declared  illegal, 
and  all  the  obligations  imposed  on  ministers 
by  their  authority  pronounced  no  longer 
binding.  An  act  was  passed,  condemn- 
ing the  Five  Articles  of  Perth,  the  Book 
of  Canons,  the  Liturgy,  and  the  Book  of 
Ordination,  as  introduced  without  war- 
rant of  either  civil  or  ecclesiastical  autho- 
rity ;  and  the  Court  of  High  Commission 
also,  as  having  neither  act  of  Assembly 
nor  of  Parliament  in  its  support,  and  re- 
gulated by  no  law,  human  or  divine. 
Then  directing  their  attention  to  the  de- 
ceptive use  which  had  been  attempted  to 
be  made  of  the  Confession  or  Covenant 
of  1581,  it  was  clearly  proved  from  the 
language  of  acts  of  Assembly  before  and 
at  that  time,  that  diocesan  Episcopacy 
had  been  and  was  then  abjured  and  con- 
demned by  the  Church ;  and  upon  this 
demonstration  the  Assembly  passed  an 
act,  declaring,  "  that  all  Episcopacy  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  a  pastor  over  a  parti- 
cular flock  was  abjured  in  this  Kirk,  and 
is  to  be  removed  out  of  it."  Baillie  in- 
forms us,  that  he  was  himself  the  only 
person  who  hesitated  to  vote  for  this  mo- 
tion ;  and  that  his  hesitation  went  no  fur- 
ther than  to  give  a  brief  explanation  of 
his  views.*  This  trial  of  the  prelates 
had  been  prosecuted  for  many  days  with 
great  care  and  deliberation  ;  and  all  the 
accusations  having  been  fully  proved,  the 
moderator  was  appointed  to  pronounce 
the  sentence  of  Assembly.  This  he  did, 
after  having  preached  a  sermon  suitable 
to  the  occasion,  in  what  Bailie  terms,  "  a 
very  grave  and  dreadful  manner."  Eight 
were  deposed  and  excommunicated  ;  four 
merely  deposed  ;  and  two  deposed  from 
the  prelatic  station,  but  allowed  to  offici- 
ate as  pastors  of  single  congregations. 
Diocesan  Episcopacy,  or  rather  Prelacy 
(as  we  have  all  along  preferred  to  term 
it,  as  its  proper  designation),  having  been 

*  Baillie,  vol.  i.  p.  158. 


thus  condemned  and  abolished,  the  next 
step  naturally  was  the  passing  of  an  act 
restoring  to  kirk-sessions,  presbyteries, 
synods,  and  General  Assemblies,  the  full 
enjoyment  of  those  constitutional  privi- 
leges, liberties,  powers,  and  jurisdictions, 
according  to  the  Book  of  Discipline,  of 
which  they  had  been  deprived  by  prelatic 
usurpation.  In  completing  the  restoration 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  the  Assem- 
bly did  not  forget  certain  points  which  at 
such  a  time  might  have  seemed  of  com- 
paratively minor  importance.  The  prin- 
ciple that  no  person 'be  intruded  into  any 
parish  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  congre- 
gation, was  re-enacted  ;  and  presbyteries 
were  directed  to  see  that  schools  were 
provided  in  every  landward  parish,  and 
such  support  secured  to  schoolmasters  as 
should  render  education  easily  accessible 
to  the  whole  population  of  the  kingdom. 
Many  other  beneficial  enactments  were 
made,  which  our  limits  will  not  permit 
us  to  enumerate. 

At  length,  on  Thursday  the  20th  of 
December,  this  great  and  truly  noble 
General  Assembly  having  brought  all 
these  important  matters  to  a  satisfactory 
conclusion,  prepared  to  close  its  labours. 
The  next  Assembly  was  appointed  to 
meet  at  Edinburgh  on  the  third  Wednes- 
day of  July,  1639,  in  virtue  of  its  own 
intrinsic  powers,  whether  it  should  be 
called  by  his  majesty  or  not ;  with  this 
reservation,  that  if  the  king  should  of  his 
own  accord  call  a  meeting  of  the  Assem- 
bly on  a  different  day,  they  should  with 
all  diligence  and  respect  attend  the  time 
and  place  of  his  majesty's  appointment. 
Several  grave  addresses  and  admonitions 
were  then  delivered  by  the  moderator  and 
other  venerable  members ;  and  after 
prayer,  praise  and  the  apostolical  bene- 
diction, Henderson  pronounced  the  As- 
sembly concluded,  adding  these  remark- 
able words,  "  We  have  now  cast  down 
the  walls  of  Jericho.  Let  him  that  re- 
buildeth  them  beware  of  the  curse  of  Hid 
the  Bethelite." 

We  have  traced  with  some  minuteness, 
and  with  feelings  of  deep  veneration  and 
gratitude,  the  proceedings  of  this  ever- 
memorable  General  Assembly.  And 
when  our  readers  mark  with  what  calm- 
ness, prudence,  solemnity,  and  earnest- 
ness of  devotional  feeling  its  whole  pro- 
ceedings were  conducted, — how  much 


A.  D.  1638.] 


HISTORY   OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


171 


patience,  in  the  midst  of  innumerable 
attempts  to  retard,  violate  or  disturb  its 
progress, — how  little  of  vindictive  spirit 
against  the  prelates  from  whom  many  of 
the  members  had  sustained  great  personal 
injury, — how  steadily  they  maintained 
the  principles  of  loyalty  to  a  monarch  by 
whom,  at  the  same  time,  they  had  too 
much  reason  to  believe  they  were  both 
hatred  and  betrayed,  willing-  to  regard 
him  as  deceived,  and  not  intentionally 
tyrannical, — how  generously,  in  the 
midst  of  all  their  harassing  anxieties, 
they  directed  their  attention  to  the  wants 
and  the  welfare  of  the  whole  population 
of  their  beloved  native  land,  securing,  to 
the  utmost  of  their  power,  to  the  poor 
man  those  inestimable  blessings,  the  free 
and  pure  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  and 
the  education  of  his  children, — and,  above 
all,  how  nobly,  fearlessly,  and  piously, 
Scotland's  National  Church  vindicated 
the  sole  sovereignty  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  her  only  and  Divine  Head  and 
King, — it  must,  we  think,  be  humbly  and 
gratefully  owned,  that  much  of  the  pres- 
ence and  the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  wis- 
dom, peace  and  truth,  was  there ;  and 
that  a  glory,  sacred  and  imperishable, 
must  ever  rest  on  the  memory  of  that  ven- 
erable General  Assembly  whom  God 
honoured  to  accomplish  Scotland's  SEC- 
OND REFORMATION. 

It  would  be  inexpedient  to  interrupt  the 
progress  of  the  narrative  by  any  pro- 
tracted disquisitions ;  but  we  trust  we 
may  be  forgiven  for  directing  the  atten- 
tion of  the  reader  to  one  or  two  important 
lines  of  thought.  The  whole  proceed- 
ings of  the  Assembly  of  1638  present  the 
most  signal  illustration  that  could  be  con- 
ceived of  one  of  our  introductory  remarks, 
namely,  the  re-appearance  at  peculiar 
junctures,  of  those  great  principles  which 
constitute  the  moral  and  religious  life  of 
a  nation,  although  they  may  have  been 
for  a  time  so  much  obscured  and  over- 
borne, that  a  superficial  observer  might 
have  thought  them  sunk  into  entire  and 
perpetual  oblivion. 

The  great  principles  of  the  Reforma- 
tion had  pierced  into  the  very  core  of 
Scotland's  heart,  and  had  there  deposited 
their  vital  energies  ;  but  their  growing 
development  had  been  at  first  obstructed 
by  the  selfishness  and  rapacity  of  the  no- 
bles, and  subsequently  fettered  and  cast 


into  dark  imprisoned  torpor  by  the  kino 
himself,  who  wished  to  substitute  a  frame 
of  church  government  and  discipline  of 
an  entirely  different  and  uncongenial  na- 
ture. But  though  thus  repressed,  and  ap- 
parently dormant,  these  principles  were 
not  extinct.  They  formed  the  hidden  life 
of  Scotland  still ;  awaiting  but  the  time 
when  the  Divine  Spirit,  by  whom  they 
had  been  breathed  into  the  nation,  should 
again  revive,  awaken  and  call  them  forth, 
and  the  hand  of  Providence  should  rend 
asunder  the  fettering  cerements  within 
which  they  had  been  starkly  swathed, 
and  bid  them  live  and  act  anew.  In  the 
second  Reformation  there  was  not  one 
principle  called  into  action  which  had 
not  been  either  in  active  operation,  or  at 
least  distinctly  stated,  in  the  first.  Nor 
was  there  a  single  step  taken  for  which 
there  could  not  be  shown  both  a  prece- 
dent in  the  previous  history  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  of  Scotland,  and  a  direct 
authority  from  Scripture.  And  even  in 
those  parts  of  their  proceedings  which  to 
some  have  appeared  most  questionable, 
such  as  continuing  to  sit  notwithstanding 
the  departure  of  the  commissioner,  and 
the  deposition  and  excommunication  of 
the  prelatic  party,  their  conduct  will  be 
found,  when  fairly  examined,  to  have 
been  altogether  beyond  the  reach  of  cen- 
sure,— nay,  deserving  of  the  highest  ap- 
probation. To  the  king,  in  all  civil  mat- 
ters, they  rendered  the  most  implicit  obe- 
dience ;  while  they  calmly  but  resolutely 
refused  to  yield  him  that  obedience  in  re- 
ligious matters,  which  could  not  have 
been  granted  without  violating  their  alle- 
giance to  Christ,  as  the  only  Head  and 
King  of  the  Church.  At  the  same  time 
they  most  pointedly  not  only  admitted 
the  right,  but  asserted  the  duty,  of  a 
Christian  sovereign  to  defend  the  liber- 
ties and  maintain  the  purity  of  a  Christian 
Church.  They  clearly  distinguished  be- 
tween his  power  in  the  Church,  as  a 
member  of  it  and  nothing  more,  and  his 
power  to  regulate  external  arrangements, 
and  enact  and  enforce  national  laws,  con- 
cerning the  Church,  as  a  Christian  king, 
bound  by  his  own  solemn  oaths  to  be  a 
nursing  father  to  the  Church,  to  protect 
and  cherish  it,  and  by  that  means,  and 
through  its  unfettered  instrumentality, 
best  to  promote  the  moral  and  religious 
welfare  of  the  kingdom.  And  in  the  de- 


172 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


'position  and  excommunication  of  the  pre- 
latic  party,  nothing-  was  done  but  what 
was  in  direct  accordance  with  many  acts 
ooth.  of  Assembly  and  of  Parliament  ; 
and,  what  is  of  infinitely  greater  impor- 
tance, all  was  founded  on  the  explicit  au- 
thority of  the  Word  of  God.  Before  a 
single  prelate  was  deposed  or  excommu- 
nicated, he  was  proved,  by  incontrover- 
tible evidence,  to  have  been  guilty  of 
false  doctrine,  of  introducing-  popish  cere- 
monies, of  attempts  to  subvert  the  church 
government  and  discipline  which  he  had 
sworn  to  maintain,  of  tyrannical  viola- 
tions of  national  laws,  and  of  such  gross 
personal  crimes  and  immoralities  as  ren- 
dered him  utterly  unworthy  to  hold  any 
office  in  a  Christian  Church.  Even  then, 
so  tenderly  were  those  abandoned  men 
treated,  that  a  regular  form  of  procedure 
was  appointed  for  their  expression  of  pen- 
itence and  restoration  to  the  Church,  as 
members  and  ministers,  should  they  be 
moved  to  repentance,  and  seek  to  be  re- 
stored. Pride  is  not  a  sentiment  which 
any  human  being  ought  ever  to  cherish, 
and  therefore  we  dare  not  say  that  Scot- 
land has  reason  to  be  proud  of  the  great 
men  who  composed  that  Assembly  and 
conducted  its  proceedings  ;  but  we  will 
say,  that  every  true  Presbyterian  must 
ever  hold  them  in  the  highest  esteem  and 
veneration,  while  with  humble  gratitude 
we  adore  the  gracious  and  merciful  Re- 
deemer, who  shed  down  on  them  so 
abundantly  the  promise  of  the  Father, 
the  Holy  Spirit,  erilip-htening,  guiding, 
and  supporting  them  in  their  truly  glori- 
ous defence  of  the  unalienable  preroga- 
tives of  his  spiritual  kingdom. 

[1639.]  The  Covenanters  had  now 
completely  taken  their  ground,  from 
which  they  well  knew  that  they  could 
not  retreat ;  but  they  were  anxious  to 
avoid  hostilities  if  possible.  For  this  rea- 
son, several  of  their  leading  men  waited 
on  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton,  before  his 
departure  from  Edinburgh,  to  entreat  his 
friendly  mediation  with  the  king.  Ham- 
ilton was  too  well  acquainted  with  his 
majesty's  sentiments  and  intentions  to  an- 
ticipate any  favourable  result;  and  there- 
fore not  only  refused  to  undertake  the 
task  of  attempting  to  mitigate  the  king's 
resentment,  but  replied  to  the  Covenant- 
ers in  terms  of  reproach  and  threatening. 
But  they  were  too  earnestly  desirous  of 


peace  to  be  deterred  from  prosecuting 
their  loyal  and  pacific  course  by  one  un- 
gracious refusal;  and  they  accordingly 
determined  to  send  their  supplication  to 
his  majesty  himself,  by  one  of  their  own 
body,  however  perilous  the  enterprise. 
The  supplication  was  couched  in  the  most 
dutiful  and  submissive  language,  putting 
it  in  the  king's  power  to  come  to  an  ami- 
cable arrangement  with  his  faithful  sub- 
jects, not  only  without  submitting  to  any 
humiliating  conditions,  but  with  ample 
security  to  his  honour  and  dignity.  A  lit- 
tle, a  very  little,  more  judgment  and  less 
passion  on  the  part  of  his  majesty  might 
even  then  have  put  an  end  to  all  existing 
contentions,  and  prevented  the  subsequent 
miseries  and  sufferings  both  of  the  nation 
and  of  the  ill-starred  monarch.  Mr. 
George  Winram  of  Liberton  undertook 
the  hazardous  duty  of  carrying  the  sup- 
plication to  London,  and  of  attempting  to 
have  it  presented  to  the  king,  although 
aware  that  his  life  would  be  endangered 
by  the  unwelcome  mission.  His  majesty 
thought  proper  to  permit  it  to  be  read  to 
him  by  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton  ;  but 
the  only  answer  he  returned  was  by  ut- 
tering, in  a  tone  between  indignation  and 
mockery,  the  Scottish  proverb,  "  When 
they  have  broken  my  head,  they  will  put 
on  my  coul."  The  supplication  was  pre- 
sented on  the  15th  of  January;  and  al- 
though Winram  waited  till  the  middle  of 
March,  he  could  obtain  no  other  answer  ; 
but  his  presence  in  London  so  long  ena- 
bled him  to  transmit  to  Scotland  valuable 
information  respecting  the  king's  designs 
and  preparations. 

As  the  displeasure  of  the  king  was  so 
great,  so  his  preparations  for  war  were 
on  a  scale  so  extensive  as  to  indicate 
clearly  that  he  intended  nothing  less  than 
the  complete  subjugation  of  the  kingdom. 
His  majesty's  plan  was,  to  levy  an  army 
of  thirty  thousand  infantry  and  six  thou- 
sand cavalry  ;  to  put  strong  garrisons  in 
Berwick  and  Carlisle  ;  to  send  a  division 
of  five  thousand  men  to  Aberdeenshire 
to  form  a  junction  with  the  Marquis  of 
Huntly,  who  might  either  divide  the 
Covenanters,  or  operate  on  their  rear  ; 
to  send  a  strong  fleet  under  the  Marquis 
of  Hamilton  to  the  Frith  of  Forth,  for 
the  purpose  of  blockading  the  harbours, 
intercepting  supplies  of  arms  and  ammu- 
nition, and  spreading  alarm  along  the 


A.  D.  1639.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


173 


coasts  of  Fife  and  Lothian  ;  and  having 
completed  these  arrangements,  to  place 
himself  at  the  head  of  his  main  army, 
and  advance  into  Scotland  in  such  force 
as  to  bear  down  all  opposition.  To  com- 
plete the  scheme,  the  Earl  of  Antrim 
was  to  raise  at  least  ten  thousand  men, 
and  invade  Argyleshire  ;  and  the  Earl 
of  Stiatiord  was  to  take  the  command  of 
a  navai  armament,  and  with  it  to  sail  up 
the  Frith,  of  Clyde,  to  rouse  and  encour- 
age the  Marquis  of  Hamilton's  adher- 
ents, and  to  sweep  the  seas  and  devastate 
the  shores  ol  the  west  of  Scotland.*  To 
meet  the  heavy  expenditure  of  such  ex- 
tensive preparations,  the  king  resorted  to 
the  natural  but  unconstitutional  process 
of  procuring  supplies  of  money  from  the 
private  resources  of  those  who  approved 
of  the  object  for  which  war  was  to  be 
waged  ;  and,  as  was  to  be  expected,  the 
English  bishops  contributed  liberally  for 
the  support  of  this  hierarchical  war. 

Nor  were  the  Covenanters  blind  to 
their  perilous  condition.  However  re- 
luctant to  resort  to  even  a  defensive  war, 
they  felt  it  to  be  their  duty  to  put  them- 
selves into  the  best  state  for  either  defend- 
ing their  civil  and  religious  liberties,  like 
men  who  knew  their  value,  or  at  least  ex- 
hibiting such  a  resolute  and  imposing 
front  as  should  induce  his  majesty  to 
grant  favourable  terms  rather  than  haz- 
ard an  encounter  where  victory  was  un- 
certain and  defeat  would  be  ruinous.  But 
as  it  was  in  their  estimation  a  matter  of 
the  utmost  importance  to  clear  their  pro- 
ceedings from  the  imputation  of  rebellion 
so  pertinaciously  charged  upon  them  by 
their  enemies,  they  published  an  "In- 
formation to  all  good  Christians  within 
the  kingdom  of  England,"  vindicating 
their  past  conduct  and  their  present  in- 
tentions from  the  calumnious  aspersions 
of  the  prelatic  party.  This  paper  was 
extensively  circulated  in  England,  and 
was  successful  in  removing  many  preju- 
dices, and  awaking  a  considerable  feel- 
ing of  approbation.  To  counteract  this, 
the  king  employed  Dr.  Balcanquhal, 
who  had  been  Hamilton's  clerical  advi- 
ser at  the  Glasgow  Assembly,  to  write 
an  account  of  the  whole  of  the  proceed- 
ings in  Scotland  which  had  led  to  the 
present  state  of  affairs.  This  paper,  after 

*  Burnet's  Memoirs,  p.  113. 


being  revised  by  Charles  himself,  wa.s 
published  as  a  royal  manifesto,  and  is 
known  by  the  title  of  "  The  Large  De- 
claration." A  proclamation  was  about 
the  same  time  published  by  the  king,  of 
the  same  purport,  which  was  also  speedily 
answered  by  the  Covenanters  :  and  the 
answer  was  perused  with  great  attention 
and  considerable  sympathy  in  England. 
Having  thus  done  every  thing  in  their 
power  to  prove  the  goodness  of  their 
cause  and  their  own  earnest  desire  of 
peace,  the  Covenanters  proceeded  to  de- 
liberate concerning  the  propriety  of  even 
a  defensive  war.  Considerable  numbers 
of  them  entertained  the  opinion,  that  re- 
sistance to  the  civil  magistrate  was  un- 
lawful for  Christians,  how  despotic  and 
oppressive  soever  might  be  his  couduct. 
And  so  far  as  suffering  the  penalties  of 
even  an  unjust  and  tyrannical  law 
was  involved  in  the  question,  the  majori- 
ty would  have  submitted,  with  no  other 
kinds  of  opposition  than  those  of  remon- 
strances and  supplications,  though  there 
were  others  who  held  bolder  opinions  on 
that  subject.  But  all  were  compelled  to 
perceive  that  the  king  had  much  more 
in  view  than  to  allow  them  even  the  hard 
alternative  of  obedience  or  punishment, 
which  in  matters  distinctly  religious 
must  always  subject  men  to  penalties,  till 
the  civil  magistrate  can  be  prevailed  on 
to  relax  his  requirements.  The  inten- 
tion of  his  majesty,  it  was  easily  seen, 
was  positively,  to  compel  them  to  adopt 
all  those  changes  in  religious  worship 
which  he  might  think  proper  to  intro- 
duce, and  to  prohibit  absolutely  and  un- 
conditionally those  modes  of  worship 
which  they  believed  to  be  most  accordant 
with  the  Word  and  will  of  God.  The 
alternative  was  not  obedience,  or  the  for- 
feiture of  certain  civil  advantages  and  the 
infliction  of  certain  temporal  penalties ; 
but  obedience,  or  imprisonment,  exile  and 
death;  or  rather  it  was,  obey  the  king, 
though  you  should  thereby  be  disobe- 
dient to  God.  With  deep  and  anxious 
solicitude  they  set  themselves  to  the  in- 
vestigation of  this  momentous  question  ; 
and,  after  the  most  profound  and  studious 
perusal  of  eminent  divines  and  jurists, 
and  especially  of  the  Bible,  they  arrived 
at  the  conclusion,  that  a  Christian  people 
were  entitled  to  take  urj  arms  in  defence 


174 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


of  their  religious  liberties  against  any  as- 
sailant.* 

We  do  not  attempt  to  give  even  an  out- 
line of  the  elaborate  writings  of  the  Cove- 
nanters on  this  highly  important  ques- 
tion ;  chiefly  because  the  most  of  their 
leading  propositions  have  long  been  re- 
ceived into  the  national  mind,  and  even 
form  essential  elements  in  the  British 
constitution,  so  far  at  least  as  civil  liberty 
is  concerned.  They  were,  however,  at 
the  time,  far  beyond  the  general  senti- 
ments of  the  age, — loftier,  nobler,  and 
more  true  than  those,  the  defence  of 
which  rendered  illustrious  the  boasted 
Hambdens  and  Sidneys  of  England. 
But  we  deem  it  right  to  direct  the  atten- 
tion of  the  reader  to  this  almost  startling 
truth,  that  while  the  empire  at  large  has 
imbibed  and  ratified  their  sentiments  with 
regard  to  civil  liberty,  which  was  with 
them  in  reality  a  subordinate  considera- 
tion, those  sacred  principles  of  religious 
freedom,  of  sole  allegiance  to  Christ  in 
matters  of  faith,  in  defence  of  which 
alone  they  resolved  to  confront  their 
earthly  sovereign,  have  not  yet  been 
thoroughly  received  into  the  national 
mind,  and  have  never  been  regarded 
with  equal  favour  by  the  historian, 
the  philosopher,  or  the  statesman. 
Why  has  this  been  the  case?  Be- 
cause, while  all  men  can  so  far  under- 
stand their  natural  rights,  and  value  their 
civil  liberties,  no  man  can  understand 
sacred  rights  and  value  spiritual  liberties 
till  he  has  been  made  a  freeman  of  the 
Lord.  Therefore  is  the  main  principle 
of  the  Covenanters  still  assailed,  and 
must  be  still  defended,  though  we  trust 
no  longer  with  the  weapons  of  earthly 
warfare.  A  man  may  lose  his  civil 
liberties,  or  submit  to  civil  wrongs,  and 
be  a  Christian  still ;  but  a  Christian  can- 
not yield  up  his  religious  liberty  without 
committing  grievoys  sin,  sinking  into  the 
condition  of  a  slave,  and  forfeiting  his 
hopes  of  heaven. 

Having  thus  arrived  at  the  important 
conclusion  that  it  was  their  clear  and  im- 
perative duty  to  defend  their  religious 
liberties,  the  Covenanters  commenced 
their  preparations  for  defence  with  great 
promptitude  and  energy.  A  committee, 
on  the  plan  of  the  Tables,  was  appointed 
to  sit  at  Edinburgh,  and  to  exercise  full 

Baillie,  vol.  i.  p.  189. 


executive  powers,  holding  correspon- 
dence with  subordinate  committees  in 
every  county,  and  giving  simultaneous 
directions  to  the  kingdom.  And  as  the 
ministers  had  now  become  almost  univer- 
sally convinced  of  the  lawfulness  of  a  de- 
fensive war,  they  no  longer  felt  any  hesi- 
tation in  recommending  that  measure  to 
the  people,  rousing  their  courage,  and 
stimulating  their  religious  zeal.  Arms 
and  ammunition  were  procured  in  consi- 
derable quantities  ;  the  most  experienced 
officers  were  distributed  throughout  the 
kingdom,  to  instruct  others,  and  to  begin, 
if  not  the  actual  levies  of  troops,  at  Jeast 
the  occasional  training  of  such  men  as 
expressed  willingness  to  serve  when  re- 
quired. It  was  debated  whether  assis- 
tance should  be  sought  from  foreign 
powers;  but  this  was  overruled,  as  of  a 
more  questionable  character  than  merely 
standing  on  their  own  defence  ;  and  the 
utmost  that  was  permitted  was,  that  let- 
ters might  be  written  to  certain  continen- 
tal kings  and  states,  requesting  them  to 
intercede  with  Charles  on  behalf  of  his 
Scottish  subjects.  Even  this  was  very 
partially  done.  The  letter  to  the  king 
of  France  was  written  and  subscribed  by 
a  few  of  the  nobles,  but  never  forwarded 
to  its  destination,  though  the  bare  fact  of 
its  havfng  been  written  and  signed  ex- 
posed the  Earl  of  Loudon  to  the  extreme 
peril  of  his  life  a  short  while  afterwards. 
But  while  the  country  was  thus  rapid- 
ly arming  in  self-defence,  it  was  resolved 
that  theirs  should  not  be  the  first  overt 
act  of  hostility.  They  even  submitted  to 
several  minor  outrages  of  a  warlike  na- 
ture, willing  to  postpone  the  actual  colli- 
sion to  the  latest  possible  period,  in  the 
faint  hope  that  some  pacific  arrangement 
might  yet  be  made.  Many  Scottish  mer- 
chants and  travellers  were  seized  in  Eng- 
land and  Ireland,  and  treated  as  rebels ; 
the  Marquis  of  Huntly  seized  upon  the 
city  of  Aberdeen,  and  put  it  in  a  state  of 
fortified  defence;  and  the  Popish  lords 
began  to  arm  in  different  quarters  of  the 
kingdom  ;  while  English  troops  were  not 
only  assembling  rapidly  at  York,  but 
also  hovering  in  threatening  bands  along 
the  borders,  and  the  Irish  were  preparing 
to  invade  the  western  coasts.  At  this 
time  the  castles  of  Edinburgh  and  Dum- 
barton were  both  in  the  hands  of  the  roy- 
alists ;  but  as  the  Covenanters  perceived 


A.  D.  1639.1 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


175 


the  danger  of  leaving  these  strong  fortress- 
es in  the  possession  of  their  enemies 
when  they  should  be  compelled  to  march 
southward  to  repel  the  invaders,  it  was 
determined  to  anticipate  and  remove  that 
peril.  They  were  accordingly  both 
seized  on  the  same  day  ;  and  so  well  had 
the  Covenanters  laid  their  schemes,  that 
these  important  strengths  were  secured 
without  the  loss  of  a  single  life.  Dalkeith 
was  also  taken  without  a  blow,  and  a 
large  quantity  of  military  stores  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  captors.  The  Earl  of 
Montrose  was  sent  to  the  north,  to  coun- 
teract the  influence  of  Huntly;  and  as 
Montrose  was  not  so  scrupulous  as  the 
other  leaders  of  the  Presbyterians,  he 
speedily  reduced  Aberdeen,  forcibly  com- 
pelled the  citizens  to  subscribe  the  Cove- 
nant,* and  having  obtained  possession  of 
Huntly  himself,  not  by  the  most  honoura- 
ble means,  carried  that  dangerous  noble- 
man with  him  to  Edinburgh. 

To  complete  their  defensive  arrange- 
ments, they  resolved  to  fortify  Leith,  and 
by  that  means  to  protect  the  capital  from 
assault  by  sea.  As  this  was  an  object  of 
great  importance,  it  was  undertaken  and 
carried  forward  with  corresponding  en- 
ergy. The  nobles  of  the  Covenant  began 
the  works  with  their  own  hands,  which 
were  prosecuted  night  arid  day  without 
intermission,  all  classes  and  ranks  vieing 
with  each  other  in  carrying  forward  the 
labour,  and  even  ladies  of  distinction 
stimulating  the  enthusiastic  ardour  of  the 
men  by  personally  sharing  in  their  toils. 
In  an  almost  incredibly  short  period  Leith 
was  completely  fortified ;  and  the  towns 
along  the  Fifeshire  coast  were  put  in  a 
state  of  defence  by  the  erection  of  batteries 
on  the  most  commanding  positions. 

These  prompt  and  decisive  measures 
put  an  end  to  the  king's  hopes  of  paralyz- 
ing the  Covenanters  by  internal  disunion, 
and  there  remained  but  two  alternatives, 
— either  to  subdue  Scotland  by  the  force 
of  English  and  Irish  arms,  or  to  treat 
with  it  on  fair  and  equal  terms.  Unhap- 
pily Charles  chose  the  former  alternative, 
even  though  there  were  not  wanting 
symptoms  which  ought  to  have  caused 
him  to  pause  in  his  perilous  enterprise. 
Indications  sufficiently  intelligible  were 

*  It  deserves  to  be  noted,  that  this  was  the  first  in- 
stance in  which  any  were  compelled  to  subscribe  the 
Covenant,  and  that  this  was  done  by  Montrose  on  his 
own  sole  authority. 


given  to  him,  that  the  high  heart  of  Eng- 
land was  disinclined  to  the  invasion  of 
Scotland  in  such  a  cause.  Many  saw 
clearly  that  the  king's  success  in  subju- 
gating the  Scottish  Covenanters  would 
enable  him  to  forge  for  themselves  the 
fetters  of  absolute  despotism ;  and  not 
few  entered  more  deeply  into  the  question, 
and  perceived  in  his  attempt  the  real 
spirit  of  Popery,  regarding  it  as  a  distinc- 
tion of  little  moment  whether  a  foreign 
prelate  or  a  native  monarch  should  as- 
sume and  exercise  that  lordship  over  the 
conscience  which  belongs  to  God  alone. 
Some  of  the  nobility  declared  that  they 
would  not  aid  in  the  invasion  of  Scotland 
till  the  consent  of  parliament  had  been 
sought  and  obtained  ;  and,  in  general,  the 
supplies  of  both  men  and  money  fell  far 
short  of  the  king's  expectations.  Still,  as 
Charles  could  not  believe  that  the  Cove- 
nanters would  dare  to  meet  him  on  the 
field,  he  adhered  to  his  warlike  resolu- 
tions ;  and,  having  mustered  his  forces  at 
York  in  the  beginning  of  April,  he  sent 
the  Marquis  of  Hamilton  with  a  fleet  to 
the  Frith  of  Forth,  and  began  his  own 
march  at  the  head  of  his  army,  to  invade 
his  ancient  kingdom. 

After  a  series  of  ominous  delays,  the 
Marquis  of  Hamilton  arrived  with  his 
fleet  in  the  Frith  ;  but  no  sooner  was  he 
descried,  than  the  beacons  were  lighted, 
and  brave  men  rushed  from  all  quarters 
to  the  points  of  danger,  like  descending 
mountain  torrents.  Instead  of  being  able 
to  effect  an  "  awful  diversion,"  as  the  king 
had  commanded  him,  by  landing  and 
laying  waste  the  country  "with  fire  and 
sword,"*  he  found  himself  actually  sur- 
rounded by  forces  immensely  superior  to 
his  own.  All  his  efforts  were  therefore 
reduced  to  a  paper  warfare,  in  which,  as 
formerly,  he  found  himself  overmatched 
by  his  able  antagonists.  At  length  he 
was  summoned  to  meet  the  king  near 
Berwick,  to  strengthen  the  operations  by 
land,  since  his  attempts  by  sea  were  so 
ineffectual.  When  the  parliament  met  in 
Edinburgh,  it  was  immediately  prorogued 
by  the  king ;  and  to  this  prorogation  they 
yielded  without  the  slightest  opposition, 
contrary  to  the  expectation  and  the  wish 
of  their  enemies.  But  in  this  they  merely 
acted  in  accordance  with  their  own  high 
and  well-defined  principles  ;  they  yielded 

•  Burnet's  Memoir,  pp.  121-123. 


176 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


to  the  king  all  due  and  constitutional  obe- 
dience in  matters  purely  civil,  refusing 
only  that  obedience  in  spiritual  matters  to 
which  he  was  not  entitled,  and  which 
they  could  not  render  without  sin. 

Another  slight  alarm  was  raised  in  the 
north  by  the  reising  of  Huntly's  adher- 
ents, who  seized  Aberdeen,  and  threaten- 
ed a  descent  upon  the  southern  provinces. 
This  was  again  speedily  suppressed  by 
Montrose,  who  now  treated  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Aberdeen  and  the  adjacent  coun- 
try with  considerable  severity,  levying  a 
heavy  contribution,  and  committing  some 
acts  of  pillage  upon  the  defenceless  inhab- 
itants, inconsistent  with  his  present  reli- 
gious profession,  though  sufficiently  na- 
tural to  his  real  character,  as  afterwards 
developed. 

War  was  now  begun ;  but  still  the 
Covenanters  were  anxious  for  peace,  if  it 
could  be  obtained  without  the  sacrifice  of 
religious  purity  and  truth.  Repeatedly  did 
they  send  deputations  to  his  majesty,  while 
on  his  march  ;  but  the  haughty  monarch 
refused  to  listen  to  their  supplications, 
and  would  hear  of  nothing  but  the  renun- 
ciation of  the  .Covenant  and  the  Glasgow 
Assembly,  and  an  unconditional  submis- 
sion to  his  royal  will.  It  was  now  time 
to  move  forward  in  their  united  might; 
but,  animated  by  the  same  religious  spirit 
which  had  guided  all  their  past  conduct, 
they  would  not  go  till  they  had  done 
their  utmost  to  secure  the  hope  that  God 
had  gone  before  them.  A  solemn  fast 
was  held,  and  many  earnest  prayers  were 
offered  up  to  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  implor- 
ing Him  to  guide  all  their  movements, 
and  to  crown  them  with  victory  in  that 
sacred  cause  which  they  regarded  as 
most  truly  His  own.  The  committee 
next  issued  directions  to  the  kingdom  to 
regulate  the  conduct  of  their  adherents  in 
the  muster  and  the  march  to  head-quar- 
ters. They  then  marched  forward  in 
two  divisions ;  the  main  body,  under 
General  Leslie,  halted  at  Dunglas ;  and 
a  strong  detachment,  under  Monro,  took 
up  a  position  at  Kelso.  The  latter  body 
came  first  into  contest  with  a  division  of 
the  king's  forces,  which  had  been  sent 
forward  to  publish  a  proclamation,  and  at 
sight  of  the  Scottish  troops,  turned  and 
fled1  with  great  precipitation ; — proving 
thereby,  no4  their  want  of  courage,  but 


their  want  of  inclination  to  fight  in  such 
a  quarrel. 

The  result  of  this  rencounter,  and  the 
nature  of  the  royal  proclamation  com- 
manding them  to  lay  down  their  arms 
within  eight  days,  on  pain  of  being  de- 
clared rebels,  their  lands  forfeited,  and  a 
price  set  on  their  heads,  convinced  the 
Scottish  leaders  that  their  reluctance  to 
proceed  to  hostilities  was  regarded  by  the 
king  as  caused  by  fear,  and  not  the  effect 
of  conscientious  loyalty.  They  determin- 
ed to  relieve  his  majesty  from  this  mis- 
take, and  accordingly  advanced  to  Dunse 
Law,  where  they  encamped  within  sight 
of  the  royal  army,  at  a  distance  of  little 
more  than  six  miles.  When  they  first 
pitched  their  tents  on  Dunse  Law,  on  the 
1st  of  June,  the  army  was  about  twelve 
thousand  strong,  but  in  a  few  days  it  was 
increased  to  nearly  twice  that  number,  full 
of  courage,  and  confident  in  the  goodness 
of  their  cause. 

The  army  of  the  Covenanters  present- 
ed such  a  spectacle  as  has  been  rarely 
witnessed.  The  hill  on  which  they 
had  taken  up  their  position  is  of  a  conic 
form,  about  a  Scottish  mile  in  circumfer- 
ence, rising  gradually  to  the  height  of  a 
bowshot,  where  it  terminates  in  a  plain  of 
nearly  thirty  acres  in  extent.  This  level 
summit  was  bristled  round  with  forty 
field-pieces,  commanding  the  two  roads 
that  led  to  the  capital.  Around  the  sides 
of  the  hill  were  pitched  the  tents  of  the 
army,  each  regiment  in  its  own  respect- 
ive cluster.  A  banner-staff  was  planted 
firmly  at  each  captain's  tent-door,  from 
which  floated  the  Scottish  colours,  dis- 
playing not  only  the  national  arms,  but 
also  this  inscription  in  golden  letters, 
"FOR  CHRIST'S  CROWN  AND  COVENANT." 
explanatory  of  the  sacred  cause  for  which 
this  dauntless  banner  was  again  spread 
on  the  winds.  A  minister  of  the  highest 
character  and  abilities  was  attached  to 
each  regiment ;  and  regularly  as  morn- 
ing dawned  and  evening  fell,  the  troops 
were  summoned,  by  beat  of  drum,  or 
sound  of  trumpet,  to  their  devotional  du- 
ties, which  were  conducted  generally  by 
the  .same  reverend  pastors  to  whose  pray- 
ers and  exhortations  they  had  listened  on 
days  of  Sabbath  stillness,  among  their 
own  rural  and  peaceful  homes.  The 
army  was  chiefly  composed  of  Scotland's 


A.  D.  1639.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


177 


thoughtful  and  high-souled  peasantry, — 
men  strong-  of  frame  and  bold  of  heart,  to 
whom  religious  liberty  was  dear  because 
they  had  felt  and  known  its  priceless  val- 
ue, and  therefore  were  prepared  to  peril 
life  itself  in  its  defence.  Led  on  by  their 
time-honoured  nobility,  encouraged  by 
their  beloved  pastors,  and  convinced  by 
the  goodness  of  their  cause  that  Heaven 
was  on  their  side,  these  dreadless  men 
looked  forward  to  the  hour  of  battle  as  to 
that  of  certain  victory.  Theirs  was  not 
the  fiery  courage  of  untamed  blood  and 
reckless  hardihood,  but  the  calm,  deliber- 
ate fortitude  of  men  who  feared  God,  and 
knew  no  other  fear.  It  was  not  strange 
that  Charles  recoiled  from  encountering 
such  a  foe.* 

Perceiving  the  formidable  strength  and 
dauntless  resolution  of  the  Scottish  army, 
Charles  became  anxious  to  treat  with  men 
on  whom  he  now  saw  that  he  could  not 
trample.  Yet  pride  withheld  him  from 
making  the  first  proposals  otherwise  than 
by  stealth.  No  sooner  did  the  Covenant- 
ers learn  that  the  king  might  now  listen 
to  overtures  for  the  peaceful  termination 
of  the  struggle,  than  they  sent  an  embassy 
to  supplicate  his  majesty  to  bestow  on 
their  requests  and  statement  of  grievances 
a  favourable  audience.  Both  parties  be- 
ing now  willing  to  come  to  pacific  terms, 
the  adjustment  of  preliminaries  was  not 
a  matter  of  extreme  difficulty,  although 
the  king  was  careful  to  maintain  such 
punctilious  forms  as  should,  in  his  opin- 
ion, save  his  honour,  and  not  too  greatly 
mortify  his  pride.  As  it  was  not  pride, 
but  religious  principle,  by  which  the 
Covenanters  were  actuated,  they  were 
content  to  make  e\  ery  reasonable  conces- 
sion, and  to  soothe  the  monarch's  wounded 
feelings  to  the  utmost.  Yet  the  negotia- 
tions were  at  one  time  nearly  interrupted 
at  the  instigation  of  the  Scottish  prelates, 
who  were  willing  to  peril  their  sove- 
reign's life,  and  the  peace  of  their  native 
land,  in  the  prosecution  of  their  own  ava- 
ricious and  revengeful  desires.  But  a 
significant  hint  from  Leslie  of  his  inten- 
tion to  advance  his  army  within  cannon- 
shot  of  the  royal  camp,  caused  an  imme- 
diate change  in  the  lowering  aspect  of 
affairs,  and  the  negotiations  were  not 
only  resumed,  but  brought  to  a  speedy 


*  For  a  more  full  account,  see  Baillie.  pp.  210-214 ; 
Stevenson,  pp.  373,  374. 

23 


conclusion.  Although  the  king  would 
not  grant  directly  the  requests  of  the 
Covenanters,  he  thought  it  prudent  to  ac- 
cede to  articles  of  pacification  in  which 
they  were  virtually  involved.  He  con- 
sented to  the  ratification  of  all  that  had 
been  deceptively  promised  by  the  Mar- 
quis of  Hamilton  to  the  Glasgow  Assem- 
bly, though  he  would  not  allow  that  As- 
sembly to  be  specifically  named.  To  this 
was  added,  that  an  Assembly  should  be 
held  at  Edinburgh  on  the  6th  of  August, 
to  which  all  ecclesiastical  matters  were 
to  be  referred  for  decision  ;  and  a  Parlia- 
ment was  to  sit  on  the  20th  of  the 
same  month,  to  determine  civil  affairs, 
and  to  ratify  the  acts  of  Assembly.  On 
these  terms  it  was  further  agreed  that  the 
forces  on  both  sides  should  be  disbanded, 
the  fleet  leave  the  shores,  and  the  castles 
be  rendered  back  to  the  king.  To  ex- 
press his  royal  gratification,  his  majesty 
expressed  his  intention  to  honour  both 
the  Assembly  and  the  Parliament  with 
his  presence, — an  intention  which  he  did 
not  carry  into  effect.  This  treaty  was 
signed  on  the  18th  of  June,  and  publicly 
proclaimed  in  both  camps  the  same  day. 
It  is  painful  to  be  obliged  to  state,  that  not 
only  during  tnese  negotiations  did  the  king 
too  manifestly  degrade  himself  by  double- 
dealing  and  treachery,  but  that  even  in 
concluding  the  treaty  of  pacification,  he 
entertained  the  fixed  determination  to  vi- 
olate all  its  most  important  stipulations  as 
soon  as  his  power  should  ever  be  equal 
to  his  will.  This  perfidious  conduct  was 
not  unknown  to  Ihe  Covenanters  ;  and 
although  they  did  not  publicly  avow  dis- 
trust of  the  king,  nor  declare  their  jeal- 
ousy of  his  dissimulation,  it  would  argue 
a  degree  of  imbecility  of  which  they 
cannot  be  suspected,  if  they  had  allowed 
themselves  to  be  circumvented  by  such 
manifest  deceit.  Their  part  of  the  treaty 
they  performed  by  instantly  breaking 
up  their  encampment,  disbanding  their 
troops,  and  placing  the  fortresses  in  the 
hands  of  the  royalists  ;  but  they  retained 
their  veteran  officers  in  pay,  and  broke 
not  up  that  internal  organization  by 
means  of  which  they  were  able  almost 
instantaneously  to  raise  and  re-concen- 
trate the  power  of  the  kingdom.  Charles 
lingered  some  time  before  he  disbanded 
his  army ;  and  after  that  had  been  par- 
tially done,  sent  for  the  leading  Cove- 


178 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI 


nanters  to  wait  on  him  at  Berwick.  Bur 
net  admits  that  he  did  so  with  the  inten- 
tion of  trying  what  fair  treatment  might 
do  with  them.  Six  only  of  them  went, 
or  rather  were  allowed  to  go,  as  the  prob- 
able object  of  the  king  was  suspected. 
Of  these  Montrose  was  one  ;  and  so  ef- 
fectual were  the  king's  arguments  or 
promises  with  him,  that  before  he  left  the 
royal  presence,  that  ambitious  nobleman 
had  pledged  himself  to  promote  his  sove- 
reign's designs,  and  to  remain  among 
the  Covenanters  that  he  might  the  more 
effectually  betray  them  It  is  difficult  to 
say  whether  the  conduct  of  the  king  or 
of  Montrose  was  most  dishonourable, — 
the  one  in  persuading  to  treachery  the, 
other  in  consenting  to  become  a  traitor  ; 
or  most  criminal,  the  king  in  violating 
the  faith  of  the  recent  treaty,  Montrose 
in  committing  perjury  by  breaking  his 
solemn  Covenant  engagement. 

Defeated  in  all  his  intentions,  and  dis- 
appointed in  all  his  hopes,  the  king  de- 
clined to  go  to  Edinburgh  according  to  his 
promise ;  but  before  his  return  to  Eng- 
land, appointed  a  lord  high  commissioner 
to  represent  him  in  the  Assembly  and  in 
parliament.  Hamilton  declined  holding 
this  high  office,  though  requested  by  the 
king  ;  and  the  Earl  of  Traqua.ir  was  ap- 
pointed. A  list  of  instructions  were 
given  by  the  king  to  Traquair,  for  the 
direction  of  his  conduct  in  the  Assembly, 
in  which  a  spirit  of  even  mean  and  bitter 
spite  against  the  last  Assembly,  is  betray- 
ed, and  its  whole  character  is  that  of 
shifting  and  deceitful  evasiveness.  The 
last  article  of  it  requires  Traquair  to  pro- 
test, that  in  case  any  thing  has  escaped 
his  notice,  prejudicial  to  his  majesty's 
service,  "  his  majesty  may  be  heard  for 
redress  thereof,  in  his  own  time  and 
place."  By  this  it  is  manifest  that  the 
king  intended  to  revoke  every  concession 
which  the  commissioner  had  made,  when- 
ever it  should  be  in  his  power.  With 
regard  to  the  parliament,  he  felt  even 
more  at  liberty,  as  Traquair  had  suggest- 
ed that  none  of  its  acts  could  be  valid 
without  the  presence  of  the  prelates,  as 
the  third  estate,  and,  therefore,  they  might 
be  passed  and  afterwards  thrown  aside 
whenever  his  majesty  thought  proper.* 

The  General  Assembly  met  on  the 
12th  of  August.  In  such  an  outline  as 

*  Burnet's  Memoir,  pp.  149, 150. 


the  present  work,  we  cannot  record  more 
than  the  most  important  acts  passed  by 
this  Assembly.  As  the  king  had  ex- 
pressed his  determination  not  to  ratify  the 
acts  of  the  Glasgow  Assembly,  which,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  Covenanters  would 
not  disavow,  the  expedient  was  adopted  of 
re-enumerating  its  acts  in  the  preambles 
of  those  now  to  be  passed.  In  this  man- 
ner the  corruptions  which  had  so  long 
troubled  the  Church,  were  re-stated,  and 
formally  condemned,  by  which  means  all 
the  prelatic  innovations  were  once  more 
abolished,  and  a  clause  was  added,  se- 
curing the  annual  meeting  of  Assem- 
blies, and  the  regular  meeting  of  synods, 
presbyteries,  and  kirk-sessions.  Con- 
siderable difficulty  was  experienced  in 
dealing  with  the  recusant  prelatists,  but 
this,  too,  was  surmounted  by  hearing  the 
accusations  against  them  afresh,  framing 
a  condemnation  of  the  errors  of  which 
they  were  accused,  and  dealing  leniently 
with  those  who  expressed  contrition  for 
their  faults,  and  submitted  to  the  Assem- 
bly. The  Large  Declaration,  written  by 
Balcanquhal,  but  published  as  the  king's 
manifesto,  was  condemned,  and  a  suppli- 
cation was  prepared,  requesting  his  ma- 
jesty to  cause  the  offensive  book  to  be 
suppressed.  The  National  Covenant 
was  next  renewed  ;  and  the  Assembly 
petitioned  the  privy  council  to  give  it  the 
sanction  of  an  act  of  council,  requiring 
it  to  be  subscribed  by  all  his  majesty's 
subjects.  This  was  accordingly  done, 
the  whole  council  subscribing,  and  Tra- 
quair himself  subscribing  as  commission- 
er, that  it  might  have  as  full  sanction  as 
the  representative  of  royalty  could  give 
it,  with  this  explanatory  declaration,  that 
it  was  one  in  substance  with  the  Confes- 
sion or  Covenant  of  1581.  The  minor 
acts  of  this  Assembly  were  a  proposal  by 
Henderson  for  a  committee  to  frame  a 
full  Confession  of  Faith — another  for  a 
Catechism, — and  an  act  resembling  that 
since  called  the  Barrier  Act,  prohibiting 
any  change  in  the  laws  of  the  Church 
till  the  motion  to  that  effect  had  been 
communicated  to  all  synods  and  presby- 
teries, and  returned  to  the  next  Assembly 
ripely  considered.  The  next  Assembly 
was  appointed  to  meet  at  Aberdeen  ;  and 
after  warm  and  earnest  expressions  of 
gratitude  to  the  king  and  his  commission- 
er, and  of  fervent  thanksgiving  and 


A.  D.  1640.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OP   SCOTLAND. 


179 


praise  to  God  for  his  countenance  anc 
support,  was  formally  dissolved  in  the 
usual  manner. 

Information  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
Assembly  had  been  sent  to  the  king  from 
time  to  time  during  its  sittings,  and  his 
majesty's  comments  were  returned  to  his 
commissioner.     Whether   from  inadver- 
tence, or  thinking  that  since  the  king's 
whole  concessions  were  deceptive,  it  could 
not  much  matter  about  the  strictness  of 
the  language,  the  commissioner  had  per- 
mitted himself  to  subscribe  and  ratify  the 
act  condemning  the  prelatic  innovations, 
although  it  contained  the  following  strong 
statement :  "  That  Episcopal  government, 
and  the  civil  places  and  power  of  kirk 
men,  be  holden  still  as  unlawful  in  this 
Kirk."     The  word  unlawful  the  king 
could  not  tolerate,  though  he  would  not 
have   objected   to   the   condemnation  of 
Prelacy  as  "  contrary  to  the  constitution 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland  ;"  and,  there- 
fore, he  "  absolutely   commanded"  Tra- 
quair  not  to  ratify  that  act  in  parliament, 
unless  the   language  were  changed  ac- 
cording to  his  suggestion.*     One  might 
be  disposed  to  regard  his  majesty's  dis- 
tinction as  merely  a  petty  quibble,  since 
what  is  unconstitutional  ought  to  be  held 
as  more  than  unlawful  by  every  man  of 
sound  judgment  ;  but  it  is  too  well  known 
that  many  men  pay  more  respect  to  the 
letter  of  the  law  than  to  the  spirit  of  the 
constitution  ;  and  besides,   Charles   held 
that  he  possessed,  in  virtue  of  his  high 
prerogative,  the  power  of  altering,  the 
constitution  of  both  Church  and  State,  ac- 
cording to  his  own  arbitrary  will ;  conse- 
quently, the  word  unconstitutional  was  a 
much  less  formidable  obstacle  in  his  esti- 
mation than  the  word  unlawful.     Like 
superficial  thinkers  in  general,  he  did  not 
'perceive  that  constitutional  principles  are 
the  life-powers  of  a  community,  while 
laws  afe  but  the  variable  forms  through 
which  they  manifest  their  essential  ener- 
gies.    Under  the  strong  coercion  of  his 
majesty's  "absolute  command,"  Traquair 
endeavoured  to  prevail  upon  the  parlia- 
ment to  amend  the  errors  which  he  had 
permitted   to   pass    the   Assembly ;    but 
after  much  intriguing  and  successive  ad- 
journments, he  was  obliged  to  prorogue 
its  further  sitting  till  the  2d  of  June  1640, 
and  to  hasten  to  court  for  the  purpose  of 

'  Buruet's  Memoir,  p.  158. 


endeavouring  to  appease  the  royal  indig- 
nation. 

[1640.]  The  Scottish  parliament  sent 
the  Earls  of  Loudon  and  Dunfermline  to 
London  for  a  similar  purpose ;  but  the 
king  was  so  highly  incensed  with  their 
pertinacious  adherence  to  their  own 
views,  that  after  having  reluctantly 
granted  them  audience,  and  listened  to 
the  statement  which  they  were  commis- 
sioned to  make,  he  commanded  the  Earl 
of  Loudon  to  be  committed  to  the  Tower, 
on  a  charge  of  treason,  founded  on  the 
letter  to  the  King  of  France,  of  which 
mention  was  made  above.  So  vehement 
was  the  wrath  of  the  king,  that  he  issued 
the  tyrannical  order,  that  Loudon  should 
be  beheaded  within  the  Tower  before 
nine  o'clock  of  the  following  morning, 
and  without  the  formalities  of  a  trial. 
This  bloody  warrant  the  lieutenant  of  the 
Tower  carried  to  the  Marquis  of  Hamil- 
ton, who,  aware  of  the  fearful  conse- 
quences which  would  inevitably  ensue, 
hastened  to  the  king,  and  earnestly  be- 
sought him  to  recall  the  warrant.  At 
first  he  sternly,  and  with  violent  language, 
refused  to  comply ;  but  at  length  the 
marquis  prevailed,  chiefly  by  pointing 
out  the  dire  effects  to  himself  and  his 
cause  which  such  a  deed  would  certainly 
produce,  and  with  suppressed  and  sullen 
revengefulness  he  permitted  the  victim  to 
36  rescued  from  his  deadly  gripe. 

The  king  was  now  resolved  once  more 
o  take  the  field,  and  reduce  the  Cove- 
nanters to  subjection  by  force  of  arms. 
But  the  main  obstacle  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  this  sanguinary  resolution  con- 
sisted in  the  difficulty  of  meeting  the 
expenditures  in  which  he  would  be  neces- 
sarily involved.  All  his  resources  were 
drained  by  his  previous  ineffectual  at- 
empt;  and  he  saw  no  method  of  obtain- 
ng  a  sufficient  sum  of  money  but  that  of 
calling  an  English  parliament,  and  en- 
deavouring to  procure  a  grant  of  adequate 
supplies.  Above  eleven  years  had 
elapsed  since  a  parliament  had  been 
held  ;  during  which  period  the  arbitrary 
conduct  of  the  king,  and  the  hideous 
cruelties  perpetrated  by  the  Star-Cham- 
ber, had  so  alienated  the  kingdom,  that 
Charles  dreaded  to  call  a  parliament,  lest, 
instead  of  granting  a  subsidy,  it  should 
proceed  first  to  the  consideration  of  griev- 
ances. What  could  not  be  avoided  must 


180 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


be  met ;  but  what  was  dreaded  took 
place.  When  the  parliament  met,  they 
would  not  listen  to  the  demand  of  a  sub- 
sidy till  they  had  inquired  into  their  own 
wrongs,  and  sought  redress.  The  king 
indignantly  dissolved  the  parliament,  and 
set  himself  to  raise  the  necessary  funds 
by  every  means  in  his  power.  By  the 
most  strenuous  exertions  he  so  far  re- 
plenished his  treasury  as  to  be  able  to 
take  the  field  in  the  month  of  July,  at 
the  head  of  19,000  foot  and  2,000  cav- 
alry.* 

Although  perfectly  aware  of  all  the 
king's  proceedings,  the  Covenanters  ma- 
nifested no  rash  eagerness  to  resort  to 
defensive  warfare,  till  every  pacific  method 
had  been  tried.  They  held  the  parlia- 
ment on  the  day  to  which  it  had  been 
prorogued  ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  ab- 
sence of  the  Earl  of  Traquair,  they 
calmly  and  regularly  proceeded  with  the 
transactions  for  which  the  parliament  had 
met,  and  ratified  all  the  acts  of  the  pre- 
ceding Assembly,  besides  reforming  their 
own  constitution.  At  the  same  time  they 
made  repeated  applications  to  the  Marquis 
of  Hamilton,  and  to  several  of  the  Eng- 
lish nobility,  that  they,  would  intercede 
with  the  king,  and,  if  possible,  persuade 
him  to  consent  to  a  peaceful  settlement 
of  the  nation's  troubles.  Some  private 
intercourse  appears  to  have  taken  place 
between  the  Covenanters  and  the  disaf- 
fected party  in  England,  by  which  the 
movements  of  the  former  were  not  a  little 
influenced.!  Being  convinced  that  hos- 
tilities were  inevitable,  the  Covenanters 
again  soynded  the  alarm,  and  were  an- 
swered immediately  by  the  mustering 
thousands  of  the  bold  and  religious 
peasantry,  and  the  gallant  nobles  of 
Scotland,  accompanied,  as  before,  by 
many  faithful  and  zealous  ministers. 

In  the  meantime  the  General  Assem- 
bly met  at  Aberdeen  on  the  28th  of  July, 
and  began  their  duties,  while  all  around 
them,  was  ringing  with  the  din  of  war. 
Unhappily,  all  was  not  peace  within  the 
Assembly.  The  absence  of  many  of  the 
leading  men  left  the  business  to  be  con- 
ducted by  others  of  inferior  talents,  and 
less  tact  in  the  management  of  a  popular 
assembly.  The  cause  of  the  contention 


*  Burnet's  Memoirs,  p.  173. 
nmea,p.l7. 


t  Burnet's  Own 


was  not  new ;  it  had  come  before  the 
preceding  Assembly,  but  had  been  partly 
soothed  down  by  the  sagacious  manage- 
ment of  Henderson,  and  partly  repressed 
into  a  subordinate  position  by  the  presence 
of  matter  of  more  urgent  character. 
During  the  domination  of  the  prelatic 
party,  many  religious  people  had  with- 
drawn from  the  ministry  of  men  from 
whom  they  derived  no  spiritual  instruc- 
tion ;  but  to  supply  the  want  to  the  ut- 
most of  their  power,  they  had  adopted  the 
measure  of  meeting  together  in  private, 
and  engaging  in  reading  of  the  Scrip 
tures,  exhortation,  and  prayer,  for  their 
mutual  edification.  Several  of  those  who 
had  been  in  Ireland  and  other  countries 
for  a  considerable  time,  had  become  so 
confirmed  in  this  custom,  that  even  after 
the  Glasgow  Assembly,  the  abolition  of 
Prelacy,  and  the  restoration  of  the  purer 
and  simpler  modes  of  Presbyterian  wor- 
ship, they  still  continued  their  practice  of 
holding  these  private  religious  meetings. 
The  most  pious  ministers  saw  nothing 
offensive  or  improper  in  such  jyivate 
meetings  of  Christian  worshippers  ;  but 
there  were  others  who  looked  on  them 
with  less  favourable  regard.  Some  of 
the  ministers  had,  while  on  the  Conti- 
nent, witnessed  scenes  of  gross  profanity 
among  the  Aanabaptists,  and  other  igno- 
rant and  enthusiastic  sects,  and  dreaded 
that  similar  abuses  would  spring  up  in 
the  prayer-meetings  of  their  grave  and 
sober  countrymen.  Others  were  still  so 
deeply  tainted  with  the  prelatic  leaven, 
that  they  viewed  these  meetings  as  so 
many  conclaves  of  conspiracy  against 
their  own  ecclesiastical  dignity  and  privi- 
leges. There  were  others  also,  among 
the  ministers,  men  of  more  comprehen- 
sive and  far-seeing  minds,  who  dreaded 
from  such  meetings  the  rise  of  a  species 
of  Independency  in  Scotland,  which, 
they  were  aware,  was  beginning  to  raise 
its  head  very  powerfully  in  England. 
Undoubtedly  the  wisest  measure  would 
have  been  either  to  have  taken  no  public 
notice  of  such  meetings,  or  to  have  done 
so  in  terms  of  approbation ;  and  for  the 
ministers  themselves  to  have  attended 
them,  joined  in  them,  given  to  the  humble 
and  pious  worshippers  all  the  instruction 
in  their  power,  and  thus  not  only  to  have 
prevented  schism  and  alienation,  but  to 


A.  D.  1638.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


181 


have  re-directed  all  those  streams  of  pri- 
vate devotion  into  the  channels  of  the 
National  Church. 

It  may  be  remarked  in  passing-,  that 
the  number  of  sects  which  spring  up  in 
any  country,  the  erroneous  nature  of  the 
tenets  held  by  these  sects,  and  the  wild 
extravagance  into  which  they  rush,  sup- 
ply, when  fairly  and  judiciously  investi- 
gated, so  many  almost  infallible  tests  of 
the  real  character  of  the.  Church  of  that 
country.  For  if  that  Church  has  done 
its  duty  in  communicating  religious  in- 
struction to  the  people,  they  will  carry 
with  them,  even  should  they  leave  its 
pale,  the  sacred  knowledge  which  they 
had  acquired,  and  will  retain  such  an 
amount  of  sacred  principles,  and  present 
such  an  aspect  of  regulated  propriety, 
that  no  large-hearted  Christian  will  feel 
himself  at  liberty  to  speak  of  them  in 
terms  of  scorn.  While,  on  the  other 
hand,  if  they  have  been  neglected  and 
left  in  ignorance,  they  will  infallibly  dis- 
play that  ignorance  in  their  insanely  de- 
lusive, or  darkly  fanatical  notions,  and  in 
the  glaring  absurdity  or  profane  impiety 
of  their  conduct.  This  test  we  may  have 
occasion  hereafter  to  apply  with  regard 
to  the  Churches  both  of  England  and  of 
Scotland  ;  at  present  it  is  enough  to  sug- 
gest it,  partly  as  connected  with  the  con- 
tentions in  the  Assembly  at  Aberdeen, 
and  partly  for  a  subject  of  reflection  to 
the  reader. 

The  person  by  whom  this  subject  was 
brought  before  the  Assembly  was  Henry 
Guthry,  at  that  time  one  of  the  ministers 
of  Stirling.*  His  character  is  well  known 
by  all  who  are  acquainted  with  Scottish 
ecclesiastical  history,  by  whom  his  eager- 
ness to  repress  private  religious  worship 
will  be  sufficiently  understood.  To  those 
who  may  not  have  access  to  other  sources 
of  knowledge,  it  will  probably  be  enough 
to  state,  that  his  subsequent  conduct 
caused  him  to  be  deposed  from  the  min- 
istry in  1648;  that  after  the  restoration 
of  Charles  II.  he  was  made  bishop  of 
Dunkeld  ;  and  that  he  wrote  memoirs  of 
Scottish  affairs  in  his  own  times,  which 
abound  in  misrepresentations  and  calum- 
nies. Such  was  the  man  who  took  it 
upon  him  to  act  the  part  of  a  discourager 
of  private  religious  meetings  for  worship, 
and  a  maker  of  strife  in  church  courts. 

'  Baillie,  vol.  i.  pp.  249-255. 


Owing  to  the  various  causes  already  spe- 
cified, his  attempts  were  but  too  success- 
ful ;  and  after  some  days  of  bitter  conten- 
tion, the  Assembly  passed  an  act  respect- 
ing family  worship,  limiting  it  to  the 
members  of  each  family,  and  prohibiting 
the  expounding  of  the  Scriptures,  except 
by  ministers  or  those  in  training  for  the 
ministry,  of  whose  qualifications  the  Pres- 
bytery had  expressed  approbation.  This 
unseemly  and  ill-omened  contention  may 
be  regarded  as  the  first  insertion  of  that 
wedge  by  which  the  Church  of  Scotland 
was  afterwards  rent  asunder ;  and  it  de- 
serves to  be  remarked  that  it  was  pointed 
and  urged  on  by  a  prelatist. 

The  army  of  the  Covenanters  had 
again  mustered  at  their  former  station  on 
Dunse  Law ;  but  after  remaining  there 
about  three  weeks,  and  feeling  that  their 
resources  would  soon  be  exhausted  should 
they  continue  inactive,  they  deliberated 
seriously  on  advancing  into  England  to 
meet  their  assailants.  This  was  a  more 
questionable  measure  than  their  former 
defensive  position,  and  they  felt  all  the 
responsibility  in  which  it  might  involve 
them.*  But  they  felt  also,  that  there 
were  but  two  alternatives,  the  one  or  the 
other  of  which  they  must  adopt, — either 
to  advance  in  a  peaceful  manner  towards 
the  royal  army,  or  to  disband  their  forces, 
and  submit  to  the  mercy  of  an  enraged 
monarch,  and  his  cruel  instigators,  the 
relentless  prelates.  Many  reasons  might 
be  adduced  why  the  Covenanters  ought 
not  to  have  entered  England ;  but  their 
best  vindication  will  be  found  in  the  dire 
necessity  which  compelled  them  either  to 
advance  and  secure  their  religious  and 
civil  liberties,  or  to  remain  and  bow  their 
degraded  necks  beneath  the  yoke  of  dou- 
ble despotism.  They  chose  the  nobler 
alternative  :  prepared  and  published  man- 
ifestoes explaining  the  reasons  of  their 
expedition,  and  most  solemnly  disclaim- 
ing all  hostile  intentions  against  the  Eng- 
lish nation  ;  then,  humbly  committing 
their  cause  to  God,  they  crossed  the 
Tweed,  and  marched  towards  Newcastle, 
as  peacefully  as  if  they  had  been  passing 
through  the  heaths  and  valleys  of  their 
beloved  native  land. 

We  shall  not  further  trace  the  move- 
ments of  the  Scottish  army.  Its  success 
at  the  crossing  of  the  Tyne— its  march 

•  Rushworth,  vol.  iii.  p.  1223,  et  seq. 


182 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


towards  York, — the  reluctance  of  the 
English  to  support  the  king's  despotic 
designs, — the  pacification  of  Ripon, — 
the  transfer  of  the  place  of  treaty  to  Lon- 
don,— and  the  first  meeting  of  the  long 
parliament, — must  all  be  left  to  the  civil 
historian,  as  not  legitimately  within  our 
province,  further  than  that,  in  tracing  the 
reflex  influence  which  these  events  exer- 
cised on  ecclesiastical  matters,  so  much 
must  be  stated  as  to  render  the  subject  in- 
telligible. 

[1641.]  The  residence  in  Scotland  of 
the  Scottish  Commissioners  for  the 
Treaty,  from  the  latter  part  of  the  year 
1640  till  August  1641,  when  the  treaty 
was  finally  concluded,  was  productive  of 
the  most  important  consequences  to  both 
countries.  Henderson,  Baillie,  Blair,  and 
Gillespie,  some  of  the  most  eminent  of  the 
Scottish  ministers,  were  appointed  to  ac- 
company the  commissioners  to  London, 
and  to  remain  with  them  in  the  capacity 
of  chaplains.*  The  great  abilities  of 
these  distinguished  men  attracted  the  at- 
tention of  the  English  of  all  ranks  in 
a  very  remarkable  manner,  and  recom- 
mended the  Presbyterian  system  of 
Church  government  much  more  effectu- 
ally than  arguments  alone  could  have 
done.  Nor  was  this  strange.  Hender- 
son was  a  man  of  uncommon  prudence 
and  sagacity,  profound  judgment,  decided 
eloquence,  and  the  most  attracting  amen- 
ity of  manners.  Baillie,  though  greatly 
inferior  to  Henderson  in  mental  powers, 
and  somewhat  fickle  in  disposition,  aris- 
ing from  a  facile  temper  and  constitu- 
tional timidity,  was  one  of  the  most 
learned  men  of  his  time.  Blair  was  also 
a  very  learned  man,  had  passed  through 
many  sharp  trials,  and,  having  been 
brought  much  into  contact  with  the  Inde- 
pendents, had  thoroughly  studied  the 
questions  in  controversy  with  that  reli- 
gious body,  on  which  account  he  was 
made  one  of  the  deputation.  And  Gilles- 
pie, though  still  a  very  young  man,  had 
already  proved  himself  to  be  endowed 
with  powers  and  possessed  of  acquire- 
ments of  the  very  highest  order ;  his 
learning  was  both  extensive  and  singu- 
larly minute ;  his  intellect  clear,  acute, 
and  powerful,  qualifying  him  for  emi- 
nence in  debate  ;  and  his  high  and  fervid 

'  Baillie,  vol.  i.  p.  269. 


eloquence  was  pervaded  by  that  electric 
energy  which  is  an  essential  attribute  of 
true  genius.  The  presence  of  such  men 
in  London  for  so  many  months,  and  the 
free  intercourse  which  they  enjoyed  with 
all  classes  of  society,  gave  an  impulse  to 
the  heart  of  England  which  proved  irre- 
sistible. 

During  this  residence  of  the  Scottish 
commissioners  in  the  English  capital,  the 
views  of  all  parties  expanded ;  and  an 
idea  which  had  been  previously  but  dimly 
entertained  by  many,  began  to  assume  a 
definite  form  in  the  minds  of  the  leading 
men.  That  idea  was,  the  possibility 
which  such  a  juncture  seemed  to  present 
of  establishing  uniformity  in  the  religious 
worship  of  the  three  kingdoms.  In  one 
respect  this  was  no  new  idea.  It  had 
been  entertained  by  both  King  James  and 
the  present  sovereign;  but  they  both 
sought  to  realize  it  by  the  strong  compul- 
sion of  civil  power,  forgetting  that  men 
may  be  reasoned  into  the  reception  of 
opinions,  but  cannot  be  compelled  ;  and 
proceeding  upon  the  utterly  false  notion 
that  the  civil  magistrate  has  a  right  to 
dictate  in  matters  of  religion.  Viewing 
this  great  question  in  a  very  different 
light,  and  perceiving  that  the  English 
nation  was  now  wellnigh  as  weary  of  the 
despotic  rule  of  Laud  as  they  had  been 
of  their  own  prelatic  tyrants,  the  Scottish 
commissioners  began  to  hope  that  Eng- 
land might  be  persuaded  to  change  her 
Church  government,  and  bring  it  into 
closer  uniformity  with  that  of  Scotland's 
National  Church.  They  did  not  enter- 
tain the  presumptuous  wish  to  dictate  to 
England  in  so  grave  a  matter  •  the  whole 
amount  of  the  influence  which  they  ever 
dreamt  of  exercising  was,  to  suggest  the 
measure  to  the  English  mind  ;  and,  if  it 
should  be  favourably  received  and  under- 
taken, to  aid  their  English  brethren  by 
those  advices  and  that  information  which 
their  own  experience  might  enable  them 
to  give.  That  these  were  in  reality  the 
sentiments  of  the  Scottish  Covenanters, 
however  much  they  have  been  misrepre- 
sented by  party  writers,  the  following  ex- 
tract from  a  paper  entitled  "  Arguments 
given  in  by  the  Commissioners  of  Scot- 
land unto  the  Lords  of  the  Treaty,  per- 
suading Conformity  of  Church  govern- 
ment as  one  principal  means  of  a  con- 


A.  D.  1641.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


183 


tinued  Peace  between  the  two  Nations," 
will,  we  trust,  clearly  prove. 

"  As  we  account  it  no  less  than  usur- 
pation and  presumption  for  one  kingdom 
or  church,  were  it  never  so  mighty  and 
glorious,  to  give  laws  and  rules  of  re- 
formation to  another  free  and  independent 
church  and  kingdom,  were  it.  never  so 
mean,  civil  liberty  and  conscience  being 
so  tender  and  delicate  that  they  cannot 
endure  to  be  touched  but  by  such  as  they 
are  wedded  unto,  and  who  have  lawful  au- 
thority over  them  ;  so  have  we  not  been 
so  forgetful  of  ourselves,  who  are  the 
lesser,  and  of  England,  which  is  the 
greater  kingdom,  as  to  suffer  any  such 
arrogant  and  presumptuous  thoughts  to 
enter  into  our  minds ;  our  ways  also  are 
witnesses  of  the  contrary,  against  the  ma- 
licious, who  do  not  express  what  we  are 
or  have  been,  but  do  still  devise  what 
may  be  fuel  for  a  common  combustion. 
Yet  charity  is  no  presumption,  and  the 
common  duty  of  charity  bindeth  all  Chris- 
tians at  all  times,  both  to  pray  and  profess 
their  desire,  that  all  others  were  not  only 
almost  but  altogether  such  as  themselves, 
except  their  afflictions  and  distresses ; 
and,  besides  common  charity,  we  are 
bound  as  commissioners  in  a  special  duty 
to  propound  the  best  and  readiest  means 
for  settling  of  a  firm  peace.  As  we  love 
not  to  be  curious  in  another  common- 
wealth, nor  to  play  the  bishop  in  another 
diocese,  so  may  we  not  be  careless  and 
negligent  in  that  which  concerneth  both 
nations.  We  do  all  know  and  profess, 
that  religion  is  not  the  only  mean  to  serve 
God  and  to  save  our  own  souls,  but  that 
it  is  also  the  basis  and  foundation  of  king- 
doms and  states,  and  the  strongest  band 
to  the  subjects  under  their  prince  in  true 
loyalty,  and  to  knit  their  hearts  one 
to  another  in  true  unity.  Nothing  is  so 
powerful  to  divide  the  hearts  of  people  as 
division  in  religion  ;  nothing  so  strong  to 
unite  them  as  unity  in  religion  ;  and  the 
greater  zeal  in  different  religions,  the 
greater  division  ;  but  th£  more  zeal  in 
one  religion,  the  more  firm  union.  In 
the  paradise  of  nature  the  diversity  of 
flowers  and  herbs  is  pleasant  and  useful ; 
but  in  the  paradise  of  the  Church,  differ- 
ent and  contrary  religions  are  unpleasant 
and  hurtful.  It  is  therefore  to  be  wished, 
that  there  were  one  Confession  of  Faith, 
one  form  of  Catechism,  one  Directory, 


for  all  the  parts  of  the  public  worship  of 
God,  and  prayer,  preaching,  administra- 
tion of  sacraments,  &c.,  and  one  form  of 
Church  government  in  all  the  churches 
of  his  Majesty's  dominions."* 

Kven  before  these  views  were  commu- 
nicated to  the  Lords  of  the  Treaty  by  the 
Scottish  commissioners,  great  numbers 
of  petitions  had  been  presented  to  parlia- 
ment from  different  parts  of  England, 
some  praying  for  the  total  extirpation  of 
Prelacy,  and  others  for  a  reformation  in 
the  liturgy,  discipline,  and  government 
of  the  Chruch  ;  but  all  agreeing  in  repre- 
senting some  decided  change  as  neces- 
sary for  the  peace  of  the  kingdom.  The 
parliament  indicated  no  unwillingness  to 
have  the  question  of  Church  government 
fully  investigated,  and  no  peculiar  desire 
to  maintain  the  prelatic  hierarchy;  but 
gave  no  intimation  of  their  own  ultimate 
intentions  on  the  subject,  if,  indeed,  they 
had  already  framed  any  definite  design, 
which  they  probably  had  not.  So  far  the 
subject  was  in  a  proper  train  ;  for  while 
a  civil  government  may  with  perfect  pro- 
priety either  repeal  the  laws  which  have 
respect  to  the  civil  status  of  a  national 
Church,  or  frame  new  enactments  for  the 
purpose  of  giving  civil  effect  to  ecclesias- 
tical arrangements,  it  would  be  an  uncon- 
stitutional overstepping  of  its  own  pro- 
vince to  dictate  to  a  Church  in  what 
manner  to  construct  its  government,  to 
frame  its  creed,  and  to  determine  its  dis- 
cipline. 

While  the  treaty  was  proceeding 
slowly  at  London,  interrupted  by  the  trial 
of  Strafford,  the  General  Assembly  met 
at  St.  Andrews,  20th  July  1641 ;  but  as 
the  Scottish  parliament  was  to  meet  at 
Edinburgh  about  the  same  time,  the  As- 
sembly adjourned  till  the  27th  July,  on 
which  day  it  was  to  resume  its  sittings  at 
Edinburgh.  Before  that  day  several  of 
the  Scottish  commissioners  had  returned  ; 
and  Henderson  was  appointed  moderator, 
on  account  of  several  difficult  matters, 
which,  it  was  felt,  would  require  the  guid- 
ing hand  of  such  a  man  to  conduct  with 
safety.  The  contest  of  the  preceding 
year  respecting  private  meetings  was 
renewed,  Henry  Guthry  being  still  bent 
on  their  entire  suppression,  to  which 
others  would  not  consent.  By  the  wise 

*  Extracted  from  a  very  interesting  volume  of  j  ublis 
documents  printed  at  the  time. 


184 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OP   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI 


and  temperate  management  of  Hender- 
son a  peaceful  settlement  of  this  irritating 
topic  was  affected ;  the  Aberdeen  act  was 
consigned  to  oblivion,  ami  a  new  act 
passed,  giving  sanction  to  all  that  pious 
private  Christians  could  wish,  and  guard- 
ing against  the  dangers  of  abuses  in  their 
religious  meetings.  A  communication 
was  received  from  several  ministers  in 
England,  requesting  the  opinion  of  the 
Assembly  respecting  Church  govern- 
ment, especially  with  reference  to  the 
system  of  Independents,  or,  as  it  may  be 
termed,  the  Congregational  system.  The 
Assembly,  as  might  be  expected,  gave  its 
approbation  strongly  in  favour  of  the 
Presbyterian  system.  Following  out  the 
idea  which  had  been  suggested  by  the 
commissioners  in  London,  Henderson 
proposed  to  the  Assembly  the  propriety 
of  framing  a  full  and  systematic  scheme 
of  all  things  required  in  a  regularly-con- 
stituted Church,  namely  a  Confession  of 
Faith,  a  Catechism,  and  a  Directory  for 
all  parts  of  the  public  worship  of  God. 
The  Assembly  not  only  admitted  the  de- 
sirableness of  such  a  measure,  but  as- 
signed the  task  of  executing  it  to  Hender- 
son himself,  permitting  him  to  retire  from 
his  pastoral  duties,  that  he  might  devote 
his  whole  time  and  strength  to  the  dis- 
charge of  so  important  a  'duty,  and  em- 
powering him  to  call  to  his  assistance 
such  of  his  brethren  as  he  knew  to  be 
most  highly  qualified.* 

One  constitutional  element  was  intro- 
duced by  this  Assembly,  which  has  been 
productive  of  much  good  to  the  Church, 
and  also  of  some  harm.  This  was  the 
appointment  of  a  Commission  of  Assem- 
bly, empowered  to  finish  the  business 
which  the  Assembly  had  not  been  able 
to  accomplish  during  its  regular  sitting, 
to  attend  during  the  meeting  of  parliament, 
to  visit  the  universities,  and  generally  to 
attend  to  the  welfare  of  the  Church. 
This  Commission  was  at  first  to  consist 
of  about  forty  ministers  and  sixteen  elders; 
but  subsequently  it  was  so  enlarged  as  to 
include  all  the  members  of  Assembly,  to 
have  four  regular  meetings,  with  power 
to  adjourn,  and  its  quorum  to  amount  to 
thirty-one,  of  whom  twenty-one  were  to 
be  ministers. 

King  Charles  had  been  no  inattentive 
spectator  of  the  respect  shown  to  the 

*  Baillie,  vol.  i.  p.  365 


Scottish  commissioners  in  London  ;  and 
he  was  perfectly  aware  that  his  discon- 
tented subjects  in  England  hoped  for  sup- 
port from  the  Scottish  army,  should  their 
disagreement  with  their  sovereign  pro- 
ceed to  an  open  rupture,  as  it  threatened 
to  do.  He  formed,  therefore,  the  resolu- 
tion to  visit  Scotland  once  more  in  person, 
and  attempt  either  to  disunite  the  Cove- 
nanters, or  to  prevent  them  from  entering 
into  a  closer  union  with  the  English  par 
liament.  He  had,  on  a  former  occasion, 
gained  over  Montrose,  and  he  probably 
anticipated  equal  success  with  a  consider- 
able number  more  of  the  ambitious  Scot- 
tish nobility,  if  he  were  once  amdng 
them.  He  had  determined  to  act  a  part; 
but  to  such  vigilant  eyes  as  were  around 
him  it  was  too  apparent  that  he  was  only 
acting.  He  was  courteous  to  the  Cove- 
nanters, almost  to  flattery.  He  lavished 
honours  on  those  who  had  been  in  arms 
against  him ;  bttt  he  remained  sternly 
unforgiving  to  Balmerino,  whose  life  he 
had  formerly  sought.  He  was  so  eager 
to  sign  and  ratify  every  act  of  parliament 
and  Assembly,  that  he  could  scarcely  be 
prevailed  upon  to  give  them  a  first  curso- 
ry perusal.  The  Covenant  was  subscri- 
bed by  the  parliament  openly,  and  with 
his  majesty's  consent ;  and  during  the 
whole  time  of  his  residence  in  Scotland, 
the  king  conformed  to  the  Presbyterian 
mode  of  worship,  expressing  no  longing 
for  the  Liturgy.  There  was  in  all  this 
too  much  compliance  to  argue  full  sin- 
cerity |  and  the  Covenanters  had  experi- 
enced too  much  of  the  unhappy  king's 
dissimulation  on  former  occasions,  to  be 
able  at  once  to  throw  aside  all  suspicion. 
Even  if  they  had,  they  must  have  been 
startled  from  credulous  security,  first  by 
some  slight  indications  of  danger,  and 
finally  by  one  terrific  and  portentous  event, 
enough  to  rouse  and  appal  the  most  le- 
thargic. 

The  Earl  of  Montrose  was  at  that  time 
a  prisoner  in  Edinburgh,  accused  of  a 
treacherous  correspondence  with  the 
king.  An  alarm,  known  in  history  by 
the  name  of  the  "  Incident,"  startled  the 
capital  with  terror,  and  caused  the  sudden 
flight  of  Hamilton  and  Argyle  from  the 
apprehended  danger  of  assassination.* 
And  their  souls  were  horrified  by  the  in- 
telligence from  Ireland,  that  the  Papists 

*  Burnet's  Memoirs,  p.  186. 


A.  D.  1642.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


185 


had  arisen  in  a  body,  and  massacred 
countless  thousands  of  the  unsuspecting 
and  defenceless  Protestant  inhabitants.* 
While  their  hearts  were  throbbing  at  the 
recital  of  the  atrocious  barbarities  perpe- 
trated by  Irish  Papists,  they  could  not 
forget,  that  on  several  previous  attempts 
of  insurrection  by  these  deluded  and 
blood-thirsty  men,  Charles  had  refused  to 
pfoclaim  their  conduct  rebellious ;  and 
yet  that,  when  they  in  the  most  peaceful 
manner  asserted  their  own  religious  free- 
dom, they  were  instantly  proclaimed 
rebels,  and  orders  issued  for  their  destruc- 
tion by  fire  and  sword.  They  cannot, 
therefore,  be  blamed, — they  ought  rather 
to  be  praised, — that  while  they  accepted 
gladly  their  monarch's  ratification  of  their 
religious  liberties,  they  were  not  deluded 
by  his  "  king-craft." 

When  the  king  returned  to  London, 
he  was  assailed  by  the  unwise  complaints 
of  the  prelates,  that  his  concessions  to  the 
Scottish  Church  had  rendered  the  over- 
throw of  Episcopacy  almost  inevitable  in 
England  also.  At  the  same  time  the 
English  parliament  laid  before  him  a 
statement  of  national  grievances,  which 
still  more  increased  his  dissatisfaction 
with  their  conduct  and  with  his  own. 
The  jealousy  between  the  king  and  the 
parliament  had  now  reached  that  extreme 
point  which  the  slightest  increase  would 
convert  into  avowed  hostility.  By  that 
fatality  which  attended  the  whole  of  the 
royal  and  prelatic  measures,  the  provoca- 
tion was  given  by  the  very  parties  who 
should  have  been  most  anxious  to  avoid 
it.  The  bishops  left  the  House  of  Lords, 
on  the  pretext  that  they  could  not  attend 
it  with  personal  safety  ;  protesting,  at  the 
same  time,  that  whatever  legislative  en- 
actments should  take  place  in  their  ab- 
sence should  be  null  and  void.  This 
was  instantly  resented  by  the  Commons 
as  a  treasonable  attempt  to  paralyze  the 
government  of  the  country,  and  throw  the 
kingdom  into  anarchy.  The  king's  al- 
most simultaneous  attempt  to  seize  forci- 
bly the  persons  of  some  of  the  leading 
members  of  parliament,  completed  the 
breach  between  him  and  them,  and  drove 
their  quarrel  to  the  dread  arbitrament  of 
war.  In  vain  did  the  Scottish  commis- 
sioners offer  their  mediation,  and  strive  to 
procure  an  amicable  adjustment  of  all 

*  Burnet's  Memoirs,  p.  187;   Baillie,  vol.  i.  p.  396. 

24 


disputed  points.  Their  mediation  was 
rejected  indignantly  by  the  king,  who  re- 
garded them  as  in  a  great  degree  the 
prime  movers  of  all  these  contests,  by 
having  set  the  example  of  successful  re- 
sistance to  his  arbitrary  will. 

The  Covenanters  had  now  a  very  dif- 
ficult part  to  act.  Their  loyalty  to  the 
king  had  never  been  shaken,  even  when 
in  arms  against  his  despotic  attempts ; 
and  they  were  unwilling  to  contribute  to- 
wards overwhelming  him  in  that  struggle 
which  he  had  himself  provoked.  At  the 
same  time,  the  contest  in  which  the  Eng- 
glish  parliament  was  engaged  bore  so 
close  a  resemblance  to  their  own,  that 
their  sympathies  naturally  flowed  towards 
men  contending  for  civil  and  religious 
liberty.  An  uneasy  neutrality  was  all 
they  could  for  a  time  determine  to  main- 
tain, watching  anxiously  the  progress 
of  events,  and  feeling  deeply  interested  in 
both  of  the  contending  powers. 

[1642.]  When  the  assembly  met  at  St. 
Andrews,  on  the  28th  of  July  1642,  it 
began  to  be  apparent  that  the  political 
movements  in  England  were  about  to  in- 
volve Scotland  also  in  the  wild  and  mad- 
dening whirl  of  civil  war.  Both  the 
king  and  the  parliament  addressed  letters 
to  the  Assembly,  each  blaming  the  other 
for  the  fierce  collision  which  had  taken 
place,  and  both  endeavouring  to  obtain 
the  support  of  the  Covenanters.  The 
more  wary  of  the  leading  men  were 
averse  from  taking  any  precipitate  step  ; 
and  the  answers  to  these  letters  were 
written  by  Henderson  in  the  most  guarded 
terms.  But  there  were  others  who  were 
eager  to  encourage  the  English  parlia- 
ment, regarding  it  but  an  act  of  gratitude 
to  lend  assistance  to  that  body  from  whom 
they  had  obtained  aid  in  their  own  hour 
of  need.  The  General  Assembly  at  this 
time,  and  for  several  subsequent  years, 
manifested  its  sympathy  for  the  distressed 
state  of  the  Presbyterian  Ch'urch  in  Ire- 
land, by  sending  ministers  to  that  country 
to  administer  the  ordinances  of  religion 
among  the  destitute  congregations  ;  and 
from  this  time  forward  a  warm  recipro- 
cal attachment  subsisted  between  the  Pres- 
byterians of  Scotland  and  Ireland,  and  a 
deep  interest  in  each  other's  welfare, 
which  recent  circumstances  have  greatly 
strengthened.  Little  else  of  public  mo- 
ment was  transacted  at  this  Assembly, 


186 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH   OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


with  the  exception  of  some  discussion  re- 
specting patronage,  which  the  Church 
wished  to  modify,  so  far,  at  least,  that  the 
patron  might  not  present  whomsoever 
he  pleased,  but  select  one  out  of  a  list 
of  six  to  be  furnished  to  him  by  the  pres- 
bytery. 

At  a  subsequent  meeting  of  Commis- 
sion a  communication  was  received  from 
the  English  parliament,  intimating  their 
intention  to  call  an  assembly  of  divines, 
to  deliberate  respecting  the  formation  of 
such  a  Confession  of  Faith,  Catechism, 
and  Directory,  as  might  lead  to  the  de- 
sired uniformity  between  the  Churches 
of  the  two  kingdoms,  and  requesting  com- 
missioners from  the  Scottish  Church  to 
assist  in  their  deliberations.  Commis- 
sioners were  nominated  to  be  in  readi- 
ness, but  their  departure  was  delayed  till 
the  English  Assembly  should  actually 
meet,  which,  however,  did  not  take  place 
till  the  following  year. 

Before  the  king  left  Scotland  in  1641, 
he  had  empowered  a  semi-parliament,  or 
convention  of  estates,  to  meet  from  time 
to  time  in  Edinburgh,  for  the  conserva- 
tion of  the  public  peace  ;  and  this  con- 
vention naturally  assumed  the  whole  con- 
duct of  public  affairs.  There  had  always 
been  a  considerable  number  of  the  nobili- 
ty strongly  opposed  to  the  Covenanters 
and  devoted  to  the  king,  and  several  more 
had  been  gained  to  that  side  during  his 
majesty's  late  visit.  The  consequence 
was,  that  party  spirit  divided  all  their  de- 
liberations, and  tended  to  drive  them  both 
to  extremes.  They  ceased  to  consider 
whether  they  ought  to  remain  in  a  state 
of  neutrality  during  the  war  between  the 
king  and  the  parliament  or  not,  and  were 
only  anxious  to  determine  which  party 
they  should  assist.  In  the  meantime,  the 
king  had  been  generally  successful  in  his 
military  operations,  and  the  parliament 
was  reduced  to  a  state  of  great  danger. 
Had  the  Scottish  army  then  joined  the 
king,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  by 
their  assistance  he  would  speedily  have 
reduced  the  insurgents  to  subjection.  But 
the  Covenanters  knew  well  that  he  would 
be  no  sooner  placed  firmly  on  his  seat  of 
power  than  he  would  trample  them  be- 
neath his  feet  and  overthrow  all  the  work 
of  religious  reformation  which  they  had 
been  toiling  to  erect. 

[1643.J  Such  was  the  perilous  state  of 


public  affairs,  and  such  the  views  and 
feelings  of  the  Covenanters,  when  vari- 
ous proofs  of  additional  dangers  came  to 
light.  A  plot  was  discovered,  in  which 
the  royalists  were  to  have  raised  an  army 
frn  Scotland,  to  be  headed  by  Hamilton 
and  Montrose,  and  led  to  the  assistance 
of  the  king.  Another  of  a  still  more  for- 
midable nature  was  also  detected,  from 
which  it  appeared  that  the  king  had  en- 
tered into  a  combination  with  the  perpe- 
trators of  the  recent  fearful  massacre  in 
Ireland,  for  the  purpose  of  inducing  them 
to  invade  Scotland,  effect  a  junction  with 
the  royalists  there,  suppress  the  Cove- 
nanters, and  then  advance  into  England, 
and  assist  him  against  the  parliament.* 
These  discoveries  alarmed  the  convention 
to  such  a  degree,  that  they  resolved  to 
abandon  their  neutral  ground,  and  enter 
into  a  treaty  with  the  English  parliament 
as  soon  as  commissioners  from  it  should 
arrive. 

The  General  Assembly  met  at  Edin- 
burgh on  the  2d  of  August ;  and  feeling 
that  they  were  on  the  brink  of  another 
eventful  crisis,  they  began  by  setting 
apart  a  day  for  solemn  fasting  and  sup- 
plication for  Divine  guidance  through  the 
perils  of  such  dark  and  troublous  times. 
Henderson  was  again  chosen  moderator. 
After  a  few  days  spent  in  routine  business, 
the  English  commissioners  arrived,  con- 
sisting partly  of  civilians  to  transact  busi- 
ness with  the  Scottish  convention,  and 
partly  of  ministers  to  confer  with  the  As- 
sembly. The  result  of  these  conferences 
was,  the  framing  of  that  well-known  bond 
of  union  between  the  two  countries,  THE 
SOLEMN  LEAGUE  AND  COVENANT, — a  doc- 
ument which  we  may  be  pardoned  for 
terming  the  noblest,  in  its  essential  nature 
and  principles,  of  all  that  are  recorded 
among  the  international  transactions  of 
the  world.  It  was  written  by  Alexander 
Henderson,  read  by  him  to  the  Assembly 
on  the  17th  August,  received  and  ap- 
proved of  with  emotions  of  the  deepest 
solemnity  and  awe,  with  whispered 
prayers  and  thanksgivings  and  outgush- 
ing  tears,  then  carried  to  the  convention 
of  estates,  and  by  them  unanimously  rati- 
fied, f  It  was  subsequently  sent  to  Lon- 
don, where  on  the  25th  of  September,  it 

*  Baillie,  vol.  ii.  pp.  73,  74. 

t  Records  of  Church  of  Scotland,  p.  253;  Baillie  vol. 
ii  pp.  90,  95. 


A.  D.  1643.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


187 


was  accepted  and  subscribed  by  the  Eng- 
lish parliament  and  the  Westminster  As- 
sembly of  Divines.  The  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant  bound  the  united  kingdoms 
to  endeavour  the  preservation  of  the  re- 
formed religion  in  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, in  doctrine,  worship,  discipline,  and 
government,  and  the  reformation  of  reli- 
gion in  the  kingdoms  of  England  and 
Ireland,  according  to  the  Word  of  God, 
and  the  example  of  the  best-reformed 
Churches, — the  extirpation  of  Popery  and 
Prelacy, — the  defence  of  the  king's  per- 
son, authority,  and  honour, — and  the  pre- 
servation and  defence  of  the  true  religion 
and  liberties  of  the  kingdom  in  peace  and 
unity. 

Perhaps  no  great  international  transac- 
tion has  ever  been  so  much  misrepresent- 
ed and  maligned  as  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant.  Even  its  defenders  have 
often  exposed  it  and  its  authors  to  severe 
censures  by  their  unwise  modes  of  de- 
fence. There  can  be  no  doubt  in  the 
mind  of  any  intelligent  and  thoughtful 
man,  that  on  it  mainly  rests,  under  Provi- 
dence, the  noble  structure  of  the  British 
constitution.  But  for  it,  so  far  as  man 
may  judge,  these  kingdoms  would  have 
been  placed  beneath  the  deadening  bond- 
age of  absolute  despotism  ;  and  in  the  fate 
of  Britain,  the  liberty  and  civilization  of 
the  world  would  have  sustained  a  fatal 
paralyzing  shock.  This  consideration 
alone  might  bid  the  statesman  pause  be- 
fore he  ventures  to  condemn  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant.  But  to  the  Chris- 
tian we  may  suggest  still  loftier  thoughts. 
The  great  principles  of  that  sacred  bond 
are  those  of  the  Bible  itself.  It  may  be 
that  Britain  was  not  then,  and  is  not  yet, 
in  a  fit  state  to  receive  them,  and  to  make  j 
them  her  principles  and  rules  of  national 
government  and  law  ;  but  they  are  not 
on  that  account  untrue,  nor  even  imprac- 
ticable ;  and  the  glorious  predictions  of 
inspired  Scriptu  re  foretell  a  time  when  they 
will  be  more  than  realized,  and  when  all 
the  kingdoms  of  this  earth  shall  become 
the  kingdoms  of  Jehovah  and  of  his 
Anointed,  and  all  shall  be  united  in  one 
solemn  league  and  covenant  under  the 
King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords.  And 
though  that  time  may  be  yet  far  distant, 
who  may  presume  to  say  that  the  seem- 
ingly premature  and  ineffectual  attempt 
to  realize  it  by  the  heavenly-minded  pa- 


triarchs of  Scotland's  Second  Reformation 
was  not  the  first  faint  struggling  day- 
beam  piercing  the  world's  thick  darkness, 
and  revealing  to  the  eye  of  faith  an  earn- 
est of  the  rising*  of  the  Sun  of  righteous- 
ness? True,  the  clouds  soon  darkened 
down  and  hid  that  herald  day-beam  •  but 
not  less  certainly  does  the  day  approach, 
although  its  dawning  hour  be  shaded  in 
the  deepest  gloom.  A  sacred  principle 
was  then  infused  into  the  heart  of  nations, 
which  cannot  perish  ;  a  light  then  shone 
into  the  world's  darkness,  which  cannot 
be  extinguished ;  and  generations  not  re- 
mote may  see  that  principle  quickening 
and  evolving  in  all  its  irresistible  might, 
and  that  light  bursting  forth  in  its  all- 
brightening  glory. 

But  we  must  not  further  pursue  this 
line  of  thought,  however  attractive.  An- 
other and  a  less  delightful  course  of  re- 
flection demands  our  notice.  It  has  often 
been  said,  that  the  Covenanters  were  cir- 
cumvented by  the  English  parliament, 
and  were  drawn  into  a  league  with  men 
who  meant  only  to  employ  them  for  their 
own  purposes,  and  then  either  cast  them 
off,  or  subdue  them  beneath  a  sterner 
sway  than  that  of  Charles.  Were  it  even 
so,  it  might  prove  the  treachery  of  the 
English,  but  would  expose  the  Covenant- 
ers to  no  heavier  accusation  than  that  of 
unsuspecting  simplicity  of  mind.  They 
ought  to  have  first  ascertained,  men  say, 
what  form  of  Church  government  Eng- 
land intended  to  adopt,  before  they  had 
consented  to  the  league.  And  yet  the 
same  accusers  fiercely  condemn  the  Scot- 
tish Covenanters  for  attemping  to  force 
their  own  Presbyterian  forms  upon  the 
people  of  England.  The  former  accusa- 
tion manifestly  destroys  the  latter.  That 
the  Covenanters  did  not  attempt  to  force 
Presbyterians  upon  England,  is  proved 
by  the  fact,  that  they  entered  into  the 
league  without  any  such  specific  stipula- 
tion ;  and  they  sought  no  such  stipulation, 
because  it  was  contrary  to  their  principles 
either  to  submit  to  force  in  matters  of  re- 
ligion, or  to  attempt  using  force  against 
other  free  Christian  men.  It  argues, 
therefore,  ignorance  both  of  their  princi- 
ples and  of  their  conduct,  to  bring  against 
them  an  accusation  so  groundless  and  sc 
base.  They  consented  to  lend  their  aid 
to  England  in  her  day  of  peril,  in  which 
peril  they  were  themselves  involved :  but 


188 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


they  left  to  England's  assembled  divines 
the'grave  and  responsible  task  of  reform- 
ing their  own  Church ;  lending  merely, 
as  they  were  requested,  the  assistance  of 
some  of  their  own  most  learned,  pious, 
and  experienced  ministers,  to  promote  the 
great  and  holy  enterprise.  For  that  they 
have  been  and  they  will  be  blamed  by 
witlings,  sciolists,  and  infidel  philoso- 
phers ;  but  what  England's  best  and 
greatest  men  sought  with  earnest  desire, 
and  received  with  respect  and  gratitude, 
Scotland  need  never  be  ashamed  that  her 
venerable  covenanted  fathers  did  not  de- 
cline to  grant. 

Yet  in  one  respect  they  did,  in  our 
opinion,  err.  They  allowed  their  Solemn 
League  to  involve  them  too  deeply  in 
matters  of  a  strictly  civil  character.  This 
was,  indeed,  what  England  chiefly 
sought ;  but  the  very  fact  that  in  their 
preliminary  conferences  the  English  com- 
missioners argued  for  a  civil  league  alone, 
ought  to  have  made  the  Scottish  doubly 
wary  of  the  dangers  into  which  they 
might  be  drawn.  Their  best  apology, 
however,  consists  in  the  fact,  that  they 
were  compelled  by  stern  necessity  to  save 
the  civil  liberties  of  England,  or  to  incur 
the  eminent  hazard  of  losing  speedily 
their  own  religious  freedom.  They  had 
gained,  by  a  long  and  arduous,  but  blood- 
less struggle,  all  for  which  they  strove ; 
and  they  might  naturally  cherish  the 
hope  that  the  same  result  would  crown 
the  efforts  of  their  English  brethren. 
Thus  were  they,  by  necessity  and  hope, 
drawn  into  a  new  and  more  desperate 
contest,  destined  to  have  a  very  different 
termination,  which  their  utmost  efforts 
were  not  able  to  avert.  Being  once  en- 
gaged in  this  new  conflict,  they  were  in- 
evitably borne  along  in  the  mighty  move- 
ments of  the  more  powerful  nation,  and 
made  to  share,  with  equal  unwillingness, 
in  its  crimes  and  in  its  self-inflicted  pun- 
ishment. And  let  it  be  carefully  observed, 
that  the  difference  between  the  conduct 
of  the  English  parliament  in  the  great 
civil  war,  and  of  the  Covenanters,  in  their 
time  of  struggle,  consisted  in,  and  was 
caused  by  this, — that  in  England  it  was 
essentially  a  contest  in  defence,  or  for  the 
assertion  of  civil  liberty, — in  Scotland  for 
religious  purity  and  freedom.  In  Eng- 
land, therefore,  it  was  guided  by  a  secu- 
lar principle,  and  permitted  the  free  de- 


velopement  of  all  the  stormy  passions  that 
rage  within  the  heart  of  striving  and  re- 
vengeful human  nature  ;  in  Scotland,  it 
was  governed,  chastened,  and  even  hal- 
lowed, by  the  controlling  presence  of  a 
sacred  principle,  by  which  man's  wrath 
was  checked,  subdued,  or  turned  aside, 
till  truth  prevailed,  and  victory  was 
crowned  with  peace.  England's  fierce 
wars  for  civil  liberty  laid  her  and  her  un- 
fortunate assistant  prostrate  beneath  the 
feet  of  an  iron-hearted  usurper  and  des- 
pot. Scotland's  calm  and  bloodless  de- 
fence of  religious  purity  and  freedom  se- 
cured to  her  those  all-inestimable  bless- 
ings, broke  the  chains  of  her  powerful 
neighbour,  revealed  to  mankind  a  princi- 
ple of  universal  truth  and  might,  and 
poured  into  her  own  crushed  heart  a 
stream  of  life,  sacred,  immortal,  and  di- 
vine. 

As  the  very  object  for  which  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant  was 
framed  was  to  secure  the  utmost  practica- 
ble degree  of  uniformity  in  the  religious 
worship  of  both  countries,  and  as  the  Eng- 
lish divines  had  already  met  at  West- 
minster to  take  the  whole  subject  into  the 
most  deliberate  consideration,  and  had  re- 
quested the  assistance  of  commissioners 
from  the  Church  of  Scotland,  the  General 
Assembly  named  some  of  the  most  emi- 
nent of  their  ministers  and  elders  as  com- 
missioners to  the  Westminster  Assembly. 
These  were,  Alexander  Henderson,  Rob- 
ert Douglas,  Robert  Baillie,  George 
Gillespie,  and  Samuel  Rutherford,  minis- 
ters :  and  the  Earl  of  Cassilis,  Lord  Mait- 
land  (afterwards  Lauderdale),  and  Sir 
Archibald  Johnston  of  Warriston,  elders. 
It  does  not  Appear  that  either  the  Earl  of 
Cassilis  or  Robert  Douglas  attended  the 
Westminster  Assembly  during  its  pro- 
tracted labours  ;  but  so  efficient  were  the 
other  commissioners,  that  their  absence 
produced  no  injury  to  the  cause  of  Pres- 
bytery. We'  have  already  briefly  char- 
acterised Henderson,  Baillie,  and  Gilles- 
pie ;  and  few  need  to  be  informed  respect- 
ing the  character  of  Rutherford,  his  well 
known  "  Letters"  being  in  almost  univer- 
sal circulation,  and  held  in  the  highest 
esteem  by  all  who  are  able  to  appreciate 
their  merits.  But  even  these  "  Letters" 
convey  an  inadequate  view  of  that  extra- 
ordinary man.  His  writings  on  the  great 
controversial  subjects  of  the  period  show 


A.  D.  1643.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


189 


him  to  have  been  not  only  very  learned, 
but  also  and  especially  to  have  been  one 
of  the  deepest  thinkers  of  that  or  any  age. 
Many  have  asserted  that  his  work  called 
c;  Lex  Rex"  is  of  anti-monarchical,  and 
even  democratic  character ;  and  on  the 
strength  of  such  an  accusation  it  was  con- 
demned and  burnt  by  the  sycophantic 
minions  of  Charles  II.  That  it  is  opposed 
to  despotism  is  very  certain ;  but  it  is  as 
certain  that  it  contains  no  principle  con- 
trary to  those  embodied  in  the  British 
constitution.  Such  principles,  indeed,  had 
not  been  then  recognised  and  assented  to 
by  either  kings  or  parliaments ;  but  if 
their  statement  by  Rutherford  was  pre- 
mature, let  it  always  be  remembered  that 
some  person  must  sow  the  seed  of  which 
others  may  reap  the  fruit ;  and  it  ill  be- 
comes those  who  are  practically  enjoying 
what  he  theoretically  maintained,  to  re- 
peat even  yet  the  slanderous  accusations 
uttered  by  the  enemies  of  liberty  against 
a  work  which  they  have  not  done  them- 
selves the  justice  to  peruse. 

It  would  lead  us  into  what  might  seem 
a  digression  beyond  our  province,  and 
certainly  beyond  our  limits,  to  attempt 
any  adequate  account  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly.  As,  however,  it  is  intimately 
connected  with  the  history  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  we  must  very  briefly  give  an 
outline  of  its  character  and  proceedings. 
Before  the  arrival  of  the  Scottish  com- 
missioners, both  the  English  parliament 
and  the  Westminster  Assembly  had  de- 
termined on  the  abolition  of  Prelacy  in 
the. Church  of  England.  It  was  .also  fully 
resolved,  that  a  great  reformation  should 
take  place  in  all  religious  matters ;  but 
what  form  of  Church  government,  and 
what  rules  of  discipline  should  be  adopted, 
were  subjects  on  which  the  greatest  dif- 
ferences of  opinion  prevailed.  There 
were  three  great  parties  in  the  Westmin- 
ster Assembly: — First,  the  Erastians, 
who  held  that  it  belonged  only  to  the 
civil  magistrate  to  inflict  church  censures, 
as  well  as  civil  punishments  ;  and,  gen- 
erally, that  the  civil  magistrate  is  the 
proper  head,  the  source  and  ruler  of  all 
power,  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  civil. 
That  party  was  active  and  vehement,  but 
not  numerous,  consisting  chiefly  of  law- 
yers, and  only  one  or  two  ministers. 
Secondly,  the  Independents,  who  held  that 
every  individual  congregation  of  Chris- 


tians has  an  entire  and  complete  power 
of  jurisdiction  over  its  members  in  all  re- 
ligious matters,  to  be  exercised  by  its 
elders  within  itself,  and  by  its  own  sole 
authority.  These  amounted  to  ten  or 
twelve,  and  were  men  of  considerable 
ability,  and  exceedingly  pertinacious  in 
maintaining  their  opinions.  Thirdly, 
the  Presbyterians,  who  formed  the  ma- 
jority of  the  Assembly,  and  generally 
coincided  with  the  opinions  of  the  Scot- 
tish commissioners.  But  as  this  latter 
party,  though  most  numerous,  was  but  in- 
differently acquainted  with  the  Presbyte- 
rian polity,  having  little  knowledge  of 
any  other  than  the  Prelatic  form  of 
Church  government,  the  task  of  explain- 
ing and  vindicating  Presbytery  devolved 
chiefly  upon  the  Scottish  divines,  who 
were  admirably  qualified  for  the  impor- 
tant duty.* 

The  first  struggle  in  the  Westminster 
Assembly  was  with  the  Erastians,  and 
took  place  at  the  very  commencement  of 
their  labours.  In  preparing  for  their 
great  task,  they  had  stated  that,  "  in  in- 
quiring after  the  officers  belonging  to  the 
Church  of  the  New  Testament,  we  find 
that  Christ,  who  is  Priest,  Prophet,  King, 
and  Head  of  the  Church,  hath  fulness  of 
power,  and  containeth  all  other  offices  by 
way  of  eminency  in  himself.  He  being 
ascended  far  above  all  heavens,  and  fill- 
ing all  things,  hath  given  all  officers  ne- 
cessary for  the  edification  of  his  Church."f 
From  this  preface  necessarily  followed 
the  proposition,  that  the  government  of 
the  Church  was  distinct  from  that  of  the 
civil  magistrate, — neither  derived  from 
it,  nor  subordinate  to  it.  This  the  Eras- 
tians opposed ;  but  though  they  were 
easily  defeated  in  the  Assembly,  they  tri- 
umphed in  the  parliament,  which,  after 
many  evasions,  finally  refused  to  sanc- 
tion that  important  proposition.  The 
struggle  with  the  Independents  was  of 
much  longer  duration.  Many  weeks 
were  often  expended  in  debating  a  single 
topic,  for  that  party  within  the  Assembly 
were  in  a  state  of  intimate  connection 
with  the  political  Independents  in  the 
army,  who  dreaded  nothing  so  much  as 
the  conclusion  of  the  Assembly's  labours, 
their  possible  ratification  by  the  parlia- 
ment, and  the  consequent  termination  of 

*  Baillie,  passim. 
t  Lightfoot,  Pitman's  edit.,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  23 


190 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI 


hostilities  before  their  own  schemes  were 
ready  for  execution.  We  cannot  prose- 
cute the  task  of  tracing  the  intrigues  of 
the  Independents  in  the  Assembly,  in 
parliament,  and  in  the  army,  but  we  may 
briefly  state  the  result.  They  contrived 
to  embarrass,  retard,  and  overreach  the 
Assembly,  till  they  were  able  to  subvert 
all  its  labours,  so  far  as  England  was 
concerned ;  they  kept  the  parliament  in 
a  state  of  confusion  and  indecision  with 
their  intrigues,  till  they  had  the  power  to 
suppress  it  altogether  ;  and  they  contrived 
so  to  balance  the  king's  obstinacy  against 
both  Assembly  and  parliament,  as  to  par- 
alyze both  him  and  them,  till  having  ob- 
tained the  opportunity  which  they  sought, 
they  put  the  unhappy  monarch  to  death, 
and  placed  the  sceptre  in  the  iron  grasp 
of  military  despotism. 

There  is  one  point  on  which  an  almost 
universal  misunderstanding,  to  give  it  the 
most  gentle  designation,  prevails.  The 
Presbyterians  are  perpetually  accused  not 
only  of  wishing  to  force  their  peculiar 
ecclesiastical  polity  upon  England,  but 
also  of  such  extreme  intolerance,  that 
they  would  not  permit  that  liberty  of 
conscience  to  others  which  they  so 
strenuously  demanded  for  themselves.  In- 
to a  full  discussion  ot  this  subject  our 
limits  will  not  permit  us  to  enter ;  but 
truth  and  duty  compel  us  to  offer  a  few 
remarks.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
the  Independents  formed  only  a  small 
minority  in  the  Westminster  Assembly, 
and  consequently  it  was  impossible  that 
their  form  of  Church  government  could 
obtain  the  sanction  of  that  body.  Find- 
ing .their  endeavours  unsuccessful  in  the 
Assembly,  they  had  recourse  to  political 
intrigues,  and  to  give  the  most  plausible 
aspect  to  their  proceedings,  they  put  forth 
a  claim  for  general  toleration  of  all  forms 
and  kinds  of  religious  worship.  Be  it 
observed,  that  they  became  advocates  of 
toleration  only  after  they  had  failed  in 
obtaining  the  ascendency  of  their  own 
opinions.  And  to  what  did  this  tolera- 
tion amount?  To  the  unrestrained 
license  of  every  man,  or  knot  of  men,  to 
utter  sentiments  in  public,  however 
blasphemous  and  revolting  to  reason 
and  common  sense ;  and  to  practise, 
in  the  name  of  worship,  immoralities 
and  indecencies  of  a  nature  too  gross 
to  be  mentioned!  That  we  do  not 


characterise  too  strongly  the  tenets 
and  conduct  of  the  almost  innumerable 
sects  whom  this  plea  of  general  toleration 
would  have  included,  must  be  obvious  to 
every  person  tolerably  acquainted  with 
the  history  of  the  period.*  Against  a 
toleration  of  this  kind  not  only  the  Pres- 
byterians, but  also  the  most  respectable 
and  religious  of  the  Independents  them- 
selves, strenuously  protested.  But  the 
political  party  prevailed ;  the  cry  of  to- 
leration was  a  specious  war-cry ;  and 
even  to  the  present  day  is  often  raised  by 
people  in  whose  mouths  it  means  mere 
licentiousness. 

Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  a 
principle  which  accounts  for  the  number 
of  strange  fanatical  sects  which  appeared 
in  England  at  this  period.  The  prelatic 
Church  of  England  had  allowed  the 
body  of  the  community  to  remain  in  deep 
ignorance ;  and  when  that  Church  was 
overthrown  so  suddenly,  and  nothing 
ready  to  supply  its  place,  the  people  were 
left  to  follow  all  the  wild  and  enthusias- 
tic fancies  which  such  a  time  of  intense 
excitement  was  certain  to  produce  in 
strong  but  uncultivated  minds.  In  Scot- 
land, on  the  other  hand,  the  overthrow 
of  Prelacy  had  no  other  effect  than  that 
of  permitting  the  Presbyterian  Church  to 
put  forth  its  native  powers  among  a 
people  by  whom  its  principles  were  un- 
derstood and  cherished,  and  its  discipline 
beloved  and  revered.  And  notwithstand- 
ing all  the  calumnies  which  have  been 
heaped  upon  our  Presbyterian  ancestors, 
it  may  be  safely  and  most  truly  averred, 
that  intolerance,  in  the  right  sense  of  the 
word,  never  was  the  characteristic  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  Expressions  of  a 
severe  aspect  against  that  toleration 
which  included  all  kinds  of  blasphemous 
and  immoral  licentiousness,  may  be  found 
in  the  writings  of  our  fathers,  and  may 
be  warped  and  misinterpreted  by  party 
writers  ;  and  we  may  even  admit  that 
they  were  not  at  all  times  sufficiently 
guarded  in  their  language  ;  but  if  any 
thing  like  a  fair  allowance  be  made  for 
the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  the  peculiar  cir- 
cumstances amidst  which  they  acted  and 
wrote,  they  will  stand  completely  vindi- 
cated from  the  charge  of  intolerance  and 
spiritual  despotism. 

*  For  a  sufficient  account  of  this  subject,  let  the 
reader  consult  Edward's  Gangrena. 


A.  D.  1615'.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


191 


[1644.]  But  we  must  leave  the  West- 
minster Assembly,  and  return  to  what 
more  particularly  concerns  the  Church  of 
Scotland.  The  subscribing  of  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant  bound  the 
two  kingdoms  of  England  and  Scotland 
by  a  mutual  defensive  bond,  in  all  that  re- 
garded religion,  which  both  thus  vowed 
to  maintain.  In  consequence  of  this  mu- 
tual league,  the  Scottish  army  again  en- 
tered England,  for  the  purpose  of  co- 
operating with  that  of  the  parliament. 
This  took  place  on  the  19th  of  January 
1644,  under  the  command  of  General 
Leslie,  now  Earl  of  Leven,  Lieutenant 
General  Baillie,  and  Major-General 
David  Leslie.  A  great  change  speedily 
took  place  in  the  state  of  affairs  in  Eng- 
land, the  king  being  unable  to  make 
head  against  the  combined  armies.  The 
course  of  the  military  operations  which 
took  place  we  do  not  intend  to  trace.  It 
may,  however,  be  stated,  that  the  English 
parliament  was  warm  or  cold  in  its  pro- 
fessions of  regard  to  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant,  and  to  the  uniformity  of 
religion  in  the  two  kingdoms  exactly  in 
proportion  to  its  need  of  Scotland's  mili- 
tary aid ;  * — proving  completely  what  has 
been  suggested,  that  the  contest  in  Eng- 
land was  chiefly  waged  for  the  sake  of 
civil  liberty,  but  in  Scotland  for  the  puri- 
ty and  freedom  of  religion. 

Nothing  of  peculiar  importance  was 
transacted  in  the  General  Assembly  which 
met  at  Edinburgh  on  the  31st  of  May 
1644.  Its  time  was  occupied  chiefly  with 
letters  from  the  Scottish  commissioners  at 
Westminster,  and  from  the  English  di- 
vines, and  with  returning  answers  to  these 
Betters.  A  new  presbytery  was  erected 
at  Biggar ;  the  declaration  of  the  Scot- 
tish royalist  nobles  at  Oxford  was  cen- 
sured ;  and  some  additional  salutary  acts 
were  passed  for  the  encouragement  of 
learning,  similar  to  those  of  former  As- 
semblies. 

[1 645.]  The  Assembly  met  on  the  22d 
of  January  1645,  earlier  than  had  been 
intended,  on  account  of  urgent  business 
which  demanded  its  attention.  Baillie, 
Gillespie,  and  Warriston,  had  come  to 
give  an  account  of  the  progress  made  by 
the  Westminster  Assembly;  and  Mon- 
trose  was  spreading  terror  and  devastation 
through  the  kingdom,  which  was  com- 

•  Baillie,  passim. 


paratively  defenceless,  in  consequence  of 
its  most  experienced  generals  and  best 
troops  being  in  England.  The  report  of 
the  commissioners  was  received  with 
great  approbation,  and  the  directory  for 
public  worship  which  they  brought  with 
them  received  the  sanction  of  the  Assem- 
bly. A  very  important  act  was  passed 
for  the  advancement  of  learning,  the 
principles  and  regulations  of  which  re- 
flect great  credit  on  the  enlightened  men 
by  whom  it  was  framed.  Another  very 
remarkable  act  was  that  entitled  "  A  So- 
lemn and  Seasonable  Warning,"  &c.,  in 
which  a  clear  and  strong  view  is  taken 
of  the  causes  of  the  national  disasters  by 
which  they  were  at  that  time  agitated  and 
alarmed.  A  remonstrance  was  also  writ- 
ten, addressed  to  the  king,  in  which  the 
Assembly  expressed  the  most  earnest  de- 
sire for  peace  on  religious  terms  ;  and  let- 
ters were  sent  to  the  Westminster  As- 
sembly. 

All  historians  admit  that  the  meteor- 
like  career  of  Montrose  was  one  of  the 
causes  of  his  sovereign's  ruin.  It  gave 
the  unfortunate  king  so  much  confidence 
in  what  he  esteemed  a  propitious  change 
in  the  aspect  of  his  affairs,  that  he  broke 
off  negociations  with  his  antagonists  j 
and  it  furnished  another  proof  of  the  de- 
ceitful character  of  his  whole  dealings, 
endeavouring  to  keep  them  in  terms  of 
treaty  till  he  might  be  able  to  overpower 
them.  The  career  of  Montrose,  if  what 
his  admirers  call  brilliant,  was  but  brief. 
He  was  surprised  and  defeated  by  David 
Leslie,  at  Philiphaugh,  near  Selkirk,  on 
the  13th  of  September,  and  with  his  de- 
feat vanished  the  last  hopes  of  Charles  to 
re-establish  his  power  by  force  of  arms. 
With  regard  to  the  military  achievements 
of  Montrose,  the  barbarities  which  he 
perpetrated,  and  the  retaliations  alleged 
to  have  been  committed  by  the  army  of 
the  Covenanters,  we  do  not  think  it  ne- 
cessary to  occupy  space,  further  than  to 
state,  that  while  we  have  no  sympathy 
with  those  who  luxuriate  over  tales  of 
wholesale  butchery  on  the  battle-field,  and 
cities  sacked  amid  all  the  nameless  atro- 
cities of  civil  war,  we  have  as  little  with 
those  who  either  wail  piteously  over  the 
death  of  the  chief  murderer,  or  exult  in 
that  melancholy  fate  which  generally 
overtakes  the  bloody  and  deceitful  man. 

[1646.]     The  defeat  of  his  own  army 


192 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


and  of  that  of  Montrose  also,  reduced  the 
unhappy  king  to  a  state  of  desperation ; 
and  after  a  few  miserable  months  of  irre- 
solution, he  at  last  fled  in  disguise  to  the 
Scottish  army,  early  in  May  1646.  Ru- 
mours had  previously  been  spread  that  he 
might  possibly  take  that  very  step,  and 
the  Covenanters  were  particularly  anx- 
ious that  he  should  not,  foreseeing  clear- 
ly the  dangerous  position  into  which  it 
would  throw  them.*  Soon  after  the 
king's  arrival  in  the  Scottish  army  they 
marched  northwards  to  Newcastle,  where 
they  remained  during  the  tedious  nego- 
tiations which  followed.  The  Scottish 
nobility,  army,  and  nation  in  general, 
would  most  willingly  have  encountered 
every  danger  in  his  defence,  if  he  could 
have  been  prevailed  upon  to  ratify  the 
Covenant.  But  the  infatuated  monarch 
remained  obstinate  ;  and  as  they  regarded 
the  sanctity  of  an  oath  as  more  binding 
than  the  mere  feelings  of  natural  loyalty 
and  affection  to  the  person  of  their  sove- 
reign, they  felt  themselves  constrained  to 
leave  him  to  his  fate.  Yet  they  perceived 
both  his  danger  and  their  own ;  and  in 
order  to  save  him,  if  possible,  Alexander 
Henderson  left  London  and  hastened  to 
Newcastle,  for  the  purpose  of  endeavor- 
ing to  persuade  the  obstinate  king  to 
abandon  his  inveterate  prejudices,  sub- 
scribe the  Covenant,  and  rally  round  him 
the  brave  hearts  and  strong  arms  of  his 
faithful  and  unconquered  Scottish  subjects. 
Charles  would  not  be  persuaded.  He 
was  possessed  by  the  idea,  that  neither  of 
the  contending  parties  could  do  without 
him,  and  consequently  that,  even  though 
he  had  been  beaten  in  the  field,  they  must 
yield  to  him  when  they  found  that  he 
would  not  yield  to  them. 

The  English  parliament  sent  proposi- 
tions to  his  majesty,  by  acceding  to  which 
he  might  obtain  peace,  and  the  restoration 
to  a  large  measure  of  regal  power  ;  but 
he  would  not  accede  to  their  propositions, 
any  more  than  to  the  Scottish  Covenant. 
Henderson,  worn  out  with  his  many  and 
arduous  toils,  and  overwhelmed  with  af- 
fliction on  account  of  the  miseries  which 
the  infatuated  king  was  so  manifestly 
bringing  upon  himself  and  the  kingdom, 
relinquished  his  hopeless  task,  returned  to 
Edinburgh  in  a  state  of  great  weakness, 
and  on  the  19th  of  August  yielded  up 

•  Baillie,  vol.  ii.  p.  341. 


his  spirit  to  Him  who  gave  it.  Thus 
passed  away  from  earth  one  of  those 
gifted  men  whom  the  Ruler  of  all  events 
sends  forth  in  time  of  great  emergency, 
to  mould  the  minds  of  his  fellow-men, 
and  aid  in  working  out  the  will  of  the 
Most  High.  He  was  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  of  an  age  fertile  in  great 
men  ;  and  with  all  due  veneration  for  the 
names  of  Knox  and  Melville,  we  do  them 
no  discredit  when  we  place  that  of  Hen- 
derson by  their  side, — the  "  first  three" 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland's  worthies. 

The  General  Assembly  met  at  Edin- 
burgh on  the  3d  of  June  1646.  Its  acts 
were  neither  numerous  nor  important, 
having  reference  chiefly  to  the  troubled 
state  of  the  kingdon,  and  to  such  acts  of 
fasting,  humiliation,  and  prayer,  as  might 
tend  to  avert  the  judgments  of  God  from 
a  guilty  and  suffering  land.  A  short  but 
respectful  letter  was  sent  to  the  king,  ex- 
pressing the  earnest  wish  that  God  would 
incline  his  majesty's  heart  to  the  speedy 
following  of  the  counsels  of  truth  and 
peace. 

For  a  short  time  there  was  calmness 
and  silence  in  the  kingdom, — not  the  si- 
lence of  peace,  but  that  of  breathless  ex- 
pectation. All  men  perceived  that  upon 
the  determination  of  the  king  would  de- 
pend the  cessation  of  the  struggle,  or  its 
fresh  outburst  into  tenfold  violence.  The 
revolutionary  party  in  England  dreaded 
that  his  majesty  might  yield,  and  gradual- 
ly recover  his  power,  limited  undoubtedly, 
but  rendered  thereby  the  more  secure. 
The  Presbyterians  hoped  and  prayed 
that  he  might  submit  so  far  as  that  with  a 
safe  conscience  they  might  indulge  their 
loyal  feelings.  The  prelatists  alone  iden- 
tified his  cause  and  their  own,  seeing  no 
prospect  of  restoration  to  wealth  and 
power  unless  he  should  regain  unlimited 
ascendency.  And  the  king  knew  well, 
that  no  other  party  but  the  prelatic  would 
submit  to  that  arbitrary  prerogative  which 
he  was  determined  to  forego  only  with 
his  life.  In  vain  did  the  Scottish  noble- 
men and  ministers  implore  him  with  tears 
to  subscribe  the  Covenant.  He  peremp- 
torily refused  ;  and  as  they  could  not  de- 
fend him  without  incurring  the  fearful 
guilt  of  perjury,  they  were  compelled  to 
leave  him  to  perish  in  his  blind  wilfulness. 

Into  the  controversy  respecting  the 
question  whether  the  Scottish  army  was 


A.  D.  1G47] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


193 


induced  to  yield  Charles  to  the  English 
parliament  by  the  payment  of  the  arrears 
due  to  them,  we  do  not  enter,  further  than 
to  say,  that  there  is  not,  in  our  opinion, 
the  slightest  ground  in  genuine  historical 
documents  to  prove  that  there  was  any 
connection  whatever  between  the  receiv- 
ing of  the  arrears  and  the  yielding  up  of 
the  king  ;  while  there  is  ample  evidence, 
that  Charles,  having  lost  all  hope  of  be- 
guiling the  Scots  into  an  act  at  once  of 
perfidy  and  perjury,  was  himself  desirous 
of  attempting  to  negotiate  separately  with 
his  English  subjects,  believing  them  to 
be  more  tractable.  If  there  was  infamy 
in  the  transaction,  that  infamy  ought  to 
rest  solely  and  exclusively  upon  the  Eng- 
lish parliament  and  army,  who  strained 
every  nerve  and  employed  every  artifice 
to  compel  or  delude  their  Scottish  breth- 
ren into  compliance  with  their  pernicious 
schemes,  and  rested  riot  till  they  had  ad- 
ded to  the  guilt  of  a  broken  Covenant  the 
murder  of  a  dethroned  king. 

[1647.]  The  General  Assembly  which 
met  at  Edinburgh  on  the  4th  of  August 
1647,  is  chiefly  memorable  for  its  ratifi- 
cation of  the  Confession  of  Faith  of  the 
Westminister  Assembly  of  Divines,  and 
for  the  adoption  of  that  translation  and 
metrical  version  of  the  Psalms  which  is 
still  used  in  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
This,  therefore,  may  be  regarded  as  the 
Assembly  by  which  was  completed  the 
Second  Reformation  of  the  Scottish 
Church,  and  the  full  arrangement  of  its 
Confession,  form  of  Worship  and  Disci- 
pline, as  they  exist  at  the  present  day,  and 
as  we  trust  they  will  ever  exist,  till  the 
second  coming  of  Him  who  is  the  only 
Head  and  King  of  the  Church.  Several 
important  acts  were  passed  by  this  As- 
sembly ;  in  particular,  some  very  excel- 
lent directions  for  private  worship,  and  an 
elaborate  "  Brotherly  Exhortation"  to 
their  brethren  of  England.  It  may  be 
added,  that  Gillepsie's  able  work,  entitled 
"  Aaron's  Rod  Blossoming,"  received  the 
approbation  of  this  Assembly  ;  and  eight 
of  its  leading  propositions  were  engrossed 
in  one  of  the  acts.* 

In  the  meantime,  the  unanimity  which 
had  given  strength  to  Scotland  in  the 

*  In  that  peculiarly  acute  and  profound  work  will  be 
found  the  very  essence  of  the  Westminster  Assembly's 
most  important  discussions  on  the  subject  of  church 
government,  with  the  arguments  employed  against 
both  the  Erastians  and  the  Independents,  and  answers 
to  the  most  elaborate  productions  of  their  chief  writers. 

25 


earlier  stages  of  this  great  contest  oegan 
to  be  rent  asunder  by  political  intrigues. 
Although  the  Covenanters  had  been 
compelled  to  abandon  the  king  on  ac- 
count of  his  impregnable  obstinacy,  they 
still  cherished  sentiments  of  devoted  loy- 
alty to  him  as  their  sovereign,  and  a  sin- 
cere attachment  to  monarchy,  as,  when 
duly  limited,  the  best  form  of  civil 
government.  They  deplored  the  king's 
willfulness ;  they  mourned  the  ruin 
which  it  was  bringing  on  the  whole 
country ;  they  remonstrated  with  the  Eng- 
lish parliament,  and  did  every  thing  to 
procure  the  safety  of  the  king  and  the 
peace  of  the  kingdom  which  it  was  in 
their  power  to  do,  short  of  violating  their 
National  Covenant.  But  the  intrigues  of 
the  Hamiltonian  party  began  to  prevail 
in  the  Scottish  parliament.  Lauderdale 
joined  them,  regardless  of  his  Covenant 
vow ;  and  even  Loudon  was  for  a  time 
carried  away  in  the  tide  of  defection. 
The  Duke  of  Hamilton  was  still  the  os- 
tensible head  of  the  royalist  party  in 
Scotland  ;  but  his  brother  the  Earl  of 
Lanark,  surpassed  him  both  in  zeal  and 
activity,  and  was  the  prime  mover  in  all 
the  intrigues  of  the  party.  At  length,  in 
a  private  interview  with  King  Charles  at 
Carisbrook  Castle,  in  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
on  the  27th  of  December,  a  secret  treaty 
was  concluded,  in  which  Lanark  and 
Lauderdale,  in  the  name  of  their  party, 
engaged  to  raise  an  army  in  Scotland  for 
the  purpose  of  assisting  his  majesty  in 
his  attempts  to  regain  possession  of  the 
English  throne, — his  majesty  engaging, 
on  his  part,  to  confirm  Presbyterian 
church  government  for  three  years,  till 
an  assembly  of  divines,  aided  by  twenty 
commissioners  of  his  nomination,  should 
frame  such  a  form  of  church  government 
and  discipline  as  they  should  find  to  be 
most  agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God. 
He  engaged  also,  that  all  schism  and 
heresy  should  be  effectually  suppressed. 
This  private  treaty,  known  by  the  name 
of  the  Engagement,  caused  the  overthrow 
of  the  Church  and  kingdom  of  Scot- 
land.* 

[1648.]  Early  in  1648  the  rumour  of 
the  Engagement  began  to  transpire  in 
Scotland  ;  and  when  the  parliament  met 
in  March,  and  the  terms  of  this  private 
treaty  were  divulged,  a  vehement  disunit- 

*  Burnet's  Memoirs,  p.  334. 


194 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


ing  struggle  began.  The  faithful  Cove- 
nanters perceived  at  once,  that  the  En- 
gagement involved  the  violation  of  their 
most  solemn  vows.  The  Commission  of 
the  Church  immediately  met.  and.  de- 
liberated what  steps  ought  to  be  taken  in 
this  new  crisis.  They  did  not  deliberate 
long.  They  felt  the  deep  power  of  the 
Covenant  upon  their  souls  too  mighty 
for  any  earthly  consideration  to  shake ; 
and,  accordingly  they  framed  a  declara- 
tion, pointing  out  the  sinfulness  of  an 
Engagement  which  involved  direct  per- 
jury, and  must  draw  down  the  Divine 
displeasure  on  both  Church  and  State. 
But  the  purely  political  or  royalist  party 
had  obtained  the  ascendency  in  the  par- 
liament ;  and  the  earnest  remonstrances 
of  the  sincere  Covenanters  were  disre- 
garded. The  arguments  of  the  minis- 
ters confirmed  those  of  the  nobility  who 
regarded  religion  as  of  more  importance 
than  any  earthly  consideration,  and 
brought  back  some  whom  political  and 
personal  motives  had  led  astray,  among 
whom  was  the  Earl  of  Loudon  ;  but  the 
majority  held  on  their  course,  and  deter- 
mined to  fulfill  the  Engagement  to  the 
utmost  of  their  power. 

The  Assembly  met  at  Edinburgh  on 
the  12th  of  July,  and  made  choice  of 
George  Gillespie  to  be  moderator.  They 
not  only  approved  of  the  declaration  and 
other  similar  writings  of  the  Commission, 
but  passed  an  act  condemnatory  of  that 
act  and  "declaration  of  the  parliament 
which  enjoined  all  subjects  to  subcribe  a 
bond,  equivalent  to  an  oath,  in  support 
of  the  Engagement.  They  further  pub- 
lished a  declaration  and  exhortation  to 
all  members  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
pointing  out  the  unlawfulness  of  the  En- 
gagement, and  warning  against  the  dan- 
gers in  which  it  would  certainly  involve 
the  Church  and  nation.  An  able  an- 
swer was  also  written  to  the  committee  of 
estates,  proving  by  scriptural  arguments 
that  the  Engagement  was  inconsistent 
with  the  safety  and  security  of  religion. 
4nd,  as  the  Hamiltonian  faction  was 
well  aware  of  the  power  which  the 
Church  had  recently  put  forth,  when  it 
raised  the  kingdom  like  one  man  for  the 
defence  of  religious  liberty,  they  employed 
every  artifice  to  bring  as  many  ministers 
as  possible  to  their  side,  by  that  means 
either  to  procure  support  or  to  neutralize 


opposition.  To  meet  this  dangerous 
divisive  policy,  the  Assembly  passed  an 
act  censuring  those -ministers  who  either 
favoured  the  Engagement  openly,  or  ab- 
stained from  pointing  out  its  sinfulness, 
and  warning  their  people  against  enter- 
ing its  bond.  A  respectful  but  firm  sup- 
plication was  also  written  to  his  majesty 
showing  the  insufficiency  of  the  conces- 
sions promised  by  him  in  the  Engage- 
ment, and  its  positive  sinfulness,  as  tend- 
ing to  involve  the  kingdom  in  perjury; 
and  imploring  him  to  comply  with  the 
Covenant,  and  thereby  to  enable  them, 
with  a  safe  conscience,  to  give  him  that 
support  which  their  sincere  loyalty  and 
affection  prompted  them  to  bestow  so  far 
as  their  duty  to  God  would  permit.* 

From  this  time  forward  Scotland  pre- 
sented a  melancholy  contrast  to  the  ten 
preceding  years,  in  which  strict  adher- 
ence to  the  Covenant  had  given  it  union 
and  strength  irresistible.  It  was  now  di- 
vided into  three  contending  parties. 
First,  the  sincere  Covenanters,  led  in  the 
parliament  by  Argyle  and  Loudon,  and 
in  the  Church  by  Rutherford  and  Gilles- 
pie ;  second,  the  framers  of  the  Engage- 
ment, led  by  Hamilton,  Lanark,  and 
Lauderdale,  who  wished  to  take  an  in- 
termediate position,  and  who  were  joined 
by  a  considerable  number  of  the  minis- 
ters, of  whom  Baillie  was  the  most  res- 
pectable. The  third  party  was  headed 
by  Traquair  and  Callender,  and  was 
composed  chiefly  of  those  who  were  de- 
termined royalists  of  the  cavalier  caste, 
and  paid  little  respect  to  either  oaths  or 
treaties,  provided  they  could  get  their 
purposes  accomplished.  The  two  latter 
parties  were  easily  induced  to  coalesce, 
and  their  junction  gave  them  a  decided 
preponderance  in  the  political  councils  of 
the  nation.  That  the  genuine  Covenant- 
ers could  not  unite  with  such  men,  will 
excite  neither  wonder  nor  surprise  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  are  able  to  appreci- 
ate their  principles  ;  and  that  the  chiefs 
of  the  Engagement  should  attempt  to 
overwhelm  them  by  invectives,  and  try 
to  represent  them  as  seditious  and  fanati- 
cal, is  only  what  was  to  be  expected. 
But  that  men  can  yet  be  found  to  repeat 
such  slanderous  calumnies,  might  appear 
incredible,  were  it  not  matter  of  daily  oc- 
currence. 

'  Records  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  pp.  497-508,  518. 


A.  D.  1649.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


195 


They  were,  and  are,  accused  of  an  un- 
warranted and  intolerable  interference 
with  civil  matters,  with  which  the  church- 
men of  them  at-  least  had  nothing  to  do. 
But  was  not  the  whole  struggle  of  that 
memorable  period  expressly  on  account 
of  religion  ?  Had  it  not  been  from  the 
first  a  religious  contest  on  both  sides  1 
And  was  not  their  bond  of  union  strictly 
a  religious  covenant  ?  Nay,  the  Hamil- 
tonian  party  sought  to  inveigle  the  minis- 
ters into  approbation  of  the  Engagement, 
finding  no  fault  with  their  intermeddling 
with  such  matters,  provided  they  would 
support  that  measure ;  and  when  the 
ministers  could  neither  be  deceived  nor 
overawed,  but  continued  steadfastly  to 
adhere  to  their  solemn  vows,  warning 
others  of  the  guilt  and  danger  of  perjury, 
then  only  were  they  accused  of  overstep- 
ping their  province,  and  interfering  with 
what  was  beyond  their  jurisdiction.  Pol- 
iticians have  in  all  ages  and  countries 
shown  themselves  willing  enough  to  em- 
ploy and  praise  the  ministers  of  religion, 
provided  they  would  act  as  sycophants 
and  tools  ;  but  when  they  act  as  the  vi- 
gilant watchmen  of  sacred  rights,  warn- 
ing the  nation  of  coming  danger,  then 
they  are  exposed  to  the  most  virulent  and 
vituperative  censure  ;  then  are  they 
charged  with  arrogant  presumption  in  of- 
fering their  opinions  on  those  public 
measures  which  essentially  affect  the  in- 
terests of  religion  ;  then  they  are  branded 
as  men  who  wish  to  subvert  the  order  of 
society,  and  bring  the  State  into  subser- 
viency to  the  Church.  So  was  it  in  the 
days  of  our  ancestors, — so  is  it  now — 
and  so  will  it  ever  be,  as  long  as  there  is 
need  for  the  Christian  precept,  "  Be  not 
conformed  to  the  world." 

One  of  the  direct  results  of  this  divis- 
ion between  the  Covenanters  and  the 
mere  politicians,  was  the  necessity  of  ap- 
pointing new  commanders  to  the  hastily- 
levied  and  ill-equipped  army  of  the  En- 
gagers ;  for  neither  the  Earl  of  Leven 
nor  David  Leslie  would  abandon  the 
Covenant.  The  Duke  of  Hamilton, 
therefore,  was  made  general. — led  his 
army  into  England, — was  defeated  by 
Cromwell, — and  died  on  the  scaffold, — 
the  unhappy  victim  of  ill-judging  devo- 
tion to  his  sovereign's  person  rather  ihzjl 
his  cause.*  Even  before  the  army  of  the 

•  Burnet's  Memoirs,  p.  400;  Ibid.,  pp.  367,  375. 


Engagers  had  left  Scotland,  there  \vere 
symptoms  of  insurrection  among  the 
people,  who,  refusing  to  join  the  En 
gagement,  were  severely  harassed  by 
those  employed  to  levy  troops.  A  small 
band  of  insurgents  assembled  at  Mauch- 
line,  but  were  easily  suppressed  by  Mid- 
dleton.  As  soon  as  the  tidings  of  Hamil- 
ton's defeat  reached  Scotland,  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  Engagement  assembled,  as- 
sumed arms,  and,  led  by  the  Marquis  of 
Argyle  and  the  Earls  of  Cassilis,  Eglin- 
ton,  and  Loudon,  advanced  towards  Ed- 
inburgh in  such  strength  as  the  remain- 
ing Engagers  could  not  hope  successfully 
to  resist.  By  this,  termed  the  Whiga- 
more's  Raid,  a  complete  change  of  ad- 
ministration was  effected,  and  the  Cove- 
nanters acquired  the  ascendancy  in  the 
Scottish  parliament.  The  new  adminis- 
tration easily  convinced  Cromwell  that 
they  were  in  no  respect  accessory  to  the 
Engagement  which  had  caused  the  inva- 
sion of  England  by  the  Scottish  army ; 
and  thus  hostilities  between  them  and 
that  remarkable  man  were  for  the  time 
averted. 

[1649.]  The  Scottish  parliament  met 
on  the  4th  of  January  1649,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  take  steps  for  the  peace  and  se- 
curity of  the  kingdom.  One  of  these 
was  of  a  very  stringent  nature,  and  has 
been  much  censured.  It  was  obvious  to 
all,  that  the  late  Engagement  could  not 
have  been  framed  if  all  men  in  power 
had  been  Covenanters,  and  had  remained 
true  to  their  vows.  While  therefore,  the 
new  parliament  repealed  all  the  acts  that 
had  been  made  for  its  enforcement,  and 
ratified  the  protestation  against  it,  this 
was  naturally  followed  by  the  idea,  that 
unless  men  of  such  principles  were  ex- 
cluded from  places  of  public  trust  and 
influence,  the  very  same  evil  might  at  no 
distant  date  return.  An  act  was  accord- 
ingly passed,  called  the  Act  of  Classes, 
on  account  of  its  dividing  into  four  sep- 
arate classes,  according  to  their  respective 
degrees  of  delinquency,  the  characters  of 
persons  not  to  be  intrusted  with  power. 
Men  will  term  this  act  one  of  bigotry 
and  intolerance  :  it  evidently  aimed  at  the 
construction  of  what  the  world  has  never 
yet  seen,— a  Christian  government,  com- 
posed of  men  whose  valing  principle 
should  be  to  "  fear  God  and  honour  the 
king." 


196 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


While  this  parliament  was  sitting,  they 
received  intelligence  that  the  English 
parliament,  now  moulded  according  to 
the  mind  of  the  army,  was  about  to  pro- 
ceed with  the  trial  of  King  Charles 
The  most  strenuous  exertions  were  made 
by  the  truly  loyal  Covenanters  to  pre- 
vent the  fearful  event  in  which  a  trial  by 
such  men  would  too  surely  issue.  f  But 
all  their  endeavours  were  in  vain  ;  and 
the  English  parliament,  having  first  bro- 
ken the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant, 
consummated  their  guilt  by  the  decapita- 
tion of  their  king.  It  is  impossible  not  to 
deplore  the  fate  of  that  unfortunate,  ill- 
advised,  and  obstinate  monarch  ;  but  it 
is  as  impossible  to  deny  that  his  insin- 
cerity and  double-dealing  caused  his  over- 
throw and  death.  For  when,  by  the  dis- 
covery of  private  correspondence,  it  was 
clearly  proved,  that  in  the  very  act  of 
framing  treaties  he  was  devising  schemes 
for  setting  them  aside,  it  became  plain  to 
his  antagonists  that  they  must  ultimately 
become  the  victims  of  a  monarch  whom 
no  treaties  could  bind,  unless  they  secured 
their  own  lives  by  the  death,  of  their  im- 
placable foe. 

The  leaders  of  the  English  parlia- 
ment and  army  were,  besides,  men  of  re- 
publican principles,  and  desired  the  abo- 
lition of  the  monarchy  itself.  Not  so  the 
Scottish  Covenanters.  They,  even  by  the 
terms  of  their  Covenant,  were  the  vowed 
supporters  of  a  monarchy  based  upon 
and  pervaded  throughout  by  Scripture 
principles.  No  sooner,  theretore,  did  they 
receive  the  melancholy  intelligence  of 
their  sovereign's  death,  than  they  has- 
tened to  proclaim  his  son  king,  by  the  de- 
signation of  Charles  II. ;  not  omitting, 
however,  in  their  proclamation,  the  sig- 
nificant intimation  that  their  support  of 
his  pretensions  to  the  throne  would  in- 
volve the  necessity  of  his  subscribing  the 
Covenant.  This  proclamation  was  made 
on  the  5th  of  February.  At  the  same 
time,  the  Confession  of  Faith  was  for- 
mally ratified  by  parliament. 

On  the  9th  of  March  1649,  the  Scot- 
tish parliament  passed  an  act  abolishing 
patronage  in  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
'''  as  being  unlawful  and  unwarrantable 
oy  the  Word  of  God,  and  contrary  to 
the  doctrines  and  liberties  of  this 
Church  ;"  recommending  to  the  General 
Assembly  to  determine  upon  a  settled 


rule  for  the  appointment  of  ministers  for 
all  time  coming.*  It  will  be  observed, 
that  in  this  instance  the  parliament  acted 
according  to  the  dictates  of  sound  reason 
and  constitutional  principle.  So  far  as  pa- 
tronage was  considered  as  a  civil  right, 
it  was  for  the  civil  power  to  restrict  or 
abolish  it ;  but  as  the  appointment  of 
ministers  was  clearly  an  ecclesiastical 
matter,  it  was  not  for  parliament  to  inter- 
fere with  it,  but  merely  to  call  on  the 
Assembly  to  state  its  own  method,  and 
then  give  to  that  such  civil  ratification  as 
should  carry  with  it  the  civil  consequen- 
ces which  it  involved.  And  it  was  a  par- 
liament composed  almost  wholly  of  Cov- 
enanters, by  which  this  truly  liberal  and 
enlightened  act  was  passed. 

The  General  Assembly  met  at  Edin- 
burgh on  the  7th  of  July  1649.  Tins' ^ 
Assembly  emitted  several  able  declara- 
tions respecting  the  religious  affairs  of 
the  kingdom,  the  prevailing  errors  and 
abuses,  and  the  best  methods  of  promo- 
ting and  maintaining  peace,  righteous- 
ness, and  purity,  which  are  the  essential 
elements  of  national  welfare.  A  letter 
was  also  addressed  to  the  young  king, 
who  was  still  on  the  Continent,  warning 
him  earnestly  against  listening  to  the 
evil  council  of  those  who  had  already 
plunged  the  kino-dom  into  the  horrors  of 
war,  and  beseeching  him  to  sanction  those 
great  National  Covenants,  which  would 
open  the  door  for  him  to  enter  upon  his 
royal  government  with  the  favour  of  God 
and  the  cordial  love  of  his  faithful  and 
loyal  subjects.  Another  act  was  passed 
regarding  the  reception,  on  proof  of  re- 
pentance, of  those  who  had  been  sus- 
pended from  church  privileges  on  ac- 
count of  their  connection  with  the  En- 
gagement, and  generally  of  all  those 
who,  from  prelatic  and  despotic  predilec- 
tions, had  opposed  the  Covenant,  and 
were  known  by  the  designation  of  "  rna- 
lignants,"  \>y  which  was  meant,  persons 
ill-affected  towards  the  progress  of  reli- 
gious reformation.  Then  taking  up  the 
subject  of  the  appointment'  of  ministers, 
according  to  the  request  of  the  parlia- 
ment, the  Assembly  passed  an  act,  enti-  ; 
tied  "  Directory  for  the  Election  of  Min- 
isters." The  chief  points  of  that  direc- 

y  are,  that  the  session,  which  at  that   I 
time  was   elected  by  the  congregation,  ] 

*  Acts  of  Parliament,  see  Appendix. 


A.  D.  1650.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP   SCOTLAND. 


197 


should  elect  a  minister,  and  intimate  thei 

election  to  the  congregation  for  their  ap 

probation.     If  they  consented,  the  pres 

bytery  were  to  proceed  to  the  trial  of  hi 

qualifications;    if  a  majority  dissented 

the  presbytery  were  to  judge  of  the  same 

and,  unless  they  found  the  dissent  to  b 

founded  on  causeless  prejudices,  anothe 

election  was  to  take  place ;  but  if  a  mi 

nority  dissented,  without  being  able  t 

verify  their  ground  of  objection,  the  triah 

and  ordination  should  proceed,  all  possi 

ble  diligence  and  tenderness  being  usec 

to  bring   all   parties   to   a    harmonious 

agreement.     In  the  case  of  a  disaffectec 

or  malignant  congregation,  the  presby 

tery  was  to  provide  them  with  a  minister.* 

It  will  be  seen  at  a  glance,  that  this  well 

known  act  was  in  perfect  harmony  with 

the  constitutional  principles  of  the  Church 

of  Scotland,  as  contained  in  the  writings 

and  declarations  of  the  early  fathers  of 

the  First  Reformation,  and  in  the  Firs 

and  Second  Books  of  Discipline ;  and  as 

by  its  means    they   were    now   finally 

brought  into  full  developement  and  free 

operation,  it  formed  the  concluding  act  of 

the  completed  Second  Reformation. 

The  Church  of  Scotland  may  now  be 
said  to  have  reached  mature  organiza- 
tion, but  it  was  a  period  when  the  whole 
kingdom  was  so  completely  filled  with 
elements  of  strife,  threatening  an  imme- 
diate and  tremendous  convulsion,  that  it 
could  not  obtain  one  peaceful  day  in 
which  to  exhibit  the  free  movements  of 
its  graceful  and  majestic  form.  Yet  it 
was  well — it  was  providential — that  it  had 
obtained  this  full  developement  before  it 
was  assailed  by  that  terrific  storm  which 
smote  it  to  the  earth,  and  by  which,  at  an 
earlier  stage  of  its  existence,  it  might 
have  been  utterly  destroyed.  All  its  vi- 
tal powers  were  now  called  into  native 
operation ;  all  its  arrangements  were 
completed ;  and  it  might  have  been  ex- 
pected that  it  was  about  to  enter  on  a  glo- 
rious career  of  pure,  faithful,  and  ener- 
getic zeal,  in  establishing  the  reign  of 
religion  in  the  hearts  of  the  entire  com- 
munity. But  the  kingdom  of  Christ  has 
ever  been  a  suffering  kingdom  ;  and  it 
may  be,  that  when  a  church  has  most 
nearly  realized  the  character  and  aspect 
of  the  true  gospel  Church,  then  is  its 
hour  at  hand,  not  of  triumph,  but  of 

•  Acts  of  Assembly,  see  Appendix. 


sharpest  and  most  fiery  trial.     It  may  be 
further  remarked,  that  by  this  time  sev- 
eral of  the  great  men  who  had  been 
chiefly  instrumental  in  effecting  the  Sec- 
ond   Reformation,    had  been   called   to 
their  final  rest.     After  the  death  of  Hen- 
derson, Gillespie  was  the  man  of  great- 
est influence  ;  but  he,  too,  died  in  De- 
cember 1648.  Baillie  was  not  only  timid 
and  wavering,  but  naturally  inclined  to 
follow  the  guidance  of  men  of  worldly 
rank  and  power,  and  to  sacrifice  princi- 
ple at  the  call  of  what  he  deemed  expedi- 
ency.    Rutherford  did  not  possess  that 
cast  of  mind  requisite  for  the  manage- 
ment of  great  affairs  in  times  of  difficulty. 
Robert  Douglas   appears   to  have  been 
the  fittest  man  to  have  led  the  councils  of 
the  Church  ;  but  he  was  deficient  in  pen- 
etration, confided  too  easily  in  other  men, 
and  did  not  sufficiently  follow  the  dictates 
of   his   usual   sound  judgment.     James 
Guthrie  and  Patrick  Gillespie  were  both 
men  of  great  abilities  and  decided  piety  ; 
but  both  were  somewhat  too  impetuous 
in  temper,  and  liable  to  speak  and  act 
with  injudicious  rashness,  more  likely  to 
lead  the  Church  into  additional  dangers 
than  to   extricate   her  from  those  with 
which  she  was  already  surrounded.     In 
hese  adverse  circumstances,  the  Church 
was  left  to  encounter  her  long  and  fiery 
rial,  that  both  her  endurance  and  her 
jreservation  might  be  manifestly  the  re- 
sult, not  of  man's  wisdom,  but  of  the  irn- 
>erishable  life  infused  into  her  by  her 
Divine  Head. 

11650.]  Commissioners  had  been  sent 
o  Holland  in  the  preceding  year,  to  treat 
vith  Charles  II,  but  had  returned  with- 
ut  coming  to  any  satisfactory  conclusion. 
Carly  in  the  year  1650,  the  parliament 
gain  sent  commissioners  to  Breda,  where 
be  young  king  at  that  time  was,  once 
more  to  enter  into  negotiations  with  him 
n  the  foundation  of  the  Covenant.  The 
ommissioners  found  Charles  surrounded 
nth  dissolute  and  unprincipled  men, 
ikely  enough  to  lead  him  into  evil,  had 
e  not  been  inclined,  or  to  strengthen 
lose  evil  inclinations  which  were  already 
ut  too  apparent  in  his  whole  conduct 
nd  character.  He  was  at  that  very 
me  listening  to  the  sanguinary  councils 
f  Montrose,  by  whose  means  he  hoped 

gain  Scotland,  without  any  treaty,  the 
rms  of  which  might  hamper  his  future 


198 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI,. 


proceedings.  The  intelligence  of  Mon- 
trose's  defeat  and  capture  reached  him  in 
time  to  induce  him  to  comply  with  the 
requirements  of  the  Scottish  parliament, 
though  not  till  he  had  convinced  the 
more  faithful  of  them  that  there  was  no- 
thing to  be  expected  from  him  but  dupli- 
city and  gross  licentiousness.  Living- 
stone, who  was  one  of  the  commissioners 
from  the  Church,  gives  us  ample  proof 
that  Charles  had  broken  the  treaty,  both 
in  its  spirit  and  its  letter,  even  before  he 
left  Breda.*  Indeed,  the  treaty  might 
justly  have  been  declared  null  by  the 
cottish  parliament.  In  the  capture  of 
Montrose  a  commission  was  found  from 
the  king,  giving  him  authority  to  levy 
troops,  and  subdue  the  kingdom  by  force 
of  arms  ;  and  so  highly  did  the  parlia- 
ment resent  this  treachery,  that  they  sent 
to  recall  their  commissioners  ;  but  the  one 
into  whose  hands  this  document  fell  con- 
cealed it  from  the  rest,  and  by  showing  it 
privately  to  the  king,  convinced  him  that 
he  could  no  longer  safely  temporize.  He 
accordingly  hurried  on  board,  and  set  sail 
for  Scotland  in  company  with  the  commis- 
sioners, bringing  with  him  also  a  number 
of  the  very  men  whom  the  Act  of  Classes 
had  declared  incapable  of  public  trust. 
Before  he  landed,  Charles  subscribed  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant ;  although 
Livingstone,  who  doubted  his  sincerity, 
was  anxious  that  it  should  be  postponed 
till  his  majesty  should  reach  Scotland, 
and  give  some  satisfactory  proofs  of  his 
sincerity.  The  young  king  landed  on 
the  16th  of  June  1650,  near  the  mouth 
of  the  river  Spey,  and  advanced  to  Stir- 
ling, where  he  was  met  by  the  chief  no- 
bility of  the  kingdom. 

But  instead  of  producing  peace  and 
unanimity  in  Scotland,  the  arrival  of 
Charles  was  a  signal  for  the  instantane- 
ous outburst  of  strife  and  confusion.  His 
loose,  licentious  habits,  and  depraved 
heart,  were  not  likely  to  conciliate  the 
affections  and  respect  of  the  Covenanters ; 
while  he  could  not  brook  what  he  re- 
garded as  the  unnecessary  strictness  of 
their  opinions  and  manners.  And  al- 
though he  complied  with  all  the  stipula- 
tions of  the  parliament,  and  affected  re- 
gard for  the  ministers,  it  was  but  too 
apparent  to  all  men  of  penetration  that  he 
both  hated  and  despised  all  the  best  men  of 

*  Life  of  Livingstone,  pp.  31-36. 


the  kingdom.  In  the  meanwhile  the  As- 
sembly met  at  Edinburgh  in  July  ;  bu 
its  records  have  not  been  published.  We 
learn,  however,  from  other  sources,  tha 
great  dissatisfaction  was  expressed  by  the 
more  zealous  of  the  ministers  with  the 
whole  behaviour  of  Charles,  both  in  his 
deceitful  conduct  towards  the  commis- 
sioners at  Breda,  and  since  his  arrival  in 
Scotland.  A  commission  was  appointed 
to  deal  with  those  who  had  taken  part 
with  Montrose,  and  several  ministers 
were  deposed  for  that  and  similar  of- 
fences. The  proceedings  of  this  Assem- 
bly were  interrupted  by  the  approach  of 
Cromwell,  who  was  advancing  at  the 
head  of  a  veteran  army,  to  expel  the 
young  king. 

Charles  now  thought  it  was  necessary 
to  give  greater  satisfaction  to  the  Church, 
in  order  to  procure  a  more  cordial  and 
universal  support.  But  the  mode  of  doing 
so  led  to  a  complete  and  deplorable  fail- 
ure. He  was  advised  to  make  a  new 
declaration,  such  as  should  satisfy  the 
desires  of  the  most  scrupulous.  This 
advice  was  given  both  by  his  secular 
friends,  and  by  the  wary  and  semi-politi- 
cal party  in  the  Church.  In  this  declara- 
tion, subscribed  by  the  king  in  August  at 
Dunfermline,  Charles  avowed  that  he 
renounced  Popery  and  Prelacy,  and 
"  would  have  no  enemies  but  the  enemies 
of  the  Covenant, — no  friends  but  the 
friends  of  the  Covenant."  Patrick  Gil- 
lespie  requested  the  king  "  not  to  sub- 
scribe that  declaration,  no,  not  for  the 
three  kingdoms,  if  he  were  not  satisfied 
in  his  soul  and  conscience,  beyond  all 
hesitation,  of  its  righteousness."  "  Mr. 
Gillespie,  Mr.  Gillespie,"  answered  the 
king,  "  I  am  satisfied,  I  am  satisfied,  and 
therefore  will  subscribe."*  This  ample 
declaration  produced  an  effect  directly 
the  reverse  of  that  anticipated  by  its 
worldly-wise  advisers.  Instead  of  com- 
pletely satisfying  the  scrupulous,  it  con 
firmed  their  suspicions  of  the  king's  sin 
cerity.  This  men  of  the  world  stigma- 
tize as  intolerant  and  narrow-minded 
distrust,  but  in  worldly  transactions  they 
act  upon  the  same  principle.  Is  there 
anything  which  more  certainly  awakens  . 
suspicion  of  a  man's  sincerity  than  his 
strong  and  vehement  professions  of  zeal- 
ous friendship  to  a  person  or  cause  to 

*  Cruickshank,  p.  58;  Hind  let  Loose,  p.  98. 


A.  D.  1650.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


199 


which  his  whole  previous  conduct  and 
his  known  sentiments  have  been  de- 
cidedly hostile  ?  So  thought  and  felt  the 
more  scrupulous  ministers  j  and,  as  rea- 
son perceives,  and  subsequent  events  tes- 
tified, they  thought  and  felt  rightly. 

The  explanation  of  the  whole  matter 
may  be  briefly  stated.  There  were  then, 
as  there  always  have  been,  two  great  par- 
ties of  public  men  ;  the  one  composed  of 
those  who  judge  and  act  according  to 
principle ;  the  other,  of  those  who  are 
guided  by  expediency.  The  first,  led  by 
P.  Gillespie,  J.  Guthrie,  S.  Rutherford, 
and  Warriston,  were  anxious  not  to  press 
the  king  to  the  subscription  of  the  Cove- 
nant till  they  should  have  some  evidence 
that  he  was  in  such  a  state  of  mind  as 
might  render  it  in  him  indeed  a  religious 
act,  correspondent  to  the  nature  of  the 
solemn  obligation  which  it  involved.  Till 
that  time  they  were  perfectly  willing  that 
he  should  be  their  king  ;  but  should  re- 
main as  much  as  possible  aloof  from  all 
intercourse  with  profane  and  irreligious 
men.  The  other  party  thought  it  inex- 
pedient to  be  so  strict.  They  considered  it 
enough  if  the  king  should  subscribe  the 
Covenant  literally,  however  little  his 
mind  might  be  accordant  with  its  spirit ; 
not,  apparently,  perceiving,  that  this 
would  be  an  act  of  profane  impiety,  to 
which  they  could  not  hope  the  blessing 
of  God  to  be  given.  Their  worldly  pru- 
dence suggested  to  them  the  absolute 
necessity  of  a  complete  national  union,  to 
resist  the  formidable  invasion  of  the 
dreaded  Cromwell ;  but  they  failed  to 
perceive,  that  a  union  not  of  principle, 
but  of  compromise,  can  never  be  firm  and 
permanent.  They  were  willing  to  tam- 
per with  the  sacredness  of  an  oath,  in 
order  to  frame  a  political  bond  ;  and  by 
this  unhallowed  expedient  they  forfeited 
the  protection  of  Him  whose  Covenant 
they  thus  profaned.  They  ought  to 
have  remembered  that  the  Covenant 
of  1638,  which  had  proved  an  ark  of 
safety  in  a  not  less  stormy  sea  of  troubles, 
was  sacredly  guarded,  as  far  as  possible, 
from  being  subscribed  by  any  of  whose 
purity  of  character  and  devotion  to  the 
cause  suspicions  were  entertained.  The 
one  party,  in  short,  viewed  all  political 
and  national  transactions  through  the  clear 
medium  of  religion,  and  therefore  saw 
them  in  their  true  character  and  aspect : 


the  other  viewed  religion  itself  through 
the  turbid  and  warping  medium  of  politi- 
cal expediency,  and  therefore  saw  neither 
religion  nor  politics  in  their  true  nature, 
bearing,  value,  and  reciprocal  influences. 
It  may  be  that  the  strictly  religious  party 
were  too  rigidly  severe ;  but  unquestion- 
ably their  error  was  immeasurably  less 
than  that  of  those  who,  following  the  sug- 
gestions of  short-sighted  human  policy, 
urged  upon  the  king  an  oath,  which  for 
him  to  take  was  perjury  in  the  very  act, 
and  the  inevitable  consequences  ftf  which 
were  an  impious  mockery  of  Heaven, 
and  the  putting  of  power  into  the  hands 
of  men  by  whom  it  was  certain  to  be 
abused. 

When  Cromwell  approached  Edin- 
burgh he  was  confronted  by  the  Scottish 
army  under  the  command  of  David  Les- 
lie ;  and  so  skilful  were  the  movements 
of  Leslie,  that  Cromwell  found  it  impossi- 
ble either  to  draw  him  to  a  battle,  or  to 
produce  any  impression  on  his  lines. 
The  English  general  was  constrained  to 
retire,  and  was  placed  in  the  utmost  peril 
by  the  masterly  position  taken  up  by  the 
Scottish  army  near  Dunbar.  But  urged 
by  the  importunities  of  the  committee  of 
estates,  Leslie  descended  from  his  com- 
manding position ;  and  before  his  army 
had  recovered  from  the  confusion  of  this 
ill-timed  movement,  it  was  assailed  by 
Cromwell,  thrown  into  disorder  and  com- 
pletely routed.  This  disastrous  battle 
was  fought  on  the  3d  of  September  1650. 

The  shattered  Scottish  army  rallied  at 
Stirling,  while  Cromwell  advanced  deli- 
berately, securing  his  conquest  as  he 
moved.  Soon  after  this  disastrous  con- 
flict a  measure  was  proposed  in  the  Scot- 
tish parliament,  which  had  the  effect  of 
completely  rending  asunder  the  strength 
of  the  kingdom.  This  was  the  proposal 
to  modify  or  rescind  the  Act  of  Classes, 
so  as  to  admit  to  the  army  those  who  had 
been  by  that  act  declared  incapable  of 
public  service,  and  by  that  means  to  re- 
pair the  loss  incurred  by  the  battle  of 
Dunbar.  The  difficulty  was  to  procure 
the  consent  of  the  Church  to  this  repeal ; 
for  since  many  of  the  malignants,  as  they 
were  termed,  had  been  excommunicated, 
and  since,  by  the  law  of  the  land,  no  ex- 
communicated person  could  be  employed 
in  public  service,  it  was  necessary  to  have 
the  excommunication  taken  off  before  the 


200 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VI. 


parliament  could  grant  them  re-admis- 
sion. But  the  Church  was  by  no  means 
satisfied  that  such  men  would  form  any 
real  accession  of  strength,  though  they 
would  swell  the  numerical  forces  of  the 
kingdom.  About  the  same  time  a  consi- 
derable body  of  troops  was  raised  in  the 
western  counties,  composed  chiefly  of 
men  whose  opinions  coincided  with  those 
of  the  strictly  religious  Covenanters.  A 
long  and  pointed  remonstrance,  written 
by  P.  Gillespie,  was  addressed  by  them 
to  the  committee  of  estates,  censuring  their 
rashness  in  admitting  the  king  to  dese- 
crate the  Covenant  by  swearing  contrary 
to  his  known  intentions — "  teaching  his 
majesty  dissimulation  and  outward  com- 
pliance, rather  than  any  cordial  conjunc- 
tion with  the  cause  and  covenants ;"  and 
charging  this  and  similar  violations  of 
their  vows  as  the  cause  of  the  nation's 
heavy  calamities.  This  western  remon- 
strance gave  great  offence  to  the  prudent 
politicians  of  both  Church  and  State. 
A  meeting  of  the  committee  of  estates 
soon  afterwards,  at  Stirling,  was  induced 
to  censure  this  remonstrance ;  and  in 
December,  at  Perth,  an  ensnaring  ques- 
tion was  put  to  a  very  thin  meeting  of 
the  Commission  of  Assembly,  respecting 
what  persons  should  be  permitted  to  rise 
in  arms  and  join  the  forces  of  the  king- 
dom against  the  invaders.  In  answer  to 
this,  the  Commission  passed  two  resolu- 
tions favourable  to  the  admission  of  all 
fencible  persons  in  a  time  of  such  great 
and  evident  necessity,  with  the  exception 
of  excommunicated  and  profane  persons, 
and  of  such  as  were  professed  enemies 
and  opponents  of  the  Covenant.  Instantly 
the  parliament,  without  regarding  the  ex- 
ceptions, passed  an  act  rescinding  the  Act 
of  Classes,  and  throwing  open  all  places 
of  public  trust  and  power  to  the  malig- 
nants,  upon  their  making  such  profes4  jli 
sions  of  regret  for  past  misconduct  "as^ 
such  persons  made  no  scruple  of  doing, 
without  entertaining  the  remotest  inten- 
tion of  any  change  for  the  future.* 

These  resolutions  were  openly  con- 
demned by  J.  Guthrie  and  his  colleague 
David  Bennet,  both  from  the  pulpit  and 
in  a  letter  to  the  Commission,  in  which 
they  protested  against  the  recent  resolu- 
tions, which  were,  in  their  view,  a  sinful 
junction  with  the  malignants.  From 


Balfour's  Annales. 


this  time  forward  the  two  parties  in  the 
Church  were  known  by  the  names  of 
Resolutioners  and  Protesters  ;  the  former 
being  those  who  were  carried  away  by 
secular  and  prudential  views  of  expe- 
diency; the  latter,  the  uncompromising 
adherents  of  the  Covenant.  Many  of  the 
Resolutioners  were  men  of  great  piety 
and  worth,  but  somewhat  deficient  in 
firmness  and  decision  of  character  ;  lovers 
of  peace  to  such  an  extent,  as  to  be  will- 
ing to  sacrifice  some  of  their  own  princi- 
ples for  its  attainment.  Of  these  David 
Dickson  was  one ;  but  some  years  after- 
wards, when  the  perfidy  of  Charles  and 
the  malignants  had  become  evident,  he, 
on  his  death-bed,  acknowledged  his  error, 
and  admitted  that  the  Protesters  had  seen 


these  matters  in  a  truer  light  than  the 
Resolutioners  had  done.     On  the  other 


hand,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the 
Protesters  injured  their  own  good  cause 
by  the  somewhat  intemperate  vehemence 
of  this  proceedings. 

[1651.1  The  repeal  of  the  Act  of  Classes 
had  greatly  increased  the  number  of  the 
adherents  of  Charles  ;  and  it  was  deter- 
mined to  delay  his  coronation  no  longer. 
Accordingly  he  was  publicly  crowned  at 
Scoon  on  the  1st  of  January  1651.  A 
sermon  was  preached  before  the  cere- 
mony by  Robert  Douglas  ;  and  the  crown 
was  placed  upon  his  head  by  the  Mar- 
quis of  Argyle.  The  National  Covenant 
and  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant 
were  then  read,  and  the  king  solemnly 
swore  to  observe  and  keep  them  both. 
The  oath  to  defend  and  support  the 
Church  of  Scotland  was  then  adminis- 
tered to  him  ;  and  kneeling  and  holding 
up  his  right  hand,  .he  uttered  the  follow- 
ing awful  vow :  "  By  the  Eternal  and 
Almighty  God,  who  liveth  and  reigneth 
for  ever,  I  shall  observe  and  keep  all 
fkt  is  contained  in  this  oath  !" 

Following  up  their  policy,  they  endea- 
voured to  suppress  all  opposition  ;  and 
ordered  Guthrie  and  Bennet  to  repair  to 
Perth,  and  answer  to  the  king  and  the 
committee  of  estates  for  their  having 
dared  to  preach  against  the  resolutions, 
and  for  their  letter  to  the  Commission. 
They  appeared  ;  but  it  was  to  give  in  a 
declinature  of  his  majesty  and  th,e  council 
as  proper  judges  of  doctrine  and  of  the 
discharge  of  duties  strictly  ministerial. 
They  were  restricted  to  Perth  and  Dun- 


A.  D.  1G53.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


201 


dee  for  a  short  time  ;  but  however  will- 
ing to  wound,  their  antagonists  were  as 
yet  afraid  to  strike,  and  the  prosecution 
was  allowed  to  drop.* 

An  Assembly  was  appointed  to  meet  at 
St.  Andrews  in  July,  whence  it  was  trans- 
ferred to  Dundee ;  but  intimation  was  at 
the  samo  time  given,  that  all  who  were 
not  satisfied  with  the  resolutions  should 
be  cited  to  the  General  Assembly,  as  lia- 
ble to  censure.  This  rendered  the  Pro- 
testers incapable  of  being  members,  was  a 
virtual  prejudging  of  the  question  between 
them  and  their  brethren,  and  completely 
vitiated  the  character  of  the  Assembly  as 
a  deliberate  body.  Against  this  course 
of  procedure  the  Protesters  again  pro- 
tested, denying  the  freedom  and  lawful- 
ness of  the  Assembly  itself.  For  this, 
James  Guthrie,  Patrick  Gillespie,  and 
James  Simpson  were  deposed  ;  but,  pro- 
testing against  this  sentence,  they  con- 
tinued to  discharge  their  ministerial  func- 
tions.! 

The  small  western  army  was  sup- 
pressed by  Cromwell  without  difficulty  • 
and  Strachan,  one  of  its  leaders,  a  man 
of  unstable  mind,  joined  the  usurper. 
While  in  Glasgow,  Cromwell  attended  the 
churches  of  some  of  the  Presbyterian 
ministers,  who  did  not  hesitate  to  pray  for 
the  king,  and  to  term  the  protector  a 
usurper  to  his  face.  Some  of  his  Inde- 
pendent preachers  held  a  disputation  in 
his  presence  with  the  Presbyterian  minis- 
ters, on  the  principles  of  church  govern- 
ment, to  which  that  singular  man  listened 
with  great  apparent  interest.  It  is  prob- 
ably that  the  Protector's  intention  in  thus 
entering  into  personal  and  familiar  con- 
tact with  the  people,  and  especially  with 
the  ministers  of  Scotland,  was  for  the  pur- 
pose of  obtaining  the  means  of  forming 
his  opinion  respecting  their  character  and 
principles  on  the  sure  ground  of  his  own 
penetrating  discernment.  He  knew  that 
the  king  and  his  party  could  not  be 
trusted  ;  and  he  was  anxious  to  ascertain 
whether  the  other  party,  though  opposed 
to  him  in  many  points,  might  not  be  so 
far  conciliated  as  to  submit  peacefully  to 
his  government  when  they  should  per- 
ceive resistance  to  be  hopeless.  That 
this  was  the  real  design  of  Cromwell,  it 
would  be  hazardous  to  affirm;  but  the 
conjecture  has  this  to  recommend  it,  that 

"  Cruickshank,  vol.  i.  p.  63.       t  Lament's  Diary,  p.  40. 

26 


completely  accounts  for  the  conduct  of 
that  deep-thinking  and  far-seeing  man, 
during  his  stay  in  Scotland,  and  after  his 
return  to  England,  in  his  public  treat- 
ment of  the  former  country.  Having 
made  his  observations,  and  formed  his 
plans,  Cromwell  proceeded  to  put  them  in 
execution. 

Charles  had  taken  up  a  strong  position 
in  the  vicinity  of  Stirling,  which  the  pro- 
tector perceived  it  would  be  dangerous  to 
assail.  He  therefore  turned  the  position 
of  the  king's  army  by  crossing  the  Firth 
at  dueensferry ;  and  marching  north- 
wards, seized  upon  Perth,  and  cut  the 
king  off  from  his  supplies.  Charles  re- 
solved upon  a  daring  and  desperate  at- 
tempt to  gain  or  lose  the  whole  kingdom. 
He  broke  up  from  his  camp  at  Stirling, 
and  marched  with  all  the  expedition  in 
his  power  into  England,  hoping  that  the 
royalists  there  would  rise  and  join  him 
before  Cromwell  could  approach.  But 
they  were  too  much  dispirited  to  make 
the  attempt ;  and  Charles  was  overtaken 
and  defeated  at  Worcester,  on  the  3d  of 
September  1651,  exactly  a  year  after  the 
battle  of  Dunbar.  The  king  fled,  and, 
after  a  number  of  perilous  adventures, 
escaped  to  France,  to  mourn  his  blighted 
hopes,  or  rather  to  waste  his  unhonoured 
youth  in  dissipation  and  licentiousness. 
Cromwell  did  not  think  it  necessary  to 
return  to  complete  the  subjugation  of 
Scotland,  but  left  that  task,  no  longer  a 
difficult  one,  to  General  Monk. 

[1652.]  The  unhappy  contest  between 
the  Resolutioners  and  the  Protesters  con- 
tinued to  divide  the  Church  so  completely, 
that  it  no  longer  presented  a  rallying 
point  for  either  of  the  political  parties. 
The  Resolutioners  were  the  more  numer- 
ous ;  but  the  Protesters  were  favoured  by 
the  English,  so  that  their  power  re- 
mained nearly  balanced.  An  Assembly 
was  attempted  to  be  held  at  Edinburgh 
in  July  1652,  the  Resolutioners  assuming 
the  right  of  calling,  constituting,  and  con- 
ducting it,  which  was  opposed  by  the 
Protesters,  with  a  new  protestation,  sub- 
scribed by  sixty-five  ministers  and  about 
eighty  elders.  After  spending  about  a 
fortnight  in  useless  altercations,  it  dis- 
solved, and  its  acts  were  not  recorded.* 

[1653.]  Another  attempt  was  made  to 
hold  an  Assembly  at  Edinburgh  in  July 

*  Lament's  Diary,  p.  55. 


202 


HISTORY  OF  THE    CHURCH   OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


1653,  but  Lieutenant-Colonel  Cottrel,  at 
the  head  of  a  body  of  troops,  entered  the 
house  where  the  ministers  were  assem- 
bled, demanded  on  whose  authority  they 
met, — whether  that  of  Charles  or  the  pro- 
tector? and,  after  the  interchange  of  a 
few  sentences  with  the  moderator,  Mr.  D. 
Dickson,  ordered  them  to  leave  the  house, 
led  them  through  the  streets  surrounded 
by  a  band  of  soldiers,  till  he  had  con- 
ducted them  a  mile  out  of  town  ;  and  then 
commanded  theta  to  depart  to  their  re- 
spective homes  within  the  course  of  a  day, 
otherwise  they  should  be  held  guilty  of 
a  breach  of  the  peace,  and  liable  to  pun- 
ishment. In  this  manner  was  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  also  laid  prostrate  beneath 
the  power  of  the  iron-handed  ruler  of  the 
English  Commonwealth.* 

No  further  violence  was  used  by  Crom- 
well against  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
Some  of  the  Resolutioners  were  exposed 
to  danger,  because  they  would  not  cease 
to  pray  for  the  king  ;  but  no  force  was 
used  to  prevent  them,  and  no  punishments 
were  inflicted.  Synods  and  presbyteries 
continued  to  hold  their  meetings  as  for- 
merly, subject  to  an  occasional  visit  from 
some  of  those  strange  enthusiasts  who 
abounded  in  the  English  army,  and  were 
equally  disposed  for  polemical  as  for  mil- 
itary contests.  The  contentions,  mean- 
while, between  the  Resolutioners  and  the 
Protesters  continued  to  rage  with  unabated 
bitterness,  although  with  much  less  per- 
nicious results  than  would  have  taken 
place  had  the  Assembly  been  regularly 
meeting  from  year  to  year.  In  that  case, 
this  schism,  the  first  which  had  taken 
place  in  the  church  of  Scotland  since  the 
Reformation,  must  have  led  to  the  posi- 
tive expulsion  of  the  weaker  party,  and 
thereby  to  an  incurable  division  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  As  it  was,  amid 
all  their  contests,  they  were  perpetually 
holding  meetings  to  treat  of  a  termination 
to  their  unseemly  strife,  and  the  forma- 
tion of  a  brotherly  union.  Yet  there  was 
a  constant  endeavour  by  each  party  to 
increase  its  own  strength  by  every  prac- 
ticable method,  and  to  weaken  its  antago- 
nist In  this  the  Protesters  were  more 
successful  than  their  opponents.  Patrick 
Gillespie  was  appointed  to  the  principal- 
ship  of  Glasgow  College,  where  his 
influence  had  a  strong  effect  in  drawing 

*  Lament's  Diary,  pp.  69-71. 


the  students  and  the  young  preachers  to 
espouse  his  party.  Rutherford  was  pro- 
fessor of  theology  at  St.  Andrews,  where 
his  influence  was  still  more  direct  and  ex- 
tensive. Even  at  Aberdeen,  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  young  aspirants  to  the 
ministry  attached  themselves  to  the  party 
of  the  Protesters.  In  this  manner  the 
youth  and  growth  of  the  Church  was  di- 
rected in  a  very  decided  manner  to  that 
party  which  was  unquestionably  the  most 
distinguished  for  piety  and  zeal ;  which 
was  another  preparative  for  the  great  ap- 
proaching trial. 

[1655.]  Another  circumstance  which 
contributed  not  a  little  to  strengthen  the 
Protestors,  was  the  direct  and  authoritative 
support  given  to  them  by  Cromwell.  In 
1655  Cromwell  gave  a  commission  to 
Gillespie  and  some  of  his  brethren,  em- 
powering them  to  settle  the  affairs  of  the 
Church.  This  curious  document  proves, 
that  with  all  his  previous  attachment  to 
the  Congregational  system,  the  protector 
was  in  favour  of  an  Established  Church ; 
and  while  it  was  obviously  intended  to 
exclude  all  but  Protesters,  it  expressly 
provided  that,  in  the  induction  of  minis- 
ters, respect  should  be  had  to  the  choice 
of  the  most  religious  part  of  the  people, 
though  that  should  not  be  the  majority.* 
Baillie  complains  much  of  the  severe  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Protesters,  in  deposing 
some  ministers,  rejecting  aspirants,  and 
settling  young  men  of  their  own  party  in 
preference  to  Resolutioners ;  but  even 
with  all  his  querulous  complaints,  it  is 
plain  that  they  acted  a  much  more  lenient 
and  impartial  part  than  they  had  it  in 
their  power  to  have  done,  and  than  their 
opponents  did,  at  the  commencement  of 
the  struggle,  when  they  set  the  example 
of  deposition.  Many  unseemly  contests 
undoubtedly  took  place  ;  and  at  times  the 
Protesters,  supported  by  the  English, 
troops,  appear  to  have  dealt  harshly  to- 
wards some  of  their  keen  opponents  ;  but, 
nevertheless,  from  all  that  has  been  re- 
corded respecting  that  period,  it  appears 
that  it  was  one  of  remarkable  religious 
prosperity.  The  very  contention  of  the 
two  great  parties  rendered  indifference  in 
religious  matters  impossible  on  the  part 
of  either  pastors  or  people.  And  although 
the  General  Assembly  was  suspended,  no 
other  part  of  church  government  and  dis- 

*  Nicoll's  Diary,  pp.  163-166. 


A.  D.  1653.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


203 


cipline  experienced  the  slightest  interrup- 
tion ;  or,  rather,  every  other  part  was 
thrown  into  more  intense  and  vigorous  ac- 
tion. The  whole  vitality  of  the  kingdom 
seemed  to  be  poured  into  the  heart  of  the 
Church,  and  all  the  strong  energies 
of  the  Scottish  mind  were  directed  to  re- 
ligious topics  in  a  more  exclusive  manner 
than  they  had  ever  previously  been. 
The  very  fact  of  the  kingdom's  complete 
civil  prostration  beneath  the  power  of 
Cromwell  closed  every  other  avenue  of 
thought  and  action,  and  even  compelled 
men  to  give  their  entire  being  to  the  pur- 
suit of  earnest,  fervent,  personal  religion. 
"  I  verily  believe,"  says  Kirkton,  "  there 
were  more  souls  converted  to  Christ 
in  that  short  period  of  time,  than  in  any 
season  since  the  Reformation,  though  of 
triple  its  duration  ;"*  and  keeping  the 
above  considerations  in  mind,  we  may 
admit  that  the  account  which  he  gives  of 
the  state  of  religion  at  that  time  in  Scot- 
land, though  highly  coloured,  is  never- 
theless, in  all  its  main  lineaments,  a  faith- 
ful representation  of  the  truth. 

Throughout  the  whole  of  Scotland 
during  the  period  of  Cromwell's  domin- 
ation, there  prevailed  a  degree  of  civil 
peace  beyond  what  had  almost  ever 
before  been  experienced.  This,  too, 
should  be  taken  into  account,  when  we 
peruse  the  memoirs  and  annals  of  the 
period  ;  for  there  being  no  great  public 
events  to  record,  these  gossiping  chroni- 
clers filled  their  pages  with  minute  de- 
tails respecting  the  contests  between  the 
two  parties  in  the  Church,  for  lack  of 
other  materials  to  employ  their  talent  for 
journalizing.  It  ought  to  be  remembered 
also,  that  although  the  Protesters  enjoyed 
the  favour  and  support  o  the  protector  to 
a  considerable  extent,  and  might  have 
done  so  much  more  if  they  had  wished  it, 
they  never  compromised  their  principles, 
nor  stooped  to  flatter  the  usurper.  Very 
few  of  them  were  prevailed  upon  to  take 
the  "  tender"  or  acknowledgment  of  his 
authority  and  that  of  the  English  Com- 
monwealth, without  a  king  or  House  of 
Lords,  because  they  regarded  it  as  im- 
plying a  violation  of  the  Covenant.! 
Patrick  Gillespie  appears  to  have  been 
the  only  minister  in  Scotland  that  ever 
prayed  publicly  for  the  protector.  It 

*  For  a  more  ample  account  see  Kirkton,  pp.  48-65. 
f  Rutherford  opposed  the  tender  very  keenly.    La- 
mont's  Diary,  p.  51. 


is  further  to  be  remarked,  that  when  we 
read  the  writings  of  that  period,  we  per- 
ceive at  once  a  striking  difference  between 
those  of  the  Resolutioners  and  those  of  the 
Protesters.  The  writings  of  the  Protes- 
ters are  thoroughly  pervaded  by  a  spirit 
of  fervent  piety,  and  contain  principles  of 
the  loftiest  order,  stated  in  language 
of  great  force,  and  even  dignity,  of  which 
we  find  but  few  similar  instances  in  the 
productions  of  the  Resolutioners.  To 
prove  this  assertion,  it  is  enough  to  name 
the  works  of  Rutherford,  Blair,  Binning, 
Guthrie  of  Fenwick,  Durham,  Traill, 
Gray,  Guthry  of  Stirling,  and  many 
others,  scarcely  their  inferiors.  Among 
the  Resolutioners,  we  find  none  deserv- 
ing to  be  matched  with  these,  but  Leigh- 
ton,  who  afterwards  became  a  prelate ; 
David  Dickson,  who  acknowledged  that 
his  party  had  erred  ;  and  Robert  Doug- 
las, who  also  lived  long  enough  to  see 
that  he  had  been  mistaken  and  deceived. 

Before  quitting  the  subject  of  the  Reso- 
lutioners and  Protesters,  there  is  one 
point  to  which  it  is  desirable  that  the 
reader's  attention  should  be  directed.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  the  direct  topic 
which  caused  the  contest  between  the  two 
parties  was  the  question  respecting  the 
propriety  of  repealing  the  Act  of  Classes, 
and  admitting  men  of  all  professions  in 
religion,  and  all  varieties  of  character, 
into  the  army,  and  to  other  places  of 
power  and  influence  in  a  time  of  such 
danger.  This  the  political-expediency 
party  resolved  to  do,  and  against  this  the 
strict  Covenanters  protested.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  the  difference  of  opinion  between 
them  arose  ffom  the  different  positions 
from  which  they  viewed  the  same  sub- 
ject. Both  were  fully  aware  of  the  peril- 
ous state  of  the  nation,  and  of  the  neces- 
sity of  adopting  some  strong  measure  to 
meet  the  emergency.  But  the  one  party 
trusted  chiefly  in  a  combination  of  human 
strength,  though  obtained  by  a  sacrifice 
of  religious  principle  ;  the  other,  in  the 
confession  and  abandonment  of  past  er- 
rors, the  restoration  and  more  strict 
enforcement  of  religious  purity,  and  that 
calm  trust  in  the  protection  and  the 
strength  of  God,  under  which,  by  such 
procedure,  they  hoped  to  place  their  cause. 
The  one  party  regarded  national  division 
as  the  main  cause  of  the  nation's  weak- 
ness •  the  other  ascribed  their  calamities 


204 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


to  the  prevalence  of  national  sins,  espe- 
cially to  that  violation  of  the  National 
Covenant  which  consisted  in  entrusting 
its  enemies  with  the  power  to  do  it  injury. 
It  is  needless  for  shallow  thinkers  to 
imagine  they  can  decide  the  question 
summarily,  by  terming  the  one  party  men 
of  enlightened  and  liberal  sentiments, 
and  the  other  narrow-minded  and  intol- 
erant bigots.  The  Covenanters  had  seen 
the  storm  of  war  borne  back  innocuous 
from  their  mountain  bulwarks  but  a  few 
years  before,  when  not  a  man  was  allowed 
to  take  up  arms  in  the  sacred  cause  of  re- 
ligion who  was  not  believed  to  be  person- 
ally under  its  influence.  They  had, 
besides,  the  analogy  of  all  scriptural  his- 
tory in  their  favour ;  so  that  the  views 
they  held  appeared  to  have  the  sanction 
of  recent  facts  and  of  the  Word  of  God. 
And  had  their  opponents  been  as  truly 
patriotic  as  they  pretended,  instead  of 
seeking  political  influence  before  they 
would  lend  their  aid,  might  they  not  have 
formed  themselves  into  a  separate  army, 
hung  on  the  enemy's  flanks  and  rear, 
distracted  his  attention,  cut  off  his  sup- 
plies, and  thereby  promoted  in  the  most 
liberal  and  unselfish  manner,  and  to  the 
utmost  of  their  power,  the  rescue  of  their 
country  from  the  strong  invader  ?  This 
would  have  entitled  them  to  the  honour- 
able appellation  of  men  of  truly  enlight- 
ened rninds  and  genuine  patriotism  ;  but 
their  whole  conduct,  then  and  subse- 
quently, proved  them  to  have  been  influ- 
enced chiefly  by  ambitious,  selfish,  and 
despotic  principles. 

Let  the  reader  take  up  the  question, 
and  muse  upon  it  deeply,  in  the  form  of 
the  following  hypothetic  proposition : — 
Are  there  not  principles  and  rules  appli- 
cable to  wars  strictly  religious,  by  which 
all  operations  should  be  governed  and  di- 
rected, essentially  different  from  those  in- 
volved in  ordinary  warfare?  What  we 
mean  to  suggest  is  this :  that  in  wars 
strictly  religious,  which  are  of  course 
solely  defensive  (for  religion  may  not  be 
propagated  by  the  sword,  although  it  may, 
in  extraordinary  cases,  be  so  defended), 
no  principle  of  merely  secular  policy  can 
be  admitted  without  vitiating  the  cause ; 
no  principle  can  be  held  and  acted  upon 
which  has  not  the  clear  warrant  of  the 
Word  of  God,  either  in  stated  precept  ar 
recorded  example.  On  the  other  hand, 


in  ordinary  warfare,  means  may  be  em 
ployed,  and  results  anticipated,  more  ac- 
cording to  the  calculations  and  arrange- 
ments of  human  wisdom,  skill,  and  ge- 
nius. Not  that,  in  the  latter  case,  the  over- 
ruling influence  of  Providence  is  more  in 
abeyance  than  in  the  former,  but  that  its 
direct  power  is  less  conspicuously  display- 
ed. Now,  the  Covenanters  regarded  the 
war  as  as  of  a  strictly  religious  charac- 
ter, otherwise  they  would  not  have  en- 
gaged in  it  at  all ;  and  therefore  they 
could  not,  they  dared  not,  employ  means 
on  which  they  could  not  implore  and  ex- 
pect the  blessing  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts. 
Men  of  no  religion  may  deem  this  view 
fanatical :  but  it  will  require  more  than 
the  usual  amount  of  reason  and  philoso- 
phy— we  speak  not  to  such  men  of  reli- 
gion— which  they  bring  to  bear  upon  the 
subject,  before  they  prove  it  to  be  either 
irrational  and  absurd,  or  inconsistent  with 
the  providential  government  of  the  "Most 
High,  who  doeth  according  to  his  will  in 
the  armies  of  heaven,  ana  among  the  in- 
habitants of  the  earth." 

It  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  on  the  minor 
details  which  took  place  during  the  re- 
mainder of  the  Protectorate.  After  the 
death  of  Oliver  Cromwell  a  series  of  in- 
trigues commenced,  which  ended  in  the 
restoration  of  Charles  II.  In  Scotland 
these  intrigues  were  chiefly  guided  by 
Robert  Douglas,  the  leader  of  the  Reso- 
lutioners,  through  the  instrumentality  of 
James  Sharp,  who  at  that  time  affected, 
perhaps  entertained,  as  thoroughly  as 
such  a  man  could,  a  warm  zeal  for  the 
interests  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Scotland.  Monk,  who  had  remained  in 
Scotland  since  its  subjugation  by  Crom- 
well, appeared  for  a  time  to  favour  the 
Presbyterian  cause,  and  continued  to  hold 
intercourse  with  Douglas  through  the 
medium  of  Sharp.  The  epistolary  cor- 
respondence between  Douglas  and  Sharp, 
preserved  in  Wodrow,  clearly  proves  the 
duplicity,  selfishnes,  and  treachery  of 
Sharp,  and  prepares  us  for  the  dark  and 
cruel  tyranny  which  that  hollow-hearted 
and  ruthless  man  subsequently  exercised 
towards  the  Church  which  he  had  first 
betrayed,  and  then  set  himself  to  perse- 
cute.* 


*  For  a  very  full,  accurate,  and  impartial  view  of  the 
period  that  elapsed  between  the  death  of  Charles  I. 
and  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  the  reader  is  referred 


A.  D.  16GO.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


205 


Charles  II.  entered  London  in  triumph 
on  the  29th  of  May  1660 ;  and  with  his 
restoration  to  the  sovereignty  begins  a 
new  era  of  the  Church  of  Scotland's  his- 
tory, the  record  of  which  is  one  of  suffer- 
ings, and  lamentations,  and  woe. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


FROM  THE  RESTORATION  OF  CHARLES  II.  TO 
THE  REVOLUTION  OF  1688. 

State  of  Affairs  at  the  Restoration— James  Sharp- 
Council  of  State — Apprehension  of  Argyle  and  of 
James  Guthrie— Middleton's  Parliament— Oath  of 
Allegiance — Act  Recissory— Proceedings  of  the 
Church— Trial  and  Execution  of  Argyle  and  Guthrie 
—Deposition  and  Banishment  of  several  Ministers — 
Proclamation  of  the  King's  determination  to  restore 
Prelacy — Consecration  of  four  Scottish  Bishops  in 
London — Prohibition  of  all  Presbyterian  Church 
Courts — Proceedings  of  the  Prelatic  Parliament- 
Oaths  and  Declaration  against  the  Covenant— Refor- 
mation— Diocesan  Meetings— Act  of  Glasgow — Ejec- 
tion of  nearly  Four  Hundred  Ministers— Conse- 
quences— Trial  and  Death  of  Warriston — Re-erection 
of  the  Court  of  High  Commission— Persecutions — 
Proclamation  against  Conventicles — Causes  of  the 
Rising  of  Pentland— The  Rising  itself,  Discomfiture, 
and  Fatal  Consequences — Martyrdom  of  Hugh  M'Kail 
and  others — Severities  of  the  Army— The  Bond- 
Mitchell's  Attempt— Increased  Severities — The  First 
Indulgence— Dissentions  caused  by  it — Field-preach- 
ing—The  Accommodation  proposed  by  Leighton — 
Continued  Persecution— Second  Indulgence— Pro- 
ceedinss  against  Conventicles  and  Field-preaching — 
The  Highland  Host — Barbarities  committed  by  them 
— Continued  Persecution,  Instances— Death  of  Arch- 
bishop Sharp— Declaration  of  Rntherglen— Battle  of 
Drumclog — The  West-country  Army— Dissensions- 
Battle  of  Bothwell  Bridge— Trials,  Executions,  and 
Increased  Oppression— General  Persecution,  In- 
stances— The  Society  People— Queens-ferry  Paper 
and  Declaration  of  Sanquhar — Skirmish  at  Ayramoss 
— Death  of  Cameron  and  others — The  Torwood  Ex- 
communication— Trial  and  Death  of  Carsril — Perse- 
cutions and  Martyrdoms,  Instances — The  Test — Pro- 
ceedings against  Argyle — His  Escape — Circuit  Courts 
—Murders  in  the  Fields — Proceedings  against  the 
Society  People — Their  bold  and  resolute  Conduct — 
Death  of  Charles  II.— James  VII.— Unsuccessful  At- 
tempt of  Argyle — His  Capture,  Trial,  and  Execution 
— Dunottar  Castle — Transportation  to  the  Colonies 
as  Slaves— The  King's  Letter  to  Parliament — Schemes 
for  restoring  Popery — Acts  of  Indulgence— Tolera- 
tion— Liberty  of  Conscience — Trial  and  Execution  of 
Renwick — The  Society  People— Letter  of  the  Scot- 
tish Prelates  to  the  King— Letter  of  the  Presbyterian 
Ministers  to  the  Prince  of  Orange — The  Revolution. 

[1660.]  THE  Restoration  of  Charles  II. 
to  the  throne  of  his  ancestors,  without  the 
guard  of  precautionary  conditions  of  any 
kind,  and  the  strange  frenzy  of  extrava- 
gant loyalty  which  seized  upon  the 
whole  kingdom  like  some  uncontroll- 
able epidemic,  so  strongly  contrasted 
with  the  conduct  and  temper  exhibited 
by  the  nation  but  a  few  years  before, 
would  require  for  the  explanation  of 

o  the  "History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  during  the 
Commonwealth."  by  the  Rev.  James  Beattie,  recently 
published. 


a  change  so  sudden  and  so  grea^  an 
investigation  more  minute,  searching,  and 
profound,  than  it  has  ever  yet  received. 
Into  that  subject,  however,  we  cannot  en- 
ter, further  than  merely  to  remark,  that 
for  the  fundamental  error  of  restoring  the 
king  to  full  power,  without  any  prelimit- 
ing  conditions  for  regulating  the  exercise 
of  that  power,  the  Church  of  Scotland,  as 
a  body,  was  not  to  blame.  So  early  as 
the  6th  of  February  1660,  six  of  the  lead- 
ing ministers  met  in  Edinburgh,  and 
agreed  to  send  Mr.  James  Sharp  to 
London,  to  hold  intercourse  with  Monk, 
according  to  that  wily  politician's  desire  ; 
and  gave  to  him  instructions  by  which  he 
was  to  regulate  all  his  stipulations  in  be- 
half of  the  Church  of  Scotland.*  At  that 
time  the  design  of  restoring  the  king  had 
not  been  divulged  ;  but  these  instructions 
were  equally  applicable  whatever  form 
of  civil  government  should  be  established, 
— a  matter  with  which  the  Presbyterian 
Church  did  not  wish  directly  to  interfere, 
though  decidedly  favourable  to  monarchy. 
Sharp  seems  to  have  been  chosen  as  the 
agent  of  the  Church  at  this  juncture,  be- 
cause of  his  success  in  some  previous  ne- 
gotiations during  the  time  of  Cromwell, 
when  he  had  been  sent  by  the  Resolu- 
tioners  to  counteract  the  influence  of  the 
Protesters.  His  conduct  on  that  occa- 
sion gave  great  satisfaction  to  his  party, 
and  is  praised  in  the  most  extravagant 
terms  by  Baillie,  who  calls  him  "  that 
very  worthy,  pious,  wise,  and  diligent 
young  man,  Mr.  James  Sharp."  His 
character  was  better  understood  by  Bishop 
Burnet ;  and  as  it  is  difficult  for  a  Presbyte- 
rian to  mention  his  name  and  character  in 
such  terms  as  he  deserves,  without  being 
thought  to  be  influenced  by  violent  and 
vindictive  feelings,  it  may  be  expedient  to 
quote  the  language  of  the  prelatic  histo- 
rian. 

"  Among  these.  Sharp,  who  was  em- 
ployed by  the  Resolutioners  of  Scotland, 
was  one.  He  carried  with  him  a  letter 
from  the  Earl  of  Glencairn  to  Hyde, 
made  soon  after  Earl  of  Clarendon,  re- 
commending him  as  the  only  person  ca- 
pable to  manage  the  design  of  setting  up 
Episcopacy  in  Scotland  ;  upon  which  he 
was  received  into  great  confidence.  Yet, 
as  he  had  observed  very  carefully  the  suc- 
of  Monk's  solemn  protestations 


cess 


Wodrow,  Dr.  Burn's  edit,  p,  5. 


206 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII 


against  the  king-  and  for  the  common- 
wealth, it  seems  he  was  so  pleased  with 
the  original,  that  he  resolved  to  copy  after 
it,  without  letting  himself  be  diverted  from 
it  by  scruples.  For  he  stuck  neither  at 
solemn  protestations,  both  by  word  of 
mouth  and  by  letters  (of  which  I  have 
seen  many  proofs),  nor  at  appeals  to  God 
of  his  sincerity  in  acting  for  the  Presby- 
tery, both  in  prayers  and  on  other  occa- 
sions, joining  with  these  many  dreadful 
imprecations  on  himself,  if  he  did  prevari- 
cate. He  was  all  the  while  maintained 
by  Presbyterians  as  their  agent,  and  con- 
tinued to  give  them  a  constant  account  of 
the  progress  of  his  negotiation  in  their 
service,  while  he  was  indeed  undermin- 
ing it.  This  piece  of  craft  was  so  visible, 
he  having  repeated  his  protestations  to  as 
many  persons  as  then  grew  jealous  of 
him,  that  when  he  threw  off  the  mask, 
about  a  year  after  this,  it  laid  a  founda- 
tion of  such  a  character  of  him,  that  no- 
thing could  ever  bring  people  to  any  tol- 
erable thoughts  of  a  man  whose  dissimu- 
lation and  treachery  was  so  well  known, 
and  of  which  so  many  proofs  were  to  be 
seen  under  his  own  hand."* 

To  this  nothing  need  be  added  regard- 
ing the  man ;  but  what  must  be  thought 
of  the  system  which  needed  such  a  man 
and  such  arts  for  its  introduction  ?  Yet, 
let  this  be  said, — few,  very  few,  Episco- 
palians have  ever  expressed  their  appro- 
bation of  either  Sharp  or  his  treachery  to 
the  Church  of  Scotland;  and  no  system 
is  justly  chargeable  for  all  the  faults  of  its 
adherents.  In  truth,  men  are  always 
either  better  or  worse  than  their  system 
or  their  party.  A  good  man  may  be  at- 
tached to  a  bad  system  or  party  ;  but  he 
will  avoid  as  far  as  possible  what  is  evil 
in  it,  and  cleave  chiefly  to  what  is  good, 
and  will  accordingly  be  better  than  his 
system  or  his  party.  A  bad  man  may  be 
attached  to  a  good  system  or  party  ;  but 
he  will  acquire  and  exhibit  little  of  what 
is  good  in  it,  and  will  draw  forth,  embody, 
and  display  peculiarly  what  is  evil,  and 
will  therefore  be  worse  than  his  system 
or  party.  Thus  Sharp,  and  the  greater 
part  of  the  Scottish  prelates,  were  worse 
than  their  system,  unscriptural  as  we  be- 
lieve that  system  of  Church  government 
to  be,  and  as  we  think  its  unreluctant 

•  Burnet  s  H'story  of  his  Own  Times,  vol.  i.  p.  92. 


employment  of  such  men  sufficiently 
proves  it. 

The  correspondence  which  took  place 
between  Douglas  and  Sharp,  during  the 
residence  of  the  latter  in  London,  is  high- 
ly instructive,  both  in  showing  the  views 
entertained  by  the  large  party  in  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  whose  counsels  were 
directed  by  Douglas,  and  in  detecting  the 
duplicity  of  Sharp.  A  very  able  paper 
was  transmitted  by  Douglas  to  Sharp,  on 
the  26th  of  March,  containing  the  matur- 
ed opinions  of  that  sagacious  man  con- 
cerning the  settlement  of  the  government 
in  the  three  kingdoms.  In  that  document, 
Douglas  proceeds  strongly  to  advocate 
the  restoration  of  Charles,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Presbyterian  form  of 
church  government  in  Scotland,  Eng- 
land, and  Ireland ;  admitting,  at  the  same 
time,  the  perfect  right  of  England  and 
Ireland  to  determine  for  themselves,  and 
disclaiming  all  intention  of  using  force. 
Yet  in  the  same  paper,  he  does  not  hesi- 
tate to  lay  it  down  as  an  incontrovertible 
proposition,  that  "Episcopacy  and  other 
forms  are  men's  devices,  but  Presbyterian 
government  is  a  divine  ordinance."* 
Such,  indeed,  was  the  general  opinion  of 
the  period.  It  was  at  a  considerably 
subsequent  time  that  the  idea  of  defending 
Prelacy,  on  the  ground  of  its  being  a  di- 
vine institution,  began  to  grow  prevalent, 
though  it  had  been  previously  held  by  a 
few ;  and  it  was,  of  course,  solely  on  the 
ground  of  its  political  capabilities  that 
kings  and  statesmen  were  so  anxious  to 
have  it  established.  Sharp  easily  per- 
ceived in  what  direction  the  politicians 
were  endeavouring  to  steer ;  but  he  did 
every  thing  in  his  power  to  conceal  it 
from  Douglas,  lest  some  strong  resolution 
should  be  adopted  by  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, and  his  design  frustrated.  Doug- 
las proposed  that  a  commission  should 
proceed  to  London  to  make  the  mind  of 
the  Church  clearly  known  ;  but  Sharp 
urged  the  inexpediency  of  such  a  step 
with  so  much  plausibility,  that  it  was 
abandoned.  He  knew  well,  that  if  Doug- 
las himself  had  been  on  the  spot,  his  own 
machinations  would  have  been  discover- 
ed, and  all  his  golden  hopes  at  once  des- 
troyed. 

In  the  meantime,  Douglas  had  enough 
•  Wodrow,  vol.  i.  p.  15. 


A.  D.  1661.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


207 


to  do  to  manage  matters  at  home.  The 
majority  of  the  Resolutioners  placed  full 
confidence  in  him,  and  allowed  themselves 
to  be  directed  according  to  his  judgment ; 
but  the  Protesters  could  not  be  moved 
from  their  position.  They  distrusted  the 
king,  the  courtiers,  and  their  brethren  of 
the  opposite  party  in  the  Church,  and 
would  not  unite  with  them  in  the  meas- 
ures they  were  proposing.  This  contin- 
ued antagonism  was  productive  of  the 
most  pernicious  results.  It  kept  the 
Church  of  Scotland  in  a  state  of  equipoise, 
or  rather  paralysis.  Neither  party  could 
give  utterance  to  what  might  justly  be  re- 
garded as  the  national  mind;  for  their 
opinions  mutually  counterbalanced  each 
other,  so  that  the  nation  seemed  to  have 
no  decided  will  or  wish  on  the  subject. 
This  was  exactly  the  condition  in  which 
the  most  deadly  enemy  of  the  Presbyteri- 
an Church  could  have  wished  it  to  be 
placed.  Had  either  party  possessed  a 
decided  preponderance,  the  politicians 
would  not  have  dared  to  assail  it;  or, 
had  they  been  able  to  unite,  as -in  the 
early  days  of  the  Covenant,  they  might 
have  bid  defiance  to  every  assailant.  In 
numbers  the  Protesters  were  the  weaker 


unwavering  integrity  of 
character    the    stronger. 


party,  but  in 
principle  and 
They  could  not  form  a  coalition  with  the 
Resolutioners  without  a  sacrifice  of  prin- 
ciple and  conscience ;  while  the  other 
party  might  have  joined  them  without 
sacrificing  any  thing  but  expediency  and 
pride.  They  were  destined  to  be  more 
united  ere  long;  but  not  till  both  had 
been  thrown  into  the  furnace. 

It  deserves  to  be  particularly  remarked, 
that  the  Protesters  made  repeated  ad- 
vances to  their  brethren,  and  that  Doug- 
las was  prevented  from  complying  with 
their  proposals  for  a  union,  chiefly  through 
the  insidious  policy  of  Sharp,  who  con- 
tinued to  assure  him  that  the  safety  of 
the  Church  would  consist  in  its  majority 
keeping  aloof  from  the  Protesters,  against 
whom  the  king  cherished  an  irreconcila- 
ble enmity.  He  intimated  also  his  ma- 
jesty's willingness  to  ratify  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  Assembly  of  165' ,  in  which 
the  Protesters  had  been  r  -idemned,  re- 
garding this  as  a  clear  piooi  of  the  royal 
feelings. 

With  one  other  remark  we  shall  con- 
clude these  comparatively  preliminary 


notices  of  the  state  of  affairs  at  the  Resto- 
ration. The  whole  nature  of  the  great 
convulsion  through  which  the  nation  had 
passed  had  tended  to  draw  forth  into  the 
most  marked  contrast  two  very  opposite 
states  of  mind,  or  aspects  of  character. 
The  essential  subject  of  the  contest  was 
religion  ;  the  one  party  seeking  to  govern 
and  restrain  it ;  the  other  striving  to  pro- 
cure for  it  not  only  freedom,  but  suprema- 
cy in  its  own  department.  Of  necessity, 
the  defenders  of  religion  were  men  of 
graver  manners  and  more  thoughtful 
minds  than  its  opponents.  But  in  the 
heat  and  anger  of  the  struggle  many 
joined  each  party  who  valued  little  the 
intrinsic  nature  of  the  subject  in  dispute, 
and  deemed  it  enough  to  assume  the  ex- 
ternal characteristics  of  the  party  which 
they  joined.  The  consequence  was,  that 
such  adherents  presented  the  most  ridicu- 
lously exaggerated  caricature  of  their  re- 
spective parties  ;  so  that  a  stern  and 
gloomy  fanaticism  came  to  be  regarded 
as  the  characteristic  of  a  Presbyterian, 
while  drinking,  swearing,  and  licentious- 
ness of  every  kind  were  the  tokens  by 
which  a  royalist  was  known.  Accord- 
ingly, the  restoration  of  the  king  was  a 
signal  for  the  universal  display  of  these 
characteristics  of  loyalty.  "  A  spirit  of 
extravagant  joy,"  says  Burnet,  "  spread 
over  the  nation,  that  brought  on  with  it 
the  throwing  off  the  very  professions  of 
virtue  and  piety.  All  ended  in  enter- 
tainment and  drunkenness,  which  over- 
run the  three  kingdoms  to  such  a  degree, 
that  it  very  much  corrupted  all  their  mor- 
als."* «  Men  did  not  think,"  says  Kirk- 
ton,  "  they  could  handsomely  express 
their  joy,  except  they  turned  brute:  f:r  de- 
bauch ;  yea,  many  a  sober  man  was 
tempted  to  exceed,  lest  he  should  be  con- 
demned as  unnatural,  disloyal,  and  insen- 
sible."! The  effect  may  be  easily  ima- 
gined, both  in  degrading  the  royalist  par- 
ty, and  in  disgusting  their  opponents, 
driving  them  to  the  opposite  extreme,  and 
rendering  the  chasm  between  them  more 
wide,  deep,  and  impassable.  It  will  ac- 
count also  for  much  of  the  exaggerated 
language  used  by  party  writers  on  both 
sides,  while  describing  not  the  essential 
characteristics,  but  the  distorted  carica- 
tures, of  the  two  contending  parties. 

•  Burnet's  History  of  his  Own  Times,  p.  99 
t  Kirkton,  p.  65. 


208 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


Little  more  than  a  month  was  sufficient 
to  ripen  the  schemes  of  those  who  wished 
to  establish  an  arbitrary  government,  and 
to  give  them  courage  to  commence  the 
putting  of  these  schemes  into  execution. 
A  council  of  state  was  formed  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  affairs  in  Scotland,  com- 
posed of  men  decidedly  hostile  to  the 
Presbyterian  cause.  The  Earl  of  Mid- 
dleton,  a  fierce,  rude,  and  unprincipled 
soldier  of  fortune,  was  made  commission- 
er for  holding  the  parliament,  and  gener- 
al of  the  forces,  and  thus  head  of  both 
the  legislative  and  executive  departments. 
The  Earl  of  Glencairn  was  chancellor  ; 
the  Earl  of  Lauderdale,  who  had  been 
one  of  the  commissioners  to  the  West- 
minster Assembly,  was  appointed  secre- 
tary of  state  ;  the  Earl  of  Rothes,  son  of 
the  celebrated  Rothes,  who  gave  such  im- 
portant aid  in  the  time  of  the  Covenant, 
was  president  of  the  council ;  the  Earl  of 
Crawford,  lord  treasurer  ;  and  Sir  Archi- 
bald Primrose,  clerk  register.  Private 
instructions  were  given  to  Middleton  to 
try  the  inclination  of  the  country  for  Pre- 
lacy, and  to  devise  the  best  method  of  in- 
troducing it.  For  this  purpose  it  was  ne- 
cessary to  remove  those  whose  opposition 
might  have  been  formidable.  The  Mar- 
quis of  Argyle  was  justly  regarded  as 
the  most  powerful  supporter  of  the  Cove- 
nant ;  and  he  had  many  enemies  among 
the  Scottish  nobility,  in  addition  to  which 
the  king  himself  regarded  him  with  de- 
cided hostility.  Argyle,  nevertheless, 
unconscious  of  evil,  repaired  to  London, 
and  requested  an  audience  of  the  king  ; 
but  no  sooner  was  Charles  informed  of 
his  arrival  than  he  commanded  him  to  be 
commiiLcJ  to  the  Tower.  This  took 
place  on  the  8th  of  July.  On  the  14th 
of  the  same  month,  orders  were  sent  to 
Edinburgh  to  imprison  Sir  James  Stew- 
art, Sir  John  Chiesly,  and  Sir  Archibald 
Johnston  of  Warriston.  The  two  former 
were  seized,  but  Warriston  made  his  es- 
cape, although  a  proclamation  was  im- 
mediately issued,  offering  a  reward  for 
nis  apprehension,  and  subjecting  every 
person  who  should  conceal  him  to  the 
penalties  of  treason. 

On  the  23d  of  August,  the  committee 
of  estates  met  in  Edinburgh,  to  com- 
mence the  administration  of  national  af- 
fairs. The  first  act  gave  but  too  clear  an 
indication  what  the  course  of  their  proce- 


dure was  likely  to  be.  Ten  ministers 
and  two  elders  had  met  ./hat  day  in  the 
house  of  a  friend  in  Edinburgh,  for  the 
purpose  of  framing  a  humble  address  and 
supplication  to  the  king,  congratulating 
his  return,  expressing  their  loyalty,  re- 
minding him  of  his  own  and  of  the  na- 
tion's Covenant,  and  praying  that  his 
reign  might  be  prosperous.  They  were 
all  Protesters,  and  had  determined  upon 
taking  this  step  in  consequence  of  the  op- 
posite party,  beguiled  by  Sharp,  refusing 
to  join  with  them  in  a  general  address 
from  the  whole  Church.  Their  intention 
was,  to  transmit  the  supplication  to  their 
brethren  throughout  the  country,  that  it 
might  obtain  as  many  signatures  as  possi- 
ble, and  then  to  call  a  larger  meeting, 
from  which  it  might  be  sent  to  his  majes- 
ty. No  sooner  did  the  committee  receive 
intelligence  of  this  private  meeting,  than 
they  sent  a  party  of  soldiers,  seized  their 
papers,  and  committed  themselves  to  pri- 
son,  from  whence  one  of  them,  James 
Guthrie,  came  not  out  but  to  trial  and  ex- 
ecution.* It  was  remarked,  that  this  vio- 
lent and  illegal  apprehension  of  these 
ministers  took  place  on  the  very  day  of 
the  month  on  which,  exactly  an  hundred 
years  before,  the  Scottish  parliament  had 
passed  an  act  abolishing  Popery,  and  per- 
mitting the  free  progress  of  the  Reforma- 
ion.  They  were  now  attempting  to 
bolish  Presbytery  at  the  command  of  a 
king  who  was  secretly  a  papist,  and  who 
would  have  been  glad  to  have  brought 
the  nation  once  more  into  the  dark  and 
enslaving  bondage  of  the  Roman  apos- 


In  the  beginning  of  September  Sharp 
came  from  London,  and  brought  a  letter 
from  the  king,  addressed  to  Robert  Doug- 
las, but  to  be  communicated  to  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Edinburgh.  It  was  prepared, 
as  Wodrow  states,  by  Sharp  himself,  and 
was  cunningly  adapted  to  gratify  the 
Resolutioners,  and  to  throw  all  blame 
upon  the  Protesters.  It  produced  the  ef- 
fect intended.  All  suspicion  was  lulled 
asleep,  the  most  extravagant  expressions 
of  delighted  gratitude  were  poured  forth, 
and  copies  of  it  were  sent  to  every  pres- 
bytery, to  prove  to  the  kingdom  the  truth- 
ful fidelity  of  his  majesty,  and  to  show 
how  groundless  and  unjust  were  the 
jealous  suspicions  of  the  Protesters.  Yet 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  i.  pp.  66-72. 


A.  D.  1GG1.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


209 


the  letter  contained  expressions  of  a 
character  so  manifestly  evasive  that  it 
might  well  have  excited  suspicion,  even 
had  there  been  no  previous  cause  of  dis- 
trust. It  startled  the  unscrupulous  Mid- 
dleton,  who  declared  that  he  thought 
it  beneath  the  dignity  of  a  king  thus  to 
equivocate  with  his  people  and  deceive 
them.* 

Some  proclamations  were,  about  the 
same  time,  issued  by  the  committee  of  es- 
tates against  all  unlawful  meetings  and 
seditious  papers,  all  seditious  slanderers 
of  his  majesty's  government,  and  all  re- 
monstrators  and  their  adherents.  It  was 
evident  against  whom  these  were  fulmi- 
nated, and  for  what  purpose ;  but  the 
committee  could  stoop  to  still  meaner  em- 
ployment. About  the  middle  of  Septem- 
ber a  proclamation  was  issued  against 
Rutherford's  «  Lex  Rex,"  and  J.  Guth- 
rie's  «  Causes  of  God's  Wrath,"  and  all 
were  ordered  to  bring  in  their  copies  of 
those  books,  that  they  might  be  burned. 
They  would  have  shown  more  wisdom 
by  either  leaving  these  works  unnoticed, 
or  by  appointing  their  ablest  reasoner  to 
try  his  strength  in  answering  them.  The 
principles  and  arguments  of  the  "  Lex 
Rex"  have  not  yet  received,  and  will  not 
soon  receive,  a  refutation ;  and  it  had 
been  well  if  the  committee  had  so  regu- 
lated their  conduct  as  to  avert  that  Divine 
wrath,  the  causes  of  which  had  been  so 
forcibly  stated  by  Guthrie. 

In  October  a  proclamation  was  issued 
calling  a  parliament  to  meet  in  Decem- 
ber, which  was  subsequently  prorogued 
till  January,  to  allow  more  time  for  the 
maturing  of  the  measures  then  to  be  pro- 
posed. In  that  proclamation  there  were 
some  ominous  intimations  of  the  spirit  by 
which  it  was  likely  to  be  pervaded.  The 
royal  prerogative  was  mentioned  as  that 
"by  which  alone  the  liberties  of  the  peo- 
ple can  be  preserved ;"  the  people  were 
significantly  told,  that  petitions  or  addres- 
ses were  to  be  made  only  to  the  parlia- 
ment or  committee  of  estates  ;  and  an  act 
of  indemnity  was  promised  after  the  hon- 
our of  the  king  and  the  prerogative  of 
the  crown  should  have  been  asserted.  In 
the  time  which  elapsed  before  the  meeting 
of  parliament,  every  kind  of  exertion  was 
made,  by  bribery,  intimidation,  and  party 
influence,  to  procure  the  election  of  per- 

*  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  i.  p.  109. 
27 


sons  entirely  at  the  devotion  of  the  court ; 
and  as  no  act  of  indemnity  had  yet  been 
passed,  many  of  the  staunch  adherents 
of  the  Covenant  were  deterred  from  seek- 
ing to  be  elected,  and  some  of  them  were 
cited  before  the  parliament,  to  prevent 
them  being  returned  as  members.  The 
result  was  the  election  of  a  parliament, 
the  decided  majority  of  which  was  coni- 
posed  of  royalists  and  malignants,  as 
those  were  termed  who  had  been  either 
the  direct  opponents  of  the  Covenant,  or 
who  had  deserted  it,  and  were  the  more 
bent  on  its  entire  destruction  ;  together 
with  a  considerable  number  of  persons 
whose  estates  had  been  ruined  during  the 
preceding  troublous  times,  and  wrho  were 
prepared  to  support  any  measures  by 
which  they  could  hope  to  repair  their 
broken  fortunes. 

[1661.1 — The  new  parliament  was 
opened  by  the  Earl  of  Middleton,  as  re- 
presentative of  his  majesty,  on  the  1st  of 
January  1661,  and  proceed  to  the  des- 
patch of  public  business  on  the  4th  of 
that  month.  Some  of  the  proceedings  of 
this  parliament  require  to  be  attentively 
considered,  in  consequence  of  the  subver- 
sive use  made  of  them  at  a  subsequent  pe- 
riod. The  very  constitution  of  the  par- 
liament was  vitiated  from  the  first.  An 
act  had  been  passed  in  1651,  when  the 
king  himself  was  present,  requiring  eve- 
ry member  of  all  succeeding  parliaments 
to  sign  and  subscribe  the  Covenant  be- 
fore entering  upon  business,  without 
which  its  constitution,  and  all  its  acts, 
were  declared  void  and  null.  This  was 
not  done ;  but  instead  of  it  another  oath 
was  proposed,  termed  in  its  title  "  an  oath 
of  parliament,"  and  in  the  body  of  the 
act  "  an  oath  of  allegiance."  In  it  there 
occur  the  following  expressions : — "  I  ac- 
knowledge my  said  sovereign  only  su- 
preme governor  of  this  kingdom  over  all 
persons  and  in  all  causes,"  "  and  shall  at 
my  utmost  power  defend,  assist,  and 
maintain  his  majesty's  jurisdiction  afore- 
said, against  all  deadly,  and  never  decline 
his  majesty's  power  and  jurisdiction. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  these  clauses 
admitted  of  a  double  interpretation.  So 
far  as  tfieir  meaning  applied  to  civil  mat- 
ters alone,  they  would  not  have  been  op- 
posed by  any  of  the  Covenanters  ;  but 
there  was  no  such  limitation  specified, 
and  therefore  it  was  evident,  that  the  first 


210 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


might  be  construed  to  admit  his  majesty's 
supremacy  in  ecclesiastical  causes  as  well 
as  in  civil  matters ;  and  that  the  second 
was  intended  to  prevent  the  declining  of 
the  king's  jurisdiction  in  religious  affairs, 
as  the  Church  of  Scotland-  had  always 
done.  Subsequent  events  proved  that 
such  was  the  express  intention  of  the 
oath  ;  but  it  was  thought  proper  to  con- 
ceal this  for  a  time  ;  and  when  the  Earls 
of  Cassilis  and  Melville,  and  the  Laird  of 
Kilbirnie,  refused  to  take  the  oath  with- 
out its  being  understood  as  not  extending 
the  royal  supremacy  beyond  civil  matters, 
they  were  allowed  to  take  it  in  that  limit- 
ed sense,  but  not  permitted  to  have  their 
explanation  recorded.  Midd  leton  and  the 
Chancellor  Glencairn  publicly  declared 
that  the  oath  was  not  intended  to  give  his 
majesty  any  ecclesiastical,  but  only  a  civil 
supremacy  ;  yet  a  short  time  afterwards, 
when  the  Presbyterian  ministers  ex- 
pressed their  willingness  to  take  it  in 
this  sense,  they  were  not  allowed.* 

Having  thus  established  the  king's  su- 
premacy, they  proceeded  to  evolve  its 
consequences  by  a  series  of  acts  as  con- 
sistent with  the  strong  premise  as  the 
most  rigid  logic  of  despotism  could  re- 
quire. They  declared  it  to  be  his  majes- 
ty's prerogative  to  choose  all  officers  of 
state,  councillors,  lords  of  session ;  to  call 
hold,  and  prorogue,  and  dissolve  all  par- 
liaments, conventions,  and  meetings  ;  and 
that  all  meetings  held  without  the  royal 
warrant  are  void  and  null ;  that  no  con- 
vocations, leagues,  or  bonds,  can  be  made 
without  the  Sovereign  ;  and  that  to  the 
king  belongs  the  sole  power  of  making 
peace  and  war.  A  tolerable  broad  foun- 
dation was  thus  laid  for  the  erection  of 
absolute  despotism ;  but  some  obstructions 
needed  to  be  taken  away.  The  chief  of 
these  was  the  Solemn  League  and  Cove- 
nant ;  and  an  act  was  accordingly  passed, 
absolving  the  lieges  from  its  obligation, 
and  prohibiting  its  renewal  without  his 
majesty's  special  warrant  and  approba- 
tion. Another  act  was  passed,  approving 
of  the  Engagement  in  1648,  and  con- 
demning the  conduct  of  those  who  oppos- 
ed it,  terming  them  "  a  few  seditious  per- 
sons." And  to  concentrate  and  confirm 
all  the  arbitrary  acts  already  passed,  an- 
other was  framed,  requiring  not  only  all 
persons  in  civil  official  stations,  but  "  all 

•  Wodrow,  vol.  i.  pp.  92,  93. 


other  persons  who  shall  be  required  by 
his  majesty's  privy-council,  or  any  having 
authority  from  them,  to  be  obliged  to  take 
and  swear  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  the 
acknowledgment  of  the  king's  preroga- 
tive." The  next  act  of  this  reckless  par- 
liament was  the  act  recissory,  not  merely 
repealing  certain  acts  of  parliament  for 
reasons  stated,  but  at  one  broad  sweep  an- 
nulling all  the  parliaments  held  since 
1633,  with  all  their  proceedings,  and  thus 
totally  abolishing  all  the  laws  made  in  fa- 
vour of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  as  well 
as  those  in  favour  of  civil  liberty,  which 
had  been  enacted  during  the  late  reign, 
and  many  of  them  with  the  full  sanction 
of  the  king  himself. 

"  This,"  says  Burnet,  "  was  a  most  ex- 
travagant act,  and  only  fit  to  be  concluded 
after  a  drunken  bout.  It  shook  all  possi- 
ble security  for  the  future,  and  laid  down 
a  most  pernicious  precedent."!  Nothing 
could  more  clearly  prove  the  intimate 
connection  between  civil  and  religious 
liberty  than  this  very  act.  The  whole 
design  of  this  parliament  was  to  destroy 
the  Church  of  Scotland ;  but  in  the  at- 
tempt to  accomplish  this  deed  they  were 
under  the  necessity  of  destroying  not  on- 
ly all  the  existent  laws  of  the  land,  but 
all  the  security  which  law  itself  can  give, 
by  not  only  repealing  laws,  but  even  an- 
nihilating the  legislature  of  the  kingdom. 
Such  conduct  amounted  to  a  virtual  disso- 
lution of  the  social  compact,  by  putting 
an  end  to  all  trust  in  public  deeds,  and 
leaving  to  men  no  alternative  but  sub- 
mission to  absolute  despotism,  or  the  wild 
recoil  of  utter  anarchy.  Yet  even  this 
glaring  violation  of  all  legislative  princi- 
ples was  carried,  after  some  oppsition,  in 
this  "drinking  parliament,"  as  it  was 
commonly  termed,  in  allusion  to  the  in- 
temperance of  Middleton  and  the  royalists. 

Since  by  the  act  recissory  the  whole 
government  of  the  Church  of  Scotland 
was  virtually  overthrown,  another  act 
was  passed,  "  concerning  religion  and 
church  government,"  in  which  his  majes- 
ty declares  his  intention  to  secure  the  go- 
vernment of  the  Church  "  in  such  a  frame 
as  shall  be  most  agreeable  to  the  Word 
of  God,  most  suitable  to  monarchical  go- 
vernment, and  most  complying  with  the 
public  peace  and  the  quiet  of  the  king- 
dom ;"  "  in  the  meantime  allowing  the 

*  Burnet's  Own  Times,  p  119. 


A.  D.  1661.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


211 


present  administration  by  sessions,  pres- 
byteries, and  synods."  There  could  be 
little  doubt  as  to  the  meaning  of  this  act, 
in  which  the  settlement  of  church  govern- 
ment was  left  to  the  king,  and  the  Pres- 
byterian form  "allowed"  to  remain  evi- 
dently no  longer  than  till  his  majesty's 
plans  should  be  fully  matured.  And  a 
sufficient  indication  was  given  what  was 
the  nature  of  these  plans,  by  an  act  ap- 
pointing the  29th  of  May  to  be  kept  as  a 
solemn  anniversary  thanksgiving  for  his 
majesty's  restoration  ;  and  another  restor- 
ing patronages  and  presentations,  "  as 
what  they  knew  had  been  still  a  dead 
weight  upon,  and  really  inconsistent 
with,  the  Presbyterian  Establishment.'"* 
Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  the  public 
acts  of  Middleton's  parliament,  especially 
with  regard  to  the  Church.  It  might 
seem  strange  that  such  acts  could  have 
been  passed  by  any  parliament  composed 
of  men  not  actually  bom  in  slavery,  and 
so  habituated  to  bondage  as  to  have  be- 
come enamoured  of  their  chains,  and 
eager  to  impose  the  same  ornaments  upon 
all  others.  Where  were  Scotland's  bold 
and  free  barons,  who  had  never  been  ac- 
customed to  bend  their  haughty  necks 
beneath  the  arbitrary  yoke  of  any  sove- 
reign ?  Some  of  the  best  were  dead,  or 
in  disgrace  and  danger ;  others  were 
plunged  in  debt,  and  eager  to  repair  their 
shattered  fortunes  by  court  favour;  and 
a  large  majority  of  them  were  addicted 
to  those  glaring  vices  which  had  become 
the  badges  of  the  royalists, — drunkenness 
and  immorality, — which  they  knew  the 
Presbyterian  Church  would  censure ; 
and  therefore  they  were  eager  to  destroy 
a  Church  whose  purity  they  both  feared 
and  hated.  "  Vices  of  all  sorts,"  says 
Burnet,  "  were  the  open  practices  of  those 
about  the  Earl  of  Middleton.  Drinking  was 
the  most  notorious  of  all,  which  was  often 
continued  through  the  whole  night  till 
the  next  morning."  They  came  to  the 
parliament  reeling  from  the  over-night 
debauches,  and  passed  acts  subversive  of 
the  whole  civil  and  religious  constitution 
of  the  country  with  less  care  than  they 
bestowed  upon  their  preparations  for  the 
next  scene  of  revelry  and  wickedness.  It 
was  not  strange  that  such  besotted  slaves 
of  sin  were  the  enemies  of  religious  free- 
dom ;  and  that,  in  their  hatred  of  religion, 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  i.  p.  106. 


they  were  ready  to  sacrifice  civil  liberty 
in  their  fierce  desire  to  subject  the  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel  and  the  discipline  of  the 
Church  to  equal  thraldom.  This,  while 
it  explains  their  conduct,  stamps  the 
brand  of  infamy  more  deeply  both  on  the 
men,  and  on  the  system  which  such  men 
and  such  measures  were  employed  to  in- 
troduce. 

But  where  was  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, that  it  did  not  raise  aloud  its  voice 
in  bold  and  indignant  condemnation  of 
such  proceedings  ?  It  was  paralyzed  by 
its  own  unhallowed  internal  divisions. 
The  Protesters  were  awed  into  compara- 
tive silence  by  the  seizure  and  imprison- 
ment of  James  Guthrie,  their  ablest  and 
boldest  leader ;  and  the  Resolutioners 
were  still  partly  possessed  by  the  blind 
spirit  of  party  contention,  and  partly  be- 
guiled by  the  wily  subtleties  of  the  traitor 
Sharp.  Yet  some  attempts  were  made 
by  the  ministers  to  prevent  the  utter  sub- 
version of  the  Church.  The  ministers 
of  Edinburgh  presented  petitions,  suppli- 
cations, and  remonstrances,  against  the 
act  recissory  and  other  acts  of  similar 
character,  but  without  effect.  When  the 
synods  began  to  hold  their  meetings  in 
April  and  May,  endeavours  were  made  to 
frame  addresses  to  the  parliament  res- 
pecting the  danger  to  which  the  Church 
was  exposed  by  the  recent  enactments  ; 
but  as  those  addresses  were  generally 
proposed  by  the  Protesters,  the  Resolu- 
tioners opposed  them,  urging  the  feeble 
but  pernicions  plea,  so  commonly  used 
by  men  of  time-serving  and  undecided 
character,  that  it  was  unseasonable  and 
unexpedient  to  apply  to  parliament  in  the 
present  circumstances.*  Such  was  the 
case  in  the  synod  of  Glasgow ;  and 
though  the  Protesters  could  have  carried 
their  measure  by  a  majority,  yet,  to  pre- 
vent the  appearance  of  divisio||  they 
agreed  to  delay,  and  meantime  to  utter 
an  equivocal  declaration,  such  as  men  of 
all  views  might  support.  This  declara- 
tion was  of  course  futile,  and  they  were 
prevented  from  holding  another  meeting  ; 
which  ought  to  be  a  warning  to  the 
Church  to  be  equally  prompt  and  decided 
in  her  Divine  Master's  cause,  and  never 
to  defer  till  to-morrow  the  sacred  duty  of 
to-day. 

The  synod  of  Fife,  which  had  in  for- 

•  Wodrow,  vol.  i.  p.  117. 


212 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


mer  days  often  borne  the  brunt  of  the 
conflict  in  times  of  danger  to  the  Church, 
were  engaged  in  preparing  a  petition  for 
a  new  act,  ratifying  the  privileges  of  the 
jChurch,  when  they  were  interrupted  by 
the  Earl  of  Rothes,  ordered  to  depart,  and 
obeyed  the  order  without  a  protestation 
against  this  infringement  of  the  shadow 
of  liberty  left  by  the  late  parliament. 
The  synod  of  Dumfries  was  interrupted 
and  dissolved  in  the  same  forcible  man- 
ner, and  yielded  with  equal  submissive- 
ness.  The  synod  of  Galloway  better 
maintained  the  character  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland.  Mr.  Park,  the  moderator, 
protested  against  this  procedure,  as  an  in- 
jurious encroachment  upon  the  spiritual 
liberties  of  a  court  of  Christ,  incompetent 
to  the  civil  magistrate  ;  and  refused  to 
withdraw  till  he  had  regularly  dissolved 
the  meeting  with  prayer.  The  synod  of 
Lothian  was  so  far  overawed  by  the  pre- 
sence and  the  interference  of  the  court,  as 
to  suspend  six  or  seven  faithful  and  pious 
ministers  of  the  Protesters,  on  the  .absurd 
and  groundless  charge  of  rebellion.  And 
the  synod  of  Ross  deposed  the  celebrated 
Thomas  Hog,  minister  of  Kiltearn,  al- 
though he  had  not  signed  the  protestation, 
but  merely  because  he  was  known  to  be 
opposed  to  Prelacy,  for  the  honours  and 
emoluments  of  which  some  of  these 
northern  brethren  were  longing.  Yet 
so  strong  is  conscience  in  hearts  not  ut- 
terly seared,  that  the  moderator,  a  keen 
prelatist,  in  pronouncing  the  sentence  of 
deposition,  did  it  with  an  air  of  veneration, 
and  in  tones  of  deep  respect,  reminded 
the  venerable  man,  that  Christ  himself 
had  suffered  great  wrong  from  the  scribes 
and  pharisees.f  The  synod  of  Aber- 
deen, as  Burnet  tells  us,  was  the  only 
body  that  made  an  address  looking  to- 
wards Episcopacy, — so  consistently  did  it 
preseajp  its  bad  pre-eminence,  as  the 
least  enlightened  part  of  Scotland,  and 
the  first  to  return  to  its  scarcely  half- 
broken  darkness. 

Having  by  these  unconstitutional  en- 
actments prepared  the  way  for  the  entire 
overthrow  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  the 
parliament  proceeded  to  ratify  their  des- 
tructive acts  with  the  blood  of  some  dis- 
tinguished victims.  The  first  of  these  in 
time,  as  well  as  in  rank,  was  the  Mar- 
quis of  Argyle.  That  distinguished  no- 
*  Wodrow,  vol.  i.  p.  129. 


bleman  had  been  too  firm  and  steady  an 
adherent  to  the  Presbyterian  cause  to  find 
favour  with  the  king  and  the  prelatic 
party :  he  was  too  powerful  to  be  per- 
mitted to  remain  in  the  enjoyment  of  lib- 
erty and  life  ;  and  the  Earl  of  Middleton 
hoped  to  obtain  a  grant  of  his  forfeited 
estates.  In  addition  to  these  public 
causes  of  hostility  against  Argyle,  the 
king  cherished  a  personal  hatred  of  him, 
partly  because  Argyle  had  checked  some 
of  his  licentious  conduct  when  formerly 
in  Scotland,  and  partly  because  he  had 
himself  broken  his  promise  to  marry  Ar- 
gyle's  daughter,  and  consequently  hated 
the  man  whom  he  had  injured.*  His 
indictment,  however,  carefully  avoided 
allusion  to  the  real  causes  for  which  his 
life  was  sought,  and  bore  reference  to  his 
public  acts, — first,  during  the  late  civil 
contentions, — secondly,  with  regard  to 
his  treatment  of  the  royalists,  and  partic- 
ularly of  Montrose, — and  thirdly,  his 
concurrence  with  Cromwell  during  the 
period  of  the  protectorate.  Argyle  de- 
fended himself  with  great  eloquence  and 
force  of  reason,  so  as  nearly  to  baffle  the 
malice  of  his  enemies,  although  his  death 
had  been  determined  even  before  his  trial 
commenced.  To  secure  his  condemna- 
tion, Monk  sent  to  the  Scottish  adminis- 
tration some  private  letters  in  which  Ar- 
gyle had  expressed  concurrence  with  his 
government.  By  this  base  act  Monk  se- 
cured the  condemnation  of  a  man  whose 
guilt,  if  guilt  it  could  be  called,  was  im- 
measurably less  than  his  own,  Argyle 
having  only  submitted  to  a  power  which 
he  could  not  successfully  oppose,  wielded 
by  Monk  himself.  The  sentence  was 
passed,  adjudging  him  to  be  guilty  of 
high  treason,  and  condemning  him  to  be 
beheaded,  and  his  head  to  be  affixed  in 
the  same  place  where  that  of  the  Mar- 
quis of  Montrose  had  been.  He  received 
the  sentence  kneeling  ;  and  then  rising, 
said,  "  I  had  the  honour  to  set  the  crown 
upon  the  king's  head,  and  now  he  has- 
tens me  to  a  better  crown  than  his 
own."f 

Between  the  time  of  his  condemnation 
and  his  execution,  Argyle  enjoyed  not 
merely  tranquillity  of  mind,  but  such  a 
perception  of  the  love  of  God  as  filled  his 
soul  with  heavenly  gladness,  and  with  the 
very  peace  of  God.  When  his  lady  and 

*  Kirkton,  p.  50.  t  Wodrow,  vol.  i.  p.  150. 


A.  D.  1GG1.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


213 


some  of  his  friends  exclaimed  against  the 
cruelty  of  his  enemies,  he  replied,  "  For- 
bear, forbear  !  tiuly  I  pity  them  j  they 
know  not  what  they  are  doing ;  they 
may  shut  me  in  where  they  please,  but 
they  cannot  shut  out  God  from  me."  To 
some  ministers  who  were  with  him  in 
the  prison  he  said,  that  shortly  they 
would  envy  him  who  was  got  before 
them,  adding  emphatically,  "Mind  that  I 
tell  you  ;  my  skill  fails  me  if  you  who 
are  ministers  will  not  either  suffer  much 
or  sin  much  ;  for  though  you  go  along 
with  these  men  in  part,  if  you  do  not  do 
it  in  all  things,  you  are  but  where  you 
were,  and  must  suffer ;  and  if  you  go  not 
at  all  with  them,  you  shall  but  suffer  ;" — 
words  worthy  to  be  held  in  lasting  re- 
membrance, for  the  deep  wisdom  which 
they  contain.  On  the  day  of  his  execu- 
tion, the  27th  of  May,  his  soul  was  filled 
with  all  a  martyr's  holy  and  inexpressi- 
ble joy.  "  What  cheer,  my  Lord  !"  said 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Hutchison.  "  Good  cheer, 
Sir  ;  the  Lord  hath  again  confirmed  and 
said  to  me  from  heaven,  "  Son  be  of  good 
cheer,  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee.'  "  And 
when  taking  leave  of  his  friends,  after 
having  freely  stated  that  he  was  naturally 
of  a  timid  disposition,  but  that  God  had 
taken  away  all  fear  from  him,  he  said, 
"  I  could  die  like  a  Roman,  but  choose 
rather  to  die  as  a  Christian."  He  as- 
cended the  scaffold  with  steady  step,  calm 
pulse,  and  unmoved  countenance,  spoke  a 
grave  and  earnest  address  to  the  assem- 
bled multitude,  breathed  forth  a  fervent 
prayer,  kneeled  down  beneath  the  sharp 
axe  of  the  decapitating  instrument,  prayed, 
gave  the  signal,  the  weapon  fell,  and  his 
spirit  returned  to  God  who  gave  it. 

So  fell  the  first  and  noblest  Scottish 
victim  of  royal  tyranny  and  prelatic  am- 
bition, leaving  behind  him  a  name  and 
character  which  enemies  have  in  vain 
striven  to  blacken  and  depreciate  ;  which 
needs  no  other  vindication  than  a  simple 
statement  of  the  truth  ;  and  which  Scot- 
land still  holds,  and  long  will  hold,  in 
deep  and  affectionate  remembrance. 

The  next  victim  was  James  Guthrie, 
minister  of  Stirling,  of  whose  seizure  and 
imprisonment  mention  has  already  been 
made.  The  chief  accusation  against  him 
was  his  declinature  of  the  king  and  coun- 
cil's competency  to  judge,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, respecting  matters  purely  ecclesias- 


ical,  such  as  presbyterial  acts  and  letters, 
preaching,  and  the  discharge  of  what 
belonged  peculiarly  to  the  ministerial 
function.  This  declinature  had  been  pre- 
sented to  the  king  and  council  at  Perth 
in  February  1651 ;  and  though  the  king 
had  managed  to  procure  a  sentence  of  de- 
position against  him  in  the  packed  As- 
sembly of  St.  Andrews  and  Dundee,  ye$X 
as  that  assembly  was  not  recognise(L4s 
free  and  lawful  by  the  Church,  tWsen- 
tence  fell  into  abeyance,  and  Gupme  con- 
tinued to  discharge  his  ministerial  duties, 
till  he  was  seized  by  the,0ommittee  of 
of  Estates,  as  above  ytelated.  When 
brought  to  trial,  he/defended  himself 
with  such  eloquenc/,  knowledge  of  law 
and  strength  of  Argument,  as  utterly 
amazed  his  friends  and  confounded  his 
enemies.  He  proved  clearly  that  his  de- 
clinature was  agreeable  to  the  Word  of 
God,  to  the  Confession  of  Faith,  accor- 
dant with  the  doctrine  and  practice  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  from  the  period  of 
the  Reformation,  and  confirmed  and  sanc- 
tioned by  many  acts  of  parliament,  and 
therefore  had  the  support  of  both  divine 
and  human  laws.  His  enemies  could 
not  answer  his  arguments,  nor  prove  the 
relevancy  of  their  own  accusations ;  but 
he  had  been  the  leader  of  the  Protesters  ; 
his  death  might  strike  terror  into  that 
truly  Presbyterian  party,  and  induce 
them  to  yield  ;  and  he  had  pronounced 
sentence  of  excommunication  on  the  Earl 
of  Middleton  many  years  before,  for 
which  that  vindictive  man  sought  to  be 
revenged.  He  was  therefore  pronounced 

fuilty  of  high  treason,  and  condemned  to 
ie  as  a  traitor,  on  the  first  of  June. 

"  My  lord,"  said  this  eminent  man  to 
his  partial  judge,  "my  conscience  I  can- 
not submit ;  but  this  old  crazy  body  and 
mortal  flesh  I  do  submit,  to  do  with  it 
whatsoever  you  will,  whether  by  death, 
or  banishment,  or  imprisonment,  or  any 
thing  else  ;  only  I  beseech  you  to  ponder 
well  what  profit  there  is  in  my  blood.  It 
is  not  the  extinguishing  me  or  many 
others  that  will  extinguish  the  Covenant 
and  the  work  of  reformation  since  the 
year  1638.  My  blood,  bondage,  or  ban- 
ishment will  contribute  more  for  the  pro- 
pagation of  those  things  than  my  life  or 
liberty  could  do,  though  I  should  live 
many  years."  But  his  persecutors  would 
have  their  malice  gratified,  and  their 


214 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND, 


[ChAP.  VII. 


thirst  for  blood  satiated.  The  Christian 
martyr  is  beyond  the  reach  of  fear.  So 
was  it  with  Guthrie.  On  the  day  of  his 
execution  he  was  not  merely  serene, — he 
was  unusually  cheerful.  "  He  spoke," 
says  Burnet,  "  an  hour  upon  the  ladder, 
with  the  composedness  of  a  man  that 
was  delivering  a  sermon  rather  than  his 
last  words.  He  justified  all  he  had  done, 
and  exhorted  all  people  to  adhere  to  the 
Covenant,  which  he  magnified  highly." 
When  on  the  scaffold,  adds  another  rela- 
tion, he  lifted  the  napkin  off  his  face,  just 
before  he  was  turned  over,  and  cried, 
"  The  Covenants,  the  Covenants,  shall 
yet  be  Scotland's  reviving." 

Thus  died  the  Rev.  James  Guthrie, 
who  may,  with  strict  propriety,  be  termed 
the  first  Scottish  martyr  for  Christ's 
Crown  and  Covenant,  inasmuch  as  the 
very  essence  of  the  accusation  brought 
against  him  consisted  in  his  declining  to 
subject  Christ's  kingly  and  sole  dominion 
over  his  Church  to  the  arrogated  supre- 
macy of  any  earthly  court  or  monach. 
In  this,  indeed,  he  but  followed  the  ex- 
ample of  Knox,  and  Melville,  and  Bruce, 
and  Black,  and  Welch,  and  CalderwoodJ 
— in  short,  of  all  the  great  and  pious  men 
of  both  the  First  and  Second  Reforma- 
tions of  the  Church  of  Scotland ;  but  he 
was  the  first  who  died  for  that  great  and 
sacred  truth,  for  which  others  had  suf- 
fered bonds,  affliction,  and  banishment. 
He  died ;  but  the  cause  for  which  he 
suffered  mafcyrdom  cannot  die.  It  is 
living  now,  and  once  more  putting  forth 
those  sacred  energies  before  which  all 
human  opposition  must  ultimately  be  con- 
sumed like  stubble  in  the  flames.  It  is, 
indeed,  the  chief  of  those  great  principles 
which  form  the  essential  characteristics 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  inclosed  im- 
perishably  within  its  very  heart,  disap- 
pearing in  times  of  defection  or  of  leth- 
argy, but  reviving  and  putting  forth  its 
undiminished  might  ever  when  the  re-. 
awakening  call  of  God  quickens  its  vital 
and  eternal  powers. 

Another  victim  was  sacrificed  along 
with  Guthrie,  named  William  Go  van, 
who  was  accused  of  being  implicated  in 
the  death  of  Charles  I.  But  though  this 
was  not  proved  against  him,  he  had  been 
engaged  in  the  Western  Remonstrance, 
and  generally  had  favored  the  Protesters, 
which,  in  the  estimation  of  Middlelon's 


parliament,  were  crimes  of  unpardonable 
enormity. 

The  parliament  seemed  to  think  that 
blood  enough  had  been  shed  for  the  pre- 
sent ;  but  their  tender  mercies  were  still 
cruel.  Several  ministers  of  distinguished 
talents  and  character  were  apprehended, 
cast  into  prison,  and  finally  banished.  Of 
these,  the  most  remarkable  were  M' Ward 
of  Glasgow  and  Simpson  of  Airth,  who 
were  both  banished  to  Holland.  Mon- 
crieff  of  Sconie  and  Trail  of  Edinburgh 
were  deposed  from  the  ministry,  and  ex- 
posed to  many  sufferings  and  dangers,  in 
addition  to  the  protracted  imprisonment 
which  they  had  endured.  But  Patrick 
Gillespie  was  more  leniently  treated, 
partly  in  consequence  of  his  having  many 
friends  in  the  parliament,  and  partly  be- 
cause he  made  submissive  acknowledg- 
ments of  having  given  offence  to  his 
majesty  by  the  Remonstrance,  which 
none  of  the  other  sufferers  could  be  in- 
duced to  make.  He  was  deposed  from 
the  ministry,  and  confined  to  Ormiston 
and  six  miles  round  it,  but  exempted  from 
severer  punishment.  Yet  he  was,  of  all  the 
ministers,  the  most  disliked  by  the  king, 
chiefly  because  of  the  direct  intercourse 
which  he  had  held  with  Cromwell 
When  his  majesty  heard  that  Guthrie 
had  been  put  to  death,  he  asked,  "  And 
what  have  you  done  with  Mr.  Patrick 
Gillespie ?"— adding,  "Well,  if  I  had 
known  you  would  have  spared  Mr.  Gil- 
lespie, I  would  have  spared  Mr.  Guthrie." 
The  true  explanation  of  Patrick  Gi lies- 
pie's  conduct  appears  to  be  this :  he  was 
at  least  as  much  a  man  of  the  world  as 
he  was  a  Christian  minister,  and  allowed 
his  conduct  to  be  swayed  as  much  by 
political  motives  as  by  Christian  princi- 
ples. A  man  of  such  a  mixed  character 
will  rarely  act  with  thorough  consistency, 
and  generally  his  worldly  and  self-inte- 
rested motives  will,  in  the  hour  of  danger, 
obtain  the  ascendency  over  those  higher 
principles  which  they  had  been  too  often 
permitted  to  intermingle  with  and  vitiate. 

The  deadly  gripe  of  the  parliament 
was  attempted  to  be  laid  on  a  man  of  a 
very  different  mould,  —  the  heavenly- 
minded  Rutherford.  Not  content  with 
burning  his  work  entitled  "  Lex  Rex," 
they  summoned  him  to  appear  before 
them  at  Edinburgh,  to  answer  to  a  charge 
of  high  treason.  He  was  at  that  time 


A.  D.  1661.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


215 


lying  on  his  death-bed.  "Tell  them," 
replied  he,  "  that  I  have  received  a  sum- 
mons already  to  appear  before  a  superior 
Judge  and  judicatory,  and  I  behove  to 
answer  my  first  summons  ;  and  ere  your 
day  arrive,  I  will  be  where  few  kings  and 
great  folks  come." 

It  was  now  thought  that  the  Presby- 
terian spirit  of  Scotland  was  sufficiently 
humbled,  and  that  Prelacy  might  be  in- 
troduced without  further  delay.  Some 
of  the  leading  men  pressed  the  king  to 
proceed  forthwith  with  the  intended 
change  of  church  government  in  Scot- 
land, and  Sharp  prepared  for  another 
journey  to  London,  to  complete  his  treach- 
ery. Before  his  departure  he  had  the 
dissimulation,  or  the  effrontery,  to  visit 
Robert  Douglas,  and  pretend  that  the 
king  wished  to  make  that  distinguished 
man  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews.  Doug- 
las answered  that  he  would  have  nothing 
to  do  with  it ;  and  when  Sharp  rose  to 
withdraw,  Douglas  called  him  back  and 
thus  addressed  him,  "  James,  I  see  you 
will  engage, — I  perceive  you  are  clear, — 
you  will  be  Bishop  of  St.  Andrews  ;  take 
it,  and  the  curse  of  God  with  it  j" — and 
laying  his  hand  heavily  on  the  apostate's 
shoulder  as  he  spoke,  moved  him  to  the 
door.* 

The  subversive  process  now  went  on 
rapidly.  A  new  privy  council  was  formed 
for  the  permanent  management  of  public 
affairs  in  Scotland.  Soon  after  the  meet- 
ing of  the  council,  a  letter,  bearing  date 
the  14th  of  August,  was  sent  by  his  ma- 
jesty to  them,  declaring  his  "firm  reso- 
lution to  interpose  his  royal  authority  for 
restoring  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  its 
rightful  government  by  bishops."  This 
letter  was  published  by  proclamation  with 
the  addition  of  penalties,  to  which  all 
should  be  liable  who  might  fail  in  ren- 
dering obedience.  Such  was  the  result 
of  his  majesty's  often-repeated  oaths  and 
declarations  to  maintain  and  defend  the 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland.  And 
it  deserves  to  be  remarked,  that  this  pro- 
clamation was  of  the  most  arbitrary  char- 
racter,  resting  the  whole  change  upon 
the  royal  prerogative  alone,  without  re- 
ference to  the  advice  of  council,  parlia- 
ment, or  Assembly.  This,  indeed,  was 
the  natural  result  of  the  absolute  preroga- 
tive which  had  been  made  the  ruling 

*  Kirkton,  p.  135. 


principle  of  the  whole  preceding  parlia- 
mentary enactments.  The  arbitrary  will 
of  the  sovereign  had  been  distinctly  de- 
clared to  be  the  source  of  all  authority  ; 
and  the  repealing  of  acts  and  annulling 
of  parliaments  having  left  no  other  source 
of  authority,  the  language  of  despotism 
was  the  fitting  medium  for  declaring  the 
restoration  of  Prelacy. 

All  preliminary  steps  were  now  com- 
pleted ;  and  Sharp  again  hastened  to 
London,  to  receive  episcopal  consecra- 
tion, taking  with  him  some  of  his  bre- 
thren, who,  like  himself,  were  ready  to 
purchase  Prelacy  at  the  cost  of  perjury. 
These  were,  Andrew  Fairfoul,  James 
Hamilton,  and  Robert  Leighton.  Of  the 
character  of  Sharp  it  is  unnecessary  to 
write  a  single  word.  Fairfoul  appears 
to  have  been  vain,  facetious,  somewhat 
learned,  and  loose  in  his  moral  conduct. 
Hamilton  was  a  weak,  trimming,  un- 
principled man,  equally  readly  to  pretend 
extreme  zeal  for  the  Covenant,  and  to 
adjure  and  betray  it.  But  what  had 
Leighton  to  do  in  such  company,  and  on 
such  an  errand  ?  That  pious,  amiable, 
modest,  and  gentle-hearted  man  seems  to 
have  been  selected  expressly  to  present  to 
Scotland  the  abstract  possibility  that  a 
prelate  might  be  a  man  deserving  of  es- 
teem and  love.  It  might  be,  too,  that 
some  of  more  sagacious  mind  might 
anticipate  from  Leig-hton's  moderation 
and  kindliness  of  heart,  a  greater  in- 
fluence in  recommending  Prelacy,  than 
could  be  expected  from  the  arbitrary  and 
oppressive  conduct  and  disreputable  char- 
acter of  his  brethren. 

When  they  arrived  at  London,  it  was 
ascertained  that  Sharp  and  Leighton  had 
not  received  episcopal  ordination,  having 
been  both  ordained  since  the  abolition  of 
Prelacy  in  Scotland.  The  English  bis- 
hops refused  to  consecrate  them  to  the 
prelatic  office  till  they  should  be  re- 
ordained  as  deacons  and  priests.  This 
Sharp  at  first  opposed,  as  contrary  to  the 
precedent  in  1610,  when  Spots  wood  had 
not  been  required  to  receive  prelatic  or- 
dination before  his  elevation  to  a  bishop- 
But  the  English  prelates  had  begun 


ric. 


to  insist  on  the  Divine  institution  of  Pre- 
lacy,— a  notion  introduced  into  the  Eng- 
lish Church  by  Bancroft,  and  carried  to 
its  extreme  height  by  Laud,  but  which 
the  great  and  good  men  of  England's 


216 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


Reformation  never  entertained.  Leigh- 
ton  regarded  the  whole  matter  as  an 
indifferent  ceremony,  which  might  be 
omitted  or  performed,  according  to  the 
custom  of  different  churches  ;  and  Sharp 
was  too  intent  on  reaching  the  summit  of 
his  ambition  to  offer  any  protracted  resis- 
tance. On  the  12th  of  December  1661, 
these  four  men  were  formally  consecrated 
to  the  episcopal  office,  and  concluded  the 
service  of  the  day  with  feasting  and  re- 
velry, to  a  degree  which  shocked  the 
heart  of  Leighton.  He  said  to  Burnet, 
"  that  in  the  whole  progress  of  that  affair 
there  appeared  such  cross  character  of  an 
angry  Providence,  that  how  fully  soever 
he  was  satisfied  in  his  own  mind  as  to 
Episcopacy  itself,  yet  it  seemed  that  God 
was  against  them,  and  they  were  not  like 
to  be  the  men  that  would  build  up  his 
Church ;  so  that  the  struggling  about  it 
seemed  to  him  like  a  fighting  against 
God.*  It  was  not  strange  that  he  should 
come  to  that  conclusion ;  but  it  was 
strange  that  he  persevered  so  many  years 
in  what  he  regarded  as  little  better  than 
fighting  against  God,  till  at  last  he  was 
constrained  to  abandon  the  fearful  at- 
iempt,  wounded  in  conscience,  and  almost 
broken-hearted. 

[1662.]  On  the  2d  of  January  1662, 
the  council  received  a  letter  from  his 
majesty,  announcing  the  consecration  of 
the  prelates,  and  prohibiting  the  meeting 
of  Synods,  Presbyteries,  and  Kirk-Ses- 
sions, till  they  should  be  authorised  by 
the  archbishops  and  bishops ;  calling 
upon  the  nobility,  gentry,  and  burgh  ma- 
gistracy, to  give  all  countenance  and  en- 
couragement to  the  bishops,  and  threaten- 
ing that  severe  and  exemplary  notice 
would  be  taken  of  every  one  who  should 
presume  to  reflect  or  express  any  disre- 
spect to  their  persons,  or  the  authority 
with  which  they  were  intrusted.  This  was 
speedily  followed  by  a  proclamation  from 
the  council  of  the  same  tenor,  and  a  let- 
ter to  sheriffs  and  magistrates  throughout 
the  kingdom,  intimating  the  prohibition 
of  all  meetings  of  Synods,  Presbyteries, 
and  Sessions,  till  they  should  be  ordered 
by  the  bishops.  By  this  proclamation 
the  Presbyterian  Church  was  more  com- 
pletely overthrown  than  it  had  been 
during  the  reign  of  James  VI. ;  for  then 

*  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  ii.  pp.  140,  141. 


Synods,  Presbyteries,  and  Kirk-Sessions 
continued  to  meet  by  virtue  of  their  own 
intrinsic  powers,  cramped  merely  with 
constant  moderators,  possessing  a  nega- 
tive upon  the  proceedings  of  these  church 
judicatories.  But  now  they  were  not  to 
be  held  at  all,  till  called  by  the  prelates, 
and  to  possess  no  power  except  what  these 
despots  should  be  pleased  to  grant. 

One  good  effect  resulted  from  this  ar- 
bitrary proclamation  ;  it  put  an  end  to 
much  of  the  rivalry  which  had  existed 
between  the  Resolutioners  and  the  Pro- 
testers, though  too  late  to  be  of  much 
avail.  Robert  Douglas  exclaimed,  "  Our 
brethren  the-  Protesters  have  had  their 
eyes  open,  and  we  have  been  blind ;"  and 
David  Dickson  said,  "  The  Protesters 
have  been  much  truer  prophets  than  we." 
Wood  of  St.  Andrews,  also,  who  had 
maintained  a  long  and  painful  contest 
with  Rutherford,  acknowledged  that  he 
and  his  party  had  been  mistaken  in  the 
views  they  took  of  matters.  But  theijr 
disunion  had  been  of  too  long  continua- 
tion to  admit  of  a  ready  and  cordial  coa- 
lition, even  in  such  a  time  of  general 
danger  and  distress.  Sorrow  and  dejec- 
tion filled  the  minds  of  the  great  majority, 
instead  of  that  prompt  and  decisive  energy 
which  might  even  yet  have  prevented  the 
subversion  of  the  Church,  had  it  been  put 
forth  as  in  the  early  days  of  the  Cove- 
nant. In  a  state  of  silent  stupor  they 
generally  submitted  to  the  blow  ;  a  very 
few  Presbyteries  only  having  the  courage 
to  meet  and  protest  against  this  invasion 
of  their  spiritual  liberties.  Why  had  the 
Church  of  Scotland  so  soon  lost  its  primi- 
tive spirit,  and  sunk  into  such  cowardly 
despair  ?  Because  it  had  sinned  in 
passing  these  baneful  "  Resolutions,"  ex- 
pressive of  acquiescence  in  the  schemes 
of  deceptive  expediency  devised  by 
worldly  politicians  ;  and  therefore  were 
its  councils  distracted,  and  its  strength 
was  become  weakness.  The  fiercest 
storm  of  royal  wrath  and  prelatic  revenge 
was  indeed  directed  against  the  high- 
principled  and  clear-sighted  Protesters ; 
but  who  will  say  that  it  was  not  better  to 
die  the  noble  death  of  a  Christian  martyr, 
like  Guthrie,  than  to  sink,  like  Baillie,  to 
the  grave,  beneath  the  piercing  anguish 
of  a  disappointed  and  a  broken  heart? 
"  Pray,"  said  the  Earl  of  Loudon  to  his 


A.  D.  16G2.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


217 


pious  countess,  "  that  I  may  die  before 
the  meeting  of  parliament,  when  I  must 
either  sin  or  meet  the  fate  of  Argyle." 

On  the  8th  of  April,  Sharp  and  his 
three  brother  prelates  reached  Berwick, 
having  travelled  from  London  all  in  one 
coach ;  but  there  Leighton  left  them, 
being  thoroughly  weary  of  their  company, 
and  hastened  privately  to  Edinburgh,  to 
escape  the  infamy  of  that  pompous  pro- 
cessional entrance  which  the  others 
courted  and  obtained.  Soon  after  their 
arrival,  six  others  were  consecrated  to 
the  prelatic  function,  but  without  that  re- 
ordination  to  which  Sharp  and  Leighton 
had  submitted,  as  if  to  prove  the  incom- 
patibility of  Prelacy  to  the  Scottish  char- 
acter, and  the  impossibility  of  manufac- 
turing bishops  in  Scotland  according  to 
the  high  episcopalian  rules.  When  the 
parliament  met,  a  deputation  was  sent  to 
invite  the  prelates  to  take  their  seats,  as 
the  third  estate  of  the  realm.  The  very 
first  act  passed  by  this  parliament,  which 
met  on  the  8th  of  May,  was  one  "  for  the 
restitution  and  re-establishment  of  the 
ancient  government  of  the  Church  by 
archbishops  and  bishops."  After  a  false 
preamble  respecting  the  evils  sustained 
by  the  community  during  the  late  rebel- 
lion, as  the  late  Reformation  is  termed,  in 
consequence  of  casting  off  the  "sacred 
order  of  bishops,"  that  order  is  restored 
to  all  its  accustomed  dignities,  privileges^ 
and  jurisdictions,  and  to  all  power  of  or- 
dination, censure,  and  discipline,  "  which 
they  are  to  perform  with  advice  and  assist- 
ance of  such  of  the  clergy  as  they  shall 
find  to  be  of  known  loyalty  and  pru- 
dence." The  act  further  annuls  every 
kind  and  degree  of  church  power  and 
jurisdiction  "other  than  that  which  ac- 
knowledgeth  a  dependence  upon  and 
subordination  to  the  sovereign  power  of 
the  king  as  supreme."*  This,  certainly, 
was  enough  to  gratify  the  utmost  desire 
of  the  most  thorough  Erastian,  ancient  or 
modern,  and  might  be  studied  with  ad- 
vantage by  those  who  regard  the  Church 
as  purely  the  "creature  of  the  State." 
No  wonder  that  the  men  who  had  sworn 
to  maintain  Christ's  kingly  government 
of  his  Church  regarded  Prelacy,  thus  in- 
troduced, and  avowing  no  allegiance  but 
that  due  to  an  earthly  monarch,  as  in- 
volving a  virtual  transfer  of  the  Divine 

*  See  the  uct  in  Wodrow,  vol.  i,  pp.  237,  258. 

28 


Redeemer's  eternal  crown  to  the  brows 
of  a  sinful  and  mortal  man. 

An  act  was  also  passed  "  for  the  preser 
vation  of  his  majesty's  person,  author 
ity,  and  government ;"  probably  one  of 
the  most  pure  pieces  of  despotism  that 
ever  emanated  from  any  legislative  body. 
It  involves  in  the  guilt  of  treason  "  all 
covenants  and  leagues  for  reformation  ;" 
brands  the  covenants  as  unlawful  oaths 
against  the  fundamental  laws  and  liber- 
ties of  the  kingdom,  though  the  king 
himself  has  sworn  them ;  stigmatizes 
all  protestations  and  petitions  as  unlawful 
and  seditious:  rescinds  the  acts  of  the 
Assembly  of  1638,  and  all  ratifications 
of  them ;  prohibits,  on  the  severest  pe- 
nalties, all  writing,  speaking,  painting, 
preaching,  praying,  &c.,  tending  to  stir 
up  a  dislike  of  his  majesty's  royal  prero- 
gative and  supremacy  in  cases  ecclesias- 
tical, or  the  government  of  the  Church 
by  archbishops  and  bishops.  Such  are 
the  leading  clauses  of  this  arbitrary  act, 
unquestionably  a  fine  specimen  of  pre- 
latic legislation,  and  a  sufficient  proof 
that  in  Scotland  at  least,  tyranny  and 
Prelacy  are  inseparably  connected.  But 
their  schemes  were  not  yet  fully  devel- 
oped. Another  act  prohibited  any  per- 
son to  teach  in  universities,  or  to  preach, 
keep  schools,  or  to  be  tutors  to  persons  of 
quality,  who  did  not  own  prelatic  gov- 
ernment, and  obtain  a  license  from  the 
prelates.  By  another  act,  all  persons  in 
public  trust  were  ordained  to  sign  a  de- 
claration condemning  as  unlawful  all 
leagues  and  covenants  among  subjects, 
upon  any  pretext  whatever  ;  and  particu- 
larly the  National  Covenant  and  the  So- 
lemn League  and  Covenant,  which  were 
declared  by  the  subscriber  to  be  of  no 
obligation  upon  himself  or  any  of  the 
subjects.  It  did  not  seem  to  the  prelates 
enough  for  a  man  to  say  that  he  ceased 
to  regard  the  Covenants  as  binding  upon 
himself  he  must  also  affirm  the  same  of 
others,  though  he  could  know  nothing  of 
their  conscientious  opinions.  One  can- 
not help  conjecturing,  that  the  prelates, 
somewhat  uneasy  under  their  own  perju- 
ry, were  anxious  that  the  \yhole  king- 
dom should  be  plunged  into  similar  guilt, 
or  that  men  should  become  as  accustomed 
to  oaths,  as  to  regard  their  violation  as  a 
matter  of  no  real  moment,  infmiiiLr  nei- 
ther guilt  nor  infamy.  One  or  other  of 


218 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


two  consequences  such  a  multiplicity  of 
ensnaring  and  often  self-contradictory 
oaths  were  sure  to  have :  they  would 
either  involve  the  nation  in  wide-spread 
irreligion  and  immorality,  or  would  bring 
into  trouble,  poverty,  and  suffering,  all 
who  venerated  the  sanctity  of  an  oath. 
For  it  has  always  been  observed,  that 
where  these  solemn  bonds  are  made  too 
common,  they  cease  to  bind :  they  are 
iron  fetters  to  the  good,  but  threads  of 
gossamer  to  the  bad.  A  government 
which  multiplies  oaths  of  office,  proves 
itself  to  have  little  consciousness  of  their 
awful  sanction,  manifests  distrust  ofJts 
subjects,  and  holds  forth  a  snare  to  tenfpt 
ambitious  and  self-interested  men  to  the 
commission  of  perjury.  So  was  it  with 
the  Scottish  prelatic  parliament.  The 
numerous  oaths  which  they  imposed  shut 
out  from  places  of  public  trust  nearly  all 
men  of  the  highest  worth,  opposed  no 
obstacle  to  the  admission  of  the  wicked, 
and  became  directly  instrumental  in  the 
infliction  of  the  most  extensive  and  re- 
lentless persecution. 

The  act  of  indemnity,  so  long  expect- 
ed, came  at  last,  but  came  in  a  character 
which  sufficiently  proved  its  paternity. 
In  addition  to  a  list  of  persons  excepted 
from  the  benefit  of  this  act,  it  had,  in  the 
form  of  an  appended  exception,  what 
was  in  reality  another  act,  empowering 
a  committee  to  impose  fines  upon  as 
many  as  they  thought  proper,  and  to 
whatsoever  amount  they  pleased.  A  list 
of  persons  to  be  fined  was  accordingly 
made,  including  all  who  were  known  or 
suspected  to  be  favourable  to  the  Presby- 
terian Church.  The  avowed  object  of 
this  list  was,  by  means  of  these  fines,  to 
depress  the  Presbyterians  and  enrich  the 
royalists  and  the  favourers  of  Prelacy. 
The  parliament  terminated  its  sittings  by 
passing  an  act,  the  effect  of  which  was 
the  immediate  ejection  of  the  ministers  of 
Edinburgh,  and  of  several  other  ministers 
in  different  parts  of  the  country  soon  after, 
who  held  the  laws  of  God  in  higher  esti- 
mation than  acts  of  parliament. 

When  the  parliament  rose,  the  privy 
council  assumed  the  management  of  pub- 
lic affairs,  and  proceeded  to  enforce  those 
arbitrary  enactments  in  a  congenial  spirit. 
They  published  an  act  respecting  dioce- 
san meetings,  commanding  all  ministers 
to  repair  t<j  the  meetings  which  the  pre- 


lates were  about  to  hold,  to  give  their  con- 
currence to  them,  and  to  refrain  from 
holding  any  other  ecclesiastical  meetings 
on  pain  of  the  censures  provided  in  such 
cases.  These  diocesan  meetings  were 
generally  termed  the  Bishop's  Courts ; 
and  notwithstanding  the  threatenings  of 
the  privy  council  and  the  prelates,  very 
few  of  the  ministers  attended  them.  In- 
deed, they  could  not,  without  abandoning 
all  their  Presbyterian  principles,  and,  in 
particular,  that  principle  essentially  Pres- 
byterian, that  all  ecclesiastical  jurisdic- 
tion is  derived  from  Christ  alone,  where- 
as the  jurisdiction  of  the  prelates  was 
avowedly  derived  from  the  king  alone,  so 
that  to  attend  the  diocesan  meeting  would 
have  been  to  violate  their  allegiance  to 
Christ.*  The  case  was  different  during 
the  semi-prelacy  established  by  King 
James ;  for  then  the  Presbyterian  church 
courts  had  not  been  suppressed,  but  mere- 
ly invaded,  and  the  ministers  held  it  even 
their  duty  to  retain  as  much  of  their  priv- 
ileges as  they  could,  to  keep  possession 
of  their  sacred  judicatories,  and  to  resist 
the  invading  prelates  to  the  utmost.  But 
now  these  judicatories  had  been  wholly 
abolished,  were  attempted  to  be  recon- 
structed on  prelatic  principles  alone,  and 
could  not  be  so  much  as  entered  by  a  true 
Presbyterian,  without  abandoning  all  his 
own  most  sacred  principles,  and  doing 
violence  to  his  conscientious  convictions. 
But  the  wild  career  of  Middleton  was 
now  near  its  close,  although,  like  an 
eastern  tornado,  its  last  fierce  burst  of  fury 
was  the  most  destructive.  There  had, 
from  the  time  of  the  king's  restoration, 
been  a  constant  rivalry  between  Middle- 
ton  and  Lauderdale,  and  each  had  been 
continually  plotting  to  ruin  the  power  of 
his  rival.  Lauderdale's  situation  near  the 
person  of  the  monarch  gave  him  an  ad- 
vantage which  Middleton  attempted  to 
counterbalance  by  his  zeal  in  the  destruc- 
:ion  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  ;  and  this 
had  stimulated  him  to  press  forward  his 
pernicious  schemes  with  a  degree  of  pre- 
cipitation too  impetuous  to  admit  of  taking 
a  deliberate  estimation  of  their  possible 
consequences  in  case  of  failure  or  recoil. 
Having  finished  his  tyrannical  labours  in 
the  parliament  and  council,  he  began  a 
tour  through  the  west  of  Scotland,  for  the 
double  purpose  of  enjoying  the  festive  en- 

*  See  Apologetical  Relation,  section  viii.  pp.  91-100. 


A.  D.  16G2.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


219 


tertainments  given  to  him  by  the  obsequi 
ous  nobility,  and  of  urging  upon  the  Pres 
byterians  the  declaration  recently  passec 
by  parliament.  When  he  came  to  Glas 
go\v,  the  archbishop,  Fairfoul,  laid  before 
him  the  most  grievous  complaints,  tha 
none  of  the  younger  ministers  within  his 
diocese,  entered  since  J649,  had  attendee 
his  courts,  or  acknowledged  his  prelatic 
superiority;  that  he  was  exposed  to  the 
odium  which  attends  that  office  in  Scot- 
land, but  possessed  nothing  of  its  power ; 
ind  that,  unless  some  more  effectual  steps 
were  taken,  the  prelatic  office  itself  would 
sink  into  general  contempt.  Middleton 
requested  him  to  state  his  plan,  and  he 
would  immediately  put  it  in  execution 
Fairfoul  proposed  that  an  act  of  council 
might  be  passed  and  proclaimed,  peremp 
torily  banishing  all  the  ministers  who 
had  entered  since  the  year  1649,  from 
their  houses,  parishes,  and  respective 
presbyteries  if  they  did  not  before  the  Vst 
day  of  November  ensuing,  procure  pre- 
sentations from  the  patrons,  and  present 
themselves  to  the  prelates  to  receive  colla- 
tion and  admission  to  their  charges ;  as- 
suring the  commissioner,  that  there 
would  not  be  ten  in  his  diocese  that  would 
not  rather  sacrifice  their  principles  than 
lose  their  stipends.*  The  result  proved 
the  folly  of  a  prelate  judging  Presbyte- 
rian ministers  by  his  own  standard. 

The  council  met  at  Glasgow  on  the  1st 
of  October,  and  passed  an  act,  known  by 
the  designation  of  "  the  Act  of  Glasgow," 
in  exact  conformity  with  the  archbishop's 
suggestions.  Burnet  informs  us,  that  the 
Duke  of  Hamilton,  who  was  one  of  the 
council,  told  him,  that  "  they  were  all  so 
drunk  that  day  that  they  were  not  capa- 
ble of  considering  any  thin*-  that  was 
laid  before  them,  and  would  hear  of  no- 
thing but  the  executing  the  law  without 
any  relenting  or  delay."f  The  Presby- 
terian ministers  obeyed  the  law.  They 
submitted  to  the  very  letter  of  its  penalty. 
On  the  last  Sabbath  of  October  they 
preached  and  bade  farewell  to  their  deep- 
ly-attached congregations  ;  and  on  that 
day,  as  Burnet  states,  above  two  hundred 
churches  were  at  once  shut  up,  and  aban- 
doned equally  by  pastors  and  by  people. 
"  I  believe,"  says  Kirkton,  "  there  was 
never  such  a  sad  Sabbath  in  Scotland,  as 


*  Wodrow,  vol.  i.  p.  282. 
vol.  i.  p,  154. 


t  Burnet's  Own  Times, 


when  the  poor  persecuted  ministers  took 
leave  of  their  people."*  In  many  instan- 
ces the  congregations  could  not  repress 
their  feelings,  but  wept  aloud,  till  their 
lamentations  resembled  the  wild  wailings 
of  a  city  taking  by  storm.  This  desola- 
ting blast  fell  first  on  the  western  coun- 
ties, but  it  soon  extended  over  the  south- 
ern and  midland  parts  of  the  kingdom, 
till  it  caused  the  ejection  of  nearly  four 
hundred  ministers  in  the  course  of  a  few 
months,  involving  a  large  portion  of  Scot- 
land in  sudden  spiritual  destitution.! 

Great  was  the  astonishment,  and  even 
consternation,  felt  by  the  prelatic  party  at 
the  wide  devastation  caused  by  the  Act  of 
Glasgow.  They  had  committed  the 
grievous  error  which  unprincipled  men 
are  so  apt  to  do,  of  concluding  what  the 
Presbyterian  ministers  would  do  by  what 
they  would  themselves  have  done  in  sim- 
ilar circumstances,  and  they  saw  their 
error  when  it  was  too  late  easily  to  repair 
it.  They  could  not  but  perceive  that  the 
unpopularity  of  their  proceedings  would 
be  very  greatly  increased  by  the  firm  and 
high-principled  conduct  of  the  ministers, 
submitting  readily  to  the  loss  of  all  that 
human  nature  holds  dear,  rather  than 
they  would  violate  their  sacred  principles. 
The  more  wary  of  the  prelates,  and  in 
particular  Sharp  himself,  had  intended  to 
follow  a  very  different  method  for  the* se- 
curing of  their  triumph  over  the  Presby- 
terian Church.  Their  plan  was  gradu- 
ally to  depose  the  leading  men  of  the 
Presbyterian  ministers,  not  more  rapidly, 
nor  in  greater  numbers,  than  they  would 
be  able  to  supply  with  successors  of  toler- 
able education  and  character,  so  that  in 
the  course  of  a  generation,  an  entire 
change  might  be  effected  by  almost  im- 
perceptible degrees,  and  Prelacy  quietly 
but  firmly  be  established.  This  danger- 
ous policy  was  at  once  rendered  impossi- 
ble by  the  Act  of  Glasgow;  and  that 
here  is  little  reason  to  doubt,  that  while 
he  most  sagacious  of  the  prelatists  deplor- 
ed the  sudden  precipitation  of  the  struggle, 
he  Presbyterians,  amidst  all  their  suffer- 
ngs,  rejoiced  at  the  false  movement  of 
heir  enemies.  Need  we  hesitate  to  say, 
hat  God  confounded  the  councils  of 

•  Kirkton,  p.  150. 

t  Wodrow  eives  a  list  of  ejected  ministers,  amount- 
n<*  to  412,  but  several  of  them  had  been  deposed  before 
he  Act  of  Glasgow,  so  that  the  number  cast  out  by 
hat  Act  fell  somewhat  short  of  400.  See  Wodrow 
ol.  i.  pp.  324-329. 


220 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


Ahithophel,  and  caused  the  crafty  to  be 
taken  in  their  own  snares? 

An  attempt  was  made  by  the  council 
to  retrieve  this  false  step,  by  an  act  passed 
at  Edinburgh  on  the  23d  of  December, 
extending  the  term  within  which  minis- 
ters might  receive  presentation  and  colla- 
tion, to  the  1st  day  of  February  1663; 
but  the  penalties  for  non-compliance  were 
not  relaxed,  and  a  fine  of  twenty  shillings 
Scots  was  ordered  to  be  exacted  from  all 
the  people  who  did  not  attend  their  parish 
churches.  As  the  testimony  of  an  adver- 
sary is  always  held  peculiarly  valuable, 
we  may  here  conclude  our  account  of  the 
proceedings  of  this  year  by  extracting 
Bishop  Burnet's  statement  of  the  conse- 
quences resulting  from  the  Act  of  Glas- 
gow. 

"  There  was  a  sort  of  an  invitation  sent 
over  the  kingdom,  like  a  hue-and-cry,  to 
all  persons  to  accept  of  benefices  in  the 
west.  The  livings  were  generally  well 
endowed,  and  the  parsonage-houses  were 
well  built,  and  in  good  repair.  And  this 
drew  many  very  worthless  persons  thith- 
er, who  had  little  learning,  less  piety,  and 
no  sort  of  discretion.  The  new  incum- 
bents who  were  put  in  the  place  of  the 
ejected  preachers,  were  generally  very 
mean  and  despicable  in  all  respects. 
j\  They  were  the  worst  preachers  I  ever 
heard ;  they  were  ignorant  to  a  reproach ; 
and  "many  of  them  were  openly  vicious. 
They  were  a  disgrace  to  their  orders  and 
the  sacred  functions,  and  indeed  were  the 
dregs  and  refuse  of  the  northern  parts. 
Those  of  them  who  rose  above  contempt 
or  scandal  were  men  of  such  violent  tem- 
pers, that  they  were  as  much  hated  as  the 
others  were  despised. 

4i  The  former  incumbents,  who  were 
for  the  most  part  Protesters,  were  a  grave, 
solemn,  sort  of  people.  Their  spirits 
were  eager,  and  their  tempers  sour;  but 
they  had  an  appearance  that  created  re- 
spect. They  were  related  to  the  chief 
families  in  the  country  either  by  blood  or 
marriage,  and  had  lived  in  so  decent  a 
manner  that  the  gentry  paid  great  respect 
to  them.  They  used  to  visit  their  parishes 
much,  and  were  so  full  of  the  Scriptures, 
and  so  ready  at  extempore  prayer,  that 
from  that  they  grew  to  practise  extempore 
sermons.  They  had  brought  the  people 
to  such  a  degree  of  knowledge,  that  cot- 
tagers and  servants  would  have  prayed 


extempore.  By  these  means  they  had  a 
comprehension  of  matters  of  religion 
greater  than  I  have  seen  among  people 
of  that  sort  any  where.  As  they  (the 
ministers)  lived  in  great  familiarity  with 
their  people,  and  used  to  pray  and  to  talk 
oft  with  them  in  private,  so  it  can  hardly 
be  imagined  to  what  a  degree  they  were 
loved  and  reverenced  by  them."* 

Let  the  candid  reader  look  on  these 
two  pictures,  drawn  by  the  hand  of  a  pre- 
late from  personal  observation  and  know- 
ledge, and  say  whether  it  was  possible 
that  the  people  of  Scotland  could  regard 
with  favour  a  system,  the  unconstitutional 
and  tyrannical  introduction  of  which 
drove  to  the  wilds  their  own  faithful, 
pious,  and  beloved  ministers,  and  forced 
upon  them  the  desecrating  services  of 
such  an  irreligious  and  immoral  crew  of 
the  very  lowest  spawn  of  Prelacy.  But 
these  curates,  as  they  were  designated 
somewhat  incorrectly,  had  obtained  "  pre- 
sentations from  patrons  and  collation  from 
the  bishops ;"  and  these  qualifications 
would,  in  the  estimation  of  some  people, 
cover  any  ^multitude  of  sins.  Others, 
however,  will  be  disposed  to  think,  as  the 
bereaved  and  oppressed  people  of  Scot- 
land did,  that  the  very  fact  of  patrons  and 
prelates  so  readily  concurring  to  thrust 
such  men  into  churches,  which  their 
presence  could  only  desecrate,  furnished 
a  very  strong  proof  of  the  unchristian 
origin  of  both  patronage  and  Prelacy. 
Will  any  sane  man  say,  that  that  system 
is  of  divine  origin  which  directly  expels 
from  the  Church  such  men  as  Douglas, 
Trail),  and  Hutcheson  of  Edinburgh, 
Livingston  of  Ancrum,  Blair  of  St.  An- 
drews, Wylie  of  Kirkcudbright,  Welch 
of  Irongray,  and  Brown  of  Wamphray, 
and  forces  into  it  such  men  as  even  Bur- 
net  cannot  write  of  without  contempt? 
But  we  must  proceed,  though  the  heart 
sickens  at  the  consciousness  of  the  dread- 
ful character  of  the  narrative  on  which 
we  are  now  more  distinctly  to  enter.  So 
strong,  indeed,  is  our  reluctance  to  dwell 
on  scenes  of  almost  unmingled  horror, — 
so  greaj  is  the  repugnance  which  we  feel 
to  relate  the  bloody  and  inhuman  brutali- 
ties perpetrated  by  Prelacy  in  Scotland, 
— that  we  purpose  to  sketch  the  outline 
of  prelatic  persecution  as  briefly,  and 
with  as  little  reference  to  its  darker  ter- 

*  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  i.  pp.  156-158. 


A.  D.  1G63.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


221 


rors,  as  may  be  possible,  consistently  with 
the  historian's  duty. 

[1663.1  The  year  1663  began  with 
great  haidships  to  both  the  ejected  minis- 
ters and  the  deprived  people  of  Scotland. 
The  ministers  were  compelled  to  leave 
their  houses,  the  scenes  of  their  ministry, 
the  people  whom  they  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  instruct  with  such  anxious  and 
successful  care  in  the  knowledge  of  the 
way  of  salvation, — all  that  they  held  dear 
on  earth,  and  much  that  had  been  to  them 
both  earnest  and  foretaste  of  heaven, — 
and  to  hasten  away  to  other  districts, 
chiefly  to  those  north  of  the  Tay,  in  the 
depth  of  a  stern,  inclement  Scottish  win- 
ter, because  they  would  not  bring  upon 
their  souls  the  guilt  of  perjury.  The 
people  were  at  once  deprived  of  the  high- 
ly-valued labours  of  their  beloved  pas- 
tors, at  the  very  time  when  the  course  of 
religious  instruction  to  which  they  had 
been  accustomed  was  producing  its  most 
beneficial  effects,  and  when  they  were 
become  most  able  to  appreciate  truly  the 
worth  of  an  evangelical  ministry.  It 
soon  became  a  question  of  deep  moment, 
whether  they  could  conscientiously  attend 
the  churches  where  the  prelatic  curates 
preached,  but  not  long  a  question  of  diffi- 
cult solution.  Great  numbers  of  the  peo- 
ple were  beyond  all  comparison  better 
acquainted  with  their  Bibles  than  the 
curates  were ;  and  it  would  be  insulting 
to  the  memory  of  the  Scottish  Covenant- 
ers to  compare  them,  in  point  of  moral 
character,  with  the  dissolute  and  licen- 
tious creatures  of  the  prelates.  To  attend 
the  ministry  of  such  persons  was  abso- 
lutely impossible  for  men  who  had  any 
feeling  of  what  was  due  to  the  hallowed 
day  of  God,  and  to  the  sacred  nature  of 
religious  ordinances;  nay,  even  their  re- 
gard to  the  welfare  of  their  own  souls 
forbade  them  to  listen  to  men  whose 
whole  conduct  was  such  as  to  render  their 
interference  with  holy  things  a  hideous 
profanation.  The  people  therefore  re- 
fused to  attend  the  ministry  of  the  curates, 
whom  they  could  not  look  upon  without 
equal  disgust  and  indignation. 

It  will  be  remembered,  that  the  Glas- 
gow Act  included  directly  only  those 
ministers  who  had  entered  into  their 
charges  since  1649.  But  there  were 
considerable  numbers  of  more  aged  min- 
isters, who  had  entered  previous  to  that 


year,  and  who  were  accordingly,  left  for 
a  time  in  the  possession  of  their  parishes. 
To  the  churches  of  these  men  the  people 
nocked  from  great  distances  when  their 
own  ministers  were  cast  out,  and  thus 
continued  for  a  time  to  obtain  instruction 
to  which  they  could  listen  without  viola- 
tion to  their  consciences.  Some  of  the 
ejected  ministers  also  were  allowed  to 
reside  in  their  parishes,  though  not  in  the 
manses  or  parsonages ;  and  the  people 
collected  together  in  great  numbers  at 
those  hours  in  which  they  were  accus- 
tomed to  have  family  worship,  that  they 
might  enjoy  the  private  expositions  and 
prayers  of  their  beloved  pastors.  To 
such  an  extent  did  this  proceed,  that  often 
no  room  could  be  obtained  large  enough 
to  contain  the  assembled  worshippers, 
who  were  constrained,  both  minister  and 
people,  to  betake  themselves  to  the  open 
air,  there  to  adore  the  God  who  made 
heaven  and  earth.  This  was  the  origin 
of  what  were  termed  conventicles  and 
field-meetings  in  Scotland,  against  which, 
a  few  years  afterwards,  the  rage  of  the 
persecutors  burned  so  fiercely.  Even  at 
the  very  beginning  of  this  method  of 
seeking  the  benefit  of  a  gospel  ministry, 
the  people  were  exposed  to  abusive  treat- 
ment. The  act  of  23d  December  had 
imposed  a  fine  upon  those  who  did  not 
attend  their  own  parish  churches ;  and 
the  rude  soldiery,  instigated  by  the  cu- 
rates, began  the  practice  of  intercepting 
people  on  their  way  to  the  churches  of 
the  old  and  unexpelled  ministers,  and  ex- 
acting the  fine  specified  in  the  proclama- 
tion. Other  occasions  of  persecution  also 
began  to  be  common.  In  several  in- 
stances, the  people,  especially  the  females, 
opposed  the  entrance  of  curates  forcibly, 
till  their  resistance  was  overcome  by 
military  power.  This  the  wiser  part  of 
the  Covenanters  deplored,  as  calculated 
to  give  some  colour  of  justice  to  the 
harsh  retaliation  inflicted  by  the  armed 
supporters  of  the  prelatic  intruders  ;  but 
the  prelatists  were  not  slow  in  availing 
themselves  of  every  opportunity  of  inflict- 
ing vengeance  upon  their  opponents. 

Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  the 
political  rivalry  between  Middleton  and 
Lauderdale,  and  to  the  effect  which  it  had 
in  stimulating  the  former  to  press  forward 
the  establishment  of  Prelacy  upon  the 
ruins  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  as  the 


222 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


best  method,  in  his  opinion,  of  securing 
the  favour  of  the  king.  His  majesty, 
however,  saw  clearly  that  the  Glasgow 
Act  was  an  impolitic  measure,  more 
likely  to  injure  the  cause  of  Prelacy  than 
to  promote  it ;  and,  though  well  enough 
satisfied  with  Middleton's  zeal,  was  by 
no  means  disposed  to  hazard  the  failure 
of  his  schemes  for  any  regard  to  the  for- 
tunes of  his  most  zealous  adherent  Lau- 
derdale  availed  himself  of  this  opportu- 
nity to  assail  his  rival,  and  prepared  for  a 
final  effort  to  overthrow  him.  The  ava- 
rice of  Middleton  supplied  what  was 
wanting  for  his  ruin.  The  king  thought 
proper  to  send  to  the  Scottish  council 
a  letter  suspending  the  payment  of 
the  fines  imposed  on  non-conformists ; 
but  Middleton,  eager  to  get  hold  of  the 
money,  prevented  the  proclamation  of  his 
majesty;s  letter  postponing  the  term  of 
payment.  This  Lauderdale  represented 
as  a  daring  violation  of  the  royal  prero- 
gative ;  and  the  king,  offended  more  with 
this  tampering  with  his  authority,  than 
with  all  the  despotic  proceedings  of  Mid- 
dleton against  the  liberties  of  the  people, 
deprived  him  of  that  power  which  he 
had  so  greatly  abused,  and  sent  him  in  a 
kind  of  honourable  banishment  to  Tan- 
gier, where  he  soon  afterwards  died  in 
consequence  of  a  fall.* 

Lauderdale  became  now  the  chief 
manager  of  Scottish  affairs ;  but  this 
brought  no  mitigation  to  the  sufferings  of 
the  Presbyterians.  He  had,  indeed,  been 
himself  at  one  time  not  only  a  Covenant- 
er, but  even  one  of  the  commissioners 
from  the  General  Assembly  to  the  West- 
minster Assembly  of  Divines  ;  and  at 
the  Restoration  he  at  first  advocated  the 
establishment  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
as  that  of  the  three  kingdoms.!  Per- 
ceiving the  king's  rooted  aversion  to  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  Lauderdale,  with 
the  supple  pliancy  of  a  courtier,  aban- 
doned his  cause,  and,  with  the  spirit  of  a 
renegade,  became  the  deadly  persecutor 
of  the  religion  from  which  he  had  apos- 
tatized. And  now,  when  elevated  to  the 
chief  power  in  Scotland,  he  deemed  it 
expedient  to  remove  any  lingering  suspi- 
cion which  might  still  attach  to  him  on 
account  of  his  former  conduct,  by  taking 

*  Burnet'a  Own  Times,  vol.  i.  pp.  200-222. 
T  It  was  at  that  time  that  the  King  uttered  the  well- 
known  expression,  "Presbytery  is  not  a  religion  for  a 
gentlouan." 


prompt  and  effectual  measures  for  the 
suppression  of  the  Church  which  he  had 
most  solemnly  vowed  to  defend.  « 

A  parliament  was  held  in  Edinburgh, 
on  the  18th  of  June,  at  which  Lauderdale 
was  present,  to  commence  his  career  of 
power,  assisted  by  the  Earl  of  Rothes, 
with  whom  he  was  in  close  political  con- 
nection. The  first  act  of  the  new  admin- 
istration was  one  which  paralyzed  the 
parliament,  by  restoring  the  old  method 
of  electing  the  Lords  of  the  Articles. 
The  second  was  intituled,  an  "Act 
against  Separation  and  Disobedience  to 
Ecclesiastical  Authority."  Its  object  was, 
to  prevent  people  from  leaving  the  curates 
and  following  the  ejected  ministers  ;  and 
to  effect  that  purpose,  it  declares  of  the 
latter,  "  that  their  daring  to  preach,  in 
contempt  of  the  law,"  is  sedition,  and  they 
are  subjected  to  punishment  as  seditious 
persons ;  while  all  men  are  enjoined  to 
attend  "  such  ministers  as  by  public  au- 
thority are  or  shall  be  admitted  to  their 
parishes,"  those  who  absent  themselves 
being  liable  to  be  fined,  each  nobleman, 
gentleman,  and  heritor,  the  fourth  part  ol 
a  year's  rental,  and  each  tenant  the  same 
proportion  of  his  moveable  property,  de- 
ducting the  payment  of  the  rent  dus  to 
his  landlord :  and  each  burgess  to  lose 
the  liberty  of  trading  within  burgh 
towns,  and  the  fourth  part  of  his  movea- 
ble property.  This  act  was  commonly 
termed  "  The  Bishop's  drag-net,"  and 
formed  the  foundation  of  a  great  part  of 
the  oppressive  exactions  afterwards  levied 
throughout  the  kingdom.  The  privy 
council  were  directed  to  be  careful  to  see 
this  act  put  in  due  execution,  by  inflicting 
not  only  the  specified  censures  and  pen- 
alties, but  also  such  other  corporeal  pun- 
ishments as  they  should  think  fit, — a 
clause  of  dark  import,  destined  ere  long 
to  be  interpreted  and  enforced  with  terrific 
cruelty. 

Another  act  was  passed,  enforcing  the 
signing  of  the  declaration  condemnatory 
of  the  Covenants,  without  which  no  per- 
son was  eligible  to  places  of  public  trust ; 
to  which  was  now  added,  that  those  who 
should  refuse  t.">  sign  it  should  "  forfeit  all 
the  privileges  of  merchardising  ai^d  tra- 
ding." From  this  it  seems  to  have  been 
the  dire  policy  of  Laudeidale  and  the 
prelates,  to  render  it  impossible  for  any 
man  even  to*  live  in  the  kingdom  without 


A.  D.  1663.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OP   SCOTLAND. 


223 


submitting  to  Prelacy.  The  last  act  of  I 
any  importance  passed  by  this  servile 
parliament  was  one  for  establishing  a  na- 
tional synod,  mo'JeHed  after  the  plan  of 
the  English  convocation,  but  still  more 
abortive,  inasmuch  as  it  was  never  once 
held,  the  prelates  finding  that  their  work 
could  be  more  expeditiously  and  effectual- 
ly done  by  the  privy  council  itself,  and  by 
the  Court  of  High  Commission,  which 
was  soon  afterwards  revived.  Lauder- 
dale  finished  this  parliament  by  the  vain 
parade  of  an  act,  offering  to  his  majesty 
an  army  of  twenty-two  thousand  infantry 
and  two  thousand  cavalry,  if  necessary, 
to  aid  in  the  preservation  of  Christen- 
dom against  the  Turks ;  unless,  indeed, 
the  act  had  a  private  interpretation,  and 
was  designed  to  show  the  king  that  an 
army  could  be  raised  for  him  in  Scot- 
land, in  case  his  English  subjects  should 
grow  refractory. 

During  the  sitting  of  parliament,  the 
privy  council  thought  proper  to  meet  and 
pass  some  acts  manifestly  beyond  their 
powers,  especially  while  the  superior 
legislative  body  was  assembled.  The 
two  archbishops  had  been  by  this  time 
made  members  of  the  privy  council,  and 
to  this  may  be  fairly  ascribed  both  its 
encroachment  upon  parliamentary  privi- 
leges, and  the  despotism  of  its  acts.  The 
first,  which  was  proclaimed  on  the  13th 
of  August,  is  known  as  "  The  Mile  Act." 
It  commands  all  the  ministers  included 
within  the  Act  of  Glasgow  "  to  remove 
themselves  and  their  families,  within 
twenty  days,  out  of  the  parishes  where 
they  were  incumbents,  and  not  to  reside 
within  twenty  miles  of  the  same,  nor 
within  six  miles  of  Edinburgh  or  any 
cathedral  church,  nor  within  three  miles 
of  any  burgh  royal  within  the  kingdom," 
under  the  penalties  of  the  laws  against 
movers  of  sedition.  Every  person  must 
see  that  it  was  physically  impossible  to 
comply  with  the  terms  of  this  act,  coupled 
with  a  former  one  which  prohibited  any 
two  of  the  ejected  ministers  from  residing 
within  the  boundaries  of  the  same  parish. 
Four  hundred  spots  such  as  the  act  de- 
scribes could  not  have  been  found  within 
the  kingdom,  though  all  its  lonely  wilds 
had  been  selected  with  geographical  ex- 
actness. But  it  requires  no  comment  to 
point  out  the  blundering  cruelty  of  these 
absurd  tyrants.  Another  act  of  council 


was  passed  on  the  7th  of  October,  which 
rendered  the  despotic  series  nearly  com- 
plete. Its  first  part  was  directed  against 
the  Presbyterian  ministers  who  had  fled 
from  Ireland  to  escape  the  prelatic  perse- 
cution there,  rendering  them  liable  to  the 
penalties  of  sedition  if  they  dared  to  reside 
or  preach  in  Scotland :  its  second  part 
directed  the  curates  to  read  out  from  the 
pulpit  lists  of  such  people  in  their  parishes 
as  absented  themselves  from  public  wor- 
ship in  these  parishes,  which  intimation 
should  be  sufficient  ground  for  proceeding 
against  such  persons  if  they  d;d  not  in- 
stantly submit ;  and  not  only  magistrates, 
but  "  officers  of  the  standing  forces."  are 
required  to  give  their  assistance  to  minis- 
ters in  the  discharge  of  their  office,  to 
put  the  law  in  execution,  and  to  enforce 
the  penalties  expressed  in  the  acts  of  par- 
liament and  council.*  The  effect  of  this 
was,  to  authorise  the  curates  to  act  as 
spies  and  informers  against  their  parish- 
ioners, and  the  army  to  act  as  execution- 
ers of  the  law  almost  on  their  own  re- 
sponsibility,— functions  which  both  these 
classes  of  persons  soon  proved  themselves 
equally  ready  to  perform  with  the  most 
ruthless  cruelty. 

The  only  public  instance  of  actual  mar- 
tyrdom which  occurred  this  year  was 
that  of  Warriston.  He  had  escaped 
from  the  hands  of  his  enemies  about  two 
years  before,  and  had  fled  to  the  continent 
for  safety.  While  he  was  at  Hamburg, 
he  had  an  attack  of  sickness,  and  was  at- 
tended by  Dr.  Bates,  who  had  been  one 
of  the  king's  physicians,  and  was  by  him 
subjected  to  such  improper  medical  treat- 
ment as  to  deprive  him  almost  entirely  of 
the  use  of  his  faculties.!  His  memory 
departed  to  such  a  degree  that  he  could 
not  remember  what  he  had  said  or  done 
a  quarter  of  an  hour  before.  In  this  de- 
plorable condition,  the  wreck  of  his 
former  self,  he  was  basely  given  up  by 
the  French  monarch  to  an  emissary  of 
Charles,  brought  to  Edinburgh,  tried, 
and  condemned  to  death.  The  pitiable 
spectacle  of  the  helpless  old  man,  re- 
duced to  premature  imbecility  by  the 
treacherous  conduct  of  the  royal  physi- 
cian, failed  to  excite  the  compassion  of 
his  persecutors;  nay,  Sharp  and  the 
other  prelates  triumphed  in  the  weak  and 


*  Wodrow,  vol.  i.  PP-  341  3-13. 
Relation,  pref. 


1  Apologetical 


224 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


wavering  accents  of  him  whose  bold  and 
fervid  eloquence  had  often  formerly  held 
Assemblies  and  parliaments  mute  in 
silent  admiration.  But  God  did  not  for- 
sake his  aged  servant  when  compassed 
round  with  his  exulting  and  merciless 
enemies.  The  night  before  his  execu- 
tion he  was  visited  with  that  deep,  calm, 
refreshing  sleep,  which  the  Father  of 
mercies  "  gives  to  his  beloved,"  and 
awoke  in  the  morning  marvellously  re- 
stored. His  memory  returned,  and  all 
his  faculties  were  remarkably  revived, 
while  his  soul  was  filled  with  that  "  peace 
of  God  which  passeth  all  understanding." 
He  prepared  a  speech,  which  he  read 
with  clear  and  audible  voice  on  the  scaf- 
fold, where  also  he  prayed  aloud  with 
such  fervour,  liberty,  and  power,  as  as- 
tonished every  auditor.  His  last  accents 
were  those  of  prayer  and  praise ;  and 
almost  without  a  struggle  he  expired, 
with  his  clasped  hands  held  up  to  heaven 
in  the  attitude  of  adoration.* 

The  more  general  sufferings  of  the 
Church  this  year  consisted  in  the  expul- 
sion of  a  great  number  of  the  best  minis- 
ters from  their  parishes,  the  intrusion  of 
the  curates,  and  the  grief  which  over- 
whelmed the  bereaved  people.  At  Kirk- 
cudbright and  Irongray  the  women  op- 
posed the  entrance  of  the  curates  in  a 
very  determined  manner,  which  drew 
down,  not  only  upon  themselves,  but  upon 
the  whole  parishes,  and  even  districts  of 
country  which  they  inhabited,  the  severe 
displeasure  of  the  council  and  the  prelates, 
and  gave  occasion  to  the  exaction  of  very 
heavy  fines  from  persons  suspected  of  be- 
ing attached  to  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
The  two  deadly  elements  recently  intro- 
duced by  the  prelates  began  to  do  their 
work.  The  curates  began  to  prosecute 
their  congenial  labour  of  acting  as  spies 
and  informers,  conveying  private  informa- 
tion to  the  ruling  powers  against  every 
man  whom  they  knew  or  suspected  to  be 
opposed  to  their  base  ministry  and  baser 
characters,  keeping  a  list  of  all  such  per- 
sons, and  delating  them  from  time  to  time, 
as  their  malicious  dispositions  prompted 
them.  The  army  also  began  to  be  exten- 
sively employed  in  the  levying  of  fines, 
in  which  they  were  cheered  on  by  the 
curates  with  inhuman  eagerness.  Orders 
had  been  given  by  the  privy  council 

•  Naphtali,  pp,  177-182. 


to  Sir  James  Turner  to  lead  a  body 
of  troops  to  the  west  and  south  of 'Scot- 
land, to  levy  fines  and  compel  submis- 
sion to  the  prelates.  Sir  James  was  a  fit 
instrument  for  their  purposes.  He  was 
a  military  adventurer,  selfish,  cruel,  and 
unprincipled,  ready  to  sell  his  sword 
to  whatever  party  would  pay  the  highest 
price  for  it,  and  regarding  no  law,  human 
or  divine,  except  the  orders  of  his  supe- 
rior in  command,  as  he  has  himself  dis- 
tinctly stated.  This  mercenary  soldier 
received  orders  to  follow  the  directions 
of  the  curates,  and  to  pillage  the  defence- 
less country  people  to  the  heart's  content 
of  their  oppressors.  In  this  Turner  and 
his  "  lambs"  rejoiced  as  a  bloodless  cam- 
paign, where  they  might  without  danger 
indulge  all  their  vicious  propensities,  as 
if  in  an  enemy's  country,  and  receive  the 
thanks  of  the  council  for  their  service. 
When  sent  to  any  refractory  Presbyte- 
rian to  levy  the  imposed  fine,  if  it  was  not 
instantly  paid,  they  took  free  quarters  in 
his  house,  revelled  in  riot  and  drunken- 
ness, destroyed  much  more  than  the 
amount  demanded,  and  inflicted  the  most 
wanton  insults  and  barbarous  outrages  on 
the  unoffending  people,  without  distinc- 
tion of  age  or  sex,  or,  rather,  with  such 
distinctions  as  age  and  sex  rendered  possi- 
ble. One  of  the  most  common  of  the 
practices  of  these  plunderers  was,  to  go 
to  some  public-house  in  the  vicinity  of  a 
church  where  a  Presbyterian  minister 
not  yet  ejected  preached,  and  after  drink- 
ing till  nearly  the  time  when  public  wor- 
ship terminated,  then  to  hasten  to  the 
church,  place  themselves  at  the  church- 
door,  and  demand  of  every  person  upon 
oath,  as  they  came  out,  whether  they  be- 
longed to  that  parish.  If  they  could  not 
say  they  did,  the  fine  was  immediately 
exacted,  and  when  money  could  not  be 
obtained,  they  seized  upon  their  Bibles, 
hats,  bonnets,  plaids,  and  any  part  of 
their  clothing  which  could  easily  be  car- 
ried away  and  sold  ;  returning  from  the 
violated  house  of  prayer  laden  with  booty, 
as  from  a  sacked  and  plundered  city. 

[1664.]  The  beginning  of  the  year 
1664  was  signalized  by  the  re-erection 
of  the  Court  of  High  Commission.  Sharp, 
it  appears,  was  not  satisfied  with  the 
privy  council,  which,  in  his  opinion,  did 
not  display  sufficient  zeal  and  activity  in 
the  suppression  of  the  Presbyterians.  In 


A.  D.  16U4.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


225 


particular,  he  entertained  suspicions  of 
the  Eari  of  Glencairn,  the  chancellor,  re- 
garding his  influence  as  tending  to  retard 
and  mitigate  the  course  of  persecution. 
He  therefore  hastened  to  London,  and 
prevailed  upon  the  king  to  grant  a  com- 
mission for  the  re-erection  of  that  dread- 
ful court,  to  which  should  be  intrusted 
the  execution  of  all  laws  concerning 
ecclesiastical  matters.  This  commission 
was  obtained  on  the  16th  of  January 
1664,  and  was,  if  possible,  more  arbitrary 
in  its  character  than  its  predecessor  had 
been.  Its  basis  was  the  essence  of  des- 
potism. "  His  majesty,  by  virtue  of  his 
royal  prerogative  in  all  causes,  and  over 
all  persons,  as  well  ecclesiastical  as  civil, 
has  given  and  granted,"  &c.  In  this 
commission  there  are  nine  prelates  and 
thirty-five  laymen  ;  the  quorum  is  five, 
of  which  one  must  be  a  prelate.  They 
were  empowered  to  summon  before  them 
and  punish  all  the  deposed  ministers  who 
presumed  to  preach,  all  attenders  of  con- 
venticles, all  who  kept  meetings  at  fasts 
and  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper, 
and  all  who  write,  speak,  preach,  or  print 
against  Prelacy.  They  were  empowered 
to  inflict  censures  of  suspension  and  de- 
position ;  to  levy  fines  and  imprison  ;  to 
employ  magistrates  and  military  force  for 
the  apprehension  of  their  victims ;  and 
finally,  "  to  do  and  execute  what  they 
shall  find  necessary  and  convenient  for 
his  majesty's  service  in  the  premises."* 
Surely  the  heart  of  Sharp  must  have 
leapt  for  joy  when  placed  at  the  head  of 
this  court  of  absolute  despotism.  This 
was  certainly  prelacy  restored  to  its  full 
glory,  under  the  dignified  auspices  of  » 
perjured  apostate. 

The  proceedings  of  the  Court  of  High 
Commission  were  such  as  wers  to  be  ex- 
pected from  its  spirit  and  construction. 
It  at  once  assumed  the  po«ver  of  both  the 
swords,  and  acted  equ^iy  as  an  ecclesi- 
astical and  as  a  civi)  ^ourt.  Holding  the 
most  intimate  intercourse  with  the  curates, 
who  formed  an  organized  espionage  co- 
extensive with  the  nation,  the  Court  of 
High  Commission  obtained  information 
respecting  every  sincere  Presbyterian 
throughout  the  kingdom,  summoned 
every  one  whom  it  was  their  pleasure 
to  oppress,  and,  without  the  formalities 
of  citing  witnesses  and  hearing  evidence, 


*  Wodrow,  vol 

29 


pp.  3M-386. 


either  passed  sentence  upon  the  bare  ac- 
cusation, or  required  the  oath  of  supre- 
macy to  be  taken,  and,  upon  its  being 
refused,  inflicted  whatever  sentence  they 
thought  proper,  short  of  death.  Some 
were  reduced  to  utter  poverty  by  fines ; 
some  were  imprisoned  till  they  contracted 
fatal  diseases  j  some  were  banished  to  the 
remotest  and  most  unhealthy  and  inhos- 
pitable parts  of  the  kingdom  ;  and  some 
were  actually  sold  for  slaves.*  Of  the 
great  numbers  summoned  to  appear  be- 
fore this  terrible  court  of  inquisition,  not 
one  is  recorded  to  have  escaped  without 
suffering  punishment,  and  often  to  an  ex- 
treme degree  of  severity. 

One  addition  was  made  to  the  persecu- 
ting acts  already  in  force  against  the 
ejected  ministers,  to  the  effect  that  no  per- 
son should  give  charitable  relief  to  them 
in  their  absolute  starvation,  on  the  pain 
of  being  regarded  as  disaffected,  and 
movers  of  sedition.  This  appears  to  have 
been  done  at  the  instigation  of  Alexander 
Burnet,  archbishop  of  Glasgow,  who 
said  that  the  only  method  to  be  taken 
with  the  fanatics,  as  he  was  pleased  to 
call  them,  was  to  starve  them  out.f  About 
the  same  time  a  party  of  soldiers  were 
sent  to  the  parish  of  Drcghorn,  to  quarter 
upon  the  people,  ar*-*  compel  them,  by 
direct  force,  to  atte«d  the  preaching  of  the 
curate,  who  h^  been  thrust  into  the 
parish  after  -'ne  expulsion  of  its  former 
minister.  This  seems  the  climax  of  in- 
trusion; first,  to  force  an  unworthy  crea- 
ture i*c°  a  parish  contrary  to  the  strongly- 
ex^ressed  dissent  of  the  congregation,  and 
tnen,  when  they  abstained  from  attend- 
ing his  profanation  of  the  ministry,  to 
send  a  band  of  armed  men  to  drive  them 
like  a  flock  of  .sheep  to  the  place,  not  of 
worship,  but  of  desecration. 

[1665.]  The  persecution  of  the  Pres- 
byterians continued  during  the  year  1 665 
with  unabated  rigour ;  but  the  persecu- 
ting system  was  now  so  completely  ma- 
tured, that  little  addition  could  be  made  to 
it.  The  prelates  continued  to  let  loose 
the  soldiery  upon  the  country,  and  to  en- 
courage them  to  those  excesses  in  outrage 
and  plunder  to  which  they  were,  of  their 
own  accord,  sufficiently  prone.  The 
death  of  the  Earl  of  Glencairn,  in  the 
preceding  year,  gave  Sharp  hopes  of  ob 
taining  the  chancellorship  ;  but  this  was 

*  Wodrow,  voJ.  i.  p.  390.  t  Kirkton,  p.  218. 


226 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  Vli 


frustrated,  as  the  Scottish  nobility  began 
to  be  disgusted  with  the  arrogance  of  that 
aspiring  arch-prelate.  The  Earl  of 
Rothes  was  intrusted  with  the  general 
management  of  Scottish  affairs,  under 
the  control  of  Lauderdale  ;  and  so  far  as 
Rothes  was  personally  concerned,  the 
persecution  was  somewhat  relaxed  ;  but 
in  the  Court  of  High  Commission,  and  in 
the  privy  council,  the  prelates  continued 
to  exercise  the  chief  sway.  Some  dim 
apprehensions  appear  to  have  been  enter- 
tained, that  the  continued  course  of  pre- 
latic  tyranny  might  at  last  provoke  the 
country  to  rise  into  resistance  ;  for,  dur- 
ing the  summer  of  this  year,  Sir  James 
Turner  was  empowered  to  search  the 
houses  of  the  people  for  arms,  and  carry 
them  forcibly  away.  The  act  of  fines 
was  also  renewed,  that  this  method  of 
wearing  out  the  Presbyterians  might  still 
be  an  available  weapon  in  the  hands  of 
the  prelates.  On  the  7th  of  December,  a 
proclamation  was  issued  by  the  council 
"  against  conventicles."  This  proclama- 
tion was  of  the  same  general  import  as 
those  whkh  have  already  been  specified, 
prohibiting  il^e  preaching,  or  even  private 
meetings  for  worship,  of  the  ejected  min- 
isters ;  only  thax  it  went  considerably 
beyond  them  in  the  rjower  which  it  gave 
of  inflicting  punishment,  not  only  to  the 
privy  council,  but  to  all  such  as  had  or 
should  have  his  majesty's  commission  to 
that  effect.  This  was  speedily 'jiterpreted 
to  imply,  that  even  a  private  soHier,  be- 
cause he  acted  under  the  royal  authority, 
might,  at  his  own  discretion,  seize,  h»e, 
drag  to  prison,  or  punish,  "  as  he  should 
think  fit,"  any  person  who  either  held  a 
conventicle,  that  is,  worshipped  God, 
others  being  present  and  joining  in  wor- 
ship, attended  one,  or  allowed  one  to  be 
held  in  his  house.  The  fearful  use  soon 
made  of  this  proclamation  we  shall  have 
occasion  to  relate.  > 

11666,]  The  year  1666  is  sadly  mem- 
orable in  the  annals  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland.  During  the  space  of  the  six 
preceding  years,  Prelacy  had  been  speed- 
ing on  in  its  career  of  oppressive  cruelty, 
trampling  under  foot  the  dearest  rights 
and  privileges,  civil  and  sacred,  of  the 
Presbyterian  people.  It  seemed  as  if 
there  was  a  positive  determination  to 
drive  the  country  beyond  all  possible  en- 
durance, that  they  might  have  the  oppor- 


tunity of  exterminating  the  population,  if 
they  could  not  otherwise  extirpate  Pres- 
bytery. Early  in  the  spring,  Sir  James 
Turner  was  again  sent  to  devastate  the 
south  and  west  of  Scotland.  Nithsdale 
and  Galloway  were  the  chief  scenes  of 
his  wasting  visitations  on  this  occasion  ; 
and  his  oppressive  conduct  far  outwent 
any  of  his  previous  campaigns.  The 
soldiers  availed  themselves  of  the  exten- 
sion of  their  powers  which  the  late  act 
against  conventicles  seemed  intended  to 
give,  and  exacted  fines  at»  their  pleasure 
from  each  and  all.  Gentlemen  were 
made  answerable  for  their  wives,  chil- 
dren, servants,  and  tenantry  ;  and  tenants 
were  fined  if  their  landlords  were  held  to 
be  disaffected.  Like  a  swarm  of  eastern 
locusts,  the  soldiery  literally  devoured 
the  country,  wasting  what  provisions  they 
could  not  use,  and  reducing  the  misera- 
ble inhabitants  to  utter  starvation.  If  any 
person  dared  to  complain,  the  only  an- 
swers were  neglect  or  increased  abuse. 
In  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  the  sum  of 
fifty  thousand  pounds  Scots  was  raised  in 
the  west ;  and  the  exactions  in  Galloway 
were  still  more  oppressive,  and  the  pres- 
ence of  the  plunderers  of  longer  continu- 
ation.* 

Seven  months  had  this  excessive  bar- 
barity continued,  not  only  with  unabated 
vigour,  but  even  increasing  in  its  severity 
in  proportion  as  the  exhausted  state  of  the 
country  rendered  it  more  difficult  to  levy 
fines  from  a  people  already  reduced 
nearly  to  starvation  ;  when  one  act  of 
shocking  brutality  put  an  end  to  the 
patient  endurance  of  intolerable  wrongs, 
^d  compelled  the  country  to  rise  in  the 
attkude  of  self-defence.  On  the  13th  of 
Novexnber,  while  four  countrymen,  who 
had  been  pandering  in  concealment  from 
the  devastates,  were  taking  some  refresh- 
ment in  the  vfJage  of  Dairy,  in  Upper 
Galloway,  information  was  brought  to 
them  that  three  or  ffcur  soldiers  were  in- 
flicting the  most  barbarous  abuse  upon  a 
poor  old  man,  whom  they  had  seized 
in  order  to  compel  him  to  pay  the  ruinous 
fines  which  they  demanded.  They  has- 
tened to  the  spot,  and  found  the  aged  vic- 
tim lying  on  the  ground  bound  hand  and 
foot,  and  the  soldiers  proceeding  to  strip 
him  naked,  in  order  to  execute  their  hid 
ecus  threat  of  stretching  him  upon  a  red- 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  p.  8,  Naphlnli,  pp.  125  126,  235 


A.  D.  JG6C.J 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


227 


hot  gridiron.     The  voice  of  outraged  h 
manity  was  louder  than  the  cold  whispe 
of  cowardly  prudence,  and  they  inter 
posed  to  rescue  the  venerable  sufferer 
The    soldiers   turned   upon   them    wit 
drawn  swords,  so  that  they  were  com 
pelled  to  fight  in  their  own  defence.     1 
brief  struggle  ensued,  in  which  one  o 
the  soldiers  was  wounded  ;    upon  which 
his    comrades    yielded    and    were    dis 
armed.* 

The  reflection  of  a  few  moment 
showed  the  countrymen  in  what  immi 
nent  peril  they  had  placed  their  lives  b) 
this  unpremeditated  act  of  humanity 
They  knew  well  that  their  deed  would  b 
designated  rebellion,  and  that  they  neec 
not  hope  for  mercy,  should  they  b 
seized.  The  people  of  the  village  anc 
neighbourhood  were  equally  well  aware 
that  they  would  be  counted  participators 
in  the  crime  because  they  had  not  sup 
ported  the  soldiers.  Tamely  to  yield 
would,  they  knew,  be  death  j  to  rise  gen 
erally  in  self-defence  might  secure  more 
favourable  terms,  and,  if  unsuccessful 
could  but  be  death.  They  resolved 
therefore,  to  adopt  the  more  manly  anc 
rational  alternative  of  self-defence ;  anc 
early  next  morning  surprised  a  party  of 
about  a  dozen  soldiers,  who  were  quar 
tered  in  the  vicinity,  before  they  were 
aware  of  the  seizure  of  their  comrades 
One  soldier,  who  would  not  yield,  was 
killed  in  the  struggle  ;  the  rest  submitted, 
and  were  disarmed  and  made  prisoners 
Several  of  the  neighbouring  gentlemen 
now  joined  the  insurgents,  and  ijiey 
marched  hastily  to  Dumfries,  where  Sir 
James  Turner  was,  made  him  pris'oner, 
and  disarmed  all  the  troops  who  where 
with  him.  They  then  proceeded  in  a 
body  to  the  market-place,  and  publicly 
avowing  that  their  object  was  self-defence 
alone,  they  drank  his  majesty's  health, 
and  prosperity  to  his  government,  to 
manifest  their  unshaken  loyalty.  And 
in  proof  of  their  humanity,  it  must  be  re- 
corded, that  notwithstanding  the  intense 
and  protracted  oppression  to  which  they 
had  been  subjected,  no  violence  was  of- 
fered even  to  Turner,  who  had  been  the 
chief  agent  of  the  persecution.  One 
Gray,  an  Edinburgh  merchant  who  hap- 
pened to  be  in  Dumfries,  and  joined  them 
there,  proposed  the  putting  Sir  James  to 

*  Kirkton,  p.  230;  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  p.  17. 


death  ;  but  this  was  withstood  by  Neilson 
of  Corsack,  whose  property  had  been  al- 
most utterly  ruined  by  the  soldiery. 

Having  received  a  small  addition  to 
their  numbers  at  Dumfries,  they  resolved 
to  inarch  towards  Ayrshire,  in  order  to 
form  a  junction  with  the  grieviously  op- 
pressed inhabitants  of  that  district,  on 
whose  sympathy  and  support  they  confi- 
dently calculated.  They  accordingly 
marched  forward  in  that  direction,  and 
meeting  with  Colonel  Wallace,  put  them- 
selves under  his  command.  But  they 
were  miserably  disappointed  in  their  ex- 
pectations. The  spirit  of  the  west  coun- 
try seemed  to  be  completely  broken  ;  and 
instead  of  rallying  round  the  standard  of 
religious  liberty,  they  remained  quietly  in 
their  homes,  waiting  the  issue,  willing  to 
avail  themselves  of  freedom,  should  it  be 
gained,  but  unwilling  to  expose  them- 
selves to  danger  in  the  attempt  to  snap 
asunder  the  chains  of  slavery.  The 
small  band  of  insurgents  moved  from 
place  to  place,  according  to  (heir  expecta- 
tions of  being  joined  by  their  country- 
men, but  everywhere  experienced  the 
same  discouragement.  It  was  at  length 
seriously  debated,  whether  they  ought  not 
to  separate,  and  seek  comparative  safety 
in  a  private  return  to  their  own  abodes  ; 
for  the  rising  had  been  so  sudden  and  un- 
expected, that  there  existed  no  precon- 
certed understanding  among  the  suffer- 
ers in  the  different  parts  of  the  country  ; 
and  very  many  considered  the  enterprise 

far  too  important  to  be  undertaken 
without  the  previous  arrangements  which 
would  secure  a  wide-spread  simultaneous 
movement.  To  this  it  may  be  added, 
that  a  number  of  leading  gentlemen  in 
the  west  had  a  short  time  before  been 
seized  on  .suspicion,  by  an  order  of  the 
council. 

In  the  meantime  the  alarm  of  the  pre- 
ates  was  great.  The  Earl  of  Rothes 
lad  gone  to  London  a  day  or  two  before 
hd  commencement  of  the  insurrection; 
nd  Sharp  himself  had,  in  consequence, 
ecome  the  head  of  the  privy  council, 
mmediatelyupon  the  intelligence  reach 
ng  Edinburgh,  the  council  met,  de- 
patched  the  tidings  to  the  king,  and  gave 
rders  to  raise  an  army  for  the  suj)pres- 
ion  of  this  dreadful  rebellion  and  "  hor- 
id  conspiracy,"  as  they  termed  it  in  their 
error.  Dalziel  of  Binns  was  appointed 


228 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIi, 


to  the  command  of  the  army ;  and  all  no- 
blemen, gentlemen,  and  magistrates  were 
urgently  ordered  to  put  the  country  in  a 
state  of  defence.  Edinburgh  assumed 
the  appearance  of  a  beseiged  city ;  Glas- 
gow the  same ;  the  ferries  of  the  Forth 
were  secured ;  and  Stirling  bridge  bar- 
ricaded so  as  to  resist  the  approach  of  an 
army,  A  guilty  conscience  sounds  a 
loud  alarm,  and  the  prelates  appear  to 
have  believed  that  the  whole  kingdom 
was  about  to  rise  in  arms,  and  inflict  that 
vengeance  which  their  own  hearts  told 
them  that  they  so  fully  deserved.  So 
prompt  and  extensive  were  their  defen- 
sive measures,  that  long  before  the  insur- 
gents had  obtained  any  considerable  ac- 
cession to  their  strength,  Dalziel's  army 
had  mustered  at  Glasgow  in  far  more 
than  sufficient  force  both  to  crush  them 
and  to  overawe  the  western  counties. 

The  small  and  unsupported  band  of 
Presbyterian  sufferers,  learning  that  the 
army  was   approaching,  and   receiving 
little  assistance  from  their  friends,  drew 
towards,  the   hilly  part  of  the  country, 
marching  from  Cumnock  by  Muirkirk 
to  Doug.as,  where  they  halted,  and  con- 
sulted whether  they  should  there  disperse 
or  continue  in  arms.     The  result  of  their 
deliberations  was  a  firm  determination  to 
persevere,  and  either  to  secure  their  reli- 
gious liberties,  or  to  fall  in  their  defence. 
They   could   not,   they   said,    expect   a 
clearer  warrant  to  rise   in   self-defence 
than  they  at  present  had,  when   every 
thing  dear  to  them  as  men  and  Christians 
was   at   stake.     They   were   persuaded 
that  the  hand  of  Providence  was  in  the 
matter  ;  that  there  was  a  distinct  call  of 
sacred  duty  for  them  to  go  forward  ;  and 
whether  it  might  be  God's  pleasure  to 
assert  His  own  cause  by  their  means  at 
that  time,  by  granting  them  victory  and 
deliverance,  though  but  an  hahdful,  or 
to  employ  them  merely  as  suffering  wit- 
nesses for  the  truth,  still  it  seemed  \o  be 
their  duty  to  persevere,  till  they  should 
have  as  clear  a  warning  to  desist  as  they 
already   had   to   begin    the    enterprise. 
"  We  will  follow  on,"  said  these  heroic 
Christian  soldiers,  "  till  God  shall  do  his 
service  by  us  ;  and  though  we  should  all 
die  at  the  end  of  it,  we  think  the  giving 
of  a  testimony  enough  for  all."* 

*  Wallace's  Narrative,  in  M'Crie's  Lives  of  Veitch 
and  Brysson,  p.  402. 


They  then  marched  to  Lanark,  where 
bey  halted  till  they  renewed  the  Cove- 
nant, and  prepared  and  published  a  de- 
claration setting  forth  the  cause  of  then 
appearing  in  arms,  and  vindicating  them 
selves  against  the  charge  of  rebellion. 
By  this  time  Dalziel  was  close  at  hand, 
and  they  had  no  choice  but  to  give  him 
Dattle,  or  make  a  rapid  march  on  Edin- 
Durgh.  In  the  hope  of  being  joined  by 
iriends  as  they  advanced,  they  resolved 
still  to  shun  an  engagement,  and  continue 
their  forward  movement.  After  a  dread- 
?ully  fatiguing  march  through  the  path- 
"ess  moors  between  Lanark  and  Bath- 
gate,  they  arrived  at  the  latter  place,  late 
at  night,  and  when  they  arrived,  finding 
no  shelter,  were  compelled  to  continue 
;heir  exhausting  march.  When  morn- 
ing dawned,  it  was  'found  that  the  half 
of  their  little  army  had  melted  away, 
worn  out  by  excessive  fatigue,  and  their 
spirits  exhausted  by  this  destructive 
march  of  a  day  and  night,  drenched  with 
heavy  rains,  and  without  food,  shelter,  or 
repose.  Next  day  they  continued  their 
march  to  Collington,  about  three  miles 
from  Edinburgh  ;  but  there  they  learned 
that  no  assistance  was  to  be  expected 
from  that  town,  nor  from  their  friends 
in  the  east  country.  A  messenger  came 
to  them  there,  sent  by  the  Duke  of  Ham- 
ilton, to  persuade  them  to  lay  down  their 
arms,  in  the  hope  of  an  indemnity  which 
the  duke  promised  to  endeavour  to  pro 
cure.  But  as  no  mention  was  made  of 
redressing  their  grievances,  they  refused 
to  submit  to  such  terms.  Again  the 
former  messenger,  the  laird  of  Black- 
wood,  returned,  and  offered  Dalziel's 
word  of  honor  for  a  cessation  of  arms  for 
a  day,  till  a  letter  might  be  sent  to  the 
privy  council,  to  ascertain  what  answer 
could  be  given  to  their  demands.  There 
is  reason  to  believe,  that  this  cessation  of 
arms  was  offered  by  Dalziel  as  a  strata- 
gem, to  keep  them  in  suspense,  till  he 
should  be  ready  to  assail  them  ;  and  no 
answer  was  returned  by  the  council  to 
their  demands,  the  object  being  to  keep 
them  in  suspense. 

ColQnel  Wallace  seems  to  have  sus- 
pected the  design  of  his  antagonists,  and 
therefore  began  to  retreat,  taking  the  di- 
rection most  likely  to  enable  him  to  re- 
tire in  safety.  He  moved  towards  higher 
grounds,  less  accessible  to  cavalry  round- 


A.  D.  1665.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


229 


ing  the  shoulder  of  the  Pentland  Hills, 
intending  to  retreat  by  Big'gar,  along  the 
skirts  of  the  mountain  range.  Towards 
evening,  on  the  28th  of  November,  he 
halted  on  the  side  of  a  ridge  called  Rul- 
lion  Green,  to  call  in  the  stragglers  and 
to  refresh  the  men.  Scarcely  had  he 
taken  up  this  position  when  the  van  of 
DalziePs  army  appeared,  which  had  ad- 
vanced through  a  pass  farther  westward, 
with  the  evident  design  of  cutting  off  the 
retreat  of  the  Covenanters.  Wallace's 
army  did  not  exceed  nine  hundred,  while 
DalziePs  was  at  least  thrice  as  numerous. 
But  as  Wallace  had  taken  up  a  strong 
position,  his  antagonist  hesitated  some 
time  before  proceeding  to  the  attack. 
At  length  a  party  of  the  royal  cavalry 
advanced  to  charge  the  Covenanters, 
who  detached  an  equal  number  to  meet 
them.  A  sharp  encounter  took  place  on 
the  level  ground  between  the  armies  till 
the  royalists  recoiled  and  fled.  Again 
did  they  assail  the  Covenanters,  and 
again  were  beaten  back  to  their  main 
army.  A  third  charge  proved  equally 
unsuccessful.  But  by  these  successive 
encounters  the  Covenanters  had  been 
drawn  from  their  position,  nearer  to  the 
plain  ;  and  Dalziel  now  put  his  whole 
force  in  motion  to  assail  them.  Wallace 
hesitated  a  moment  whether  to  resume 
his  position  and  act  on  the  defensive,  till 
night  should  terminate  the  conflict ;  but, 
aware  that  the  next  morning  would  find 
his  own  force  diminished,  and  that  of  his 
enemy  increased,  while,  even  if  defeated, 
the  nature  of  the  ground,  and  the  fading 
light,  would  enable  him  to  retreat  with 
little  loss,  he  resolved  to  meet  the  shock. 
While  Dalziel  was  advancing,  the  Cov- 
enanters spent  the  grim  battle-pause  in 
prayer,  and  then  stood  ready  for  the  final 
struggle.  Once  more  did  they  beat  back 
their  first  assailants  ;  but  while  their  left 
wing  and  main  body  were  pressing  vic- 
toriously forward,  their  right  was  de- 
feated, and  Dalziel,  charging  with  an 
overwhelming  force  on  their  unprotected 
flank,  threw  them  into  inextricable  con- 
fusion, and  pursuing  his  advantage,  scat- 
tered their  broken  ranks,  and  drove  them 
precipitately  from  this  well-fought  field.* 
The  pursuit  was  not  continued  long, 
for  night  speedily  closed  in,  casting  its 
favouring  shades  over  the  wearied  and 

•  Wallace's  Narrative,  pp.  415-419. 


broken  Covenanters.  A  considerable 
part  of  DalziePs  cavalry  was  composed 
of  gentlemen,  who  were  not  eager  to 
shed  unnecessarily  the  blood  of  their 
persecuted  and  unfortunate  but  brave 
countrymen.  About  fifty  were  killed  in 
the  battle,  and  as  many  taken  in  the 
pursuit.  The  soldiers,  after  the  conflict, 
stripped  the  dead  and  dying,  and  left 
their  naked  bodies  exposed  to  the  chill 
severity  of  a  November  night,  freezing 
their  blood  before  life  was  quite  extinct. 
Next  day  the  prisoners  were  dragged  to 
Edinburgh,  the  army  entering  the  town 
in  triumph,  as  if  they  had  achieved  a 
glorious  victory  over  fierce  invaders,  the 
citizens  gazing  on  the  hapless  victims 
through  tears  of  unavailing  pity.  They 
were  cast  into  prison  till  the  privy  coun- 
cil should  determine  what  punishment 
should  be  inflicted.  Thus  was  suppressed 
that  unpremeditated  and  ill-supported  in- 
surrection, commonly  termed  the  Rising 
of  Pentland,  taking  its  designation  from 
the  place  where  the  battle  was  fought. 

And  now  began  a  scene  of  horrors, 
which  may  not  be  altogether  passed  over, 
and  yet  which  sickens  the  heart  too 
much  to  permit  us  to  dwell  on  its  dread- 
ful details.  The  cowardly  terror  of  the 
prelates  had  been  extreme,  and  now  their 
thirst  of  vengeance  could  not  be  satis- 
fied. Rothes  was  still  in  London  ; 
consequently,  till  his  return,  Sharp  re- 
tained the  presidency  of  the  council, 
and  all  its  acts  were  issued  in  his 
name.  First,  the  lord  treasurer  was  or- 
dered to  secure  the  property  of  all  who 
had  been  at  Pentland,  which  was  equiv- 
alent to  an  act  of  general  confiscation  of 
the  greater  part  of  Galloway  and  Ayr- 
shire. Next,  General  Dalziel  was  com- 
manded to  "  search  for  and  apprehend 
all  persons  who  had  been  in  arms  with 
the  rebels,  or  were  suspected,  or  who  had 
given  shelter  or  assistance  to  them  :"  and 
was  empowered  to  quarter  upon  their 
lands  with  his  forces.  Soon  afterwards 
a  proclamation  was  issued,  forbidding  all 
subjects  to  correspond  with  or  conceal 
the  persons  of  a  great  number  of  gentle- 
men, ministers,  and  elders,  mentioned 
by  name,  or,  "  any  others  concerned  in 
the  late  rebellion  ;"  and  commanding 
them  to  pursue,  seize,  and  deliver  them 
up  to  justice,  on  pain  of  being  regarded 
as  equally  criminal ;  and  the  prelatic  cu- 


230 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


rates  were  particularly  enjoined  to  furnish 
lists  of  all  suspended  persons, — an  employ- 
ment worthy  of  such  men,  and  in  which 
they  engaged  with  great  alacrity  and  zeal. 

The  trial  of  the  prisoners  was  then 
begun, — a  trial  in  which  condemnation 
had  been  predetermined  before  evidence 
was  sought.  Eleven  of  them  were  brought 
before  the  Court  of  Justiciary ;  and,  after 
a  brief  form  of  trial,  were  condemned  to 
be  hanged,  and  their  heads  and  right 
hands  cut  off  and  disposed  of  as  the 
council  might  see  fit.  One  of  them  died 
of  his  wounds  before  the  day  of  execu- 
tion :  the  other  ten  were  hanged  on  one 
gibbet  on  the  7th  of  December.  Their 
heads  were  fixed  up  at  Kirkcudbright, 
Kilmarnock,  and  Hamilton,  and  their 
right  hands  at  Lanark,  because  they  had 
sworn  the  Covenant  there.  The  joint 
testimony  and  dying  speches  of  these 
martyrs  for  Christ's  crown  and  covenant 
are  recorded  in  Naphtali,  and  prove  con- 
vincingly that  it  was  indeed  for  the  cause 
of  religion  that  their  blood  was  shed.* 
Other  five  were  tried  without  the  aid  of 
counsel,  and  put  to  the  same  death  on  the 
14th  of  December. 

The  death  of  John  Neilson  of  Corsack 
demands  more  particular  mention.  He 
was  a  gentleman  of  considerable  property 
in  Galloway,  of  superior  talents,  and  of 
unblemished  character.  But  in  this  last 
particular  consisted  his  unpardonable 
crime.  He  was  too  much  of  a  Christian 
for  the  curates,  and  consequently  he  was 
included  in  their  list,  and  exposed  to  the 
ruinous  exactions  of  Sir  James  Turner  and 
his  brutal  soldiery.  When  the  people  of 
Galloway  rose  in  self-defence,  he  joined 
them  ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  cruel 
treatment  which  he  and  his  family  had 
received  from  Turner,  Mr.  Neilson  argued 
strenuously  and  successfully  against  the 
proposal  of  some  to  put  the  oppressor  to 
death.  As  the  prelates  could  not  con- 
ceive that  the  persecuted  Presbyterians 
would  have  dared  to  rise  in  self-defence 
unless  there  had  been  a  widely  extended 
conspiracy,  they  determined  to  extort  a 
confession  of  the  nature  and  extent  of 
this  plot  from  such  of  the  prisoners  as 
were  certain  to  be  acquainted  with  it  if 
it  existed.  For  this  reason  they  resolved 
to  put  Neilson  to  the  torture  of  the  boot. 
In  vain  did  they  crush  his  leg  in  this 

*  Naphtali,  pp.  182-192. 


fearful  engine  of  torture ;  shrieking  na- 
ture attested  his  agony,  but  his  soul  ivas 
clear  of  the  guilt  wherewith  he  was 
charged,  and  he  would  not  blacken  it  by 
making  a  false  acknowledgment  of  a 
crime  of  which  he  was  innocent.  When 
the  persecutors  found  that  they  could  ex- 
tort nothing  from  him  but  groans  and 
anguish,  they  condemned  him  to  suffer, 
along  with  his  guiltless  friends,  the  shorter 
pangs  of  death.* 

Hugh  M'Kail  was  the  next  victim  of 
torture.  He  was  a  young  preacher, 
learned,  eloquent,  and  eminently  pious. 
He  had  been  but  a  short  while  with  the 
insurgents,  and  had  left  them  before  the 
day  of  the  battle,  unable  to  endure  the 
fatigue  to  which  they  were  exposed ;  but 
he  had,  on  one  occasion,  when" preaching, 
and  having  cause  to  speak  of  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  Church  in  all  ages,  said,  that 
it  had  been  persecuted  by  a  Pharaoh  on 
the  throne,  a  Haman  in  the  State,  and  a 
Judas  in  the  Church  ;  and  though  he 
made  no  application  of  this  statement, 
it  had  reached  the  ears  of  Sharp,  was 
thought  himself  alluded  to  under  the 
character  of  Judas.  For  this  he  would 
have  been  laid  hold  of  at  the  time,  had 
he  not  gone  abroad,  and  escaped  for  a 
little  the  prelate's  rage.  But  he  was  now 
in  the  hands  of  his  enemy,  and  was  to  suf- 
fer the  dire  effects  of  implacable  revenge. 

When  he  was  brought  before  the 
council,  he  was  interrogated  respecting 
the  leaders  of  the  insurrection,  and  what 
correspondence  they  had,  either  at  home 
or  abroad.  He  declared  himself  utterly 
unacquainted  with  any  such  correspon- 
dence ;  and  frankly  stated  how  far  he 
had  taken  part  in  their  proceedings.  The 
instrument  of  torture  was  then  laid  before 
him,  and  he  was  informed  that,  if  he  did 
not  confess,  it  should  be  applied  next  day. 
On  the  following  day,  he  was  again 
brought  before  the  council,  and  again 
ordered  to  confess,  on  the  pain  of  imme- 
diate torture.  He  declared  solemnly  that 
he  had  no  more  to  confess.  The  execu- 
tioner then  placed  his  leg  in  the  horrid 
instrument,  applied  the  wedge,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  his  hideous  task.  When  one 
heavy  blow  had  driven  in  the  wedge, 
and  crushed  the  limb  severely,  he  was 
again  urged  to  confess,  but  in  vain. 
Blow  after  blow  succedeed,  at  consider 

•  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.,  p.  53. 


A.  D.  10651 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


231 


able  intervals,  protracting  the  terrible 
agony  ;  but  still,  with  true  Christian  for- 
titude, the  heroic  martyr  possessed  his 
soul  in  patience.  Seven  or  eight  succes- 
sive blows  had  crushed  the  flesh  and 
sinews  to  the  very  bone,  when  he  pro- 
tested solemnly  in  the  sight  of  God,  that 
he  could  say  no  more,  though  all  the 
joints  of  his  body  were  in  as  great  tor- 
ture as  that  poor  leg.  Yet  thrice  more 
the  wedge  was  driven  in,  till  the  bone 
itself  was  shattered  by  its  iron  compres- 
sion, and  a  heavy  swoon  relieved  him 
from  longer  consciousness  of  the  mortal 
agony.  He  was  carried  back  to  prison  ; 
and  soon  afterwards  condemned  to  death. 

Between  the  day  of  his  condemnation 
and  that  of  his  death,  his  mind  was  in  a 
continual  state  of  holy  joy  and  heavenly 
peace.  When  brought  to  the  place  of 
execution,  he  was  more  than  serene ;  he 
was  filled  with  unutterable  transport. 
His  last  speech  breathed  the  very  spirit 
of  the  Christian  martyr's  triumph :  its 
conclusion  is  inexpressibly  sublime.  "And 
now  I  leave  off  to  speak  any  more  to 
creatures,  and  turn  my  speech  to  thee,  O 
Lord.  And  now  I  begin  my  intercourse 
with  God,  which  shall  never  be  broken 
off  Farewell,  father  and  mother,  friends 
and  relations ;  farewell,  the  world  and 
all  delights ;  farewell,  meat  and  drink  ; 
farewell,  sun,  moon,  and  stars.  Wel- 
come, God  and  Father  ;  welcome,  sweet 
Jfsus,  the  Mediator  of  the  New  Covenant ; 
welcome,  blessed  Spirit  of  grace,  and 
God  of  all  consolation  ;  welcome,  glory  ; 
welcome,  eternal  life  ;  welcome,  death. 
O  Lord,  into  thy  hands  I  commit  my 
spirit ;  for  thou  hast  redeemed  my  soul, 
Lord  God  of  truth."* 

Thus  passed  from  earth,  on  the  22d 
of  December  1666.  one  of  the  brightest, 
purest,  and  most  sanctified  spirits  that 
ever  animated  a  mere  human  form ;  a 
victim  to  prelatic  tyranny,  and  a  rejoicing 
martyr  for  Christ's  sole  kingly  dominion 
over  his  Church,  and  for  that  sacred 
Covenant  in  which  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land had  vowed  allegiance  to  her  Divine 
and  only  Head  and  King.  Till  the 
records  of  time  shall  have  melted  into 
those  of  eternity,  the  name  of  that 
young  Christian  martyr  will  be  held  in 
most  affectionate  remembrance  and  fer- 
vent admiration  by  every  true  Scottish 

'  Nnphtali,  pp.  218  234. 


Presbyterian,  and  will  be  regarded  by 
the  Church  of  Scotland  as  one  of  the 
fairest  jewels  that  ever  she  was  honoured 
to  add  to  the  conquering  Redeemer's 
crown  of  glory. 

It  is  almost  too  disgraceful  to  human 
nature  to  record,  that  before  the  death  of 
M'Kail,  and  after  several  executions  had 
taken  place,  a  letter  came  from  the  king, 
prohibiting  any  more  lives  from  being 
taken ;  but  Sharp  and  Burnet  suppressed 
this  letter  till  after  the  death  of  M'Kail,  so 
that  they  may  justly  be  charged  with  the 
cold,  deliberate  murder  of  that  guiltless 
youth,  and  of  violating  the  most  sacred 
prerogative  of  the  crown,  that  they  might 
perpetrate  the  monstrous  deed.*  This 
barbarous  conduct  of  Sharp,  which  was 
generally  known  at  the  time,  tended 
greatly  to  increase  the  detestation  in 
which  he  and  his  coadjutors  we're  held 
by  the  people.  Indeed,  the  sufferings  of 
the  unfortunate  victims  who  were  put  to 
death  after  the  Pentland  insurrection,  and 
especially  their  dying  speeches,  produced 
a  deep  impression  throughout  the  whole 
of  Scotland.  It  was  easy  to  brand  the 
insurrection  with  the  name  of  rebellion, 
and  to  assert  that  the  victims  suffered  on 
account  of  their  having  been  guilty  of 
treason  ;  but  the  conduct  of  the  men 
themselves  on  the  scaffold,  the  speeches 
they  uttered  there,  and  the  written  testi- 
monies they  left  behind  them,  wrought 
conviction  in  the  hearts  of  their  sympa- 
thizing countrymen,  and  awoke  a  re- 
sponse which  acts  of  privy  council  could 
no  more  check  than  they  could  stem  the 
rising  tide.  Men  began  to  ask,  whether 
that  could  be  a  bad  cause  for  which  such 
martyrs  suffered  so  heroically ;  and  whe- 
ther that  could  be  a  good  cause  which  re- 
sorted to  such  methods  to  secure  its 
triumph  ?  And  many  who  had  disliked 
and  opposed  the  west  country  Whigs,  as 
they  were  sometimes  termed,  began  to 
entertain  a  still  stronger  dislike  to  the 
prelates,  who  had  displayed  such  a  relent- 
less and  persecuting  spirit,  and  such  utter 
disregard  of  all  liberty,  civil  and  reli- 
gious. It  is  not,  we  trust,  necessary  to 
vindicate  the  Pentland  insurrection  now ; 
for  the  very  same  principles  which  urged 
these  martyrs  of  civil  and  religious  liberty 
to  take  up  arms  in  their  own  defence, 

•  Wodrow,  vol.  ii,  p.  38;  Kirkton,  p.  255;  Memoirs 
if  Veitch,  p  37 ;  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  i.  p.  237. 


232 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


were  afterwards  espoused  by  the  whole 
empire  at  the  Revolution,  and  cannot  now 
be  gainsaid  by  any  man  who  is  not  in 
his  heart  a  tyrant  or  a  slave. 

[1667.]  Soon  after  the  privy  council 
had  glutted  their  vengeance  with  the 
public  execution  of  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  persons  both  at  Edinburgh  and  in 
different  parts  of  the  country,  the  army 
was  sent  to  the  disaffected  districts,  under 
the  command  of  General  Dalziel,  with 
full  powers  to  him  to  gratify  his  savage 
disposition  by  inflicting  whatsoever  bar- 
barities he  pleased  upon  the  unoffending 
people.  It  was  not  necessary  for  him  to 
go  through  the  tardy  process  of  a  trial ; 
the  previous  acts  of  council  had  given  to 
persons  bearing  his  majesty's  commis- 
sion, powers  which  a  little  straining 
would  make  amply  sufficient  for  all  ty 
rannical  purposes  ;  and  Dalziel  felt  no 
difficulty  in  straining  them  to  the  utmost, 
and  putting  the  whole  country  under 
military  law.  At  Kilmarnock,  where 
he  took  up  his  head-quarters,  he  not  only 
let  loose  the  soldiery, — he  hounded  them 
on  with  the  most  relentless  ferocity.  Sus- 
picion of  having  been  with  the  insurgents, 
or  given  them  food,  or  of  entertaining 
favourable  sentiments  with  regard  to 
them  and  their  cause,  was  by  him  consi- 
dered proof  enough,  on  the  strength  of 
which  he  might  inflict  any  punishment 
which  caprice  or  cruelty  might  dictate. 
Money  was  extorted  from  those  who  had 
any ;  upon  others  the  troops  were  quar- 
tered till  they  had  "  eaten  up"  every  kind 
of  sustenance,  and  reduced  their  victims 
to  starvation ;  numbers  were  crowded 
into  a  dungeon  in  the  prison  so  densely, 
that  they  could  only  stand  upright  day 
and  night,  though  sick  and  dying  from 
its  noisome  and  pestilential  vapours ; 
some  were,  without  trial,  and  upon  the 
bare  orders  of  the  general,  shot  dead, 
stripped  naked,  and  left  weltering  in 
their  blood  upon  the  spot  were  they  had 
thus  been  murdered  :  and  one  woman, 
merely  because  a  man  had  fled  through 
her  house  and  escaped  the  pursuit  of  the 
soldiers,  was  cast  into  a  pit  swarming 
with  noxious  reptiles. 

In  Galloway,  the  military  command 
was  intrusted  to  Sir  William  Bannatyne 
instead  of  Sir  James  Turner;  but  the 
change  was  even  for  the  worse  to  the  per- 
secuted Presbyterians.  To  all  the  cruelties 


of  Dalziel  or  Turner,  Bannatyne  added 
the  most  atrocious  indulgence  in  lascivi- 
ous licentiousness,  both  in  his  own  con- 
duct and  that  of  the  soldiery.  Female 
chastity  was  exposed  to  every  nameless 
outrage,  the  presence  of  parents  or  hus- 
bands being  no  protection  to  young  mai- 
dens or  married  women,  but  exposing  to 
insult,  wounds  and  death,  those  men  who 
presumed  to  defend  their  daughters,  their 
sisters,  or  their  wives,  from  the  infamous 
attempts  of  Bannatyne  and  his  brutal 
crew.*  That  in  acts  of  mere  cruelty 
Bannatyne  was  not  inferior  to  Dalziel 
himself,  appears  from  his  treatment  of  a 
woman  in  the  parish  of  Dairy,  whom  he 
tortured  by  tying  matches  betwixt  her 
fingers  and  setting  them  on  fire,  because 
she  was  supposed  to  have  assisted  her 
husband  in  escaping  from  the  hands  of 
his  pursuers.  To  such  an  extent  did 
they  proceed  in  their  barbarity,  that  one 
of  her  hands  was  entirely  destroyed,  and 
she  died  of  the  effects  of  the  torture  within 
a  few  days. 

But  the  prelates  and  the  council  had 
another  object  in  view  than  merely  the 
gratification  of  their  cruelty.  They 
wished  to  secure  to  themselves  and  their 
friends  the  property  of  those  who  either 
had  been,  or  were  suspected  of  having 
been,  concerned  in  the  Pentland  rising. 
They  therefore  contrived  to  procure  an 
opinion  from  the  Court  of  Session,  th* 
persons  accused  of  treason  might  be  con- 
demned in  absence,  a  sentence  of  death 
passed  upon  them,  and  their  estates  for- 
feited. In  consequence  of  this  unprece- 
dented opinion,  the  property  of  the  most 
considerable  gentlemen  in  several  dis- 
tricts of  Clydesdale  and  Galloway  fell 
into  the  hands  of  these  rapacious  persecu- 
tors, and  in  a  short  time  Dalziel  and  his 
lieutenant,  Drummond,  received  the  es- 
tates of  Caldwell  and  Kersland,  as  a  re- 
ward for  their  services. 

But  symptoms  of  a  change  of  measures 
began  to  appear.  Several  of  the  nobility 
had  become  weary  of  this  incessant  course 
of  persecution  in  which  they  were  kept 
by  the  prelates,  as  well  as  disgusted  with 
the  pride  of  these  domineering  church- 
men. The  majority  of  the  council  was 
composed  of  prelates  and  officers  in  the 
army  ;  and  the  Scottish  barons  felt  them- 
selves insulted  and  degraded  by  the  con- 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  p.  15. 


A.  D.  1667.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


233 


duct  and  the  company  of  such  men. 
Lauderdale  was  quite  aware  of  this  state 
of  matters,  and  contrived  to  countermine 
the  prelatic  party,  and  to  procure  a  letter 
from  the  king  to  the  council,  giving  per- 
mission to  imprison  and  try  all  suspected 
persons,  but  not  sanctioning  the  arbitrary 
forfeitures ;  and  at  the  same  time  an  inti- 
mation was  given  to  Sharp  to  confine 
himself  to  his  own  diocese,  and  not  inter- 
meddle with  public  affairs.  This  disap- 
pointment checked  their  zeal  considera- 
bly ;  and  when,  some  time  afterwards,  a 
positive  order  came  from  his  majesty, 
commanding  the  army  to  be  disbanded, 
with  the  exception  of  the  guards,  they 
were  in  despair,  Burnet,  archbishop  of 
Glasgow,  exclaiming,  "  Now  that  the 
army  is  disbanded,  the  gospel  will  go  out 
of  my  diocese."*  What  idea  that  arch- 
prelate  entertained  of  the  gospel,  may  be 
easily  conjectured.  Now  that  the  army 
was  to  be  disbanded,  it  came  to  be  a  seri- 
ous question  with  the  privy  council  how 
the  country  was  to  kept  in  peace  without 
a  military  power.  It  formed  no  part  of 
their  scheme  to  promote  peace  by  abstain- 
ing from  committing  outrages  upon  the 
country.  But  they  were  divided  between 
the  enforcement  of  the  declaration  and 
the  framing  of  a  new  document  to  be 
termed  the  Bond  of  Peace.  Chiefly 
through  the  influence  of  Sir  Robert 
Murray,  the  council  determined  upon  the 
bond  of  peace,  which  was  accordingly 
passed.  About  the  same  time  an  act  of 
indemnity  to  those  who  had  been  con- 
cerned in  the  late  insurrection  was  trans- 
mitted from  the  king,  and  also  passed  by 
the  council,  but  clogged  with  so  many  ex- 
ceptions that  it  proved  an  indemnity  in 
name  rather  than  reality.  "In  the  be- 
ginning," says  Wodrow,  "  it  pardoned 
all ;  in  the  middle  very  few  ;  and  in  the 
end  none  at  all."  Both  the  act  of  in- 
demnity and  the  bond  of  peace  were  pub- 
lished on  the  9th  of  October. 

The  bond  of  peace  varied  somewhat 
in  its  forms,  but  its  chief  provision  was, 
that  the  person  taking  it  bound  and 
obliged  himself  to  keep  the  public  peace, 
and  not  to  rise  in  arms  against  or  without 
his  majesty's  authority ;  and  in  the  act  of 
council  enforcing  it,  noblemen,  gentle- 
men, and  heritors  were  compelled  to  be- 
come bound  for  themselves,  their  tenants, 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  p-  89. 

30 


and  servants,  under  the  penalty  of  a  full 
year's  rent.  The  enforcement  of  this 
bond  was  likely  enough  to  fill  the  coffers 
of  the  treasury  ;  but  there  was  anothei 
effect  which  it  might  have  had,  and  was 
probably  intended  to  have, — it  caused  not 
a  little  discussion  among  religious  and 
conscientious  people  whether  it  might  be 
taken  with  propriety.  It  was  so  compre- 
hensive in  its  terms,  that  it  might  be  ex- 
plained as  consenting  to  the  existing 
forms  of  government  in  the  Church,  as 
well  as  in  the  State  ;  and  if  so,  none  who 
were  opposed  to  Prelacy  could  with  sin- 
cerity subscribe  any  such  bond.  The 
differences  of  opinion  entertained  by  the 
Presbyterians  concerning  the  bond  of 
peace,  did  not  produce  any  dissensions 
among  them ;  and  it  was  not  long  till 
very  different  measures  put  an  end  to  the 
danger  of  disunion  on  that  account.  The 
council,  during  some  of  their  sittings 
towards  the  close  of  the  year,  gave 
proof  of  their  critical  acumen  by  emit- 
ting a  proclamation  against  Brown  of 
Wamphray's  "  Apologetical  Relation," 
and  the  well-known  book  called  "  Naph- 
tali,  or  the  Wrestlings  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland."  These  works,  however,  sur- 
vive, notwithstanding  the  impotent  wrath 
of  men  who  hate  the  truth  because  it  con- 
demns them,  and  will  survive  so  long  as 
truth  is  valued,  martyrs  held  in  honour, 
and  tyranny  abhorred. 

[1668.]  In  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1668,  the  council,  in  which  the  prelatic 
party  had  for  a  time  lost  their  ascendency, 
thought  proper  to  inquire  into  the  con- 
duct of  Sir  James  Turner,  whose  cruelty 
and  oppression  had  caused  the  insurrec- 
tion, and  of  Sir  William  Bannatyne, 
whose  still  greater  enormities  were  not 
unlikely  to  provoke  another  similar  at- 
tempt. Turner  proved  that  he  had  not 
exceeded  his  commission  ;  but  yet  he  was 
deprived  of  his  military  rank,  as  some 
atonement  to  the  feelings  of  the  country. 
Bannatyne  was  convicted  of  having  per- 
petrated, such  barbarities  as  humanity 
could  not  endure,  and  he  was  sentenced 
to  banishment.  He  retired  to  the  conti- 
nent, and  was  soon  afterwards  killed  by 
a  cannon-ball  at  the  seige  of  Grave.  But 
while  the  council  thought  proper  to  re- 
move these  bloody  men  from  places  of 
trust,  there  was  little  abatement  in  the 
severities  employed  against  those  who 


234 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  vn. 


had  been  concerned  in  the  late  insurrec- 
tion, or  thosi  who  refused  to  subscribe 
the  bond  of  peace.  In  a  letter  to  the 
king-,  mention  is  made  of  the  numbers 
who  had  yielded,  and  of  those  who  still 
held  out ;  and  in  a  private  letter  from 
Tweeddale  to  Lauderdale,  it  was  more 
minutely  stated,  that  two  hundred  and 
eighteen  had  submitted,  three  hundred 
and  nine  refused,  eighty  had  been  killed 
in  the  the  field,  forty  executed,  thirty-one 
had  died  in  the  counties  of  Galloway  and 
Dumfries,  thirty  had  fled,  and  twenty 
forfeited  ;  amounting  to  about  seven  hun- 
dred sufferers  out  of  a  small  army  not 
exceeding  nine  hundred  when  broken  at 
Pentland.* 

The  acts  against  conventicles  were  this 
year  enforced  with  greater  rigour  than 
they  had  previously  been,  in  consequence 
of  the  repeated  complaints  of  the  curates, 
that  some  of  the  ejected  ministers  con- 
tinued to  preach,  and  that  where  such 
was  the  case,  the  people  almost  univer- 
sally deserted  their  own  ministry.  War- 
rants were  accordingly  issued  to  appre- 
hend all  ejected  ministers,  or  others,  who 
should  keep  conventicles ;  and  the  magis- 
trates of  burghs  were  obliged  to  sign  a 
bond  to  pay  a  certain  sum  if  a  conventicle 
should  be  held  within  their  jurisdiction. 
Several  eminent  ministers  were  seized  in 
consequence  of  this  increased  seventy,  of 
whom  the  most  distinguished  were,  Mi- 
chael Bruce,  who  had  been  a  minister  in 
Ireland,  Thomas  Hogg,  minister  at  Kil- 
tearn,  and  John  Wilkie,  a  very  aged 
man,  whose  infirmities  rendered  him  phy- 
sically incapable  of  committing  the  al- 
leged crime  for  which  he  was  oppressed, 
not  having  been  out  of  his  own  house 
above  twice  during  the  course  of  a  whole 
year. 

Notwithstanding  these  severities,  the 
oppression  of  the  Presbyterians  was  con- 
siderably relaxed  upon  the  whole,  and 
there  appeared  some  probability  that  even 
more  favourable  terms  would  be  granted. 
But  an  incident  occurred  which  had  a 
most  injurious  effect  in  every  point  of 
view,  both  in  leading  to  a  renewal  of  the 
persecution,  and  in  giving  a  degree  of 
plausibility  to  the  accusations  urged 
against  the  Presbyterians.  This  was  an 
attempt  made  by  a  preacher  of  the  name 
of  James  Mitchell  to  assassinate  Arch- 

'  Wodrcw  vol.  ii.  p.  107  ;  Sir  J.  Turner's  Memoirs. 


bishop  Sharp.  Mitchell  had  been  to 
some  extent  implicated  in  the  insurrection 
which  was  suppressed  at  Pentland,  and 
was  excepted  from  the  indemnity.  After 
having  wandered  about  for  some  time  in 
daily  peril  of  his  life,  and  having  seen 
many  of  his  friends  perish  on  the  scaf- 
fold, others  driven  into  banishment,  their 
property  confiscated,  and  their  families 
reduced  to  starvation,  the  sense  of  intol- 
erable wrong,  national  and  individual,  so 
far  influenced  his  mind,  that  he  determin- 
ed to  avenge  his  suffering  country  upon 
the  perjured  and  relentless  author  of  her 
sufferings.  This  determination  he  dis- 
closed to  no  person,  but  provided  himself 
privately  with  a  pair  of  pistols,  and 
watched  for  an  opportunity  of  meeting 
with  Archbishop  Sharp.  On  the  1 1th  of 
July  he  perceived  the  primate's  carriage 
ready  for  its  owner's  reception,  and  im- 
mediately took  up  such  a  position  as 
might  place  the  person  of  his  enemy 
within  his  reach.  The  archbishop  en- 
tered the  coach  and  took  his  seat ;  Mit- 
chell stepped  forward,  aimed,  and  fired 
the  pistol ;  but  at  that  moment  Honey- 
man,  bishop  of  Orkney,  in  entering  the 
carriage,  stretched  forth  his  arm,  and  re- 
ceived the  ball  in  his  wrist.  Thus  it  was 
turned  aside  from  Sharp,  and  the  excited 
sufferer  saved  from  the  commission  of  a 
great  crime.  The  cry  immediately  rose 
that  a  man  was  killed,  and  people  began 
to  rush  to  the  spot  where  the  deed  had 
taken  place  ;  but  when  this  cry  was  met 
by  the  response  "  that  it  was  only  a 
bishop,"  the  crowd  quietly  dispersed. 
Mitchell  escaped  from  observation  and 
pursuit,  and  remained  undetected  for  seve- 
ral years.* 

This  criminal  attempt  by  a  man  whom 
persecution  had  driven  nearly  rnad,  was 
productive  of  very  injurious  consequences 
to  the  cause  of  Presbyterians.  For  al- 
though, as  a  party,  they  were  not  in  the 
slightest  degree  implicated  in  Mitchell's 
guilty  attempt,  it  was  charged  against 
them  ;  and  on  the  pretence  of  searching 
for  the  assassin,  or  for  persons  concerned, 
as  was  alleged,  in  a  murderous  conspira- 
cy of  which  he  was  merely  the  agent, 
great  numbers  of  people  were  brought 
into  trouble,  and  subjected  to  grievous 
hardships.  Several  persons  were  appre- 
hended on  suspicion  ;  and,  among  others, 

'  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  pp.  115, 116 ;  Naphtali,  pp.  £50-260. 


A.  D.  1669.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


235 


three  women,  two  of  whom  were  widows. 
One  of  them,  a  minister's  widow,  was 
threatened  with  the  torture  of  the  boot, 
which  would  have  been  inflicted  had  not 
Rothes  jestingly  said,  "  It  was  not  proper 
for  gentlewomen  to  wear  boots."  She  was, 
however  sentenced  to  be  imprisoned,  and 
•hen  banished  to  the  colonies.* 
•  [1669.J — The  proceedings  against  con- 
venticles, as  they  were  called,  continued 
during  the  early  part  of  the  year  1669  ; 
and  in  order  to  enforce  the  suppression 
of  these  meetings  as  effectually  as  the 
want  of  a  sufficient  military  force  would 
admit,  there  were  appointed  collectors  of 
fines,  who  were  sent  to  the  several  disaf- 
fected districts.  But  these  collectors  fell 
far  short  of  the  soldiery  in  their  exac- 
tions j  so  that  the  Presbyterians  obtained 
some  mitigation  of  their  sufferings.  The 
archbishop  of  Glasgow  exerted  himself 
to  the  utmost  to  oppress  the  non-conform- 
ing ministers  ;  but  when  they  were  called 
before  the  council,  their  defence  was  so 
calmly  urged,  and  with  such  strength  of 
reason,  that  the  proceedings  against  them 
were  allowed  to  drop,  greatly  to  the 
mortification  of  the  disappointed  arch- 
bishop. 

But  the  chief  event  of  this  year  was  the 
passing  of  the  first  indulgence.  It  has 
been  already  mentioned,  that  the  nobility 
had  become  weary  of  the  continued  course 
of  persecution  in  which  the  intolerance 
and  cruelty  of  the  prelates  kept  them  en- 
gaged ;  and  that  Sharp's  duplicity  and 
tyranny  had  at  length  impelled  the  king 
to  prohibit  his  further  interference  in  the 
affairs  of  the  nation.  In  England,  also, 
a  more  temperate  line  of  policy  had  been 
pursued  since  the  fall  of  Clarendon  ;  and 
Charles  himself  had  become  impatient 
of  the  continual  complaints  addressed  to 
him  from  all  quarters  against  prelatic 
cruelty,  and  had  expressed  his  intention 
to  be  no  longer  the  king  of  a  party,  but 
the  king  of  the  whole  people." f  Lau- 
derdale  had  no  peculiar  regard  for  the 
prelates,  and  had  repeatedly  interfered  to 
check  the  persecuting  zeal  of  Sharp. 
Twccddale  was  still  more  favourable, 
and  had  held  interviews  with  some  of  the 
ejected  ministers,  with  a  view  to  ascertain 
whether  some  terms  of  mutual  accommo- 
dation might  not  be  framed,  or  some 
measure  adopted,  calculated  to  restore 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  p.  118.        t  Ibid,  p.  115. 


comparative  peace  to  the  country.  At 
length,  on  the  15th  of  July,  a  letter  from 
the  king  was  laid  before  the  council  by 
Tweeddale,  containing  the  indulgence. 
Its  chief  provisions  were,  that  the  privy 
council  should  ."  appoint  so  many  of  the 
ejected  ministers  as  had  lived  peaceably 
and  orderly,"  either  to  jeturn  to  the  par- 
ishes whence  they  had  been  expelled,  if 
still  vacant,  or  to  such  others  as  the  coun- 
cil should  approve  of;  that  they  should 
be  allowed  to  receive  the  stipend  of  such 
parishes,  upon  condition  of  their  receiv- 
ing the  consent  of  the  patron,  and  colla- 
tion from  the  bishop,  to  which,  if  they 
would  not  submit,  they  should  only  pos- 
sess the  manse  and  glebe  ;  that  they 
should  be  strictly  enjoined  to  keep  pres- 
byteries and  synods,  that  is,  to  attend  dio- 
cesan meetings  held  by  the  prelates,  for 
there  were  no  truly  Presbyterian  meet- 
ing ;  that  they  should  not  allow  the  peo- 
ple from  the  other  parishes  to  attend  their 
churches  and  receive  ordinances ;  and 
that  all  these  favours  should  be  with- 
drawn if  they  should  publicly  speak  or 
preach  against  the  ecclesiastical  suprema- 
cy of  the  king.  In  conclusion,  it  is  de- 
clared, that  seeing  all  pretences  for  con- 
venticles are  thus  taken  away,  if  any 
should  thereafter  presume  to  hold  or  fre- 
quent them,  "  our  express  pleasure  is, 
that  you  proceed  with  all  severity  against 
the  preachers  and  hearers  as  seditious 
persons,  and  contemners  of  our  authority. 
This  indulgence  appeared  to  the  pre- 
lates to  be  greatly  too  favourable  to  the 
persecuted  Presbyterians  ;  and  meetings 
were  held  to  devise  by  what  methods  it 
might  be  rendered  as  little  beneficial  to 
the  ejected  ministers  as  possible.  It  could 
not  be  set  aside,  since  it  was  the  king's 
declared  will ;  but  Sharp  consoled  his 
afflicted  brethren,  by  promising  to  do  his 
utmost  to  "  make  it  a  bone  of  contention 
to  the  Presbyterians."*  His  device,  it 
appears,  was,  to  revive  the  old  contest 
between  the  resolutioners  and  the  protes- 
ters, by  proposing  that  the  indulgence 
should  be  granted  to  the  resolutioners 
alone.f  But  this  contest  had  sunk  into 
comparative  insignificance,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  fiercer  fires  of  the  persecu- 
tion into  which  the  whole  Church  had 
been  thrown,  and  by  which  they  had 


*  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  p.  131. 
Times,  vol.  i.  p.  278. 


t  Burnet's  Own 


236 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP,  VII. 


been,  as  it  were,  fused  into  union.  Yet 
Sharp's  wily  scheme  was  so  far  followed, 
that  when  the  council  selected  those  to 
whom  the  indulgence  was  to  be  offered, 
they  endeavoured  to  induce  those  who 
had  been  of  the  resolutioners  to  accept 
the  ensnaring-  boon,  and  in  many  instances 
they  were  but  too*successful. 
•  At  first  ten  were  selected  to  whom  the 
indulgence  was  offered  ;  and  of  those  the 
most  distinguished  was  George  Hutchi- 
son, who  had  been  one  of  the  ministers  of 
Edinburgh  before  the  Glasgow  Act. 
Hutchison,  in  his  own  name  and  that  of 
his  brethren,  returned  thanks  to  his  ma- 
jesty and  the  council  for  this  act  of  clem- 
ency ;  guarding  their  acceptance,  how- 
ever, by  saying,  "  We  having  received 
our  ministry  from  Jesus  Christ,  with  pre- 
scriptions from  him  for  regulating  us 
therein,  must,  in  the  discharge  thereof,  be 
accountable  to  him."  This  cautious 
statement  gave  satisfaction  to  no  party. 
Those  of  the  council  who  most  strenu- 
ously asserted  the  royal  supremacy,  were 
displeased  with  it,  as  containing  a  denial 
of  that  high  prerogative;  while  on  the 
other  hand,  the  greater  part  of  the  Pres- 
byterian ministers  regarded  it  as  a  weak 
and  sinful  betrayal  of  the  great  doctrine 
of  Christ's  sole  supremacy.  And  cer- 
tainly, if  the  reader  has  entered  fully 
into  the  principles  which  have  been  re- 
peatedly brought  before  his  notice  in  the 
preceding  pages  of  this  history,  he  must 
be  aware  that  the  indulgence  proceeded 
upon  a  principle  clearly  subversive  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  Its  very  existence 
depended  upon  the  king's  supremacy  in 
matters  ecclesiastical ;  without  which  he 
could  have  neither  the  right  nor  the 
power,  on  his  own  sole  authority,  and  by 
his  absolute  command,  to  depose,  suspend, 
restore  and  limit  ministers  in  the  discharge 
of  their  strictly  ministerial  functions. 
Viewing  it,  therefore,  solely  as  a  matter 
of  principle,  we  have  no  hesitation  in  say- 
ing, that  not  one  of  the  ejected  ministers 
ought  to  have  accepted  the  indul- 
gence, because  it  was  impossible  to  do  so 
without  sacrificing  the  fundamental  and 
essential  principle  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church — that  which  constitutes  its  glory 
and  its  life — the  sole  sovereignty  of 
Christ. 

The  whole  number  of  ministers  .who 

•  Brown's  History  of  the  Indulgence,  passion. 


were  included  in  the  first  indulgence 
amounted  to  forty-two.  All  of  them 
made  some  form  of  protestation  against 
the  royal  supremacy,  or  at  least  some  de- 
claration of  the  opposite  principle  ;  and 
very  few  accepted  of  either  the  direct  pre- 
sentation of  a  patron,  or  collation  from  a 
bishop.  Their  wish  appears  to  have 
been  to  obtain  liberty  to  resume  the  dis- 
charge of  their  ministerial  duties  without 
molestation,  though  at  the  same  time  with- 
out receiving  any  stipend,  and  so  far  their 
conduct  was  disinterested  and  unselfish  ; 
but  it  proved  extremely  detrimental  to  the 
cause  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  It 
divided  the  ejected  ministers  into  two  par- 
ties, the  Indulged  and  the  Non-indulged, 
and  thereby  put  an  end  to  that  unanimity 
which  their  common  sufferings  had  re- 
produced, and  which,  since  the  Pentland 
insurrection  had  been  increasing  so 
steadily,  as  to  promise  ere  long  to  be  be- 
yond the  power  of  kings  and  councils  to 
subdue.  Much  has  been  written  respect- 
ing the  indulgence,  and  the  propriety  of 
complying  with  it,  for  the  sake  of  peace 
and  liberty  to  preach  the  gospel.  But 
the  whole  discussion  may  be  resolved  into 
the  question,  which  of  three  things  ought 
to  have  been  chosen  by  the  Church ; 
whether  unanimously  to  accept  the  indul- 
gence, in  which  case  she  would  at  once 
have  become  prelatic  ;  or  unanimously  to 
reject  it,  in  which  case  it  would  fall 
harmlessly  to  the  ground  ;  or  some  to  re- 
ceive and  some  to  reject,  in  which  case  the 
Church  would  be  divided,  weakened,  and 
trampled  in  the  dust.  The  first  could 
not  be  chosen  without  injury;  the  second 
would  have  been  the  choice  of  high  prin- 
ciple and  sound  prudence  ;  the  third  was 
the  course  followed,  recommended  by  the 
usual  weak  and  shortsighted  arguments 
of  expediency,  and  proved  to  be  the 
course  of  ruin.  The  fatal  effects  result- 
ing from  this  division,  caused  by  partial 
compliance  with  the  indulgence,  might 
teach,  if  men  could  be  taught  by  the  ex- 
perience of  others,  how  dangerous  it  is  to 
quit  the  path  which  clear  principle  points 
out,  however  beset  with  perils,  and  to 
turn  aside  into  the  crooked  by-ways  of 
human  expediency,  allured  by  the  falla- 
cious hopes  of  peace  and  safety. 

It  appears  that  a  little  reflection  showed 
the  privy  council  that  they  had  proceeded 
rashly  in  giving  immediate  effect  to  the 


A.  D.  1G70.J 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


237 


indulgence,  merely  upon  the  authority 
of  his  majesty's  letter,  as  it  was  contrary 
to  several  existing  laws,  which  could  not 
be  repealed  or  superseded  without  a  meet- 
ing of  parliament.  At  the  same  time 
there  was  a  proposal  to  unite  the  Scottish 
and  English  parliaments  into  one,  which 
also  would  require  to  be  discussed  in  the 
parliaments  of  the  respective  countries. 
For  these  reasons  a  parliament  was  called, 
after  an  interval  of  eight  years.  Its  first 
act,  passed  on  the  16th  of  November,  was 
intended  to  legalize  the  indulgence.  It 
certainly  accomplished  that  purpose,  and 
not  a  Iktle  more.  It  commenced  by  sta- 
ting the  necessity  of  clearly  asserting  his 
majesty's  power  and  authority  in  relation 
to  matters  and  persons  ecclesiastical ;  and 
then  proceeded  to  declare,  "  That  his  ma- 
jesty hath  the  supreme  authority  and 
supremacy  over  all  persons  and  in  all 
causes  ecclesiastical  within  this  his  king- 
dom :  and  that,  by  virtue  thereof,  the  or- 
dering and  disposal  of  the  external  gov- 
ernment and  policy  of  the  Church  doth 
properly  belong  to  his  majesty  and  his 
successors,  as  an  inherent  right  of  the 
crown  ;  and  that  his  majesty  and  his  suc- 
cessors may  settle,  enact,  and  emit  such 
constitutions,  acts,  and  orders,  concerning 
the  administration  of  the  external  govern- 
ment of  the  Church,  and  the  persons  em- 
ployed in  the  same,  and  concerning  all 
ecclesiastical  meetings,  and  matters  to  be 
proposed  and  determined  therein,  as  they 
in  their  royal  wisdom  shall  think  fit."  It 
is  wholly  unnecessary  to  ofTer  any  com- 
ment on  an  act  which  utterly  abolished 
all  church  power  whatever,  and  elevated 
the  king  at  once  to  the  state  and  power  of 
a  royal  pope.  Indeed,  it  put  it  com- 
pletely into  the  power  of  the  king  or  his 
successor  to  restore  Popery  whenever  he 
might  think  proper  ;  and  Burnet  is  of 
opinion  that  Lauderdale,  who  knew  the 
sentiments  of  the  Duke  of  York,  pro- 
cured the  passing  of  this  act  for  that  very 
purpose.* 

This  act  proved  to  be  of  too  potent  a 
character  for  even  the  prelates.  Alexan- 
der Burnet,  archbishop  of  Glasgow, 
had  been  exceedingly  opposed  to  the  in- 
dulgence ;  and  now  when  this  act  was 
passed,  he  saw  that  it  placed  his  own  or- 
der as  much  in  the  power  of  the  sove- 
reign as  it  did  the  Presbyterian  ministers. 

*  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  i.  p.  284. 


"  So  now  the  Episcopal  party,  that  were 
wont  to  put  all  authority  in  the  king  as 
long  as  he  was  for  them,  began  to  talk 
of  law."*  A  meeting  of  the  clergy  of 
that  diocese  was  held,  and  a  strong  re- 
monstrance was  drawn  up  against  the  in- 
dulgence. When  it  was  transmitted  to 
the  king,  he  termed  it  another  Western 
Remonstrance,  said  it  was  as  bad  as 
Guthrie's,  and  ordered  the  archbishop 
to  be  deposed.  Leighton,  bishop  of  Dun- 
blane, was  translated  to  the  archbishopric 
of  Glasgow,  where  he  soon  afterwards 
took  a  leading  part  in  attempting  to  ar- 
range the  terms  of  an  accommodation  with 
the  Presbyterian  ministers. 

[1670.]  The  year  1670  began  with 
severe  measures  against  the  indulged 
ministers,  at  the  instigation  of  the  prelates 
because  they  did  not  conform  in  all  parti- 
culars to  the  very  terms  of  the  indulgence. 
They  were  prohibited  from  lecturing, 
because  the  curates  did  not  or  could  not 
lecture.  They  were  watched  narrowly 
as  to  their  conduct  in  granting  ordinan- 
ces to  people  who  came  from  other 
parishes.  And  they  were  called  before 
a  committee  appointed  by  the  privy  coun- 
cil, and  compelled  to  answer  generally 
as  to  the  manner  in  which  they  discharg- 
ed their  ministry.  This  must  have 
shown  them  that,  in  complying  with  the 
indulgence,  they  had  really  subjected 
themselves  to  the  arrogated  supremacy 
of  the  king  and  the  council  m  ecclesias- 
tical matters. 

And  as  the  indulgence  had,  according 
to  its  own  statement,  taken  away  all  pre- 
tence for  conventicles,  the  acts  against 
these  meetings  were  enforced  with  in- 
creased severity.  This  was  the  more 
practicable,  in  consequence  of  an  act  pas- 
sed by  the  parliament  respecting  the 
militia,  in  which  the  power  of  arming 
the  subjects,  and  keeping  them  as  a  stand- 
ing force  for  any  purpose  in  which  his 
majesty  might  think  proper  to  employ 
them,  was  declared  to  be  an  inherent 
right  of  the  crown.  By  this  act.  the  loss 
of  the  army,  which  had  been  disbanded, 
was  amply  supplied,  and  a  sufficient 
military  force  again  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  council.  Several  ministers  were 
seized  and  punished  for  keeping  conven- 
ticles ;  and  a  considerable  number  of 
country  gentlemen  were  subjected  to 

*  Bur;  et's  Own  Times,  p.  233. 


238 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII 


heavy  fines  for  giving  countenance  to 
these  meetings.  But,  instead  of  being 
discouraged  and  ceasing  to  meet  together, 
both  ministers  and  people  seemed  to  be- 
come the  more  resolute  as  they  were  the 
more  severely  treated.  What  were  term- 
ed field-conventicles,  or  field  meetings, 
began  to  be  frequently  held,  and  nu- 
merously attended.  The  first  of  these 
field-meetings,  at  which  people  appeared 
in  arms  for  their  own  defence,  was  held 
at  Beath-hill,  in  the  parish  of  Dunferm- 
line,  about  the  middle  of  June.  Wor- 
ship was  conducted  chiefly  by  the  Rev. 
John  Blackadder,  who  had  been  ejected 
several  years  before,  and  had  resolutely 
refused  to  conform.  Great  numbers  at- 
tended from  the  whole  country  round  ; 
and  when  some  officers  of  militia  came, 
as  if  to  disturb  and  break  up  the  meet- 
ing, they  were  met  by  men  of  determined 
courage,  armed  for  self-defence,  and  com- 
pelled either  to  remain  and  listen  quiet- 
ly, or  to  promise  to  depart  peaceably, 
and  leave  the  people  to  worship  God  be- 
neath the  open  canopy  of  heaven.  There 
is  related  to  have  been  a  very  remark- 
able manifestation  of  spiritual  influence 
in  the  sacred  services  of  that  day,  great 
solemnity,  and  deep  devotional  feeling, 
impressions  which  were  never  obliterated 
from  the  hearts  ahd  minds  of  many  of 
the  worshippers.* 

Two  other  large  meetings  of  the  same 
kind  were  held  the  same  year — one  at 
the  Tor  wood,  and  another  at  Carnwath  ; 
but  neither  of  them  quite  equalled  that  of 
Beath-hill.  They  were,  however,  suffi- 
cient to  alarm  the  prelatic  party,  and  to 
excite  the  bitter  indignation  of  the  coun- 
cil. When  the  parliament  met  in  the 
end  of  July,  they  proceeded  to  pass  the 
most  sanguinary  enactments  against  con- 
venticles, with  the  manifest  determination 
of  utterly  suppressing  them,  though  it 
should  be  by  the  entire  exterminaton  of 
the  persons  by  whom  they  were  held. 
On  the  3d  of  August  an  act  was  passed 
"  anent  deponing,"  or  giving  evidence 
on  oath,  against  those  who  either  held  or 
frequented  conventicles.  In  this,  "  all 
and  every  subject,  of  what  degree,  sex,  or 
quality  soever,"  were  commanded  to 
"  depone  upon  oath  "  their  knowledge 
of  any  person  holding  or  frequenting 
tfiese  meetings,  under  the  penalty  of 

*  Blackadder's  Memoirs,  pp.  144-148. 


"  fining,  imprisonment,  or  banishment  te 
the  plantations."  By  this  it  was  intend 
ed  to  compel  people  to  give  evidence 
against  their  nearest  relatives  and  dearest 
friends.  Another  act  "anent  field-con- 
venticles "  was  of  a  still  more  crimson 
hue.  It  prohibits  all  "outed  ministers," 
and  "other  persons  not  authorised  by 
the  bishop  of  the  diocese,"  from  preach- 
ing, expounding  Scripture,  or  praying 
except  in  their  own  houses,  and  to  their 
own  family  alone  ;  appointing  heavy  ana 
ruinous  fines  to  be  exacted  from  all  who 
should  violate  these  restrictions,  and  ren- 
dering the  heads  of  every  household  an- 
swerable for  each  other  and  for  the  mem- 
bers of  their  families.  It  further  ordains 
that  those  who  "convocate"  or  conduct 
such  conventicles  in  the  fields,  "  shall  be 
punished  with  death  and  confiscation  of 
their  goods ;"  and  a  reward  is  offered  to 
any  person  who  should  seize  and  secure 
the  persons  of  those  who  preached  at 
these  field-meetings,  with  an  indem- 
nity for  any  slaughter  that  might  be  com- 
mitted in  the  seizure.  This  most  atro- 
cious act  was  to  endure  for  three  years, 
"  unless  his  majesty  should  think  fit  that 
it  continues  longer."  Two  other  acts — 
one  against,  persons  procuring  baptism 
for  their  children  from  any  other  than 
the  ministers  licensed  by  government — 
the  other  against  people  separating  them- 
selves from  the  congregations  where  these 
government  ministers  preached — com- 
pleted the  persecuting  enactments  of  this 
parliament. 

The  object  of  the  indulgence  might 
have  been  now  sufficiently  apparent. 
For  these  most  iniquitous  acts  plainly 
proved,  that  mercy  was  not  its  intention, 
but  merely  such  a  division  among  the 
Presbyterians  as  might  draw  off  all  the 
timid  and  wavering,  and  leave  the  more 
determined  to  swift  and  utter  destruction. 
There  is  a  fearful  meaning  in  the  limita- 
tion of  the  act  at  first  to  three  years ;  as 
if  the  persecutors  contemplated  the  anni- 
hilation within  that  time,  of  the  entire 
body  of  Presbyterians  in  Scotland.  But 
when  the  malice  of  man  wages  war 
against  the  cause  of  God,  the  result  is  not 
doubtful.  The  very  means  employed 
with  such  relentless  cruelty  against  the 
Presbyterians  were  overruled  to  the  in- 
creasing of  their  numbers,  their  courage, 
and  their  progress  in  vital  religion. 


A.  D.  1670.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


239 


These  barbarous  enactments,  so  far  from 
putting  an  end  to  field-meetings,  roused 
the  people  to  the  determination  to  frequent 
them  more  than  they  had  previously 
done,  and  to  come  in  such  numbers,  and 
prepared  with  such  defensive  weapons, 
as  might  protect  them  against  any  sud- 
den assault  of  their  persecuting  enemies. 
And  the  very  danger  which  men  had 
thus  to  encounter  in  the  worship  of  God, 
had  a  powerful  tendency  to  elevate  their 
minds  above  that  listlessness  and  torpidi- 
ty which  too  often  prevail  in  congrega- 
tions met  in  their  usual  place  of  worship, 
and  as  a  matter  of  ordinary  occurrence. 
They  must  have  loved  the  gospel,  who 
thus  braved  every  peril  that  they  might 
hear  it  freely  and  fully  proclaimed  by 
men  whose  very  act  of  proclaiming  it  ex- 
posed them  to  the  loss  of  life ;  or  they 
whose  native  courage  loved  the  wild  thrill 
of  heart  which  rises  at  the  encounter  of 
danger,  would  soon  love  the  gospel  for 
the  very  danger's  sake.  And  we  may 
dimly  imagine,  though  we  cannot  fully 
realize,  the  intense  earnestness  with  which 
they  would  listen  to  the  bold  and  fervent 
eloquence  of  a  minister  who  indeed 
preached  as  a  dying  man  to  dying  men, 
not  knowing  but  that  his  sermon  might 
be  abruptly  closed  with  his  expiring 
groans,  and  his  blood  and  theirs  be 
mingled  together  on  the  trodden  heath, 
before  the  day  was  done.  Nor  need  we 
doubt  that  all  these  strong  emotions  would 
be  raised  to  the  highest  pitch  of  which 
they  were  capable,  by  the  scarcely  per- 
ceived yet  mighty  influence  of  the  scenery 
amidst  which  these  field-meeting  were 
generally  held, — that  sensations  and  feel- 
ings of  the  solemn,  the  sublime,  and  the 
glorious,  would  be  wrought  into  their 
minds  from  the  grave  austerity  of  vast  up- 
land moors,  the  stern  majesty  of  frown- 
ing crags  and  lofty  mountains,  and  the 
overclouded  or  serene  illimitable  skies, 
from  which  the  sun,  like  the  broad  eye 
of  heaven  looked  down  upon  their  wor- 
ship. To  all  these  incalculably  power- 
ful natural  influences,  the  records  of  these 
times  give  us  good  reason  to  add,  what 
was  infinitely  more  mighty  than  them 
all,  the  felt  presence  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
accompanying  the  administration  of  word 
and  ordinance,  and  sealing  divine  truth 
upon  the  souls  of  the  quickened,  melting, 
and  adoring  multitudes. 


-  The  latter  part  of  this  year  was  chiefly 
occupied  by  the  discussions  to  which 
Leighton's  attempt  at  an  accommodation 
between  the  Prelatists  and  the  Presbyte- 
rians gave  rise.  When  Alexander  Bur- 
net  was  removed  from  the  archbishopric 
of  Glasgow  by  the  king's  orders,  Leigh- 
ton,  at  that  time  bishop  of  Dumblane, 
was  appointed  commendator  or  adminis- 
trator of  the  vacant  archiepiscopal  see. 
This  eminent  man  had  kept  as  much  as 
possible  aloof  from  direct  participation  in 
the  atrocities  perpetrated  by  his  brethren  ; 
and  when  appointed  to  the  more  influen- 
tial position  of  Glasgow,  he  set  himself 
to  attempt  some  accommodation  between 
his  party  and  that  of  the  persecuted  Pres- 
byterians. His  first  step  was  a  very  ne- 
cessary one.  It  was  an  inquiry  into  the 
conduct  of  the  prelatic  clergy  within  his 
own  diocese,  with  the  view  of  correcting 
the  abuses  that  were  prevalent  among 
them.  From  this  attempt  he  was  soon 
obliged  to  desist,  in  consequence  of  find- 
ing it  utterly  impossible  to  correct  abuses 
so  universal  and  so  enormous  ;  besides, 
that  his  attempts  to  be  impartial  in  his  in- 
quiries were  greatly  checked  by  a  lay 
committee  which  the  council  had  ordered 
to  assist,  but  which  really  impeded  him. 
He  next  attempted  to  try  the  force  of  ar- 
gument upon  the  nonconforming  minis- 
ters and  people,  and  selected  six  of  the 
most  learned  and  pious  of  the  prelatic 
clergy  to  travel  over  the  western  counties, 
and  endeavour  to  proselytise  the  people. 
Gilbert  Burnet,  at  that  time  professor  of 
theology  in  Glasgow,  was  one  of  these 
six,  and  has  recorded  their  endeavours, 
and  their  unsuccessfulness,  in  his  His- 
tory of  his  Own  Times.  "  We  were  in- 
deed amazed,"  says  he,  "  to  see  a  poor 
commonalty  so  capable  to  argue  upon 
points  of  government,  and  on  the  bounds 
to  be  set  to  the  power  of  princes  in  mat- 
ters of  religion.  Upon  all  these  topics 
they  had  texts  at  hand,  and  were  ready 
with  their  answers  to  any  thing  that  was 
said  to  them.  This  measure  of  knowl- 
edge was  spread  even  among  the  mean- 
est of  them,  their  cottagers  and  their 
servants."*  From  this  alone  men  might 
deduce  one  of  the  reasons  why  the  Pres- 
byterian ought  to  be  preferred  to  the  Pre- 
latic form  of  church  government  by  a 
wise  and  patriotic  legislature.  By  the 

•  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  i.  p.  293. 


240 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


Presbyterian  Church  the  whole  body  of 
the  people  are  educated  and  thought  to 
think  and  reason;  by  the  Episcopalian 
this  never  yet  has  taken  place,  nor  even 
been  attempted,  in  its  actings  as  a  na- 
tional church. 

In  further  prosecution  of  h'.s  scheme 
of  accommodation,  Leighton  procured  a 
meeting  of  some  of  the  most  distinguished 
of  the  indulged  ministers  to  be  held  in 
Edinburgh  in  August,  and  subsequently 
another  at  Paisley  in  December.  Much 
reasoning  passed  between  Leighton  and 
them,  on  the  point  of  the  difference  be- 
tween Prelacy  and  Presbytery,  and  the 
possibility  of  some  intermediate  form, 
partaking  of  some  of  the  essential  fea- 
tures of  both,  by  the  adoption  of  which 
harmony  might  be  restored.  It  was  not 
difficult  to  see  that  any  real  and  perma- 
nent accommodation  was  absolutely  im- 
possible, unless  the  Presbyterian  minis- 
ters were  prepared  to  abandon  every  es- 
sential point  of  their  own  form  of  church 
government  and  discipline,  one  by  one, 
as  the  prelatic  power  chose  to  make  its 
insidious  but  irresistible  advances.  They 
could  not  but  know  that  Prelacy  had 
been  thrust  upon  the  Church  of  Scotland 
in  King  James's  days,  in  a  great  meas- 
ure by  the  device  of  the  constant  moder- 
ators ;  and  Leighton's  proposal  not  only 
retained  these,  but  did  not  abolish  the 
negative  vote  of  the  presiding  prelate,  so 
that  presbyteries  and  synods,  so  constitu- 
ted would  have  been  but  a  name.  The 
attempted  accommodation,  was,  therefore, 
finally  abandoned,  greatly  to  the  regret 
of  Leighton,  who  was,  we  are  persuaded, 
sincerely  desirous  of  peace,  and  pitied 
the  sufferings  of  his  oppressed  country, 
having  on  one  occasion  declared  that  he 
could  not  approve  of  the  severities  em- 
ployed against  the  nonconformists,  even 
for  the  purpose  of  planting  Christianity 
in  a  heathen  land,  much  less  for  the 
mere  substitution  of  one  form  of  church 
government  for  another.*  Yet  he  cannot 
be  exonerated  from  the  blame  of  having 
been  accessory  to  these  severities,  through 
his  compliance  with  the  scheme  of  over- 
throwing the  Presbyterian  Church,  and 
establishing  Prelacy  on  its  ruins.  And 
however  much  we  must  deplore  that  such 
a  stain  should  rest  on  the  memory  of 
such  a  man,  historical  truth  condemns 

*  Pearson's  Life  of  Leighton,  pp.  62,  63;  Burnet. 


his  public  conduct  as  that  of  a  persecutor 
although  his  gentle  spirit  shrunk  from 
the  contemplation  of  the  bloody  scenes 
in  which  his  unnatural  connection  with 
Scottish  Prelacy  involved  him. 

[1671.]  No  great  events  signalized  the 
year  1671.  The  indulged  ministers,  in- 
deed, experienced  some  of  the  tender 
mercies  of  the  council,  by  being  confined 
within  their  parishes,  and  threatened  to 
be  deprived  of  their  stipends,  because 
they  had  not  strictly  obeyed  all  the  di- 
rections contained  in  the  indulgence. 
Several  heavy  fines  were  exacted,  and 
people  imprisoned  in  irons,  for  frequent- 
ing conventicles.  Popery  began  to  raise 
its  head  openly  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  and  experienced  no  such  moles- 
tation as  was  directed  unsparingly  against 
the  Presbyterians.  The  island,  or  rather 
rock,  of  the  Bass,  was  purchased  by  the 
crown,  and  converted  into  a  state  prison, 
of  which  Lauderdale  was  made  captain, 
— the  place,  the  purpose,  the  office,  and 
the  man,  all  in  dreadful  harmony. 

[1672.]  The  aspect  of  affairs  grows 
darker  as  we  enter  upon  the  year  1672. 
Lauderdale  was  created  a  duke,  as  if  to 
testify  the  king's  satisfaction  with  his 
previous  administration  and  to  encourage 
him  to  proceed  in  his  atrocious  career 
His  marriage  to  Lady  Dysart,  "a  wo 
man,"  says  Sir  Walter  Scott,  "  of  con- 
siderable talent,  but  of  inordinate  ambition, 
boundless  expense,  and  the  most  unscru- 
pulous rapacity,"  had  a  very  pernicious 
effect  in  rendering  him  still  more  over- 
bearing and  incapable  than  he  had  pre- 
viously been.  The  fines,  which  had 
been  hitherto  sufficiently  oppressive,  were 
increased  and  exacted  with  double  rigour. 
The  acts  against  conventicles  and  field- 
preachings  were  enforced  with  immitiga- 
ble cruelty.  The  ejected  ministers  were 
hunted  from  place  to  place,  as  if  they  had 
been  wolves,  who  were  to  be  extermi- 
nated as  a  matter  of  public  duty.  An 
act  was  passed  against  what  parliament 
was  pleased  to  term  "  unlawful  ordina- 
tions," by  which  was  meant  all  except 
prelatic  ordination.  The  intention  of  this 
act  was  manifestly  to  secure  the  final  ex- 
tinction of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  by 
preventing  the  ordination  to  the  ministry 
of  young  men  who  might  supply  the  va- 
cancies caused  by  the  death  of  the  old. 
It  caused  great  hardship  to  the  whole 


A.  D.  Z672.J 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


241 


Presbyterian  community,  and,  could  it 
have  been  fully  enforced,  must  have 
proved  fatal  in  the  course  of  a  single 
generation.  As  it  was,  it  rendered  it  ne- 
cessary for  young  men  to  be  sent  to  Hol- 
land, where  a  presbytery  was  constituted 
of  banished  Scottish  ministers,  by  whom 
these  young  men  were  ordained.  It  had 
another  effect,  which,  of  course,  the  pre- 
lates did  not  contemplate.  The  Scottish 
ministers  in  Holland  were  some  of  the 
most  eminent  men,  in  learning  and  abil- 
ities, of  their  age.  Not  only  had  they 
studied  the  subjects  deeply  for  the  main- 
tenance of  which  they  had  been  banished, 
before  they  suffered  that  punishment,  but 
their  exile  furnished  them  with  leisure  to 
prosecute  these  studies,  with  the  advan- 
tage of  being  aloof  from  the  scene  of  con- 
flict, their  personal  interests  not  involved 
in  it,  and  themselves  thereby  enabled  to 
take  calmly  both  more  comprehensive 
and  profounder  views  of  the  whole  mat- 
ters in  dispute,  than  would  have  been  pos- 
sible had  they  been  in  Scotland.  These 
views  they  communicated  to  the  men  who 
came  for  ordination,  and  who  returned  to 
Scotland  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
knowledge,  and  confirmed  in  the  love, 
of  the  great  and  essential  doctrine  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  In  this  manner 
the  vital  principles  of  Presbytery  were 
not  only  kept  alive  ;  they  were  strength- 
ened into  more  intense  activity  and  un- 
compromising endurance. 

Several  other  oppressive  enactments 
were  passed  by  this  parliament,  respect- 
ing baptism,  the  keeping  of  the  29th  of 
May,  and  a  prolongation  of  the  act  against 
conventicles.  But  as  these  differed  from 
the  acts  already  specified  only  in  their 
increased  severity,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
state  their  provisions. 

But  the  most  important  matter  of  this 
year  was  the  second  indulgence,  which 
was  promulgated  by  the  council  on  the 
3d  of  September.  The  main  peculiarity 
of  this  indulgence  consisted  in  its  sending 
a  number  of  the  previously  non-indulged 
ministers  either  to  the  parishes  of  those 
who  had  accepted  the  first  indulgence, 
where  they  were  to  reside  and  perform, 
along  with  them,  the  functions  of  the 
ministry,  or  to  other  parishes  not  pre- 
viously indulged  ;  but  in  either  case  the 
arrangement  coupled  them  together  two 
by  two,  and  confined  each  couple  within 
31 


the  limits  of  the  respective  parishes  to 
which  they  were  appointed.  This  scheme, 
it  appears,  was  founded  upon  a  sugges- 
tion of  Burnet's,  supported  by  Leighton, 
who  said  that  when  burning  coals  were 
scattered  all  over  the  house,  in  danger  of 
setting  it  on  fire,  it  might  be  prevented 
by  gathering  them  all  into  the  hearth, 
where  they  might  burn  out  in  safety?* 
It  had  for  its  object,  undoubtedly,  the  col- 
lecting together  into  the  narrowest  possi- 
ble bounds,  the  nonconforming  Presby- 
terian ministers ;  and  as  its  concluding 
clause  strictly  prohibited  these  ministers 
from  preaching  in  any  other  churches 
than  those  of  the  parishes  in  which  they 
were  confined,  or  out  of  doors  even  in 
the  churchyards,  and  all  others  from 
preaching  at  all,  it  seemed  calculated  to 
suppress  field-preaching,  and  prevent  the 
diffusion  of  Presbyterian  sentiments 
through  the  country.  It  had  also  another 
effect.  Like  the  first  indulgence,  it  di- 
vided the  sentiments  of  the  ministers 
whether  it  ought  to  be  complied  with  or 
rejected  ;  and,  unable  to  come  to  any 
unanimity  of  opinion,  some  accepted, 
others  rejected,  great  divisions  were 
caused,  and  corresponding  weakness  en- 
sued. 

When  recording  events  which  take 
their  aspect  from  mental,  moral,  and  re- 
ligious opinions,  we  are  often  struck  with 
the  strange  contrast  presented  between 
men's  principles  and  their  course  of  con- 
duct. Had  the  Presbyterian  ministers 
looked  only  to  the  inevitable  conclusion 
to  which  their  principles  must  lead,  they 
would  not  have  hesitated  one  moment 
about  rejecting  the  indulgence.  The 
true  nature  of  the  question  was  brought 
into  more  distinct  developement  by  the 
second  indulgence  than  it  had  been  by 
the  first.  It  was  manifestly  this, 
"  Whether  the  civil  magistrate  may  of 
himself,  and  immediately,  without  the 
voice  of  the  church  and  the  previous  elec- 
tion of  the  people,  assign  and  send  minis- 
ters to  particular  congregations,  to  take 
the  fixed  and  pastoral  oversight  of  them, 
prescribe  rules  and  directions  to  them  for 
the  exercise  of  the  ministry,  and  confine 
them  rigidly  to  those  special  congrega- 
tions." When  the  question  is  thus  stated 
in  its  simple  and  essential  form,  no  true 
Presbyterian  can  hesitate  to  say  that  it 

•  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  i.  p.  341. 


242 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  Vll. 


must  at  once  'te  met  by  a  prompt  and  de- 
cided negative.  It  was  indeed  so  met  by 
some  ;  for  when  the  indulgence  with  its 
directions  were  offered  to  Mr.  Blair, 
minister  of  Galston,  he  took  the  paper 
into  his  hand,  saying,  "  My  Lord  Chan- 
cellor, I  cannot  be  so  uncivil  as  to  refuse 
a  paper  offered  to  me  by  your  lordship :" 
then  letting  it  fall  to  the  ground,  he  ad- 
ded, "  but  I  can  receive  no  instructions 
from  you  for  regulating  the  exercise  of 
my  ministry  ;  for  if  I  should  receive, in- 
structions from  you,  I  should  be  your  am- 
bassador, not  Christ's."*  For  this  he  was 
immediately  committed  to  prison ;  and 
the  dissensions  among  the  ministers  in- 
creased, some  approving  the  decided  con- 
duct of  Mr.  Blair,  others  condemning  his 
want  of  prudence,  as  they  were  pleased 
to  term  his  bold  and  candid  statement  of 
his  principles.  Death,  in  the  course  of  a 
few  months,  relieved  Mr.  Blair  from  his 
imprisonment,  but  did  not  diminish  the 
indignation  and  alarm  which  his  seizure 
had  excited. 

[1673.]  The  only  peculiarities  in  the 
course  of  the  year  1673,  of  sufficient  im- 
portance to  be  mentioned,  were  the  pro- 
ceedings which  arose  out  of  the  indul- 
gence, and  the  rise  and  growth  of  an  op- 
position to  Lauderdale's  administration. 
The  number  of  ministers  directly  opposed 
to  prelatic  tyranny  having  been  consider- 
ably reduced  by  the  second  indulgence, 
the  council  went  forward  with  less  hesi- 
tation in  the  persecution  of  those  who 
still  refused  ;  and  thus  the  indulgence  ac- 
tually proved  the  means  of  increasing  the 
sufferings  of  the  true  Presbyterians.  In 
a  new  act  against  conventicles,  the  coun- 
cil had  the  confidence  to  assert,  that  the 
•suppression  of  these  meetings  was  "  of 
great  concernment  to  religion  ;"  so  that, 
under  the  hypocritical  guise  of  a  regard 
for  the  interests  of  religion,  they  perse- 
cuted the  faithful  followers  of  the  Lord 
Jesus.  And  in  order  that  information 
might  be  readily  given  against  the  field- 
meetings,  a  third  part  of  the  fines  ap- 
pointed to  be  levied  was  now  to  be  given 
to  the  informer,  a  third  part  to  the  exac- 
tors of  the  fines,  and  the  remaining  third 
to  his  majesty.  Several  of  the  ejected 
and  non-indulged  ministers  were  seized 
and  committed  to  the  Bass,  among  whom 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  216 ;  Brown's  History  of  the  In- 
dulgence. 


were  Robert  Gillespie  and  Alexander 
Peden,  and  positive  orders  were  issued 
for  the  apprehension  of  others,  who  were 
specifically  mentioned  by  name,  particu- 
larly Gabriel  Semple  and  John  Welsh. 
It  may  give  some  idea  of  the  ruinous 
amount  of  the  fines  levied  upon  the  gen- 
tlemen who  countenanced  the  field-meet- 
ings, to  state,  that  in  the  small  county  of 
Renfew  upwards  of  £30,000  sterling  was 
exacted  from  eleven  gentlemen,  not  of  tht 
greatest  wealth.* 

A  considerable  number  of  the  nobility 
began  to  complain  of  the  intolerable  se- 
verity of  Lauderdale's  administration,  the 
chief  of  whom  was  the  Duke  of  Hamil- 
ton ;  but  Lauderdale's  proceedings  were 
too  much  in  accordance  with  the  inclina- 
tions of  the  king  himself  for  his  power  to 
be  easily  shaken.  Yet  the  opposition  in 
the  council  caused  a  little  relaxation  of 
the  severities  enforced  against  the  Presby- 
terians. 

[1674.]  The  struggle  in  the  council 
against  Lauderdale  was  terminated  early 
in  the  year  1674,  by  its  dissolution,  and 
the  appointment  of  a  new  one,  in  which 
the  supporters  of  that  ruthless  tyrant 
formed  a  decided  majority.  This  victory 
was  signalized,  as  was  to  be  expected,  by 
the  immediate  resumption  of  the  persecut- 
ing career  of  the  prelatic  party.  A  com- 
mittee of  council  was  appointed,  including 
Sharp,  with  full  council-powers  to  meet 
when  and  where  they  pleased,  and  to 
take  what  steps  they  might  think  neces- 
sary for  the  complete  suppression  of  field- 
conventicles.  Orders  were  issued  to  ap- 
prehend twenty  ministers,  mentioned  by 
name  ;  and  a  reward  of  £400  sterling  of 
fered  for  the  seizure  of  Welsh  or  Semple, 
and  about  £55  for  each  of  the  others,  a 
full  indemnity  being  at  the  same  time  se- 
cured for  any  slaughter  committed  in  their 
apprehension.  Yet,  notwithstanding 
those  sanguinary  measures,  field-preach- 
ings increased  greatly,  both  in  the  fre- 
quency with  which  they  were  held,  and 
in  the  numbers  by  whom  they  were  at- 
tended. The  very  atrocity  of  the  acts  of 
council  roused  the  minds  of  both  minis- 
ters and  people  ;  and  they  seemed  now 
more  resolved  than  ever  to  brave  every 
danger,  not  counting  their  lives*dear  to 
them  in  defence  of  the  liberty  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  fully  determined  that,  come  what 

Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  pp.  i£6  227. 


A.  D.  1674.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


243 


might,  they  would  obey  God  rather  than 


man. 


Early  in  this  year  James  Mitchell,  who 
made  the  attempt  upon  the  life  of  Sharp, 
narrated  above,  was  apprehended  ;  and, 
upon  being  assured  that  his  life  would  be 
spared,  made  a  confession  of  his  crime. 
Finding,  however,  that  proceedings  were 
about  to  be  instituted  against  him,  he  re- 
tracted his  confession ;  and  there  being 
no  other  evidence,  he  ^as  re-committed 
to  prison. 

A  paper  of  "  grievances  "  was  laid  be- 
fore the  council  by  the  prelatic  clergjr  of 
the  diocese  of  Glasgow,  filled  with  the 
most  bitter  calumnies  against  the  Presby- 
terians, and  urging  the  adoption  of  more 
effectual  measures  for  the  suppression  of 
field-preachings.  Having  mentioned  the 
calumnies  of  the  prelatic  clergy,  it  may 
be  expedient  to  explain  briefly  a  subject 
on  which  so  many  erroneous  statements 
have  so  long  prevailed.  It  seems  to  be 
taken  for  granted,  that  the  Covenanters 
of  this  persecuting  time  were  the  mere 
dregs  of  society  in  Scotland,  and  that  all 
the  noble,  the  gentle,  the  learned,  and  the 
respectable  belonged  to  the  other  side. 
The  reverse  would  be  much  nearer  the 
truth.  A  very  considerable  portion  of 
the  nobility  were  much  more  Presbyterian 
than  Prelatic  in  their  feelings,  though 
they  thought  it  expedient  to  temporize, 
through  dread  of  the  persecution  to  which 
their  prominent  position  in  society  would 
expose  them.  And,  in  many  instances, 
while  the  noblemen  attended  the  privy 
council  and  the  parliament,  without  tak- 
ing a  very  active  part  in  the  persecuting 
enactments  there  passed,  their  ladies  gave 
direct  countenance  and  encouragement  to 
the  Presbyterian  Church.  The  greater 
proportion  of  the  landed  proprietors  in 
Fifeshire,  the  western  counties,  Dumfries- 
shire, and  Galloway,  were  staunch  Pres- 
byterians, as  the  very  lists  of  persons 
fined  for  giving  countenance  to  conventi- 
cles, and  refuge  to  the  ejected  ministers, 
incontestibly  prove.  Nearly  all  the 
tenantry  throughout  the  counties  where 
the  persecution  raged  were  covenanted 
Presbyterians  ;  and  it  is  well  known  that 
in  every  civilized  country,  and  especially 
in  Scotland,  that  class  of  people  forms  the 
very  heart  and  soul  of  the  nation.  Every 
intelligent  observer  will  at  once  admit, 
that  in  the  middle  classes  of  society  exists 


the  greatest  amount  of  piety,  morality,  un- 
bending integrity,  and  manly  indepen- 
dence of  character  ;  and  nearly  the  en- 
tire middle  classes  were  true  Presby- 
terians. Learning  forms  but  a  very  un- 
safe criterion ;  for  there  are  too  many 
proofs  that  a  man  may  be  very  learned, 
and  yet  be  irreligious,  and  immoral,  and 
profane.  Nevertheless,  we  should  be  do- 
ing great  injustice  to  the  persecuted  min- 
isters were  we  to  compare  them  for  a 
moment  to  the  prelatic  clergy  of  that 
period  in  any  possible  respect.  Of  the 
truth  of  this  there  needs  no  more  than  the 
testimony  of  Bishop  Burnet,  though  much 
more  might  very  easily  be  given.  The 
real  truth  of  the  matter,  however,  much  as 
it  has  been  generally  misrepresented  by 
prejudiced  and  party  writers,  is,  that  the 
prelatic  party  in  Scotland  consisted  chief- 
ly, nay,  almost  exclusively,  of  men  of 
neither  religion  nor  morality,— of  ambi- 
tious and  dissipated  courtiers,  military  ad- 
venturers, a  few  perjured  and  apostate 
ministers,  eager  for  the  wealth  and 
honours  of  the  prelacy,  a  swarm  of  un- 
educated, irreligious,  and  immoral  men, 
thrust  hastily  into  the  ministry  to  fill  the 
room  of  the  ejected  ministers,  and  the 
very  lowest  dregs  of  society.  When, 
therefore,  men  write  about  the  prevalence 
of  ignorance  and  crime  at  that  period, 
their  statements,  so  far  as  they  are  true, 
are  applicable  almost  exclusively  to  the 
prelatic  nobles,  the  prelates  themselves, 
their  curates,  and  the  very  lowest  grade 
of  the  common  people,  who  formed  at 
once  the  bulk  of  the  prelatic  congrega- 
tions, where  any  existed,  and  the  ready 
and  brutal  instruments  of  prelatic  perse- 
cution, along  with  the  rude  and  licen- 
tious soldiery,  whose  bloody  steps  they 
traced  as  regularly  as  did  the  wild  dog 
and  the  carrion  crow,  and  for  the  same 
hideous  purposes.*  It  must  be  added,  that 
wherever  the  field  preachings  prevailed, 
there  immediately  followed  a  very  per- 
ceptible diminution  of  crime  of  every 
kind,  even  in  those  districts  which  had 
previously  been  notorious  for  irreligion 
and  vice.  Of  this  some  very  remarkable 
proofs  might  be  cited,  as,  for  instance,  the 
great  change  which  took  place  in  some 
of  the  border  counties,  whose  pillaging 

*  Should  this  view  be  disputed,  it  shall  be  proved; 
but  we  are  not  disposed  to  dwell  on  such  subjects, 
unless  compelled  for  the  sake  of  truth,  and  for  ihe  vin- 
dication of  our  maligned  and  martyred  ancestor*. 


244 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII, 


moss-troopers  speedily  became  peaceful 
and  honest.* 

When  the  council  met  in  Edinburgh, 
a  petition  was  presented  to  them  by  a 
considerable  number  of  females,  some  of 
them  ladies  of  rank,  others  minister's 
widows,  imploring  the  council  to  mitigate 
their  severe  proceedings  against  the  faith- 
ful ministers,  and  to  grant  them  permis- 
sion to  exercise  their  sacred  functions. 
For  this  "unwarrantable  crime,"  as  it 
was  termed,  several  of  these  ladies  were 
imprisoned,  and  three  of  them  banished 
from  the  town  of  Edinburgh !  so  deter- 
mined were  the  oppressors  to  prosecute 
their  tyranny  to  the  utmost,  that  they 
punished  as  crimes  even  the  respectful 
petitions  and  complaints  of  widowed  wo- 
men, f 

In  the  meantime  the  indulged  Presby- 
terian ministers  felt  grievously  the  bond- 
age under  which  they  had  brought  them- 
selves, by  their  sinful  compliance  with  an 
arrangement  which  their  own  conscience 
could  not  approve.  They  saw,  besides, 
that  the  entire  extinction  of  Presbytery 
was  the  object  of  their  tyrannical  antag- 
onists ;  and  they  attempted  to  maintain 
some  shadow  of  Presbyterian  church 
government,  by  the  formation  of  meetings 
resembling  presbyteries  and  synods,  to 
which  delegates  were  sent,  and  where 
they  deliberated  respecting  their  common 
duties,  mourned  over  their  common  suf- 
ferings, and  adopted  measures  for  the 
training  of  young  men  for  the  ministry, 
when  their  own  cloudy  and  troubled  day 
should  have  set  in  the  darkness  of  the 
tomb. 

[1675.]  The  chief  topics  of  the  year 
1675,  so  far  as  it  is  distinguished  from 
preceding  years,  were  the  establishing  of 
garrisons  in  several  parts  of  the  country, 
the  act  of  intercommuning,  and  the  dis- 
sensions among  the  prelates.  The  first 
of  these  measures  arose  from  the  rapid 
progress  of  field-preachings,  which  it  was 
found  impossible  to  suppress  by  the 
means  hitherto  employed.  For  this  rea- 
son an  act  of  council  was  passed,  appoint- 
ing garrisons  to  be  placed  in  the  houses 
of  two  noblemen  and  ten  gentlemen,  in 
those  parts  of  the  country  where  conven- 
ticles and  field-preachings,  were  most  pre- 
valent. In  each  instance  the  garrison  was 

•  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  p.  451 ;  Kirkton,  p.  392.  T  Wod 
row,  vol.  ii.  pp.  268,  269. 


placed  in  the  residence  of  a  friend  to  the 
suffering  Presbyterians,  that  he  might  be 
oppressed  and  reduced  to  poverty  by  the 
free  quarters  of  the  soldiery,  while  they 
were  watching  their  opportunity  to  seize 
upon  the  ministers  by  whom  these  forbid- 
den meetings  were  held. 

The  issuing  of  "letters  of  intercom- 
muning," as  they  were  called,  was  one 
of  the  most  oppressive  and  inhuman 
deeds  ever  perpetrated  by  despotism.  Af- 
ter mentioning  by  name  above  an  hun- 
dred persons,  of  whom  sixteen  or  eigh- 
teen were  ministers,  and  who  were  all 
declared  to  be  in  a  state  of  rebellion  on 
account  of  their  holding  and  frequenting 
conventicles,  this  document  proceeds  in 
the  following  terms  : — "  We  charge  and 
command  all  and  sundry  our  lieges  and 
subjetts,  that  they,  nor  none  of  them,  pre- 
sume, nor  take  upon  hand,  to  reset,  sup- 
ply, or  intercommune  with  any  of  the 
foresaid  persons,  our  rebels,  nor  furnish 
them  with  meat,  drink,  house,  harbour, 
victual,  nor  no  other  thing  useful  or  com- 
fortable to  them,  nor  have  intelligence 
with  them  by  word,  writ,  or  message,  or 
any  other  manner  of  way,  under  the 
pain  to  be  reputed  and  esteemed  art  and 
part  with  them  in  the  crimes  foresaid,  and 
pursued  therefor  with  all  rigour,  to  the 
terror  of  others."  By  this  fiend-like 
measure  the  nearest  relatives  were  pro- 
hibited from  assisting  each  other ;  the 
wife  might  not  assist  the  husband,  nor  the 
husband  the  wife ;  the  brother  might 
not  comfort  the  brother,  nor  the  parent 
give  food  and  shelter  to  the  son,  if  the 
sufferers  had  been  intercommuned. 
Every  feeling  of  humanity, — every  tie  of 
nature, — every  bond  of  affection,  was 
outraged ;  and  for  what  ?  That  Prelacy 
might  be  established  in  Scotland  ?  Yes, 
for  that,  and  something  more ;  that  the 
supremacy  of  the  king  equally  in  spiritual 
as  in  civil  matters  might  be  confirmed,  a 
pure  despotism  erected,  religion  trampled 
under  foot,  the  sovereignty  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  over  his  Church  abolished, 
and  Christianity  reduced  to  a  political  en- 
gine for  swaying  the  community.  And 
Scottish  Prelacy  assisted  willingly  in  the 
prosecution  of  this  truly  diabolical  scheme, 
by  measures  such  as,  Sir  Walter  Scott 
says,  might  have  been  suggested  by  Sa- 
tan.* 

•  Tales  of  a  Grandfather,  vol.  ii.  p.  22. 


A.  D.  1678.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


245 


It  is  not  necessary  to  relate  the  contests 
which  arose  among  the  prelates,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  overbearing  conduct  of 
Sharp.  They  issued  in  the  king's  em- 
ploying his  ecclesiastical  supremacy  for 
the  deposition  of  one  bishop  and  four  of 
the  ordinary  clergy,  without  the  inter- 
vention of  any  church  court.f  This 
might  have  somewhat  stunned  the  pre- 
latists,  when  they  were  made  to  feel  their 
own  tyrannical  devices  turned  against 
themselves.  But  they  had  still  the  com- 
fort of  knowing  that  their  own  pliant 
consciences  would  not  urge  them  into  any 
protracted  opposition  to  the  king ;  and 
that  his  majesty,  having  found  them  such 
serviceable  instruments  in  his  attempts 
against  the  liberties  of  the  nation,  would 
not  visit  them  with  any  chastisement  more 
severe  than  was  necessary  for  reducing 
them  to  their  former  state  of  ready  sub- 
serviency. 

[1676.]  The  appointment  of  garrisons 
caused  the  year  1 776  to  be  one  of  the 
most  oppressive  which  Scotland  had  yet 
undergone.  Each  of  these  became  a  den 
of  robbers,  out  of  which  issued  at  plea- 
sure an  armed  band,  wasting  the  country, 
pillaging  from  every  quarter  round  them, 
and  inflicting  every  kind  of  personal  out- 
rage upon  men,  women,  and  children, 
under  the  pretence  of  suppressing  con- 
venticles. A  new  proclamation  was  is- 
sued against  these  meetings,  pressing  the 
full  execution  of  all  the  former  persecut- 
ing decrees,  and  laying  additional  restric- 
tions upon  the  indulged  ministers;  and 
inflicting  fines  on  the  proprietors  of  those 
lands  where  conventicles  were  held,  al- 
though they  neither  knew  of  them,  nor 
were  able  to  prevent  them.  Yet  these 
meetings  increased,  both  in  frequency  of 
being  held,  and  in  the  numbers  by  whom 
they  were  attended.  Frequently  the 
most  remote,  lonely,  and  inaccessible  pla- 
ces were  chosen,  on  the  brink  of  some  vast 
morass,  or  in  the  heart  of  some  deep-cleft 
ravine,  and  men  were  stationed  on  com- 
manding positions  within  sight,  to  give 
warning  of  the  enemy's  approach ;  and 
in  such  circumstances  the  persecuted  wan- 
derers worshipped  God,  and  partook  of 
the  symbols  of  redemption.  A  commis- 
sion of  council  was  now  appointed,  con- 
taining the  two  archbishops,  Sharp  and 
Burnet,  the  latter  of  whom  had  been  re- 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  p.  304. 


stored  to  Glasgow  when  Leighton  relin- 
quished the  hopeless  task  of  mitigating 
Prelacy  and  deceiving  Presbyterian  min- 
isters, and,  shocked  with  the  bloody  bar- 
barities which  he  could  not  prevent,  with- 
drew to  England,  after  expressing  his 
wish  that  he  and  the  other  prelates  had 
been  cast  into  the  Forth  with  millstones 
fastened  to  their  necks. 

One  of  the  persecuting  incidents  of  this 
year  merits  attention,  on  account  of  the 
light  which  it  casts  on  the  spirit  and  tem- 
per of  che  persecuting  party.  An  attempt 
was  made  by  one  Captain  Carstairs  to 
seize  the  Rev.  James  Kirkton,  one  of  the 
ejected  ministers,  for  which  Carstairs  had 
no  warrant.  Kirkton  was  rescued  by 
Baillie  of  Jerviswood.  For  this  Baillie 
was  called  before  the  council,  and  having 
related  the  matter,  would  have  been  set  at 
liberty,  had  not  Sharp  insisted  that  Car- 
stairs  must  be  supported,  "otherwise  it 
could  not  be  expected  that  any  one  would 
prosecute  the  fanatics."  But  it  was  diffi- 
cult to  find  a  reasonable  pretext  for  pun- 
ishing Baillie  for  rescuing  a  friend  when 
illegally  seized.  To  obviate  this  difficul- 
ty, Sharp  procured  a  warrant  for  the  ap- 
prehension of  Kirkton,  and  antedated  it, 
so  that  it  might  give  the  appearance  of 
legality  to  the  attempt  of  Carstairs  ;  and 
on  the  strength  of  this  fabricated  docu- 
ment Baillie  was  imprisoned  four  months, 
and  compelled  to  pay  a  heavy  fine,  which 
was  given  to  Carstairs  to  encourage  him 
in  the  seizure  of  fanatics.*  Some  of  the 
council  could  not  consent  to  this  base 
deed,  and  on  that  account  the  Duke  of 
Hamilton  and  the  Earl  of  Kinkardine 
were  removed,  to  make  way  for  less  scru- 
pulous supporters  of  Prelacy,  who  would 
readily  second  the  perfidy  of  Sharp. 

[1677.]  The  year  1677  is  chiefly  re- 
markable for  the  passing  of  those  acts  of 
council,  and  application  to  his  majesty 
founded  on  them,  which  led  to  raising  an 
armed  force  among  the  Highlands,  and 
bringing  it,  like  an  invading  army,  upon 
the  western  counties.  The  assaults  upon 
the  large  field  meetings  had  been  so  fre- 
quent, that  it  had  become  customary  for 
the  persecuted  Presbyterians  to  carry 
arms  in  self-defence ;  and  on  several  oc- 
casions they  had  overawed  the  soldiers, 
and  compelled  them  to  consult  their  own 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  pp.  327,  328 ;  Kirkton,  pp.  367-372 
Burnet,  pp.  399,  400. 


246 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


CHAP,  va 


safety  by  a  prudent  and  peaceful  retreat. 
In  Fife,  Captain  Carstairs  had  attacked  a 
few  resolute  men  who  were  met  together 
in  a  dwelling-house,  and  had  been  beaten 
off,  one  of  the  soldiers  being  wounded  in 
the  encounter.  Availing  themselves  of 
these  events,  the  prelatic  party  represent- 
ed the  whole  south  of  Scotland  as  in  a 
state  of  incipient  insurrection,  requiring  a 
force  for  its  suppression  beyond  what  the 
small  body  of  regular  troops,  together 
with  the  militia,  could  afford.  A  procla- 
mation was  issued  about  the  same  time, 
both  calling  on  ths  gentlemen  of  the 
western  counties  to  put  down  all  conventi- 
cles, and  to  subscribe  a  bond,  making 
themselves  answerable  for  the  conduct  of 
their  wives,  children,  servants,  tenantry, 
and  cottagers.  The  county  gentlemen 
declined  the  bond,  and  answered,  "  that 
they  found  it  not  within  the  compass  of 
their  power  to  suppress  conventicles  ; '  at 
the  same  time  recommending  more  tole- 
rant measures.  Upon  this  the  council  ap- 
plied to  the  king  for  assistance  by  troops 
from  the  north  of  England  and  from  Ire- 
land, and  suggested  the  raising  of  the 
Highland  clans  for  the  same  purpose. 
The  king  willingly  acceded  to  their  re- 
quest and  suggestion ;  and  on  the  26th 
of  December  a  commission  was  issued 
for  raising  the  Highlanders,  and  employ- 
ing them  "  against  tbe  places  infested  with 
rebellious  practices;"  empowering  them 
to  take  free  quarters  ;  and  "  indemnifying 
them  against  all  pursuits,  civil  and  crimi- 
nal, for  killing,  wounding,  apprehending, 
or  imprisoning,  all  such  as  should  make 
opposition."* 

[1678.]  the  year  1678  was  ushered  in 
by  the  invasion,  as  it  may  be  well  termed, 
of  the  Highland  Host.  Orders  were 
given  to  the  Marquis  of  Athole,  and  the 
Earls  of  Mar,  Murray,  Caithness,  Perth. 
Strathmore  and  Airly,  to  raise  their  menj 
and  advance  to  Stirling.  There  they 
were  joined  by  the  milita  under  the  com- 
mand of  the  Earl  of  Linlithgow,  forming, 
when  united,  an  army  of  about  10,000 
men,  8,000  of  whom  were  Highlanders. 
A  committee  of  council  was  appointed  to 
accompany  them,  and  give  encourage- 
ment and  sanction  to  their  proceedings. 
Alarmed  by  these  formidable  prepara- 
tions, several  of  the  noblemen  and  gen- 
tlemen of  the  western  counties  resolved 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  p.  370. 


to  go  to  court,  and  by  a  fair  and  true 
statement  of  Scottish  affairs,  endeavor  to 
obtain  from  the  king  himself  orders  to 
countermand  this  invasion  ;  but  the  privy 
council  immediately  issued  a  proclama- 
tion, "  prohibiting  noblemen  and  others 
to  go  out  of  the  kingdom  without  license." 
Thus  prevented  from  access  to  the  king, 
the  western  gentlemen  applied  to  the 
council,  where  they  were  met  by  the  fu- 
rious tyranny  of  Lauderdale,  who,  with 
frantic  vehemence,  making  bare  his  arm 
to  the  shoulder,  as  if  about  to  plunge  it 
into  blood,  swore  a  dreadful  oath,  that  he 
would  compel  them  to  take  the  bond.* 

On  the  25th  of  January  the  Highland 
host  and  the  militia  marched  from  Stirling, 
directing  their  course  by  Glasgow  to  the 
western  counties.  They  had  with  them 
a  small  train  of  artillery,  and  pioneering 
implements,  as  if  to  assail  fortified  pla- 
ces ;  and,  in  addition  to  their  usual  wea- 
pons, they  carried  with  them  large  quan- 
tities of  iron  fetters,  with  which  to  mana- 
cle their  captives,  and  thumb-screws  and 
other  instruments  of  torture.  At  Glas- 
gow the  bond  against  conventicles,  field- 
meetings,  and  intercommuned  persons, 
was  repromulgated ;  and  the  savage  horde 
moved  onward,  disarming  the  people,  de- 
vastating the  country,  and  perpetrating 
every  imaginable  kind  of  outrage.  In 
vain  did  the  people  protest  against  being 
obliged  to  subscribe  a  bond  which  was  in 
its  own  nature  illegal,  inhuman,  and  im- 
possible :  they  must  subscribe  it,  or  be 
ruined  in  their  fortunes,  and  suffer  every 
kind  of  personal  abuse  short  of  death. 
The.  wild  host  held  on  its  course.  No 
army  appeared  to  be  fought,  no  tumultua- 
ry meetings  to  be  dispersed,  no  resistance 
to  be  overborne.  But  there  were  towns 
which  could  be  sacked,  houses  which 
could  be  pillaged,  property  which  could 
be  destroyed,  and  men  and  women  who 
could  be  insulted  and  abused  ;  and  in  the 
perpetration  of  all  these  barbarities  the 
ferocious  invaders  were  not  only  permit- 
ted but  encouraged  to  revel  unrestrained. 
Several  aged  men,  and  several  women, 
including  two  ladies  of  rank,  died  in  con- 
sequence of  the  abuse  inflicted  on  them 
by  these  northern  barbarians.  A  more- 
minute  specification  of  the  enormities 
committed  by  the  Highland  host  may  not 
be  given,  as  too  hideously  revolting  to 

*  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  i.  p.  418. 


A.  D.  1678.]  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


human  nature  to  be  expressed  in  language, 
or  more  than  dimly  suggested  to  the  shud- 
dering heart  and  recoiling  mind.  Even 
the  face  of  the  country  bore  witness  to 
their  ravages,  which  far  surpassed  those 
generally  committed  by  an  invading  ar- 
my in  a  hostile  territory.  Descending 
upon  the  fairest  and  most  fertile  scenes  of 
Scotland,  like  a  swarm  of  locusts  in  the 
regions  of  the  east,  they  spread  terror  and 
ruin  around  them,  leaving  the  country 
where  they  had  appeared  a  waste  and 
desolate  wilderness. 

Another  device  was  employed  by  the 
council  for  the  purpose  of  giving  fuller 
scope  to  their  persecuting  zeal.  On  the 
14th  of  February  an  act  was  passed  "  for 
securing  the  public  peace,"*  in  which 
they  contrived  to  include  what  is  termed 
in  Scottish  law,  a  writ  of  lawburrows, 
by  which  a  man  who  is  afraid  of  violence 
from  his  neighbour,  upon  making  oath  to 
the  circumstances  affording  ground  for 
such  apprehension,  may  have  the  party 
bound  over  to  keep  the  peace,  under 
security.  By  this  act  the  king  was  made 
to  apply  for  a  writ  of  lawburrows  against 
all  in  the  western  countries  who  had 
refused  to  sign  the  bond,  on  the  pretence 
that  his  majesty  had  just  grounds  of  ap- 
prehending injury  from  them.  This 
seemed  an  attempt  to  involve  the  loyal 
Presbyterians  in  a  personal  quarrel  with 
the  king ;  and  in  the  meantime  it  fur- 
nished a  pretext  for  maintaining  a  stand- 
ing army.  When  the  western  gentlemen 
complained  that  the  whole  district  would 
be  laid  utterly  waste  by  the  interruption 
of  all  agricultural  labour  in  consequence 
of  these  most  oppressive  proceedings, 
Lauderdale  answered,  that  "  it  were  bet- 
ter that  the  west  bore  nothing  but  windle- 
straws  and  sandy  laverocks,  than  that  it 
should  bear  rebels  to  the  king."f  Being 
thus  driven  to  despair,  they  determined  to 
brave  the  terrors  of  the  proclamation 
which  prohibited  them  from  leaving  the 
kingdom,  and  fourteen  peers  and  fifteen 
gentlemen,  headed  by  the  Duke  of  Ham- 
ilton, went  to  London  to  lay  their  com- 
plaint before  the  king  himself.  But  the 
interest  of  Lauderdale  prevailed  so  far, 
that  the  supplicants  received  no  favour 
from  his  majesty,  nor  any  promise  of  re- 
dress. 


*  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  p.  400. 
father,  vol.  ii.  p.  30. 


t  Tales  of  a  Grand- 


247 

Lauderdale  appears,  however,  to  have 
been  somewhat  alarmed  at  so  strong 
a  manifestation  of  hostility  to  hfs  mea- 
sures ;  and  accordingly  an  act  of  council 
was  passed  about  the  end  of  February, 
ordering  the  Highland  host  to  return  to 
their  own  homes.  They  retired  laden 
with  booty  of  every  description,  from  the 
plate  and  jewels  taken  from  people  of 
rank  and  wealth,  to  the  most  common 
furniture,  household  implements,  and 
clothing  of  the  cottager,  and  even  to  wear- 
ing apparel  torn  from  the  persons  of  all, 
both  men  and  women,  on  whom  they 
could  lay  their  hands.  No  exact  account 
can  be  given  of  the  loss  sustained  by  the 
western  counties  from  this  devastating 
inroad  of  the  Highlanders;  but,  at  a 
moderate  computation,  tht  county  of  Ayr 
alone  is  said  to  have  suffered,  from  fines 
and  plunder,  to  the  value  of  about  £137, 
499.*  This  is  a  very  limited  estimate  of 
the  direct  loss  of  property  sustained  in 
that  one  county :  the  extent  of  personal 
injury  inflicted  can  neither  be  estimated 
nor  expressed. 

Burnet  suggests  another  reason  for  the 
recall  of  the  Highland  host.  The  inten- 
tion of  Lauderdale  in  bringing  them 
down  upon  the  western  counties,  he 
says,  was  to  provoke  the  people  into 
actual  rebellion,  partly  to  give  some  ap- 
pearance of  reason  for  the  maintenance 
of  a  standing  army,  and  partly  that  he 
and  his  adherents  might  divide  among 
them  the  confiscated  estates  of  such  noble- 
men and  gentlemen  as  they  might  suc- 
ceed in  driving  to  the  desperate  necessity 
of  arming  in  self-defence.  But  the  per- 
secuted Presbyterians  were  aware  of  this 
malignant  scheme,  and  therefore  deter- 
mined to  suffer  unresistingly,  rather  than 
fall  into  the  snare  laid  for  them  by  their 
cunning  and  relentless  foe.f  Foiled  by 
their  wonderful  endurance,  and  perceiv- 
ing that  some  even  of  his  own  party  were 
recoiling  with  horror  from  the  atrocities 
of  his  unparalled  despotism,  Lauderdale 
so  far  gave  way  as  to  recall  the  High- 
landers, and  to  withdraw  the  bond  and 
the  writ  of  lawburrows.  But  at  the  samo 
time  he  contrived  to  procure  from  his 
majesty  a  letter  to  the  council  expressing 
approbation  of  all  their  recent  proceedings. 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  p.  426. 

*  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  i.  pp.  418,  419;  Kirkton, 
p.  390. 


248 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIL 


When  the  Highland  host  withdrew, 
the  king's  guards  and  the  militia  were 
again  placed  in  garrison  in  different  parts 
of  the  country,  to  suppress  the  field- 
preachings  to  the  utmost  of  their  power. 
But  what  ten  thousand  had  not  been  able 
fully  to  accomplish,  two  thousand  could 
not  effect;  and  field-preachings  were 
again  held  in  several  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, and  attended  by  great  numbers.  At 
one,  in  particular,  held  at  Whitekirk, 
nearly  opposite  the  Bass,  the  soldiers 
were  beaten  off  by  the  country  people, 
and  compelled  to  retire,  one  man  being 
wounded  in  the  brief  conflict.  For  this, 
one  man,  James  Learmont,  was  executed, 
chiefly  in  consequence  of  the  relentless 
fury  of  Sharp.  At  another  field-meeting 
the  soldiery  wire  more  successful,  dis- 
persing the  meeting,  and  seizing  upon  a 
number  of  the  people,  who,  after  suffering 
imprisonment,  were  sentenced  to  be  ban- 
ished to  the  plantations. 

These  numerous  field-meetings  roused 
the  fury  of  Lauderdale  and  the  prelates, 
who  procured  from  the  king  an  order 
calling  a  convention  of  estates  to  meet 
in  July,  to  deliberate  in  what  manner 
"  field-conventicles,  these  rendezvouses  of 
rebellion,"  as  his  majesty's  letter  was 
pleased  to  term  them,  might  be  most 
effectually  suppressed.  On  the  1  Oth  of 
July,  the  convention  passed  an  act  impos- 
ing a  cess  or  assessment  of  eighteen  hun- 
dred thousand  pounds  Scots,  or  about 
£150,000  sterling,  to  be  raised  in  five 
years  by  yearly  payments  of  about  £30, 
000  sterling,  for  the  maintenance  of  an 
army  sufficiently  strong  to  suppress  those 
dreaded  and  detested  field-meetings.*  Not 
only  was  this  measure  in  itself  oppres- 
sive, but  it  also  proved  a  new  cause  of 
contention  among  the  Presbyterians.  It 
immediately  became  a  question  among 
them  whether  they  could  in  conscience 
pay  an  assessment  which  was  imposed 
for  the  avowed  purpose  of  maintaining  an 
army  to  prevent  the  public  preaching  of 
the  gospel.  Some  argued  that  it  was  of 
the  nature  of  general  taxation,  which,  as 
subjects,  they  were  bound  to  pay,  what- 
ever use  might  be  made  of  the  money  by 
the  ruling  powers  of  the  State ;  others 
reasoned  from  the  necessity  of  the  case, 
since  their  refusal  would  only  expose 
them  to  greater  suffering,  and  to  the  utter 

•  Wodrow,  vol.  ii.  p.  490. 


spoliation  of  their  entire  property,  by 
which  their  enemies  would  obtain  much 
more  than  the  specified  amount ;  and  the 
more  resolute  maintained  that  it  was  sin- 
ful to  pay  it,  knowing  precisely  for  what 
purpose  it  was  levied,  and  how  it  was  to 
be  expended.  It  seems  clear  that  the  lat- 
ter opinion  was  the  correct  one.  For  the 
fact,  that  this  cess  was  imposed  avowedly 
for  the  purpose  of  supporting  an  army  to 
suppress  the  public  preaching  of  the  gos- 
pel in  what  were  termed  field-conven- 
ticles, deprived  it  of  the  character  of  com- 
mon taxation,  by  which  a  general  fund  is 
raised  to  defray  all  the  expenditure  of  the 
government,  and  where  it  is  impossible  to 
specify  the  particular  use  of  any  portion 
of  the  public  money  so  raised.  Yet  the 
conduct  of  the  Covenanters  in  declining 
to  pay  this  cess  has  been  appealed  to  in 
modern  times,  as  a  justification  of  the  con- 
duct of  men  who  refused  to  pay  an  an- 
cient and  legal  tax,  levied  for  the  purpose 
of  supporting  the  preaching  of  the  gospel, 
by  men  of  whose  doctrines  they  approved, 
and  whom  they  acknowledged  to  be  faith- 
ful and  able  servants  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 
This  unhappy  disagreement  between  the 
different  parties  of  the  Presbyterians 
tended  greatly  to  increase  the  divisions 
among  them,  which  had  been  already- 
caused  by  the  indulgence  and  'other  simi- 
lar schemes  of  their  crafty  and  merciless 
oppressors.  On  the  strength  of  this  assess- 
ment, it  was  resolved  to  raise  and  main- 
tain a  standing  army  of  five  thousand  foot 
and  five  hundred  cavalry,  in  addition 
to  the  life-guards,  which  had  been  contin- 
ued in  force  after  the  previous  disbanding 
of  the  army.  It  may  be  mentioned,  that 
about  this  time  James  Graham  of  Claver- 
house  began  to  distinguish  himself  by  his 
fierce  and  cruel  treatment  of  the  Cove- 
nanters, earning  for  himself  that  name  of 
infamy  and  terror  by  which  he  will  be 
known  and  held  in  detestation,  notwith- 
standing the  laudations  of  writers  of  ro- 
mance, till  the  moors  and  mountains 
which  witnessed  his  bloody  deeds  shall 
have  perished  amid  the  ruins  of  dissolv- 
ing nature. 

One  event  occurred  in  the  beginning 
of  this  year,  which  demands  notice,  but 
which  was  omitted  in  order  to  avoid  in- 
terrupting the  narrative  respecting  the 
Highland  host  and  other  public  transac- 
tions. This  was  the  trial  and  execution 


A.  D.  1679.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


249 


of  James  Mitchell,  who,  in  the  year 
1668,  attempted  to  assassinate  Archbishop 
Sharp.  He  had  been  apprehended,  as 
above  related,  in  the  year  1674,  and  had 
confessed  his  guilt,  on  the  promise  of 
safety  to  his  life  ;  but  was  imprisoned  for 
two  years,  first  in  Edinburgh,  and  after- 
wards in  the  Bass.  In  1676  he  was 
again  brought  to  trial ;  when,  finding 
that  the  promise  of  life  was  about  to  be 
broken,  he  refused  to  acknowledge  his 
confession,  and  there  being  no  other  evi- 
dence against  him,  he  was  put  to  the  tor- 
ture of  the  boot.  He  behaved  with  great 
courage  and  firmness  under  this  inhuman 
treatment,  refusing  to  gratify  the  malice 
of  his  tormentors  by  uttering  one  word 
tending  to  criminate  himself  or  others, 
till,  after  nine  successive  blows  had 
crushed  his  leg  almost  to  a  jelly,  he 
fainted  under  the  excessive  agony,  and 
was  again  cast  into  prison.  It  was  pro- 
posed to  crush  the  other  leg  in  the  same 
manner  ;  but  this  was  prevented  in  conse- 
quence of  a  letter  received  by  Sharp  inti- 
mating that,  if  he  persisted  in  his  cruel 
intention,  he  should  have  a  shot  from 
a  steadier  hand.*  After  languishing  two 
additional  years  in  prison,  he  was  again 
brought  from  the  Bass  to  Edinburgh  in 
the  beginning  of  January  1678.  The 
accusation  was  conducted  by  the  Lord 
Advocate,  well  known  as  "  the  bloody 
Mackenzie,"  and  the  defence  by  Sir 
George  Lockhart.  As  there  was  still  no 
evidence  except  the  prisoner's  confession 
upon  the  promise  that  his  life  should  be 
spared,  the  only  way  in  which  they  could 
reach  his  life  was  by  denying  that  any 
such  promise  had  been  given.  Four 
members  of  the  privy  council — the  Duke 
of  Lauderdale,  the  Earl  of  Rothes,  Lord 
Hatton,  brother  of  Lauderdale,  and  Arch- 
bishop Sharp — positively  swore  that  no 
assurance  of  life  had  been  given  to  Mit- 
chell to  induce  him  to  confess.  Mitchell 
produced  a  copy  of  the  act  of  council  in 
which  that  assurance  had  been  given,  and 
craved  that  the  register  itself  might  be 
examined.  This  was  refused,  and  sen- 
tence passed,  condemning  him  to  death. 
When  the  trial  was  over,  the  lords  exam- 
ined the  register  of  the  council,  and  found 
the  act  containing  the  assurance  of  life  on 
which  Mitchell  had  founded  his  defence. 
Lauderdale  would  have  spared  him,  but 

'  Law's  Memorial's,  p.  85. 

32 


Sharp  strenuously  insisted  upon  his  death, 
as  the  only  way  of  securing  his  own  per- 
son against  similar  attempts.  Lauder- 
dale yielded,  with  a  profane  jest ;  and 
Sharp's  cowardly  and  revengeful  heart 
was  gratified  by  this  act  of  judicial  mur- 
der. Such  was  the  conduct  of  Arch- 
bishop Sharp,  the  great  apostle  of  Scot- 
tish Prelacy, — conduct  which  even  Bur- 
net  says  "  was  probably  that  which,  in  the 
just  judgment  of  God,  and  the  inflamed 
fury  of  wicked  men,  brought  him  after- 
wards to  such  a  dismal  end."*  "  Doubt- 
less," says  Laing,  "the  fanaticism  of 
Mitchell  was  of  the  most  daring  and 
atrocious  nature  ;  but  his  guilt  is  lost  in 
the  complicated  perfidy,  cruelty,  perjury, 
and  revenge,  which  accomplished  his 
death.f" 

[1679.]  The  year  1679  is  one,  the 
records  of  which  would  be  most  appro- 
priately written  in  blood.  Lauderdale 
had  succeeded  in  repelling  the  accusations 
brought  against  him  by  the  best  of  the 
Scottish  nobility  ;  and  he  had  now  an 
army  at  his  command  sufficiently  strong, 
as  he  thought,  to  suppress  the  Presbyte- 
rians entirely.  But  it  was  necessary  for 
that  purpose  to  adopt  measures  more  sum- 
mary and  destructive  than  had  yet  been 
attempted.  Early  in  the  month  of  Janu- 
ary the  council  transmitted  to  his  ma- 
jesty, for  his  approbation,  a  series  of  over- 
tures, or  propositions,  "for  the  suppression 
of  the  present  schisms  and  disorders  of  the 
Church  ;"  to  which  the  king  returned  an 
early  answer,  expressing  himself  well 
pleased  with  them,  and  empowering  the 
council  to  put  them  into  effectual  execu- 
tion. Some  of  these  propositions  were 
peculiarly  atrocious  ;  such  as, — authoris- 
ing the  soldiers  to  disperse  all  conventi- 
cles by  force  of  arms,  with  an  indemnity 
for  whatever  slaughter  they  might  com- 
mit;— enjoining  them  to  seize  on  the 
preachers  and  as  many  of  the  hearers  as 
possible, — to  strip  those  whom  they  could 
not  take  with  them  of  their  upper  gar- 
ments, as  a  means  of  future  apprehension 
arid  conviction  ; — and  offering  rewards  of 
£500  sterling  for  the  apprehension  of  Mr. 
John  Welsh,  3000  merks  for  any  inter 
communed  minister,  and  900  merks  foi 
any  other  preacher.  Detachments  of  the 
newly  levied  army  were  stationed  in  dif- 


'  Burnet's  Own  Tiroes,  vol.  i.  p.  416. 
History,  vol.  ii.  p.  80. 


t  Laing'i 


250 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII 


ferent  parts  of  the  country,  encouraged  to 
their  bloody  work  by  the  commands 
of  the  council,  and  assisted  by  the  prelates 
and  their  underlings  the  curates.  One 
effect  of  these  oppressive  measures  was 
very  soon  apparent.  It  became  certain 
death  for  the  Presbyterians  to  meet  for  the 
worship  of  God,  except  in  such  large 
numbers  as  might  enable  them  to  defend 
themselves  against  their  assailants.  The 
field-meetings  became  therefore  more  rare 
in  their  occurrence,  but  correspondingly 
more  formidable,  both  in  the  numbers 
who  attended,  and  the  army-like  aspect 
which  they  began  to  wear.  The  preach- 
ers were  generally  accompanied  by  a 
band  of  armed  men,  who  were  resolved 
to  protect  their  ministers  at  the  hazard  of 
their  lives  ;  and  when  they  met  for  public 
worship,  they  chose  strong  positions,  and 
posted  armed  sentinels  all  around  them, 
to  watch  the  movements  of  the  enemy,  and 
to  warn  their  friends  for  a  timely  flight 
or  a  resolute  resistance.  At  one  of  these 
meetings  in  the  parish  of  Lesmahago, 
near  Lanark,  on  the  30th  of  March,  the 
soldiers,  not  daring  to  attack  the  main 
body,  attempted  to  gratify  their  malice  by 
plundering  some  women  on  the  outskirts 
of  the  meeting.  Upon  this  a  party  of  men 
left  the  meeting,  and  compelled  the  plun- 
derers to  give  back  their  pillage,  and 
retire.  About  the  same  time  two  soldiers 
were  murdered  at  Loudon  Hill,  not  by 
the  Presbyterians,  but,  as  Wodrow  has 
proved,  by  some  of  the  mean  villains  em- 
ployed as  Government  spies.* 

These  occurrences,  as  might  be  ex- 
pected, roused  the  wrath  of  the  persecu- 
tors to  tenfold  fury,  and  more  violent  and 
oppressive  orders  were  immediately  issued 
by  the  council ;  and  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  be  ready  to  act  at  all  times  and 
to  issue  such  orders  as  circumstances 
might  seem  to  require,  the  two  archbishops 
being  members  of  committee.  On  the  1st 
of  May  a  new  order  of  council  was  issued, 
commanding  the  Earl  of  Linlithgow  to 
send  a  strong  military  force  .against  the 
Rev.  Messrs.  Welsh,  Cameron,  Kid,  and 
Douglas,  and  the  party  which  accorn- 
pained  them,  to  seize  them  wherever  they 
might  be  found,  "  and,  in  case  of  resist- 
ance, to  pursue  them  to  the  death,  declar- 
ing that  the  said  officers  and  soldiers 
shall  not  be  called  in  question  therefor, 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  pp.  37,  38. 


civilly  or  criminally."  This  was  equiva- 
lent to  a  proclamation  of  war  against 
these  ministers  and  every  person  who 
should  endeavour  to  protect  their  lives  ; 
and  it  appears  to  have  been  so  regarded 
by  the  more  rash  and  daring  of  the  per- 
secuted Presbyterians.  It  was  unques- 
tionably the  direct  cause  of  the  insurrec- 
tion which  soon  afterwards  took  place. 

In  the  meantime  another  event  occured 
which  had  no  little  influence  in  precipita- 
ting the  conflict.  Archbishop  Sharp  had 
been  in  Edinburgh  attending  the  meeting 
of  privy  council  which  issued  the  preced- 
ing order.  Other  measures  were  propos- 
ed, which  would  require  the  direct  sanc- 
tion of  his  majesty  ;  and  Sharp  resolved 
to  go  to  London  himself,  to  aid  in  the  ar- 
rangement of  one  great,  and  what  he 
hoped  might  prove  a  conclusive,  effort 
for  the  utter  destruction  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  of  Scotland.  The  shire  of 
Fife  he  regarded  as  under  his  peculiar 
care  ;  and  being  much  provoked  that  con- 
venticles were  frequently  held  in  his  do- 
main, he  had  resolved  to  suppress  them 
with  the  utmost  rigour,  and  for  that  pur- 
pose had  appointed  a  person  named  Car- 
michael,  to  employ  all  the  methods  com- 
manded by  the  council  without  mercy  or 
mitigation.  Carmichael  was  an  instru- 
ment suitable  for  such  a  purpose.  His 
barbarities  drove  the  people  to  despair, 
and  in  their  misery  they  determined  either 
to  put  him  to  death,  or  to  terrify  him  so 
far  as  to  compel  him  to  leave  that  part  of 
the  country.  For  this  purpose  nine  per- 
sons, some  of  them  gentlemen  of  consid- 
erable property  and  rank,  met  on  the 
morning  of  the  3d  of  May,  prepared  to 
carry  their  intention  in  effect.  Carmi- 
chael, however,  had  received  information 
that  some  gentlemen  had  been  inquiring 
for  him,  and  kept  himself  concealed.  Be- 
ing thus  disappointed,  they  were  on  the 
point  of  separating,  when  they  were  in- 
formed that  Sharp  was  approaching. 
Startled  and  excited  by  this  unexpected 
intelligence  at  such  a  moment,  one  of 
them  exclaimed,  "  Our  arch-enemy  is  de- 
livered into  our  hands;"  and  proposed 
that  they  should  put  him  to  death.  Hack- 
ston  of  Rathillet  opposed  his  design,  but 
could  not  prevail  upon  his  companions  to 
abandon  it;  and  though  he  would  take 
no  part  in  the  matter,  he  consented  to  re- 
main with  them. 


A.  D.  1G79.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


251 


The  party  then  rode  forward  to  Magus 
Moor,  about  three  miles  from  St.  Andrews, 
where  they  descried  the  prelate's  coach, 
and  immediately  galloped  on  to  intercept 
him.  Perceiving  himself  pursued,  Sharp 
cried  out  to  his  coachman,  "  Drive,  drive," 
in  that  extreme  terror  of  his  life  which 
his  many  cruelties  to  the  Presbyterians 
may  well  have  suggested  to  his  dark  and 
troubled  mind.  At  length  one  of  the 
pursuers  overtook  the  coach,  dismounted 
the  postilion,  cut  the  traces,  and  put  an 
end  to  the  unhappy  prelate's  flight,  call- 
ing out  to  him,  "  Juclas,  be  taken  !"  When 
the  whole  party  had  come  up,  they  com- 
manded Sharp  to  come  out  of  the  coach, 
and  prepare  himself*  for  death,  judgment, 
and  eternity.  The  miserable  man  shrieked 
aloud  for  mercy,  and  clung  to  his  daugh- 
ter, who  was  with  him  in  the  carriage. 
Upon  his  refusing  to  come  out,  they  fired 
into  the  carriage,  but  being  unwilling  to 
injure  the  person  of  the  lady,  their  un- 
steady aim  did  not  take  effect,  and  they 
again  commanded  him  to  come  forth, 
otherwise  they  would  drag  him  out.  At 
length  he  came  out,  repeating  his  vehe- 
ment cries  for  mercy,  offering  to  save 
their  lives, — to  give  them  money, — to 
abandon  his  prelatic  station, — if  they 
would  but  spare  his  life.  His  cries  for 
mercy  were  in  vain.  They  reminded 
him  of  his  apostasy, — of  the  eighteen 
years  of  bloodshed  of  which  he  had  been 
the  chief  cause, — of  his  repeated  acts  of 
perjury, — of  his  withholding  the  king's 
letter  till  nine  sufferers,  whom  it  would 
have  saved,  were  put  to  a  cruel  and 
ignominious  death;  and  having  thus  set 
his  crimes  in  terrible  array  before  his 
face,  they  again  exhorted  him  to  pjay  to 
God  for  that  mercy  which  he  himself  had 
never  shown  to  man.  Still  the  wretched 
man  could  raise  no  cry  to  heaven, — a  cir- 
cumstance which  appalled  the  assassins, 
and  caused  them  to  stand  aghast  at  such 
a  spectacle  of  utter  despair.  He  availed 
himself  so  far  of  their  half-recoiling  hor- 
ror as  to  creep  grovelling  towards  Hack- 
ston,  who  remained  on  horseback  a  little 
apart,  imploring  him  to  interpose  and 
save  his  life ;  but  Hackston  answering, 
"  I  shall  never  lay  a  hand  on  you,"  turned 
aside,  and  left  him  to  his  fearful  fate.* 
They  then  fired  upon  him,  and  he  fell  to 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  pp.  40-46 ;  Kirkton,  pp.  411-421 ; 
Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  i.  p.  471. 


the  ground ;  but  when  they  were  about 
to  depart,  perceiving  him  still  alive,  they 
returned  and  despatched  him  with  their 
swords.  So  perished  that  deeply  guilty 
and  most  miserable  man,  whose  life  had 
been  one  tissue  of  unbounded  perfidy  and 
remorseless  cruelty,  having  been  the 
cause  to  his  suffering  country  of  a  greater 
amount  of  woe  and  ruin  than  ever  was  in- 
flicted on  it  by  any  other  human  being. 
Yet,  though  his  death  may  be  justly 
viewed  as  an  instance  of  the  retributive 
judgment  of  God,  the  deed  of  those  by 
whom  his  blood  was  shed  cannot  be  re- 
garded in  any  other  light  than  as  an  act 
of  murder.  True,  it  was  such  a  deed  as 
Greece  celebrated  with  loudest  praises  in 
the  case  of  Harmodius  and  Aristogeiton, 
and  Rome  extolled  when  done  by  Cas- 
sius  and  Brutus ;  but  the  weapons  of  a 
Christian's  warfare  are  not  carnal,  nor 
do  the  precepts  of  the  gospel  allow  pri- 
vate individuals  to  stain  their  hands  in 
blood,  though  for  the  purpose  of  aveng- 
ing a  public  wrong,  and  rescuing  their 
suffering  country  from  the  criminal  op- 
pression inflicted  by  a  lawless  and  cruel 
tyrant.  And  therefore,  though  few  will 
doubt  that  Sharp  deserved  to  die,  none 
will  approve  the  conduct  of  those  men, 
outraged  grievously  though  they  had 
been,  who,  in  the  exercise  of  what  Bacon 
terms  "  wild  justice,"  took  upon  them- 
selves the  office  of  his  executioners. 

When  the  intelligence  of  Sharp's  death 
reached  the  council,  they  immediately 
despatched  information  to  the  king,  and 
issued  proclamations  offering  a  large  re- 
ward for  the  seizure  of  the  murderers. 
In  this  their  efforts  were  ineffectual;  for 
these  men,  after  remaining  together  till 
night,  separated,  and  betook  themselves  to 
different  parts  of  the  country  for  better 
concealment.  Several  of  them  joined 
their  friends  in  the  west,  but  carefully  ab- 
stained from  stating  their  participation  in 
the  fatal  deed — so  well  were  they  aware 
that  the  principles  or  impulses  which 
had  excited  them  to  the  slaughter  of  the 
arch-persecutor,  were  disavowed  and  con- 
demned by  almost  the  entire  of  the  perse- 
cuted Presbyterians.  Yet  prelatic  wri- 
ters have  generally  accused  the  whole 
body  of  entertaining  similar  opinions,  and 
approving  of  the  unhappy  prelate's  as- 
sassination ;  and  the  ensnaring  question, 
"  Whether  they  approved  of  the  killing 


'252 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


of  the  archbishop  ?"  was  frequently  put 
by  the  soldiers  to  their  prisoners,  imme- 
diate death  being  the  frequent  consequence 
of  an  unsatisfactory  answer.  Many  of 
those  to  whom  this  question  was  put 
would  have  readily  interposed  to  save  the 
life  of  the  wretched  victim,  but  would  not 
express  condemnation  either  of  the  deed 
itself,  or  of  those  by  whom  it  was  com- 
mitted, not  considering  themselves  en- 
tiiled  to  judge  the  motives  of  other  men, 
or  to  determine  respecting  such  matters. 

On  the  13th  day  of  May,  a  new  pro- 
clamation was  issued  against  conventi- 
cles, sufficiently  expressive  of  the  coun- 
cil's determination  to  wage  henceforth  a 
war  of  extermination.  After  rehearsing 
the  previous  acts  against  appearing  in 
arms,  especially  at  field-meetings,  those 
"  rendezvouses  of  rebellion,"  his  majesty 
is  made  to  express  a  degree  of  self-cen- 
sure for  his  past  clemency  !  and  a  deter- 
mination that  his  subjects  should  no  long- 
er be  led  astray  by  such  improper  len- 
ity !  Authority  is  then  given  to  judges 
and  officers  of  the  forces  "to  proceed 
against  all  such,  who  go  with  any  arms 
to  these  field-meetings,  as  traitors  ;"  and, 
lest  this  should  seem  to  express  lenity  to 
those  who  went  unarmed,  the  concluding 
clause  expressly  involves  them  in  the  same 
danger.  The  act  of  council  on  which  this 
proclamation  was  formed  was  the  last  act 
to  which  Sharp  set  his  persecuting  hand,  it 
having  been  proposed  by  him,  and  passed 
with  some  difficulty,  on  the  1st  of  May, 
before  he  left  Edinburgh  to  meet  his 
fate.  From  this  circumstance  this  tyranni- 
cal act  was  termed  "the bishop's  legacy."* 

The  extreme  of  patient  endurance  was 
now  almost  overpast.  The  persecuted 
Presbyterians  saw  no  alternative  between 
sinking  into  a  state  of  absolute  slavery 
of  both  soul  and  body,  and  assuming 
arms  in  defence  of  their  liberties,  civil 
and  religious.  They  would  not  submit 
to  the  prelatic  yoke, — they  would  listen 
to  the  preaching  of  the  pure  gospel  by 
their  own  ministers  ;  and  when  their  own 
lives  and  those  of  their  pastors  were  as- 
sailed by  the  lawless  soldiery,  they  con- 
ceived themselves  entitled,  by  every  law 
of  God,  nature,  and  reason,  to  defend 
themselves.  To  this  extent  who  will  say 
they  were  wrong  ?  But  intolerable  op- 
pression began,  after  long  endurance,  to 
•  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  58-60. 


drive  them  beyond  what  cooler  reason  in 
happier  times  can  sanction.  Some  of  the 
more  impetuous,  especially  among  the 
laymen,  began  to  enquire  whether  it  was 
not  their  duty  to  do  something  more  than 
stand  on  the  defensive.  They  thought 
the  time  was  come  when  they  were 
called  upon  to  make  a  bold  and  public 
declaration  of  their  sentiments,  condemn- 
ing the  various  steps  by  which  the  coun- 
try had  been  reduced  to  such  a  state  of 
misery,  and  censuring  the  conduct  of 
those  who  continued  to  give  any  colour 
to  the  proceedings  of  the  persecutors  by 
subscribing  their  ensnaring  bonds,  or 
tamely  submitting  to  their  oppressive 
tyranny.  Sentiments  of  this  kind  were 
strongly  advocated  by  a  gentleman  named 
Robert  Hamilton,  son  of  Sir  Thomas 
Hamilton  of  Preston,  a  man  of  personal 
piety,  but  of  narrow  and  contracted  views, 
ill-directed  zeal,  and  overbearing  temper. 
His  opinions  were  adopted  by  a  consider- 
able number  of  the  more  youthful  and  ar- 
dent of  the  people,  and"  by  Cameron, 
Cargill,  and  Douglas,  among  the  inter- 
communed  ministers.  It  was  at  length 
resolved  to  make  a  public  declaration  of 
these  sentiments  ;  and  accordingly,  on  the 
29th  of  May,  Robert  Hamilton,  Douglas, 
and  about  eighty  armed  men  went  to 
Rutherglen,  extinguished  the  bonfires 
which  had  been  kindled  to  celebrate  the 
Restoration,  burned  the  persecuting  acts 
of  parliament  and  council,  read  their  own 
declaration  and  testimony,  and  then  peace- 
ably retired,  leaving  a  copy  of  their 
declaration  affixed  to  the  market-cross.* 

The  Rutherglen  declaration  was  mag- 
nified by  the  prelatic  party  into  a  daring 
act  of  open  rebellion  ;  and  on  Saturday 
the  31st  of  May,  Graham  of  Claverhouse 
set  out  from  Glasgow  in  quest  of  the 
party  who  had  made  this  public  manifes- 
tation. When  he  arrived  at  Hamilton, 
he  surprised  Mr.  King,  one  of  the  inter- 
communed  ministers,  and  about  fourteen 
unarmed  countrymen.  Learning  that  a 
field-meeting  was  to  be  held  next  clay 
near  Loudonhill,  he  determined  to  assail 
and  disperse  it ;  and  set  out  in  the  morn- 
ing, taking  with  him  his  prisoners,  bound 
together  two  by  two.  Before  he  came 
in  sight  of  the  Presbyterian  party,  they 
had  received  information  of  his  approach, 
and  had  come  to  the  determination  to 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  p.  66. 


A.  D.  1679.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND 


253 


prevent  the  meeting  from  being  dispersed, 
by  placing  themselves  in  his  line  of 
march,  a  considerable  space  in  advance 
of  their  friends,  intending  also  to  rescue 
the  prisoners  should  they  find  it  in  their 
power.  Mustering  about  forty  horse, 
and  one  hundred  and  fifty  foot,  indiffer- 
ently armed,  but  full  of  courage,  they 
took  up  their  position  at  a  place  called 
Drumclog,  where  they  were  somewhat 
protected  by  the  swampy  nature  of  the 
ground,  and  by  a  broad  ditch  which  ran 
along  their  front.  Hamilton  took  the 
chief  command,  supported  by  Hackston 
of  Rathillet,  Balfour  of  Kinloch  or  Bur- 
leigh,  John  Paton,  William  Cleland, 
Henry  Hall,  and  some  others  of  less 
note.  When  Claverhouse  approached, 
and  marked  the  strength  of  their  posi- 
tion, and  the  resolute  front  which  they 
presented,  he  perceived  that  they  were 
not  likely  to  be  routed  without  a  struggle, 
and  therefore  left  a  small  party  to  guard 
the  prisoners,  commanding  them  to  be 
shot  should  he  be  defeated.*  Hamilton 
gave  an  order  of  a  similar  import  that 
no  prisoners  should  be  taken.  The  bat- 
tle was  begun  by  Claverhouse,  who  com- 
manded his  men  to  fire  upon  the  Cove- 
nanters. They  returned  his  fire  with 
effect ;  and,  after  the  interchange  of 
several  volleys,  Balfour  and  Cleland 
burst  through  their  own  line  of  defence, 
rushed  upon  their  assailants,  and,  after  a 
sharp  conflict,  put  them  to  flight.  Thirty 
or  forty  of  the  soldiers  fell  in  the  battle 
and  the  pursuit,  and  five  were  taken  pri- 
soners, one  of  whom  was  shot  by  Hamil- 
ton ;  the  rest  were  saved  by  the  interpo- 
sition of  the  other  officers. 

^After  this  encounter,  the  victorious 
Presbyterians  deliberated  what  course  to 
follow, — whether  to  disperse,  or  to  re- 
main together  for  their  mutual  protection. 
The  latter  opinion  was  speedily  adopted, 
as  they  were  well  aware  that  their  baf- 
fled and  enraged  enemies  would  exact  a 
cruel  revenge  the  moment  it  was  in  their 
power.  They  determined,  therefore,  to 
remain  together  in  arms,  both  for  their 
own  defence,  and  to  see  whether  the 
country  would  rally  round  them  in  suffi- 
cient strength  to  enable  them  to  procure 
relief  from  the  tyranny  under  which  they 
had  so  long  groaned.  Next  day  they 
advanced  to  Hamilton,  and,  being  joined 

*  Wilsqp's  Relation,  p.  7. 


by  considerable  numbers,  they  resolved 
to  march  on  Glasgow,  and  dislodge  the 
army  from  that  town.  But  before  they 
arrived,  the  troops  under  the  command 
of  Lord  Ross  and  Claverhouse  had  pre- 
pared such  means  of  defence  as  the  coun- 
trymen could  not  force ;  and,  after  sus- 
taining a  slight  loss,  they  retired,  and 
encamped  on  Hamilton  Moor,  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Clyde. 

Scarcely  had  the  insurgents  withdrawn, 
when  the  royal  troops  also  left  Glasgow, 
and  retreated  in  hasty  confusion  towards 
Stirling  to  the  main  army.  Proclama- 
tions and  acts  of  council  were  issued,  of 
which  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  they 
abound  most  in  the  language  of  terrified 
exaggeration  or  ferocious  cruelty.  Con- 
siderable exertions  were  made  to  increase 
the  army,  and  the  Duke  of  Monmouth, 
the  king's  illegitimate  son,  was  sent  down 
to  take  the  chief  command. 

In  the  meantime,  the  army  of  the  in- 
surgents had  received  a  considerable  ac- 
cession in  point  of  numbers,  but  was 
paralyzed  by  dissension  and  disagree- 
ment* As  the  insurrectection,  like  that 
which  terminated  at  Pentland,  had  arisen 
out  of  an  unforeseen  event,  there  was  no 
previous  concert  of  opinions  and  plans 
for  their  guidance ;  and  when  numbers 
began  to  flock  to  their  army,  it  was  con- 
sidered necessary  to  frame  and  publish 
a  declaration,  stating  the  causes  of  their 
rising  in  arms,  and  the  ruling  principles 
by  which  they  were  actuated.  Hamilton 
and  his  party  were  for  taking  the  Ruther- 
glen  declaration  as  the  basis  of  their 
new  manifesto,  and  even  purposed  to 
emit  a  testimony  against  the  indulgence 
and  the  payment  of  the  cess ;  but  as 
many  who  had  joined  them  had  submit- 
ted to  both  these  measures,  such  persons 
would  not  consent  to  a  declaration  by 
which  their  own  conduct  would  be  di- 
rectly condemned.  These,  on  the  other 
hand  required  that  the  manifesto  should 
contain  a  declaration  of  their  unshaken 
loyalty  to  the  king,  notwithstanding  the 
oppressive  tyr  anny  which  had  been  prac- 
tised in  his  na  me  ;  while  Hamilton  and 
his  friends  woi  ild  not  consent  to  acknow- 
ledge the  kin^  and  his  government  re- 
garding his  rij  jht  to  the  crown,  as  for- 
feited by  his  violation  of  the  Covenant, 
which  he  had  sworn,  and  by  his  long- 
continued  and  se  vere  despotism.  Neither 


254 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


party  would  submit  to  the  other,  and  all 
their  councils  became  scenes  of  tumult 
and  angry  contention,  discouraging  the 
army,  keeping  back  many  who  would 
have  joined  them,  inducing  others  to 
abandon  a  divided  and  falling  cause,  and 
holding  them  spell-bound  while  their  en- 
emies were  preparing  to  crush  them. 
They  seized  on  Glasgow,  and  advanced 
about  a  dozen  miles  towards  Edinburgh, 
then  hesitated,  returned  to  their  former 
position  on  Hamilton  Moor,  near  Both- 
well  Bridge,  and  resumed  their  unhappy 
and  most  pernicious  contests.  There 
were  eighteen  ministers  in  their  army, 
none. of  whom  had  taken  the  indulgence ; 
and  only  two,  Cargill  and  Douglas,  es- 
poused the  opinions  of  Hamilton  and  his 
party.  Not  one  of  the  sixteen  approved 
of  the  indulgence,  but  they  disapproved 
of  condemning  it  in  their  manifesto,  as 
certain  to  prevent  a  great  number  of  tr-ue 
Presbyterians  from  joining  the  common 
cause.  For  this  they  were  sharply  cen- 
sured by  their  opponents,  and  accused  of 
downright  Erastianism,  as  much  as  if  they 
had  themselves  taken  the  indulgence. 
Yet  how  far  they  were  from  entertaining 
Erastian  opinions  must  be  evident  from 
the  fact,  that  their  leader  was  Mr.  Welsh, 
who  had  been  intercommuned  for  field- 
preaching,  and  for  whose  seizure  a  re- 
ward of  five  hundred  pounds  sterling 
had  been  offered.  That  he  could  have 
been  tainted  with  Erastian  principles 
may  well  be  deemed  incredible ;  but 
while  he  was  willing  to  peril  his  own  life 
in  preaching  the  gospel  to  any  who  had  a 
desire  to  hear  it,  he  was  reluctant  to'haz- 
ard  the  success  of  the  Presbyterian  army 
and  cause,  by  publishing  a  declaration 
which  must  alienate  many,  and  which, 
in  his  opinion,  the  circumstances  and 
necessities  of  the  case  did  not  require. 
Counter  declarations  were  framed  and 
proposed ;  ministers  contended  against 
ministers,  and  officers  against  officers; 
the  body  of  the  army  caught  the  spirit 
of  contention,  and  they  lay  in  their  camp 
tossing  and  confused  till  the  army  of 
their  enemies  was  upoYi  t'hem. 

"  It  is  scarcely  within  the  province  of 
a  historian  to  attempt  deciding  a  question 
of  such  a  nature  as  thnt  which  divided 
the  Covenanters  ;  yet,  ;is  it  is  so  closely 
connected  with  the  principles  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  a  few  remarks  may 


be  offered.  In  one  point  of  view  it 
would  seem  that  the  opinions  of  Hamil- 
ton and  the  stricter  party,  were  sounder 
and  more  consistent  than  those  of  theii 
opponents.  The  indulgence  was  unques- 
tionably based  upon  the  act  of  supremacy, 
and,  therefore,  inconsistent  with  the  fun 
damental  principles  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  But  it  was  not  so  clear  a  mat 
ter  that  a  condemnation  of  it  was  imper- 
atively required  till  an  Assembly  of  the 
whole  Church  could  be  held,  and  the 
matter  fairly  and  deliberately  adjudged. 
The  direct  contest  was  with  Prelacy  and 
the  act  of  supremacy  in  matters  ecclesi- 
astical ;  and  could  these  have  been  re- 
moved, the  indulgence  would  have  per- 
ished of  itself.  It  was  for  those  who 
had  complied  with  it  to  confess  and  la- 
ment their  own  defection,  publicly,  if 
they  thought  proper ;  but  it  does  not 
seem  a  matter  of  positive  duty  in  the 
non-indulged  to  have  issued  a  condem- 
nation of  any  thing  more  than  the  direct 
causes  of  .their  wrongs  and  sufferings. 
And  especially,  the  significant  suppres- 
sion of  any  recognition  of  the  king's  au- 
thority as  the  lawful  sovereign  of  the 
kingdom,  indicated  the  existence  of 
views,  the  open  promulgation  of  which 
would  expose  the  Presbyterians  to  the  ac- 
cusation of  rebellion,  with  more  appear- 
ance of  justice  than  any  thing  which  had 
yet  taken  place,  and  might  be  ruinous  to 
their  prospects  of  success.  Besides,  it 
actually  involved  that  very  mingling  of 
things  civil  and  spiritual,  which  leads  in- 
evitably to  either  Erastianism  or  Popery. 
It  was  true  that  Charles  was  a  tyrant ; 
and  it  may  be  the  opinion  of  jurists,  that 
subjects  are  bound  by  no  law,  human  or 
divine,  from  rising  up  in  vindication  of 
their  civil  liberties,  and  hurling  a  law- 
less tyrant  from  his  throne.  But  that  is 
not  an  argument  which  Christians  and 
Christian  ministers,  simply  as  such,  can 
use.  A  Christian  may  be  the  loyal  sub- 
ject of  a  heathen  monarch ;  and,  even 
when  persecuted,  is  not  entitled,  on  that 
account,  to  rebel  and  wage  war  against 
his  persecutor.  Yet,  when  Christian 
subjects  are  exposed  equally  to  the  loss 
of  their  civil  and  religious  liberties,  it  is 
not  surprising  that  they  should  forget  the 
nice  distinctions  which  are  required  to 
guide  them  in  determining  what  declara- 
tions they  should  issue,,  and  what  mode 


A.  D.  1679.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


255 


of  self-defence  they  should  employ.  It 
seems  probable,  also,  that  Hamilton  and 
his  party  were  led  to  adopt  and  hold 
their  opinions  by  misunderstanding  the 
conduct  of  the  Covenanters  of  the  prece- 
ding generation,  and  especially  with  re- 
gard to  the  Act  of  Classes,  excluding 
malignant  and  disaffected  persons  from 
places  of  trust,  whose  whole  previous 
conduct  proved  that  they  would  immedi- 
ately use  their  power  for  the  overthrow 
of  religious  reformation.  And  as  this 
could  not  possibly  be  held  with  regard  to 
those  who  had  merely  submitted  to  the 
indulgence,  the  cases  were  not  parallel, 
and  the  rule  of  the  one  could  not  justly 
apply  to  the  other.  After  all,  however, 
this  may  be  said  in  favour  of  the  very 
strictest  of  the  Presbyterians,  that  the 
principles  which  they  held  were  the  very 
same  which  nine  years  afterwards  per- 
vaded the  whole  nation,  drove  the  race 
of  Stuarts  from  the  throne,  and  secured 
the  liberty  of  Britain,  by  what  all  men 
with  one  consent  rejoice  to  term  the  Glo- 
rious Revolution ;  and  it  would  not  be 
easy  for  any  man  who  defends  the  prin- 
ciples which  led  to  that  great  national  de- 
liverance, to  show  his  consistency  in 
condemning  those  of  the  persecuted  Cov- 
enanters.* 

At  length,  on  the  morning  of  the  Sab- 
bath day,  June  22d,  the  royal  army, 
commanded  by  the  Duke  of  Monmouth, 
arrived  at  Bolhwell,  within  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  of  the  bridge,  which  was  in  pos- 
session of  the  Presbyterian  forces.  Even 
then  their  baneful  contentions  did  not 
cease.  A  deputation  went  to  the  duke, 
and  presented  a  supplication  for  a  redress 
of  grievances.  He  refused  to  treat  with 
them  while  they  remained  in  arms  ;  but 
expressing  that  he  would  be  able  to  ob- 
tain from  his  majesty  both  mercy  and  re- 
dress if  they  would  immediately  lay 
down  their  arms  and  submit  themselves 
to  his  clemency,  he  offered  .them  half  an 
hour  to  consider  and  answer  these  terms. 
That  half  hour  was  spent  in  hot  alterca- 
tion ;  and  when  it  was  past,  the  duke 
sent  a  detachment  to  attempt  the  passage 
of  the  bridge.  It  was  bravely  defended 

*  Both  parties  into  which  the  persecuted  sufferers 
were  henceforth  divided  were  Presbyterians  and  Cov- 
enanters, and  equally  deserve  both  appellations;  but 
the  minority,  consisting  chiefly  of  the  followers  of 
Hamilton,  Cameron,  Cargill,  &c.,  may  be  termed  the 
strict  Covenanters,  to  distinguish  them  from  the  larger 
body,  who  continued  to  adhere  to  the  Covenant  but 
not  with  such  unbending  firmness. 


for  an  hour  by  a  body  of  the  Presbyten 
ans  under  the  command  of  Hackston, 
and  Ure  of  Shargarton.  At  length  their 
ammunition  failed  ;  and  when  they  sent 
for  a  supply,  they  received  orders  to  fall 
back  upon  the  main  army.  Nothing 
could  have  been  more  insane  than  such 
a  command  ;  but  being  now  defenceless 
and  unsupported,  they  were  constrained 
reluctantly  to  comply.  Even  then  their 
native  courage  signalized  itself  by  one 
gallant  deed.  Looking  back,  and  seeing 
that  a  party  of  the  royalists  had  already 
followed  them  to  the  southern  bank  of 
the  river,  they  wheeled  about,  charged 
them  hand  to  hand,  and  driving  them 
headlong  across  the  bridge,  regained 
possession  of  that  important  post.  Hav- 
ing thus  almost  instinctively  pointed  out 
the  path  which  might  have  led  to  safety, 
if  not  to  victory,  they  were  again  obliged 
to  the  inert  mass,  whom  neither  danger 
could  excite  nor  courage  rouse.  Slowly 
the  enemy's  forces  crossed  the  steep  and 
narrow  bridge,  while  the  western  army 
looked  on  in  a  state  of  helpless  and  un- 
moving  stupor.  One  charge  sufficed  to 
cast  the  weltering  mass  into  complete 
confusion  ;  and,  bereft  of  even  the  cour- 
age of  despair,  they  fled,  not  in  bands, 
but  in  scattered  and  defenceless  rout, 
hewn  down  on  every  side  by  the  remorse- 
less hands  of  their  fierce  pursuing  foes. 
Claverhouse,  burning  with  the  desire  of 
revenge  for  his  defeat  at  Drumclog,  urged 
on  the  pursuit  and  the  slaughter  with  in- 
exorable fury,  till  night  compelled  him  to 
quit  his  murderous  work,  wearied,  but 
not  satiated,  with  bloody  butchery.  Few 
fell  in  the  battle,  about  four  hundred  per- 
ished in  the  flight,  and  about  twelve  hun- 
dred remaining  together  in  a  body,  sur- 
rendered at  discretion  on  the  field.* 

Such  was  the  fate  of  that  unconcerted 
and  ill-conducted  insurrection  of  the  per- 
secuted Presbyterians  which  terminated 
in  the  disastrous  battle  of  Both  well 
Bridge.  But  disastrous  as  the  battle  was, 
it  was  but  the  prelude  to  horrors  of  an 
unutterably  more  dreadful  aspect.  The 
unfortunate  prisoners  were  stripped  al- 
most naked,  and  compelled  to  lie  down 
upon  the  ground,  while  a  strong  guard 
kept  watch  over  them,  and  fired  upon 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  pp.  88-100;  Russell's  Account  ap- 
pended to  Kirkton;  Wilson's  Relation;  Ure  of  Shar- 
garton, in  M'Crie'*  Lives  of  Veitch  and  Brysson;  Black 
adder's  Memoirs. 


256 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


them  if  but  a  single  man  raised  his  head 
or  turned  his  body  where  he  lay.     Next 
day  they  were  bound  together  two  and 
two,  and  driven  to  Edinburgh  by  the 
brutal  soldiery,  like  cattle  to  a  slaughter- 
house. There  they  were  enclosed  within 
{he  Greyfriar's  churchyard  for  a  period 
of  five  months,  half-naked,  half-starved, 
and  exposed  to  all  the  vicissitudes  of  the 
season,  unsheltered   save  by  the  tomb- 
stones, and  a  few  rude  sheds  erected  to- 
wards the  close  of  the  autumnal  months. 
In  the  mean  time,  Claverhouse  and  some 
others  proposed  to  burn  Glasgow  and 
Hamilton,  and  lay  the  surrounding  coun- 
try waste ;  but  to  these  savage  proposals 
vhe   Duke  of  Monmouth  would  not  give 
lis  consent ;  and  even  exerted  himself  to 
sheck  the  severities  of  the  council,  and 
mitigate  the  sufferings  of  the  persecuted 
insurgents.     A  proclamation  was,  how- 
ever, speedily  issued,   containing  a  list 
of  the  gentlemen  and  ministers  supposed 
to  be  implicated  in  what  was  termed  "the 
late  rebellion,"  declaring  them  traitors, 
adding,  "  or  any  others  who  concurred 
or  joined  in  it."  An  indemnity  was  soon 
after  published  for  all  who  would  sub- 
mit, but  it  was  so  ample  in  its  exceptions 
as  to  be  a  nullity,  so  far  as  regarded  the 
insurgents,     A  bond  was  also  formed  to 
be  offered  to  the  prisoners,  the  terms  of 
which  were  such  that  few  of  them  fel 
at  liberty  to  subscribe  it,  even  to  save 
themselves  from   death   or  banishment 
They  could  not  conscientiously  term  the 
insurrection  "  rebellion ;"  and  they  woulc 
not  bind  themselves  to  take  up  arms  in 
self-defence.     Yet  this  they  must  do,  or 
prepare  to  suffer  the  extreme  of  tyranni 
cal  cruelty.    Some  of  the  prisoners  were 
prevailed  upon  to  take  this  bond  ;  others, 
refused,  and  were  condemned  to  slavery 
in  the  plantations.     About  two  hundrec 
and  fifty  of  them  were  crowded  into  one 
vessel,  to  be  transported  to  Barbadoes  am 
sold  for  slaves  ;  but  a  storm  wrecked  th 
ship,  and,  being  confined  within  the  hold 
from  which  the  captain  refused  to  releas 
them  even  when  the  vessel  was  founder 
ing,  not  more  than  fifty  escaped  alive 
Two  ministers,  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Ki 
and  King,  had  been  taken  after  the  bat 
tie ;  and  on  the   14th  of  August  thej 
were  both  executed  in  Edinburgh.   Fiv 
other  prisoners  were  carried  to  Magu 


loor,  and  there  hanged,  as  if  to  appease 
le  manes  of  the  perjured  Sharp.* 

But  even  these  atrocities  were  slight, 
ompared  with  those  committed  by  the 
rmy.  "  The  bloody  Claverhouse,"  at 
tie  head  of  a  strong  detachment,  was  let 
oose  upon  the  western  and  southern 
ounties,  and  swept  across  them,  like  a 
,emon  of  destruction  guiding  an  exter- 
minating whirlwind.  Torture,  rapine, 
nd  murder,  marked  his  path.  Those 
vho  fled  were  hunted  down  and  shot  in 
he  fields  ;  and  these  whose  age  or  sex 
•endered  them  incapable  of  flight,  were 
ortured,  abused,  and  butchered  by  their 
>wn  hearthside.  The  hoary  head  of 
hreescore  years  and  ten  was  dashed  to 
he  earth  in  blood  ;  the  shrinking  form 
of  woman  was  exposed  to  violence  and 
iery  agonies,  and  the  tender  limbs  of 
youth  were  mangled,  or  their  heads  cut 
o  the  skull,  with  twisted  cords,  in  the 
Darbarous  attempt  to  wring  from  their 
anguish  a  discovery  where  their  dearest 
relatives  were  concealed.  But  humanity 
recoils  from  the  hideous  recital  of  such 
horrors,  perpetrated  by  the  command, 
beneath  the  eye,  and  often  by  the  hand, 
of  that  relentless  ruffian,  the  favourite 
hero  whom  the  admirers  of  Scottish  Pre- 
lacy delight  to  honour. 

To  aid  the  sword  in  completing  the 
ruin  of  the  Presbyterians,  circuit  courts 
were  appointed  to  be  held  in  the  different 
counties  which  remained  most  steady  to 
their  religious  principles,  empowered  to 
"prosecute  with  the  utmost  rigour  all 
suppliers,  intercommuners,  or  corres- 
pondents with  the  rebels  who  had  been 
at  Bothwell,"  and  to  forfeit  and  burn  in 
effigy  those  who  did  not  appear  upon 
citation.!  Lists  were  speedily  made  up 
of  all  who  had  been  at  Bothwell,  or 
were  suspected  to  have  been  there,  or 
were  suspected  of  being  suspected  to  have 
been  favourably  inclined  towards  the  in- 
surgents. The  curates  were,  as  formerly, 
the  chief  informers  ;  and  in  innumerable 
instances  gratified  their  personal  malice 
and  revenge,  by  naming  persons  against 
whom  they  bore  a  private  grudge,  or 
who  had  shown  dislike  to  Prelacy.  By 
these  means  all  Presbyterians  possessed 
of  any  property  were  either  dragged  to 


*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  112-140. 
iii.  p.  141. 


t  Wodrow  vol. 


A.  D.  1G80.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


prison,  or  subjected  to  the  most  ruinou; 
exactions,  extermination  being  the  objec 
of  their  persecutors.  Yet,  as  if  to  hidi 
their  fierce  intentions,  and  to  cast  the 
odium  upon  their  victims,  an  act  was 
passed  rescinding  the  acts  against  house 
conventicles,  and  offering  a  new  shadow 
of  indulgence  to  Presbyterian  ministers 

About  the  same  time  the  final  struggle 
between  Lauderdale  and  his  opponents 
took  place ;  a  full  discussion  of  the  de- 
merits of  his  administration  being  held  in 
the  presence  of  the  king  and  two  Eno-lish 
noblemen,  the  Earls  of  Essex  and  Hali- 
fax. It  ended,  as  was  to  be  expected,  in 
the  king's  giving  a  complete  acquittal  to 
his  despotic  minion,  and  even  expressing 
approbation  of  his  most  sanguinary  pro- 
ceedings. This  approbation  he  expressed 
in  private,  in  terms  worthy  of  the  most 
unprincipled  tyrant.  "  I  perceive,"  said 
the  heartless  despot,  "that  Lauderdale 
has  been  guilty  of  many  criminal  actions 
against  the  people  of  Scotland  ;  but  I 
cannot  find  that  he  has  done  any  thing 
contrary  to  my  interest  ;"*— as  if  the  in- 
terest of  a  just  sovereign  could  ever  be 
different  from  that  of  his  people.  But 
though  Charles  protected  Lauderdale  in 
this  last  struggle,  and  in  letters  to  the 
council  approved  of  all  his  proceedings, 
he  nevertheless  allowed  him  to  sink  out 
of  public  employment,  the  chief  power  in 
Scotland  being  held  for  a  short  period  by 
Monmouth,  and  then  by  the  Duke  of 
York. 

[1680.]  The  year  1680  was  remark- 
able for  what  appears  a  .new  aspect  as- 
sumed by  a  section  of  the  persecuted 
Presbyterians,  but  what  in  reality,  if  im- 
partially considered,  may  rather  be  re- 
garded as  a  more  full  developement  of 
Presbyterian  principles,  somewhat  bias- 
sed and  exaggerated  through  the  force  of 
circumstances.  The  defeat  of  the  western 
army  at  Bothwell  Bridge  was  greatly 
caused,  as  has  been  already  stated,  by  the 
contentions  between  the  stricter  party  and 
those  of  more  accommodating  views. 
After  that  fatal  day,  the  division  between 
the  two  parties  not  only  continued,  but 
became  wider,  till  it  ended  in  a  complete 
separation,  Richard  Cameron  and  Donald 
Cargill  being  the  only  ministers  whom 
those  zealous  opponents  of  all  practical 
tyranny  and  lax  submissiveness  of  prin- 

"  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  i  p  470 

33 


257 

ciple  would  acknowledge.     This  division 
proved  highly  injurious  for  a  time  to  the 
Presbyterian  cause,  not  only  by  the  weak- 
ness which  such  disunion  always  must 
produce,  but  also  by  the  tendency  which 
it  had  to  leave  the  disunited    parties  to 
fall  into  opposite  extremes.     The  strict 
Presbyterians,  termed  sometimes  "  Came- 
ronians."  and  sometimes  "Society  Peo- 
ple," by  keeping  aloof  from  all  others, 
and  conversing  only  with  those  of  theii 
own  sentiments,  acquired  a  character  of 
stern,  inflexible  determination,  and  poured 
their  whole  mental  strength  into  a  channel 
not  too  direct,  but  much  too  narrow,  and 
became  too  prone  to  condemn  the  weak- 
nesses as  well  as  the   errors  of  many 
whom   gentler    treatment    might    have 
made  their  friends.     On  the  other  hand, 
those  of  greater  natural  timidity  and  less 
strength  of  principle,  who   startled  not 
only  at  the  prospect  of  danger,  but  also  at 
the  practical  conclusions  to  which  certain 
abstract  principles  seemed  to  lead,  being 
left  to  themselves,  tempted  by  indulgence 
after  indulgence,  tried  by  bond  after  bond, 
yielding  to  one  compliance  after  another, 
fell  gradually  away  from  several  of  the 
great    principles    to   which    they  ought 
:o  have  adhered,  and  in  their  own  de- 
fence, as  they  imagined,  were  led  to  cen- 
sure  or   condemn  views  and   doctrines 
which,  in  more  propitious  circumstances, 
they  would  have  been  prompt  to  defend. 
fn  this  manner  both  parties  were  left  in- 
sensibly to  diverge  somewhat  from  the 
straight  line  along  which  a  more  com- 
prehensive view  of  their  own   leading 
jrinciples  would  have  conducted  them ; 
and,  while  almost  equally  exposed  to  the 
nachinations  and  the  violence  of  their  re- 
entless  enemies,  they  began  to  regard 
each   other  with  mutual  dislike,  and  at 
imes  to  commit  the  folly  and  the  crime 
:>f  assailing  each  other  in  terms  of  bitter 
mutual  recrimination. 

The  first  public  manifestation  of  the 
•rinciples  held  by  the  stricter  party  of  the 
3resbyterians  took  place  incidentally,  and 
Before  their  views  had  been  thoroughly 
natured.  The  direction  of  their  deepest 
houghts  had  been  indicated  during  the 
iissensions  at  Bothwell  Bridge,  by  their 
efusal  to  make  any  public  avowal  of 
illegiance  to  the  king  in  their  declara- 
ion.  Subsequent  reflection,  in  the  midst 
"'f  the  most  cruel  and  unmerited  persecu- 


258 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


tion,  had  only  served  to  confirm  their 
opinions  ;  and  they  had  arrived  at  the 
conclusion,  that  when  sovereigns  violate 
their  solemn  engagements  with  their  sub- 
jects, and  become  tyrants,  the  people  are 
released  from  theirs,  and  are  no  longer 
bound  to  support  and  defend  those  by 
whom  they  are  oppressed.  Few  will 
now  deny  the  abstract  truth  of  this  pro- 
position ;  but  in  those  days  it  was  re- 
garded as  the  very  essence  of  treason  and 
rebellion.  They  had,  it  appears,  begun 
to  draw  up  a  general  statement  of  their 
principles,  at  first  in  the  form  of  a  mere 
outline,  to  guide  their  deliberations  while 
endeavouring  to  mature  it  into  what 
might  form  a  bond  of  union.  While  in 
this  indigested  condition,  the  paper  was 
in  the  possession  of  Henry  Hall  of 
Haughhead,  who  in  company  with  Mr. 
Cargill,  was  lurking  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Glueensferry.  Their  conceal- 
ment had  become  known  to  the  curates 
of  Borrowstounness  and  Carriden,  who 
gave  information  to  the  governor  of 
Blackness  Castle,  by  whom  they  were 
surprised  at  dueensferry  on  the  3d  of 
June.  The  brave  resistance  of  Henry 
Hall  secured  the  escape  of  Cargill,  but 
he  was  himself  mortally  wounded  in  the 
conflict,  and  died  as  they  were  conveying 
him  to  Edinburgh.  The  paper  contain- 
ing the  rude  outline  of  the  intended  de- 
claration above  alluded  to,  was  found  on 
his  person.  It  is  known  by  the  name  of 
the  Queensferry  Paper,  from  the  place 
where  it  was  seized  ;  and,  though  an  un- 
finished, is  nevertheless  a  very  remarka- 
ble production.* 

This  paper  contains  a  statement  ma- 
terially the  same  with  those  on  which 
both  the  First  and  Second  Reformations 
were  based, — an  avowal  of  the  Scriptures 
as  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  conversation, 
— a  pledge  to  promote  the  kingdom  of 
God  by  every  possible  and  lawful  method, 
and  to  attempt  the  rescue  of  religious 
'truth  from  all  oppression, — a  declaration 
of  adherence  to  the  covenanted  Reforma- 
tion of  the  Pre-sbyterian  Church, — a  bold 
disowning  of  all  authority  which  opposes 
the  Word  of  God  and  persecutes  on  ac- 
count of  religion, — and  a  bond  of  mutual 
protection  and  defence.  But  the  most 
objectionable  part  of  this  paper  was  the 
following  rash  declaration :  "  We  do  de- 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  pp.  205-211. 


clare,  that  we  shall  set  up  over  ourselves. 
and  over  what  God  shall  give  us  power 
of,  government  and  governors  according 
to  the  Word  of  God  ; — that  we  shall  no 
more  commit  the  government  of  our- 
selves, and  the  making  of  laws  for  us,  to 
any  one  single  person,  this  kind  of  go- 
vernment being  most  liable  to  inconveni- 
ences, and  aptest  to  degenerate  into  ty- 
ranny." This  rash  declaration  of  an 
intention  of  attempting  to  change  the 
form  'of  government,  was  eagerly  laid 
hold  of  by  all  the  enemies  of  the  Presby- 
terian Churcjh,  and  urged  against  the 
whole  body,  as  if  it  had  been  the  unques- 
tionable purpose  of  them  all,  instead  of 
being  the  unsigned  and  unauthenticated 
opinion  of  some  unknown  individuals 
among  them,  driven  into  a  state  of  des- 
peration by  long-continued  and  intolera- 
ble outrage.  But  it  was  no  part  of  the 
characteristic  conduct  of  the  prelatic  ty- 
rants to  exercise  candour  with  regard  to 
the  opinions  of  their  Presbyterian  op- 
ponents, or  rather  victims ;  and  they  had 
been  too  long  in  the  habit  of  vending  the 
most  malicious  calumnies  against  them, 
to  let  slip  so  good  an  opportunity  of 
blackening  their  character  and  theii 
cause.  Therefore  was  the  Q,ueensferry 
Paper  keenly  seized  upon  and  universally 
referred  to,  as  containing  the  real  senti- 
ments of  the  entire  Presbyterian  commu- 
nity. In  order  so  far  to  counteract  the  inju- 
rious consequences  resulting  from  the  un- 
propitious  promulgation  of  this  rash 
paper,  Cameron,  Cargill,  and  their  ad- 
herents, framed  another  more  deliber- 
ately, containing  a  more  matured  view 
of  their  principles  and  opinions,  and  ex- 
cluding the  objectionable  clause  respect- 
ing a  change  in  the  form  of  government ; 
but  at  the  same  time  renouncing  alle- 
giance to  the  reigning  monarch,  on  ac- 
count of  his  perjury,  usurpation  of  eccle- 
siastical supremacy,  and  tyranny  in  mat- 
ters civil ;  and  declaring  war  against 
him  and  his  supporters,  as  a  tyrant  and 
usurper,  and  an  enemy  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  and  his  cause  and  Covenant. 
This  document,  after  having  been  pub- 
licly read,  was  affixed  to  the  market-cross 
of Sanquhar  on  the  22d  of  June,  whence 
it  came  to  be  termed  the  Sanquhar  De- 
claration.* 

j*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  p. 218;  Hind  let  Loose;  Inform* 
toVy  Vindication. 


A.  D.  1680.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


259 


The  publication  of  the  Sanquhar  De- 
claration had  no  effect  in  mitigating  the 
wrath  of  the  persecutors,  nor  even  in  re- 
pelling their  calumnies.  In  their  procla- 
mations they  contrived  so  to  blend  the 
Glueensferry  Paper  with  the  Sanquhar 
Declaration,  as  to  lead  to  the  conclusion 
that  they  were  identical ;  at  the  same 
time  holding  them  forth  as  the  real  senti- 
ments of  the  entire  body  of  the  suffering 
Presbyterians.  Nor  did  they  fail  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  opportunity  which  these 
papers  seemed  to  afford,  of  issuing  new 
and  more  cruel  and  exterminating  com- 
mands to  the  army  to  pursue,  seize,  im- 
prison, or  kill  all  who  were  suspected  of 
being  concerned  in  these  bold  declara- 
tions. Cameron,  Cargill,  and  ten  other 
persons,  were  declared  traitors,  and  a 
high  price  set  on  their  heads;  and  the 
magistrates  throughout  sixteen  different 
parishes  were  ordered  to  summon  before 
them  all  the  inhabitants,  male  and  female, 
above  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  take  their 
oaths  "  whether  any  of  the  foresaid  trai- 
tors were  in  that  parish,  and  where,  and 
when."  General  Dalziel  and  the  other 
officers  of  the  army  were  also  ordered  to 
apprehend  every  disaffected  person,  and 
send  all  such  under  a  sufficient  guard  to 
Edinburgh.  These  violent  proceedings 
were,  as  usual,  productive  of  two  different 
effects.  They  deterred  some  from  join- 
ing the  resolute  band  led  by  Cameron 
and  Cargill ;  but  they  served  to  knit  that 
band  into  closer  union,  and  to  confirm 
their  determination  to  maintain  the 
ground  they  had  taken,  and  to  bear  aloft 
the  banner  of  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
as  long  as  as  there  should  be  a  living 
hand  to  grasp  it,  and  a  living  breast  to 
form  for  it  a  defensive  rampart. 

It  deserves  to  be  especially  remarked, 
that  the  persecuting  party,  in  their  desire 
to  cast  obloquy  upon  their  victims,  caused 
great  numbers  of  the  Glueensferry  Paper 
and  the  Sanquhar  Declaration  to  be 
printed  and  circulated  throughout  both 
England  and  Scotland,  and  by  that  means 
disseminated  the  free  and  daring  senti- 
ments contained  in  these  documents  to  an 
immeasurably  greater  extent  than  could 
have  been  in  the  power  of  their  authors 
to  have  accomplished,  however  desirous 
they  might  have  been.  And  when  we 
read  these  papers,  and  compare  them 
with  the  great  national  declarations  which 


form  the  basis  of  the  Revolution,  we  can 
not  resist  the  conviction,  that  in  the  former 
we  perceive  the  small  germ  out  of  which 
arose  British  liberty,  that  plant  of  re- 
nown, under  the  world-wide  branches 
of  which  all  tribes  and  kindreds  of  man- 
kind rejoice.  Almost  the  only  real  dif- 
ference between  the  Declaration  of  the 
Cameronians,  or  rather  the  true  Presby- 
terians, and  that  of  the  Convention  of 
Estates  at  the  Revolution,  consisted  in  the 
former  being  the  act  of  a  small  band  of 
enlightened  and  determined  patriots,  the 
latter  that  of  the  nation.  While,  there- 
fore, none  who  approve  the  latter  can 
consistently  condemn  the  former,  every 
generous  heart  will  bestow  the  meed  of 
warmest  approbation  upon  those  who,  in 
the  midst  of  reproach,  danger,  and  death, 
laid  the  foundation-stone  and  began  the 
structure,  cemented  with  their  blood,  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty,  which  men  of 
less  heroic  mould  were  permitted  in 
calmer  and  brighter  days  to  rear. 

The  consequence  of  these  daring  de- 
clarations on  the  one  hand,  and  revenge- 
ful measures  on  the  other,  soon  appeared. 
Strong  bands  of  soldiery  overran  the 
country  in  all  directions,  and  the  country 
people  were  either  compelled  to  give  in- 
formation by  threats  and  tortures,  or  gave 
it  to  avoid  being  suspected  and  treated 
accordingly.  At  the  same  time  the  fol- 
lowers of  Cameron  and  Cargill  kept  to- 
gether in  larger  numbers  than  before, 
consequently  were  the  more  exposed  to 
information  and  discovery.  On  the  22d 
of  July,  information  was  given  to  Bruce 
of  Earlshall,  who  commanded  a  large 
body  of  military,  that  Cameron,  and  a 
party  of  armed  men  with  him,  were  at  a 
place  called  Ayrsmoss,  or  Airdsmoss,  in 
the  parish  of  Auchinleck.  Seeing  the 
enemy  approaching,  and  perceiving  that 
escape  was  impossible,  the  persecuted 
party  resolved  to  stand  on  their  defence, 
and  either  to  hew  out  for  themselves  a 
path  of  retreat,  or  to  sell  their  lives  dearly. 
Hackston  of  Rathillet,  who  was  among 
them,  took  the  command  of  the  small 
band,  amounting  to  twenty-three  horse 
and  forty  foot,  indifferently  armed.  Being 
drawn  up  in  battle-array,  they  waited  the 
attack;  and  during  the  brief  interval, 
Cameron,  in  a  short  but  fervent  prayer, 
committed  their  cause  to  God,  using  re- 
peatedly this  pathetic  expression,  "  Lord, 


260 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND 


[CHAP.  Vll. 


spare  the  green  and  take  the  ripe."  The 
encounter  was  sharp,  but  of  short  dura- 
tion. At  the  first  shock,  the  Covenant- 
ers, led  by  Hackston  and  Cameron,  broke 
the  front  line  of  the  enemy,  and,  had  they 
been  .vigorously  seconded,  might  have 
cut  their  way  through  the  reeling  ranks 
of  their  antagonists  ;  but  the  foot  keeping 
their  position  on  the  skirt  of  the  moss,  the 
soldiers  closed  round  the  gallant  band, 
who,  with  instinctive  Scottish  bravery, 
forming  back  to  back,  their  faces  to  their 
foes,  continued  the  unequal  conflict  till 
nine  were  killed  on  the  spot,  and  the  rest 
were  wounded,  struck  down,  and  made 
prisoners.  Rathillet,  severely  wounded 
and  overpowered  with  numbers,  was 
made  prisoner  ;  but  after  the  conflict,  the 
bodies  of  Cameron  and  his  brother  were 
found  lying  side  by  side  among  the  slain. 
Twenty-eight  of  the  soldiers  were  killed 
in  this  fierce  skirmish ;  and  several  of 
the  Covenanters  died  of  their  wounds 
within  a  few  days.* 

Cameron's  head  and  hands  were  cut 
off  and  carried  to  Edinburgh,  to  be  fixed 
up  in  some  elevated  position  |  even  the 
person  who  did  the  deed  saying,  "  These 
are  the  head  and  hands  of  a  man  who 
lived  preaching  and  praying,  and  died 
fighting  and  praying."  But  previous  to 
this  they  were  taken  to  his  father,  at  that 
time  in  prison,  who  was  cruelly  asked  if 
he  knew  them.  The  venerable  man 
taking  them  in  his  hands  and  kissing 
them,  while  the  tears  fell  fast  upon  the 
faded  relics,  exclaimed,  "  I  know  them,  I 
know  them ;  they  are  my  son's,  my  own 
dear  son's :  it  is  the  Lord ;  good  is  the 
will  of  the  Lord  !"  Hackston,  wounded, 
bleeding,  and  exhausted  as  he  was,  was 
carried  to  Edinburgh ;  and  as  he  was 
known  to  have  been  present  at  the  mur- 
der of  Sharp,  though  he  laid  not  a  hand 
upon  that  cruel  apostate,  the  council  de- 
termined to  glut  their  fiend-like  thirst  of 
revenge  in  his  torments.  When  taken  to 
the  place  of  execution,  his  right  hand  was 
cut  off,  and,  after  a  considerable  interval, 
his  left.  He  was  then  hung  up  by  the 
neck  ;  and  while  struggling  in  the  ago- 
nies of  death,  his*  breast  was  cut  open, 
and  his  heart  torn  out  and  exposed  on  the 
point  of  the  executioner's  knife,  while  its 
palpitations  and  the  convulsed  quivering 
of  his  frame  showed  that  life  and  con- 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  p.  219 ;  Life  of  Cameron,  pp.  203, 304. 


sciousness  were  not  yet  gone.  Several 
other  victims  perished  on  the  scaffold; 
but  their  death  was  not  attended  by  such 
unparalleled  atrocity,  the  recital  of  which 
makes  the  heart  to  shudder  with  horror 
and  indignation.* 

Such  monstrous  cruelty  was  not  found 
to  be  a  very  effectual  way  of  making 
proselytes  to  Scottish  Prelacy,  nor  even 
of  terrifying  men  into  crouching  submis- 
sion to  the  dictates  of  despotism.  The 
blood-stained  banner  which  fell  from 
Cameron's  dying  hand,  was  caught  up, 
and  borne  aloft  by  Cargill  with  unshrink- 
ing resolution.  And,  as  if  to  testify  in 
the  most  signal  manner  his  abhorrence 
of  the  tyrannical  persecutors,  Cargill 
publicly  excommunicated  the  king,  the 
Duke  of  York,  the  Duke  of  Monmouth, 
the  Duke  of  Lauderdale,  the  Duke  of 
Rothes,  General  Dalziel,  and  Sir  George 
Mackenzie.  This  solemn  sentence  of 
excommunication  he  pronounced  at  a 
field-preaching  held  at  Torwood  in  Stir- 
lingshire, in  the  month  of  September, 
after  enumerating  the  series  of  grave  of- 
fences against  the  laws  of  God  and  man 
of  which  they  had  been  guilty.  This 
act  was  much  censured  by  many  at  the 
time  ;  but  this  at  least  may  be  said  in  its 
defence,  that  whether  Mr.  Cargill  was 
entitled  on  his  own  authority  to  pronounce 
such  a  sentence  or  not,  it  was  one  which 
these  perjured  and  blood-stained  men  de- 
served. Nor  was  it  regarded  by  the  cul- 
prits themselves  as  an  empty  fulmination. 
deserving  nothing  but  contempt.  It 
roused  their  wrath  in  the  first  instance, 
and  afterwards  haunted  several  of  their 
like  a  voice  of  doom,  from  whose  indefi 
nite  terrors  they  could  not  escape.  Dur- 
ing the  course  of  the  following  year,  the  • 
Duke  of  Rothes  fell  dangerously  ill ;  and 
perceiving  the  hand  of  death  upon  him. 
he  sent  for  some  of  the  persecuted  Pres- 
byterian ministers,  to  seek  for  instruction1 
from  them,  not  his  cherished  prelates,  im 
his  parting  hour.  To  one  of  them  he> 
said, — «  We  all  thought  little  of  whatd 
that  man  did  in  excommunicating  us; 
but  I  find  that  sentence  binding  upon  met 
now,  and  will,  I  fear,  bind  to  eternity." 
The  faithful  minister  having  spoken  to 
the  despairing  sinner  of  that  infinite*- 
atonement  which  can  expiate  every  de- 
gree of  guilt,  prayed  fervently  for  re- 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  pp.  222,  223;  Cloud  of  Witnesses. 


A.  D.  1681  J 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


261 


pentance  and  mercy  to  the  unhappy  man.  I 
Some  of  the  noblemen  in  an  adjacent  j 
room  hearing  his  voice,  said,  "  That  is  a 
Presbyterian  minister  that  is  praying  j" 
and  turning  to  the  bishops,  added,  "  not 
one  of  you  can  pray  as  they  do,  though 
the  welfare  of  a  man's  soul  should  de- 
pend upon  it.  The  Duke  of  Hamilton 
remarked, — "  We  banish  these  men  from 
us,  and  yet,  when  dying,  we  call  for 
them  ;  this  is  melancholy  work  !"*  How 
mighty  is  the  voice  of  conscience  even  in 
a  hardened  heart,  when  that  heart  is 
stirred  to  its  inmost  depths  ! 

Before  the  close  of  this  year,  the  Duke 
of  York  came  to  Edinburgh,  and  as- 
sumed the  main  direction  of  public  affairs 
in  Scotland,  Lauderdale  having  sunk  into 
a  degree  of  dotage  through  excessive  in- 
dulgence in  his  animal  appetites.  .There 
was  also  another  reason.  The  course  of 
English  politics  was  at  that  time  setting 
strongly  against  the  Duke  of  York's  suc- 
cession to  the  crown,  in  consequence  of 
his  bigoted  attachment  to  Popery  ;  and  it 
was  thought  expedient  to  remove  him 
from  court  for  a  season,  till,  by  a  series 
of  intrigues,  some  change  might  be  ef- 
fected in  the  public  mind.  During  the 
duke's  previous  visit  to  Scotland  he  had 
striven  to  acquire  some  popularity,  and 
had  succeeded  to  a  considerable  extent 
among  the  selfish  and  ambitious,  who 
were  likely  to  be  his  most  fitting  instru- 
ments when  his  designs  should  be  ma- 
tured. His  present  coming  to  Scotland 
proved  a  signal  for  increased  severity 
against  the  persecuted  Presbyterians,  and 
especially  against  the  followers  of  Cam- 
eron and  Cargill.  Of  this  he  gave  a 
fearful  indication  in  presiding  at  the  coun- 
cil when  one  Spreul,  an  apothecary,  was 
subjected  to  the  torture  of  the  boot ;  for 
while  the  greater  part  of  the  noblemen 
hurried  away  from  the  court,  that  they 
might  not  witness  the  dreadful  spectacle, 
the  Duke  of  York  remained,  and  gazed 
on  with  grim  delight,  feasting  his  cruel 
eyes  with  the  victim's  agonies. t 

[1681.]  The  first  trial  which  took 
place  in  the  year  1681  was  that  of  two 
young  women,  Isabel  Alison  and  Marion 
Harvey.  The  accusation  against  these 
females  was,  that  they  had  heard  Mr. 

*  Cruiekshank,  vol.  ii.  p.  116  ;  Life  of  Careill,  p.  46. 
t  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  p.  253;  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol. 
i.  p.  563. 


Cargill  preach,  would  not  renounce  the 
Sanquhar  Declaration,  and  had  expressed 
sympathy  for  the  sufferings  of  some  of 
the  victims  of  prelatic  tyranny.  The 
most  ensnaring  questions  were  put  to 
them  by  Sir  George  Mackenzie,  with  the 
view  of  drawing  from  them  answers 
which  might  by  his  fiendish  ingenuity  be 
distorted  into  treasonable  language.  To 
its  indelible  disgrace  the  court  pronounced 
the  sentence  of  guilty  ;  and  the  innocent 
and  helpless  martyrs  were  brutally 
hanged  on  the  26th  of  January,  for  the 
heinous  crime  of  hearing  the  gospel 
preached  in  the  fields.* 

About  this  time  there  appeared  a  small 
sect,  who  assumed  the  name  of  "  Sweet 
Singers,"  but  were  generally  termed  Gib- 
bites,  from  their  leader,  John  Gib,  a  sailor 
in  Borrowstounness.  Their  number 
never  exceeded  thirty  persons,  of  whom 
four  were  men,  and  the  rest  chiefly  young 
and  ignorant  females.  Their  tenets  may 
be  most  briefly  and  accurately  charac- 
terised by  staling,  that  they  were  an  ab- 
surd compound  of  some  of  the  most  ex- 
travagant notions  of  the  Quakers,  with 
some  of  the  extreme  speculative  views  of 
the  strict  Covenanters.  While,  with  the 
former,  they  claimed  inspiration,  disre- 
garded learning,  and  rejected  the  names 
of  the  months  and  the  days  of  the  week, 
with  the  latter  they  disowned  the  king, — 
adding,  and  "  all  authority  throughout 
the  world."  Cargill  attempted  to  reason 
them  out  of  their  absurdities,  both  in  an 
interview  held  with  them  for  that  pur- 
pose, and  by  letter,  but  in  vain.  They 
despised  admonitions  and  remonstrances, 
and  spurned  at  reproof,  condemning  alike 
all  denominations  of  Christians  in  the 
world  who  would  not  countenance  their 
extravagancies.  They  were,  in  a  short 
time,  seized  in  a  body  ;  and,  when  exam- 
ined by  the  council,  displayed  such  igno- 
rance and  folly,  that  they  were  judged 
fitter  for  hard  labour  in  the  house  of  cor- 
rection than  any  other  punishment.  This 
proved  to  them  a  sanatory  process  ;  and 
when  liberated,  they  generally  returned 
to  their  homes,  resumed  their  occupations, 
and  ceased  to  exist  as  a  sect.f  But  the 
persecuting  party  did  not  allow  their 
name  to  perish.  It  afforded  too  good  an 
opportunity  of  casting  obloquy  upon  the 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  pp.  275,276;  Cloud  of  Witnesses, 
t  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  pp.  348-3C6. 


262 


HIS10RY  OF  THE   CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


true  Presbyterians,  who  were  falsely  re- 
presented as  holding  the  same  opinions. 
This  the  prelatists  could  not  but  know  to 
be  false,  since  one  of  the  avowed  tenets 
of  the  Gibbites  was  the  renouncing  of  the 
Covenant,  the  Confession  of  Faith,  and 
the  Sanquhar  Declaration,  for  the  defence 
of  which  the  Presbyterians  were  suffer- 
ing the  extreme  of  persecution.  Let  the 
judicious  reader  compare  this  single  in- 
stance of  what  may  truly  be  termed  fanati- 
cism in  Scotland,  after  above  twenty  years 
of  persecution,  with  the  almost  innumer- 
able multitude  of  sects  which  have  sprung 
up  in  every  other  country  in  times  of 
similar  excitement  and  suffering, — in 
Germany,  for  example,  at  the  Reforma- 
tion, or  HI  England  during  the  time  of 
Cromwell, — and  he  can  scarcely  fail  to 
be  astonished  at  the  contrast.  We  have 
already  suggested  what  seems  the  only 
explanation.  The  multiplicity  and  ex- 
travagance of  sects  is  the  consequence  of 
the  ignorance  of  the  people,  which  has 
left  them  incapable  of  distinguishing  be- 
tween what  is  true  and  what  is  false,  what 
is  rational  and  what  is  absurd.  Hence 
the  wild  follies  of  the  sectarians  in  Ger- 
many, when  emerging  out  of  Popish  ig- 
norance ;  and  hence,  also,  the  extrava- 
gance of  English  sectarians,  when  striving 
to  escape  out  of  Prelatic  twilight.  And, 
on  the  contrary,  the  fact  that  only  four 
men,  and  twenty-five  or  twenty-six  women, 
fell  into  enthusiastic  delusions  during  the 
persecution  in  Scotland,  and  in  a  parish 
where  there  had  been  a  prelatic  incum- 
bent for  twenty  years,  may  be  regarded 
as  a  conclusive  proof  of  the  superior  effi- 
ciency of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  in 
communicating  sound  and  lasting  instruc- 
tion, such  as  the  utmost  malice  of  its 
deadly  enemies  could  neither  destroy  nor 
pervert.  The  conduct  of  the  council,  too, 
proves  sufficiently,  that  while  they  un- 
justly termed  the  whole  of  the  Presby- 
terians "  fanatics,"  they  knew  the  differ- 
ence between  those  who  were  truly  so, 
and  whom,  therefore,  they  could  despise 
and  dismiss  without  the  infliction  of  pun- 
ishment, and  those  whom  they  knew  to 
be  animated  by  principles  of  indestructible 
might,  because  of  eternal  truth,  before 
which  they  themselves  bowed  with  guilty 
terror,  and  to  which  they  paid  the  strange 
homage  of  the  most  deadly  hatred.  Had 
the  Presbyterians  been  indeed  the  wild 


and  gloomy  fanatics  which  their  perse 
cutors  represented  them  to  be,  they  might 
have  been  safely  left  to  pursue  their  own 
foolish  and  self-destructive  course  ;  they 
would  soon  have  died  out  when  they  had 
reached  the  extreme  of  their  absurdities ; 
but  the  guilty  souls  of  the  perjured  pre- 
latists and  the  tyrannical  council  to  hi 
them,  that  there  was  in  the  Presbyterian 
Church  an  amount  of  truth,  which  they 
must  either  destroy  by  violence,  or  be  by 
it  themselves  destroyed.  They  called 
them  fanatics,  traitors,  and  rebels ;  and 
under  these  abusive  names  they  strove  to 
conceal  their  hatred  against  true  and 
vital  religion;  but  all  the  while  they 
knew  that  these  names  were  unjustly  ap- 
plied, and  that  they  were  themselves  the 
fanatical  devotees  of  sin,  and  actual 
traitors  and  rebels  against  the  dread  Ma- 
jesty of  the  King  Eternal. 

Cargill  still  continued  to  brave  the  ter- 
rors of  persecution,  and  to  bear  aloft  with 
firm  and  fearless  hand  the  banner  of  the 
Covenant.  Against  him  the  hottest  rage 
of  the  tyrannical  party  was  directed,  and 
troops  of  soldiers  scoured  the  country  in 
all  directions  in  pursuit  of  him.  Hunted 
from  place  to  place,  he  still  continued  to 
preach  in  the  fields,  in  the  most  solitary 
moors  and  mountain  fastnesses,  to  the  un- 
daunted few  that  dared  to  hear  him.  But 
his  noble  warfare  was  nearly  accom- 
plished. His  last  sermon  was  preached 
upon  Dunsyre  common,  between  Clydes- 
dale and  Lothian,  on  the  10th  day  of  July. 
That  night,  accompanied  by  two  of  his 
adherents,  Walter  Smith  and  James  Boig, 
he  slept  at  Covington  Mill.  But  in- 
formation respecting  his  movements  had 
been  given  to  Irvine  of  Bonshaw,  who 
had  obtained  a  military  commission  ;  and 
he,  at  the  head  of  a  strong  party  of  dra- 
goons, beset  the  house  by  daybreak,  and 
seized  Mr.  Cargill  and  his  two  compan- 
ions. Bonshaw,  whose  border  predatory 
habits  had  qualified  him  for  such  adven- 
tures, laid  hold  of  his  prisoner,  exclaim- 
ing with  savage  delight,  "  O  blessed  Bon- 
shaw, and  blessed  day  that  ever  I  was 
born,  that  have  found  such  a  prize  tin's 
morning!"  the  reward  of  5000  merks,t 
which  had  been  set  upon  Cargill' s  head, 
being  the  only  thing  for  which  his  heart 
could  rejoice.  The  cruel  moss-trooper 
then  placed  Cargill  upon  an  unsaddled 
horse,  tying  with  his  own  hands  the  feet 


A.  D.  1681.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


263 


of  his  prisoner  beneath  the  animal's  belly, 
so  hard  as  to  cause  severe  pain  to  the  suf- 
ferer.* 

The  prisoners  were  all  taken  to  Edin- 
burgh and  brought  to  trial.  Little  proof 
was  sought,  and  indeed  little  was  required, 
as  they  all  readily  admitted  that  they  had 
done  what  the  council  had  called  treason. 
Yet  some  compunction  seems  to  have 
seized  the  council,  for  they  hesitated 
whether  to  confine  Cargill  to  the  Bass  for 
life,  or  to  pass  the  sentence  of  death  upon 
him.  They  were  equally  divided  when 
it  came  to  the  vote  of  the  Earl  of  Argyle, 
who  gave  his  voice  for  death,  by  which 
the  question  was  decided,  and  he  was  con- 
demned to  die.f  This  fatal  vote  was 
afterwards  remembered  by  the  Covenant- 
ers, when  Argyle  wished  them  to  join 
his  insurrection,  and  it  prevented  them 
from  uniting  with  him  and  being  involved 
in  his  overthrow.  It  was  also  remem- 
bered with  deep  remorse  by  the  unhappy 
nobleman  himself,  when  his  own  hour 
came  to  meet  a  similar  doom.  Cargill, 
the  two  that  were  taken  with  him,  and 
two  others  taken  about  the  same  time, 
were  executed  on  the  27th  of  July,  and 
their  heads  fixed  on  spikes  above  two  of 
the  gates  of  Edinburgh.  They  all  died 
in  full  possession  of  the  peace  and  joy  of 
martyrs,  Cargill  declaring  that  he  went 
up  the  ladder  with  less  fear  or  perturba- 
tion of  mind  than  ever  he  entered  a  pulpit 
to  preach. 

Instead  of  continuing  to  relate  the 
bloody  deeds  of  the  persecutors,  it  seems 
expedient  to  mention  some-  of  their  legis- 
lative enactments.  It  was  now  nine  years 
since  a  parliament  had  been  held  in  Scot- 
land, and  the  king  determined  that  one 
should  be  called,  appointing  the  Duke  of 
York  to  be  the  royal  commissioner.  The 
chief  objects  which  the  king  had  in  view 
in  calling  this  parliament  were  to  procure 
some  new  enactments  against  the  Cove- 
nanters, and  a  legislative  sanction  to  the 
Duke  of  York's  succession  to  the  crdwn, 
as  appeared  plainly,  both  from  his  ma- 
jesty's letter  to  the  parliament,  and  from 
their  obsequious  answer,  in  which  these 
were  made  the  leading  topics.  The  sub- 
ject of  the  Duke  of  York's  succession 
had  already  been  discussed  in  the  English 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  pp.  279-284;  Cruickshank,  vol.  ii. 
p.  107:  Life  of  Cargill,  p.  44. 

t  Life  of  Cargill,  pp.  50,  51 


parliament,  and  a  bill  for  securing  it  had 
been  rejected  in  the  House  of  Lords,  on 
account  of  the  duke's  avowed  adherence 
to  Popery.  It  seems  to  have  been  the 
opinion  of  the  Romish  politicians,  that 
there  would  be  less  opposition  made  in 
Scotland  ;  and  that,  if  the  duke's  succes- 
sion were  ratified  in  the  latter  kingdom, 
England  would  rather  submit  than  incur 
the  hazard  of  a  civil  war.  It  was,  be- 
sides, a  part  of  the  great  scheme  for  the 
re-establishment  of  Popery  in  both  coun- 
tries,— a  scheme  which  was  the  ruling 
principle  of  the  whole  policy  of  both  the 
royal  brothers. 

The  parliament  began  its  labors  by 
passing  a  short  yet  ambiguous  act,  ratify- 
ing all  former  acts  respecting  religion. 
In  the  second  act  there  was  no  such  am- 
biguity. It  was  respecting  the  succession 
to  the  crown,  and  asserted  in  the  most 
stringent  terms,  "  That  the  kings  of  this 
realm,  deriving  their  royal  power  from 
God  Almighty  alone,  do  succeed  lineally 
thereto,  according  to  the  known  degrees 
of  proximinity  in  blood,  which  cannot  be 
interrupted,  suspended,  or  diverted  by  any 
act  or  statute  whatsoever  ;  and  that  no 
difference  in  religion,  nor  no  law  or 
act  of  parliament  made,  or  to  be  made, 
can  alter  or  divert  the  right  of  succes- 
sion." All  attempts  or  designs  to  alter 
the  succession  were  declared  to  be  treason. 
Such  was  what  Wodrow  calls  the  "  ever- 
lasting act"  of  this  subservient  parliament, 
— an  act  the  futility  of  which  the  duke  was 
afterwards  to  experience,  though  its  enact- 
ment must  have  delighted  his  despotic 
heart.  Another  act,  for  securing  the 
peace  of  the  country,  bore  directly  against 
the  Presbyterians,  and  exposed  them  to 
still  greater  severities  and  more  arbitrary 
treatment  than  they  had  .previously  en- 
dured, dreadful  as  their  oppression  had 
already  been.  On  the  31st  of  August 
was  passed  the  crowning  act  of  this  slav- 
ish parliament, — the  infamous  Test  Act. 
The  assumed  object  of  this  act  was  for  the 
security  of  the  Protestant  religion  "against 
Popery  and  fanaticism  ;"  and  for  that  pur- 
pose it  contained  an  oath  which  was  to  be 
taken  by  all  persons  occupying  places  of 
trust  and  public  employment,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  papists.  The  two  main  pro- 
positions of  the  oath  were,  an  avowal  of 
belief  in,  and  adherence  to,  the  First  Con- 
fession  of  Faith  drawn  up  by  the  early 


264 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


reformers  ;  and  an  acknowledgment  that 
the  king  "is  the  only  supreme  governor 
of  this  realm,  over  all  persons,  and  in  all 
cases,  as  well  ecclesiastical  as  civil."  It 
contained  also  a  distinct  renunciation  of 
the  covenants,  and  a  bond  not  to  attempt 
any  change  in  the  government  of  either 
Church  or  State,  as  by  law  established, 
which  of  necessity  implied  the  entire  and 
final  abandonment  of  every  Presbyterian 
principle.* 

It  was  manifestly  impossible  for  any 
man  of  candid,  upright,  and  honorable 
mind  to  take  an  qath,  containing  proposi- 
tions directly  opposed  to  each  other,  and 
inferring  duties,  the  performance  of 
which,  according  to  the  literal  meaning  of 
the  terms,  was  absolutely  impracticable. 
But  the  making  of  oaths  had  been  so 
long  a  customary  expedient  of  the  Scot- 
tish administration,  that  but  few  public 
men  retained  any  regard  for  the  sacred 
obligation  which  they  implied;  and  it 
was  more  consistent  with  the  dark 
and  treacherous  policy  of  the  Duke  of 
York  to  employ  men  totally  devoid  of 
conscientious  scruples,  and  prepared  for 
any  extreme  which  tyranny  could  devise, 
than  to  retain  such  as  had  some  regard 
for  truth,  integrity,  and  religious  princi- 
ples. An  immediate  contest  accordingly 
arose  between  the  unscrupulous  minions 
of  despotism,  and  those  who  had  still  some 
attachment  to  religious  and  civil  liberty. 
Some  refused  the  Test  at  once,  and  were 
immediately  cast  into  prison.  The  Duke 
of  Hamilton  hesitated,  but  subsequently 
took  the  oath.  The  Earl  of  Q,ueensber- 
ry  took  it  with  an  explanation,  but  such  a 
one  as  was  not  calculated  to  give  offence  ; 
declaring  that  he  did  not  hold  himself 
bound  to  oppose  alterations  in  Church  or 
State,  in  case  it  should  seem  good  to  his 
majesty  to  make  them.  A  considerable 
number  of  the  prelatic  clergy  refused  to 
take  the  test,  and  some  of  them  carried 
their  opposition  so  far  as  to  leave  their 
situations  rather  than  be  guilty  of  what 
amounted  to  perjury.  Not  one  prelate, 
however,  carried  his  opposition  so  far, 
although  one,  the  bishop  of  Aberdeen, 
exhibited  considerable  reluctance  to  take 
an  oath  so  full  of  absurdity,  and  so  capa- 
ble of  evil.  Paterson,  bishop  of  Edin- 
burgh, framed  an  evasive  explanation  of 
the  test,  which  had  the  effect  of  reconcil- 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii 


ing  the  greater  part  of  the  prelatic  clergy 
who  had  at  first  refused  ;  and  the  adher- 
ents of  Popery  had  no  difficulty  in  taking 
an  oath  which  some  of  them  might 
know  to  be  intended  to  strengthen  their 
party,  and  from  which  they  all  knew 
that  they  could  very  easily  procure  abso- 
lution. 

But  the  might  of  the  storm  fell  first 
upon  the  Earl  of  Argyle.  The  well- 
known  hereditary  attachment  of  this  no- 
bleman's family  to  Presbyterian  princi- 
ples had  made  him  an  object  of  suspicion 
to  the  Duke  of  York,  who  on  his  coming 
to  Scotland,  had  resolved  either  to  gain 
Argyle  wholly  to  his  own  designs,  or  to 
compass  his  destruction.  Even  before 
that  time,  Argyle  had  been  distrusted  by 
the  Scottish  council ;  but  as  he  had  con- 
curred generally  in  their  persecuting 
measures,  and  in  some  instances  strongly, 
as  in  the  case  of  Cargill,  there  had  been 
hitherto  no  grounds  for  instituting  pro- 
ceedings formally  against  him.  The  de- 
sired opportunity  was  furnished  by  the 
test.  He  declined  taking  this  absurd  and 
impious  bond,  and  offered  to  relinquish 
all  his  hereditary  jurisdiction,  and  exhibit 
his  loyalty  merely  as  a  private  subject: 
but  having  been  informed  that  he  would 
be  allowed  to  take  the  test  with  an  expla- 
nation, he  consented  to  do  so.  The 
explanation  he  gave  was, "  that  he  took 
it  in  as  far  as  it  was  consistent  with  itself, 
and  with  the  Protestant  religion."  The 
Duke  of  York  at  first  expressed  himself 
satisfied  ;  but  learning  from  Sir  George 
Mackenzie,  that  the  explanation  might 
be  so  strained  as  to  appear  of  treasonable 
import,  he  issued  a  command  to  Ar- 
gyle to  enter  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh  as 
a  prisoner.  Argyle  complied,  and  was 
brought  to  trial  before  the  Court  of  Justi- 
ciary, headed  by  Glueensberry  as  justice- 
general.  The  indictment,  drawn  by 
Mackenzie,  was  such  a  wretched  piece  of 
sophistry,  that  it  seems  surprising  that 
the  judges  did  not  frown  it  out  of  court  at 
once,  as  contradictory  alike  to  law  and 
reason.  But  unhappily  the  opinions  and 
decisions  of  lawyers  and  judges  are  not 
always  such  as  can  be  defended  by  rules 
of  logic  and  approved  of  by  right  reason. 

Argyle  was  ably  defended  by  Lock- 
hart  and  Dalrymple ;  and  when  the 
judges  came  to  express  their  decision, 
there  were  but  four  present,  besides  the 


A.  D.  1682.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


265 


justice-general ;  and  these  four  were 
equally  divided  in  opinion.  '  As  dueens- 
berry  had  himself  qualified  the  test,  he 
regarded  it  as  unseemly  in  him  to  give  a 
casting  vote  against  Argyle  ;  and  there- 
fore Lord  Nairn,  who  had  been  absent, 
from  the  pleadings  in  consequence  of  his 
age  and  infirmity,  was  sent  for  to  decide 
a  cause  which  he  had  not  heard.  The 
pleadings  were,  however,  read  over  to 
him,  during  which  he  fell  asleep ;  and 
being  awakened  at  the  close,  he  gave  his 
vote  against  Argyle.  After  this  mockery 
of  justice,  by  which  the  relevancy  of  the 
indictment  was  sustained,  Argyle  was 
tried  before  a  jury  of  his  peers,  and  pro- 
nounced guilty  of  treason,  and  a  letter 
sent  to  the  king  for  liberty  to  the  justicia- 
ry to  pronounce  sentence  upon  the  verdict. 
His  majesty  might  have  so  modified  the 
sentence  as  to  preserve  Argyle's  life ; 
but  as  it  was  now  apparent  that  the  death 
of  this  nobleman  was  intended,  his  friends 
contrived  to  procure  information  respect- 
ing the  tenor  of  the  king's  answer  before 
that  answer  had  reached  the  Scottish 
council.  Having  ascertained  that  .the 
sentence  of  death  was  to  be  passed,  but 
its  execution  to  be  delayed  during  the 
king's  pleasure,  he  resolved  to  escape 
from  prison,  if  possible,  before  his  ene- 
mies were  fully  aware  of  the  tenor  of  his 
majesty's  answer.  That  very  night,  the 
20th  of  December,  he  effected  his  escape, 
disguised  as  a  page,  and  bearing  the  train 
of  Lady  Sophia  Lindsay.  A  proclama- 
tion was  almost  immediately  issued, 
declaring  the  sentence  of  death  against 
him,  and  the  forfeiture  of  his  lands  and 
titles,  and  offering  a  reward  for  his  ap- 
prehension ;  but  notwithstanding  the 
keenness  of  the  pursuit  in  all  directions, 
he  reached  London  undiscovered,  guided 
by  Mr.  Veitch,  one  of  the  ejected  and  in- 
tercommuned  Presbyterian  ministers,  and 
soon  afterwards  took  refuge  in  Holland. 
When  these  tyrannical  proceedings  be- 
came generally  known  in  England,  they 
excited  universal  surprise  and  indigna- 
tion. Lord  Halifax  told  the  king  that  he 
did  not  understand  the  law  of  Scotland, 
but  that  English  law  would  not  have 
hanged  a  dog  for  such  a  crime.  And 
the  Earl  of  Clarendon,  when  he  heard 
the  sentence,  "  blessed  God  that  he  lived 
not  in  a  country  where  there  were  such 
laws."  Throughout  Scotland  the  alarm 
34 


and  resentful  detestation  of  all  true  Pres 
byterians  were  unbounded ;  and  some 
intelligible  indications  were  given  that 
the  heart  of  the  country  was  almost  roused 
to  a  sterner  resistance  than  had  yet  been 
manifested.  Even  children  indulged 
their  feelings  in  mock  trials  of  dogs,  for 
the  crime  of  taking  the  test  with  a  qualifi- 
cation.* From  such  things,  slight  and 
trifling  as  they  might  appear,  the  despotic 
rulers  ought  to  have  learned  that  a  time  of 
retribution  was  at  hand.  For  when  the 
youth  of  a  nation  become  the  assertors  of 
any  great  principle,  its  triumph  cannot 
be  remote;  it  grows  with  their  growth 
and  strengthens  with  their  strength,  so 
that  their  manhood  and  its  supremacy  are 
realized  together. 

[1682.]  When  Cargill  perished  on  the 
scaffold,  that  determined  band  of  Cove- 
nanters who  had  adhered  to  him  were 
left  without  a  minister,  no  man  for  a  time 
daring  to  take  up  a  position  so  imminently 
perilous.  In  this  emergency  these  fear- 
less and  high-principled  men  resolved  to 
form  themselves  into  a  united  body,  con- 
sisting of  societies  for  worship  and  re- 
ligious intercourse  in  those  districts  where 
they  most  abounded ;  and  for  the  more 
effectual  preservation  of  their  opinions, 
and  security  against  errors,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  a  stated  ministry,  these  smaller 
societies  appointed  deputies  to  attend  a 
general  meeting,  which  was  empowered 
to  deliberate  upon  all  suggestions,  and 
adopt  such  measures  as  the  exigency  of 
the  times  required.  The  first  meeting  of 
these  united  societies  was  held  on  the 
15th  of  December  1681,  at  Logan  House, 
in  the  parish  of  Lesmahagow,  Lanark- 
shire, where  it  was  resolved  to  draw  up  a 
public  testimony  against  the  defections 
and  dangers  of  the  times.  But  this  testi- 
mony was  not  promulgated  till  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  1682,  into  the  annals  of 
which  we  have  accordingly  placed  it. 
On  the  12th  of  January,  about  forty  men, 
armed  for  self-defence,  if  necessary,  en- 
tered the  town  of  Lanark,  where,  having 
publicly  burnt  the  Test  Act,  they  solemn- 
ly read  their  declaration  and  testimony, 
and  affixed  .a  copy  of  it  to  the  market- 
cross,  f 

From  the  fact  that  these  people,  in  the 

absence  of  a  stated  ministry,  formed  them- 

. 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  pp.  296-344.  t  Wodrow. 

vol.  iii.  p.  357. 


266 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII, 


selves  into  societies  for  mutual  religicus 
intercourse  and  edification,  they  came  to 
be  designated  the  Society  People,  a  term 
frequently  applied  to  them  by  Wodrow, 
as  that  of  Cameronians  has  been  general- 
ly given  to  them  by  other  historians. 
Superficial  readers  are  liable  to  be  misled 
by  names,  of  the  origin  and  application 
of  which  they  have  no  accurate  concep- 
tion. But  the  affixing  of  a  new  name  to 
a  party  is  no  sure  proof  that  it  has  taken 
new  grounds.  That  "  persecuted  rem- 
nant," as  they  called  themselves,  had  in- 
deed taken  up  no  new  principles ;  the 
utmost  they  can  be  justly  charged  with 
is,  merely  that  they  had  followed  up  the 
leading  principles  of  the  Presbyterian  and 
Covenanted  Church  of  Scotland  to  an  ex- 
treme point,  from  which  the  greater  part 
of  Presbyterians  recoiled  ;  and  that  in 
doing  so,  they  had  used  language  capable 
of  being  interpreted  to  mean  more  than 
they  themselves  intended.  Their  honesty 
of  heart,  integrity  of  purpose,  and  firm- 
ness of  principle,  cannot  be  denied  ;  and 
these  are  noble  qualities  ;  and  if  they  did 
express  their  sentiments  in  strong  and 
unguarded  language,  it  ought  to  be  re- 
membered, that  they  did  so  in  the  midst 
of  fierce  and  remorseless  persecution,  ill 
adapted  to  make  men  nicely  cautious  in 
the  selection  of  balanced  terms  wherein 
to  express  their  indignant  detestation  of 
that  unchristian  tyranny  which  was  so 
fiercely  striving  to  destroy  every  vestige 
of  both  civil  and  religious  liberty. 

The  declaration  of  Lanark  re-asserted 
and  confirmed  those  of  Rutherglen  and 
Sanquhar,  renewed  the  disavowal  of  al- 
legiance to  the  king  on  account  of  his 
long  and  continued  tyranny,  condemned 
the  recent  acts  of  parliament,  and  boldly 
asserted  the  right  of  freemen  to  extricate 
themselves  from  under  a  tyrannous  yoke, 
"  Shall  the  end  of  government  be  lost," 
said  that  spirited  paper,  "through  the 
weakness,  wickedness,  and  tyranny  of 
governors  ?  Must  the  people,  by  an  im- 
plicit submission  and  deplorable  stupidi- 
ty, destroy  themselves,  and  betray  their 
posterity,  and  become  objects  of  reproach 
to  the  present  generation,  and  pity  and 
contempt  to  the  future?  Have  they  not, 
in  such  an  extremity,  good  ground  to 
make  use  of  that  natural  power  they 
have  to  shake  off  that  yoke  which  neither 
we  nor  our  forefathers  were  able  to 


bear?"*  Such  were  the  sentiments  of 
that  greatly  oppressed  and  much  slander- 
ed people;  and  instead  of  condemning 
severely  the  strong  language  which  they 
use,  we  may  rather  admire  the  free  arid 
manly  sentiments  which  they  so  well  ex- 
press, at  a  time  when  nearly  the  whole 
aristocracy  of  the  land  were  bowing  their 
necks  beneath  the  most  degraded  bondage, 
and  uttering  the  language  of  fawning  and 
sycophantic  slavery. 

When  the  intelligence  of  this  Lanark 
declaration  reached  Edinburgh,  the  coun- 
cil made  an  exhibition  of  empty  fury,  by 
ordering  the  magistrates  to  burn  that  pa- 
per, together  with  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant,  by  the  hands  of  the  com- 
mon hangman  ;  which  was  accordingly 
done,  with  much  unmeaning  ceremony, 
at  the  market-cross.  The  town  of  Lanark 
was  then  fined  in  six  thousand  merks, 
for  not  preventing  the  publication  of  this 
declaration  in  their  jurisdiction,  although 
the  strength  of  the  Covenanters  was  such 
that  the  magistrates  dared  not  attempt  to 
interrupt  them. 

The  absence  of  the  Duke  of  York, 
who  had  gone  to  London  soon  after  the 
rising  of  the  Scottish  parliament,  caused 
some  relaxation  of  the  severities  directed 
against  the  Presbyterians,  so  that  fewer 
perished  on  the  scaffold  this  year  than 
had  done  for  several  years  before.  Yet 
this  comparative  leniency  was  not  so 
great  as  to  prevent  the  death  of  several, 
the  imprisonment  of  many  more,  and  the 
utter  destruction  of  estate  and  property  to 
a  still  greater  number.  A  commission 
was  given  to  Claverhouse  to  proceed  to 
Galloway  with  a  troop  of  horse,  to  com- 
pel all  to  take  the  test,  and  to  punish  at 
discretion  all  who  refused,  or  whom  he 
suspected  of  being  disaffected  persons. 
So  well  did  he  execute  his  orders,  that 
the  council  conferred  on  him  a  vote  of 
thanks  for  his  zeal  against  the  Presby- 
terians. Similar  commissions  were  given 
to  Major  White,  and  Urquhart  of  Mel- 
drum,  to  promote  ecclesiastical  conformi- 
ty in  the  same  manner  in  which  they 
showed  themselves  no  less  willing  instru- 
ments of  oppression.  About  the  same 
time  the  Scottish  prelates  wrote  a  formal 
letter  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
applauding  in  the  most  fulsome  language 
of  adulation,  the  measures  pursued  by 

*  Informatory  Vindication,  p.  251. 


A.  D.  1682.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


267 


the  Duke  of  York  in  Scotland,  ascribing 
the  increased  prosperity  of  their  order  to 
his  "  gracious  owning  and  vigilant  pro- 
tection" of  them,  and  to  his  "  eminent 
zeal  against  the  most  unreasonable 
schism  ;" — so  naturally  did  Scottish  Pre- 
lacy take  refuge  and  find  protection  be- 
neath the  wing  of  an  avowed  and  bigot- 
ed Papist. 

The  Duke  of  York  paid  his  last  visit 
to  Scotland  in  May.  Having  found  the 
storm  of  hostility  against  him  considera- 
bly abated  in  England,  he  thought  it  de- 
sirable for  him  to  reside  there;  but 
deemed  it  expedient,  before  quitting  Scot- 
land finally,  to  place  the  administration 
of  affairs  in  that  Kingdom  in  the  hands 
of  his  devoted  friends.  The  Earl  of 
dueensberry  was  accordingly  appointed 
treasurer ;  Gordon  of  Haddo  was  created 
Earl  of  Aberdeen,  and  made  chancellor  ; 
and  the  Earl  of  Perth  was  constituted 
justice-general.  Q,ueensberry  was  pe- 
culiarly characterised  by  avarice,  Aber- 
been  by  cunning,  and  Perth  by  cruelty: 
and  with  three  such  men  at  the  head  of 
affairs  in  Scotland,  the  Duke  might  well 
regard  his  interests  as  tolerably  secure. 
Yet  before  departing,  which  he  did  on 
the  15th  of  May,  the  duke  strenuously 
recommended  to  the  council  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  Presbyterians,  advising  them 
to  send  additional  troops  to  the  most  sus- 
pected counties.  They  thanked  him  for 
the  excellent  pattern  of  government  which 
he  had  placed  before  them,  begged  the 
continuance  of  his  kindness,  and  pro- 
mised constant  devotion  to  his  service  in 
every  respect.* 

After  the  departure  of  the  duke,  the 
council  showed  the  utmost  alacrity  in 
complying  with  his  directions.  Full 
powers  were  given  to  the  Earl  of  Dum- 
fries, General  Dalziel,  and  Claverhouse, 
to  search  for  and  punish  all  who  were 
suspected  to  be  rebels,  or  disaffected  to  the 
government  either  in  Church  or  State, — 
their  commission  giving  them  liberty  to 
plunder,  fine,  and  imprison  at  discretion. 
Nor  did  they  hesitate  to  stain  their  own 
hands  in  blood,  several  victims  perishing 
on  the  scaffold  by  the  sentence  of  the 
council. 

On  the  15th  of  June,  a  general  meeting 
of  delegates  from  the  united  societies  was 
held  at  Talla-linn,  Tweedsmuir,  chiefly 

•  Wodrow,  vol,  iii.  pp.  365,  366. 


for  the  purpose  of  checking  some  errone- 
ous opinions  resembling  those  of  the  Gib- 
bites,  which  two  or  three  of  their  mem- 
bers were  accused  of  holding.  No  de- 
claration was  either  issued  or  proposed, 
nor  any  thing  of  a  public  nature  done, 
except  that,  by  mutual  exhortation  and 
prayer,  the  sufferers  were  encouraged  to 
persevere  in  the  maintenance  of  their 
great  and  sacred  principles.  Yet,  the 
curate  of  the  parish  having  sent  informa- 
tion to  the  council  after  the  meeting  had 
quietly  dispersed,  misrepresenting  it  as  a 
large  armed  assembly,  a  violent  procla- 
mation was  immediately  issued,  censur- 
ing the  people  of  the  district  for  not  hav- 
ing given  instant  information,  and  giving 
orders  how  that  was  in  future  to  be  done. 
All  were  strictly  commanded,  that  where- 
soever any  number  of  men  convocated  in 
arms,  or  where  any  one  or  two  of  such 
as  had  been  declared  traitors  or  fugitives 
were  seen,  intimation  was  immediately  to 
be  given  to  the  next  authorities,  who  were  ' 
to  raise  the  inhabitants  and  pursue  the 
fugitives  "  with  hue  and  cry,"  till  they 
should  be  apprehended  and  sent  to  Edin- 
burgh ;  with  certification  that  all  who 
neglected  to  give  information,  or  refused 
to  join  in  the  pursuit,  should  be  held 
equally  guilty  with  the  proscribed  offend- 
ers.* Even  this  furious  proclamation 
was  found  ineffectual,  through  the  natural 
reluctance  which  every  man  of  common 
humility  felt  to  allow  himself  to  be  trans- 
muted into  a  bloodhound,  for  the  purpose 
of  hunting  down  his  fellow-creatures, 
whose  only  guilt  consisted  in  their  reso 
lute  determination  to  obey  God  rathei 
than  man,  in  spite  of  persecution.  To 
render  it  more  effectual,  commission^ 
were  given  to  military  officers,  to  confe. 
with  the  sheriffs  and  other  authorities  ;  to 
call  before  them  every  suspected  person ; 
and  to  pronounce  sentence,  and  order  im- 
mediate execution,  with  or  without  the 
concurrence  of  the  magistrates. f  It  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  direct  the  attention 
of  any  reader  to  this  act  of  council,  which 
contains  the  very  essence  of  despotism,  by 
placing  in  the  same  hands  both  judicial 
and  executive  power.  Yet  it  was  only 
the  completion  of  what  had  been  previous- 
ly begun,  though  in  a  less  formal  man- 
ner, when  the  soldiery  were  empowered 
to  question  those  whom  they  seized  on 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  p.  376.  T  Ibid.,  vol.  iii.  p.  379 


268 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


matters  involving  life  and  death  ;  and  it 
may  be  added,  it  was  the  natural  conse- 
quence of  the  doctrine  of  the  king's  abso- 
lute supremacy,  by  which  both  the  legis- 
lative and  the  executive  functions  of  gov- 
ernment were  merged  in  the  royal  pre- 
rogative, than  which  there  cannot  be  a 
more  entire  and  perfect  despotism. 

The  military  judges  received  most 
efficient  aid  from  the  curates,  who  fur- 
nished them  with  lists  of  suspected  per- 
sons, and  procured  informers  of  the  low- 
est and  vilest  of  the  populace  to  bear  wit- 
ness against  them.  The  mode  in  which 
the  curates  prepared  these  lists  sufficient- 
ly proves  the  character  of  these  men.  If 
any  person  did  not  attend  upon  their 
ministry, — if  he  spoke  in  terms  of  respect 
and  pity  of  the  sufferers, — if  he  was  over- 
heard reading  the  Bible  in  private,  or 
conducting  family  worship  in  his  own 
house, — any  person  guilty  of  any  of  these 
practices  was  immediately  suspected  of 
being  a  staunch  Presbyterian,  and  infor- 
mation lodged  against  him  by  the  curate. 
Such  was  the  manner  in  which  these 
wolves  devoured  their  flocks.*  Several 
instances  of  human  barbarity  occurred, 
with  the  recital  of  which  we  will  not 
shock  our  readers. 

One  trial  of  a  more  public  nature, 
which  occurred  towards  the  end  of  the 
year,  must  be  mentioned.  This  was  the 
trial  of  Hume  of  Hume,  a  gentleman  who 
was  known  to  be  friendly  to  the  cause  of 
the  persecuted  wan'derers,  and  whom, 
therefore,  it  was  determined  to  destroy. 
All  the  main  charges  brought  against 
him  failed  through  utter  want  of  proof; 
but  this  did  not  lead  to  his  release.  It 
\vas  ascertained  that  he  had  been  near 
the  house  of  M'Dowal  of  Mackerston 
when  some  disturbance  arose,  which  had 
been  termed  rebellion  ;  and  though  he 
offered  proof  that  he  was  altogether  unac- 
quainted with  the  occurrence  of  that  dis- 
turbance, and  had  gone  to  the  vicinity 
merely  to  purchase  a  horse,  he  was  not 
allowed  to  bring  forward  evidence  in  his 
own  defence,  was  condemned  to  death, 
and  executed  on  the  strength  of  that  un- 
substantial rumour.  His  friends,  aware 
of  his  danger,  had  made  application  at 
court,  and  had  actually  procured  a  pardon, 
which  reached  Edinburgh  two  days  be- 
fore the  day  of  execution ;  but  the  Earl 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  p.  383,  et  seq. 


of  Perth  kept  it  back,  and  allowed  the 
judicial  murder  to  be  committed.  His 
estate  was  forfeited,  and  his  widow  and 
five  children  exposed  to  the  extremes  of 
poverty.* 

1 1683.]  The  beginning  of  the  year 
1863  was  signalized  by  an  extension  of 
the  system  of  instituting  commissions  for 
the  prosecution  of  the  Presbyterians. 
Numerous  fines  were  levied  by  these 
commissions,  in  many  cases  upon  per- 
sons who  had  been  previously  reduced  to 
great  distress  by  these  exorbitant  exac- 
tions. Circuit  courts  were  also  renewed 
this  year,  for  the  purpose  of  extending  the 
oppressive  measures  of  the  prelatic  party 
over  the  whole  of  the  western  and  southern 
counties.  Great  numbers  'were  thrown 
into  prison,  several  were  banished  or  sent 
to  the  Bass,  and  a  considerable  number 
perished  on  the  scaffold.  Among  these 
was  Andrew  Guillan,  who  had  been 
present  at  the  murder  of  Sharp,  though 
he  merely  held  the  horses  of  the  chief 
assassins  while  they  were  committing  the 
bloody  deed.  Him  the  persecutors  put 
to  a  cruel  death,  similar  to  that  inflicted 
on  Hackston  of  Rathillet.  Lawrie  of 
Blackvvood  was  brought  to  trial  for  hold- 
ing converse  with  rebels,  and  allowing 
some  who  had  been  at  Pentland  and 
Bothwell  to  retain  their  farms  on  his  es- 
tate. It  was  not  proved  that  any  of  the 
tenantry  were  in  the  lists  of  intercorn- 
muned  persons  j  and  it  could  not  be 
known  to  him,  as  he  resided  generally  in 
Edinburgh,  whether  any  of  them  had 
been  in  arms  at  Bothwell  or  not.  At  the 
Pentland  insurrection  he  had  been  em- 
ployed by  General  Dalziel  to  hold  inter- 
course with  the  insurgents,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  endeavouring  to  persuade  them  to 
submit ;  and  it  was  not  proved  that  he 
had  subsequently  maintained  any  corres- 
pondence with  them.  Yet  he  was  con- 
demned, and,  though  his  life  was  spared, 
his  estate  was  forfeited.  This  caused 
great  alarm,  as  there  were  very  few 
landed  proprietors  in  the  south  and  west 
of  Scotland  against  whom  similar  charges 
might  not  have  been  brought ;  and  his 
sentence  was  equivalent  to  the  placing  of 
the  whole  property  of  the  kingdom  at  the 
arbitrary  disposal  of  the  council,  upon 
false  charges  of  constructive  treason.! 


*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  pp  416419. 
Times,  vol.  i.  p.  526. 


t  Burners  Owe 


A.  D.  1683.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


269 


Many  began  to  entertain,  serious  inten- 
tions of  abandoning  their  country,  and 
seeking  in  foreign  lands  that  liberty 
which  was  denied  them  in  their  own, — 
feeling  that  there  was  more  than  an 
empty  threat  in  the  saying  of  the  Duke 
of  York,  "  that  Scotland  would  never  be 
at  peace  till  the  whole  country  south  of 
the  Forth  was  turned  into  a  hunting- 
field." 

Since  the  death  of  Cargill  there  had 
been  no  ministers  bold  enough  to  preach 
in  the  open  field  ;  and  those  whom  Wod- 
row  calls  "  the  Society  People"  had  been 
left  without  the  blessings  of  a  stated 
ministry  and  the  dispensation  of  religious 
ordinances.  But  Mr.  James  Renwick, 
who  had  for  some  time  kept  company 
with  the  persecuted  wanderers  in  pre- 
vious years,  had  been  to  Holland,  and 
having  completed  his  education  at  Gron- 
ingen,  and  obtained  ordination  from  the 
Presbytery  there,  he  returned  to  Scot- 
land, and  accepted  an  invitation  from  the 
Covenanters  to  be  their  minister.  He 
commenced  his  ministerial  career  in  Sep- 
tember, preaching  in  the  fields  at  a  place 
called  Darmead,  where  a  general  meet- 
ing of  the  persecuted  party  had  been  as- 
sembled. In  this,  his  first  public  sermon, 
Renwick  thought  proper  to  give  a  full 
statement  of  his  views  and  opinions  re- 
specting the  path  of  duty  and  peril  on 
which  he  was  about  to  enter.  In  this,  it 
appears,  he  expressed  himself  somewhat 
rashly,  particularly  in  stating  with  what 
ministers  he  could  not  hold  intercourse, 
mentioning  some  by  name,  and  assigning 
the  reasons  why  he  must  continue  to  tes- 
tify against  their  defections,  by  standing 
aloof  from  their  communion.  This  open 
avowal  of  his  sentiments,  exposed  Ren- 
wick at  once  to  great  obloquy.  He  was 
accused  of  having  excommunicated  a 
great  number  of  the  best  ministers  in 
Scotland,  this  construction  being  put  upon 
his  specific  censure  of  their  defections  ; 
and  the  effect  was  a  more  complete  separ- 
ation between  the  Society  People  and 
their  less  resolute  Presbyterian  brethren 
than  had  previously  existed.  He  de- 
plored this  hurtful  disagreement,  and  ex- 
pressed great  regret  that  his  unguarded 
language  should  have  given  occasion  to 
it ;  but  he  could  not  violate  his  principles 
for  the  sake  of  peace.*  His  was,  never- 

*  Life  of  Renwick,  pp.  40-44. 


theless,  a  heart  that  loved  peace,  and  was 
full  of  natural  gentleness  ;  but  he  seemed 
to  feel  himself  devoted  to  a  task  too 
mighty  and  important  to  allow  any  per- 
sonal feelings  to  impede  his  course.  He 
had  once  more  raised  aloft  the  banner  of 
the  Covenant,  and  spread  its  folds  abroad 
on  the  free  mountain  winds,  and  he  was 
determined  to  keep  it  floating  there  while 
life  was  his,  and  to  shed  his  last  drop  of 
blood  in  its  defence.  And  if,  in  declaring 
this  high  enterprise,  his  tongue  did  utter 
strong  and  burning  words,  surely  there 
was  more  concession  to  be  made  to  such 
a  man,  at  such  a  time,  and  in  such  a 
cause,  than  to  those  who  had  stooped  to 
accept  an  indulgence  from  prelatic  ty- 
rants, and  who,  being  thereby  half  en- 
slaved, shrunk  from  the  bold  accents  of 
liberty,  and  basely  censured  what  they 
wanted  courage  to  imitate. 

The  return  of  Renwick,  and  the  re- 
commencement of  field-preaching,  roused 
anew  the  wrath  of  the  persecutors,  as  was 
manifested  in  an  act  of  council  published 
on  the  8th  of  October,  imposing  heavy 
fines  upon  the  districts  where  Renwick 
had  been  known  to  preach.*  This,  how- 
ever, was  but  a  faint  beginning  of  a 
course  of  remorseless  persecution,  which 
raged  for  several  successive  years,  with 
more  intense  and  wide-spread  fury  than 
had  previously  been  known.  For  not 
only  is  it  a  well-known  fact,  that  a  course 
of  persecution  becomes  the  more  bloody 
the  longer  it  continues,  from  the  harden- 
ing and  unhumanizing  reflex  influence 
of  their  own  conduct  upon  the  persecu- 
tors ;  but  also,  there  was,  in  the  case  of 
the  Scottish  sufferers,  after  Renwick's 
arrival,  something  which  excited  at  once 
the  malice  and  the  fear  of  their  baffled 
foes.  The  prelatic  party  had  begun  to 
exult  in  the  apparent  discomfiture  and 
submission  of  their  victims,  and  thought 
they  had  now  little  more  to  do  than  to 
divide  the  spoil,  when  suddenly  the  lonely 
solitudes  again  resounded  with  the  voice 
of  prayer  and  praise,  breathed  forth  by 
the  free  and  fearless  adherents  of  Scot- 
land's covenanted  Presbyterian  Church, 
and  they  began  to  feel  that  the  battle  was 
yet  to  be  fought,  and  with  men  who 
knew  not  to  yield.  They  might  have 
begun  to  learn  that  there  is  an  imperish- 
able life  in  the  great  principles  of  truth, 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iii.  p.  446. 


270 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  vn. 


against  wnich  the  utmost  power  of  men 
may  rage  and  dash  as  vainly  as  do  the 
wind-swept  waves,  when  they  cast  their 
foam  against  the  everlasting  rocks. 

That  event  known  in  English  history 
by  the  name  of  the  "  Rye-house  Plot"  oc- 
curred this  year,  and  was  wrested  into  a 
cause  of  additional  suffering  to  the  Scot- 
tish Presbyterians.  Being  so  much  a 
matter  of  English  history,  we  shall  not 
enter  into  details,  further  than  is  neces- 
sary for  explaining  in  what  manner  it 
was  made  to  bear  upon  the  affairs  of 
Scotland.  It  has  already  been  mentioned, 
that  the  excessive  oppression  under  which 
they  groaned  had  caused  a  number  of 
Scottish  gentlemen  to  deliberate  upon  the 
propriety  of  entering  upon  a  voluntary 
exile  to  the  colonies.  Several  of  them 
went  to  London  to  prepare  for  emigra- 
tion ;  but  while  there,  they  learned  that 
some  English  patriots  were  endeavouring 
to  concert  a  scheme  by  which  they  might 
rescue  their  country  from  tyranny,  and 
prevent  the  Duke  of  York's  succession 
to  the  crown  in  the  event  of  his  brother's 
demise.  At  the  head  of  this  conspiracy 
were  Monmouth,  Shaftesbury,  Russell, 
and  Sidney.  The  Scottish  deputation 
entered  into  correspondence  with  these 
patriotic  men ;  and  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  free-hearted  nobility  and  gentry 
began  to  enter  warmly  into  the  enterprise, 
among  whom  were,  Lord  Melville,  the 
Earl  of  Tarras,  Sir  Patrick  Hume  of 
Polwarth  (afterwards  Lord  Marchmont), 
Baillie  of  Jerviswood,  Sir  John  Coch- 
rane,  Campbell  of  Cesnock,  and  others. 
They  entered  into  a  correspondence  with 
the  Earl  of  Argyle  in  Holland,  which 
was  conducted  chiefly  through  the  Rev. 
William  Carstares,  one  of  the  Presby- 
terian ministers.  A  short  intercourse 
with  the  English  plotters  was  enough  to 
show  the  Scottish  gentlemen  that  the  en- 
terprise could  not  succeed ;  and  they 
abandoned  it  before  it  was  discovered. 
In  the  meantime  there  was  an  underplot, 
conducted  by  men  of  different  character 
and  views,  which  had  for  its  object  the 
death  of  the  king,  and  the  change  of  the 
monarchy  into  a  republic.  With  this, 
neither  the  English  nobility  nor  the 
Scottish  Presbyterians  were  at  all  ac- 
quainted ;  but  upon  its  discovery  the  go- 
vernment endeavoured  to  identify  the 
two,  and  especially  to  charge  the  whole 


upon  the  Presbyterians,  or  "the  fanatics," 
as  irreligious  men  delighted  to  call  them. 
The  results  of  this  malicious  accusation 
did  not  fully  manifest  themselves  till  the 
following  year. 

[1684^  The  year  1684  begins  the  last 
and  bloodiest  period  of  the  persecution, 
termed  by  the  sufferers  themselves,"  kil- 
ling time."  All  the  terrible  enginery  of 
persecution  was  now  brought  into  full 
operation  ;  and  the  practised  hands  and 
callous  hearts  of  the  oppressors  wielded 
their  murderous  weapons  without  re- 
morse. When  disappointed  in  one  in- 
stance, their  savage  spirits  thirsted  the 
more  intensely  for  a  deeper  draught  of 
blood  from  some  less  protected  source. 
Public  judicial  murders  gave  sanction 
and  encouragement  to  that  indiscriminate 
slaughter  perpetrated  by  the  soldiery 
throughout  the  country,  till  the  entire 
west  and  south  of  Scotland  was  one  field 
of  blood. 

The  Justiciary  Court  began  its  fearful 
career  on  the  28th  of  February ;  and 
before  it  had  continued  its  sittings  longer 
than  four  days,  three  Presbyterians  ob- 
tained the  crown  of  martyrdom.  In  a 
few  days  another  guiltless  victim  met  a 
similar  fate.  But  these  were  opportuni- 
ties of  gratifying  only  their  love  of  cru- 
elty ;  and  other  victims  must  be  sought, 
possessing  property,  the  confiscation  of 
which  would  gratify  their  avarice.  Their 
grasp  was  first  laid  on  Sir  Hugh  Camp- 
bell of  Cesnock,  who  was  accused  of  be- 
ing accessory  to  the  Rye-house  plot. 
Finding  that  there  was  no  evidence  what- 
ever to  corroborate  that  charge,  and  be- 
ing still  determined  to  secure  their  vic- 
tim, a  new  accusation  was  framed,  charg- 
ing him  with  participation  in  the  insur- 
rection of  Both  well  Bridge.  Two  wit 
nesses  were  produced  •  but  when  con 
fronted  with  Cesnock,  and  solemnly  ab 
jured  by  him  to  speak  the  truth,  they  re 
tracted  their  previous  statements.  The 
spectators  shouted  with  delight,  Sir 
George  Mackenzie  stormed  furiously,, 
terming  this  shout  a  "  Protestant  roar," 
declaring  that  he  "  had  always  had  a 
kindness  /or  the  Presbyterian  persuasion 
till  now,  and  that  he  was  convinced  it  hugs 
the  most  damnable  trinket  in  nature."* 
In  vain  he  strove  to  browbeat  the  jury  ; 
they 'returned  a  verdict  of  not  guilty,  and 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  p.  91. 


A.  D.  1684.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


271 


Cesnock  was — acquitted  ? — no  ! — he  was 
remanded  to  prison,  his  estate  forfeited, 
and  shortly  afterwards  he  was  sent  to  the 
Bass.  The  jury  were  compelled  to 
make  an  apology,  and  the  witnesses  were 
laid  in  irons.  Such  was  the  justice 
shown  to  Presbyterians  by  their  lawless 
persecutors. 

To  compensate  for  this  disappointment, 
the  Military  Commission  Court  condem- 
ned and  executed  five  Presbyterians  at 
Glasgow,  after  a  mock  trial,  upon  evi- 
dence not  only  slight,  but  contradictory, 
and  utterly  incompetent  to  substantiate 
the  charge,  which  was  merely  that  they 
had  either  been  at  Bothwell,  or  had  at 
least  held  intercourse  with  the  "  rebels." 
But  the  joy  of  the  persecutors  was  great 
when  they  seized  Captain  John  Paton  of 
Meadowhead,  who  had  held  a  command 
both  at  Pentland  and  Bothwell.  This 
gallant  gentleman  boldly  acknowledged 
and  defended  what  he  had  done,  answer- 
ing every  charge  with  such  courage  and 
dignity  that  the  council,  struck  with  ad- 
miration, entertained  some  intentions  of 
sparing  his  life,  to  which,  however,  the 
prelates  would  not  consent.  He  met  his 
death  on  the  scaffold  with  as  much  forti- 
tude as  he  had  exhibited  in  the  battle- 
field, but  with  the  superadded  dignity  of 
Christian  forgiveness  to  his  murderers.* 

The  absolute  injustice  as  well  as  cru- 
elty of  the  courts,  were  shown  peculiarly 
in  the  trials  of  Spence,  Carstares,  and 
Jerviswood.  Mr.  William  Spence  had 
been  Secretary  to  the  Earl  of  Argyle, 
and  it  was  thought  that  he  must  be  capa- 
ble of  giving  important  information  re- 
specting the  supposed  connection  of  the 
Scottish  Presbyterians  with  the  Rye- 
house  Plot.  He  had  been  kept  for  some 
time  in  prison  heavily  loaded  with  iron 
fetters,  which  were  struck  off  that  he 
might  be  examined  by  torture.  The  tor- 
ture of  the  boot  failed  to  wring  from  him 
any  such  disclosure  as  the  council  wished. 
He  was  then  sent  back  to  prison  ;  and  an 
order  of  almost  unparalleled  atrocity 
was  issued  by  the  council,  that  a  party 
of  soldiers  should  keep  watch  beside  the 
exhausted  sufferer,  and  not  permit  him 
to  sleep  day  nor  night  till  he  should  con- 
fess. Several  days  together,  Burnet  says 
eight  or  nine,  was  this  fearfully  barbar- 
ous order  enforced  ;  and  when  even  this 

•  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  p.  65 ;  Scottish  Worthies,  p.  366. 


could  not  shake  his  constancy,  he  was 
subjected  to  the  torture  of  the  thumbkin 
or  thumb  screw.  The  utmost  which  they 
succeeded  finally  in  extorting  from  the 
worn-out  sufferer,  was  his  assistance  in 
decyphering  a  letter  written  in  secret 
characters  by  Argyle,  in  which  the  pur- 
pose of  preventing  the  Duke  of  York's 
succession  was  mentioned,  but  nothing 
tending  to  corroborate  the  charge  of  in- 
tended assassination.  The  names  of 
Carstares  and  Baillie  of  Jerviswood  were 
contained  in  Argyle's  letter,  and  this  ex- 
posed them  to  the  wrath  of  the  council. 

Carstares  had  been  apprehended  in 
England,  at  first  by  mistake  for  a  differ- 
ent person,  and  retained  in  custody  on 
account  of  being  suspected  to  have  some 
knowledge  of  the  meditated  insurrection 
for  which  Russell  and  Sidney  died  ;  and 
also  because  he  was  believed  to  be  in  the 
confidence  of  the  Scottish  exiles  in  Hol- 
land. He  was  sent  down  to  Scotland  to 
be  tried,  contrary  to  the  provisions  of 
English  law ;  and  the  mention  of  his 
name  in  the  papers  decyphered  by 
Spence  exposed  him  to  the  severity  of 
the  Scottish  council.  He  endured  the 
torture  of  the  thumbkin  for  an  hour  and 
a  half  with  unwavering  fortitude,  refus- 
ing to  answer  any  questions  by  which  he 
might  be  led  to  criminate  other  parties. 
When  released  from  torture  and  re- 
manded to  prison,  he  learned  that  the  in- 
formation derived  from  Spence  contained 
nearly  all  that  the  questions  to  be  pro- 
posed to  him  could  involve,  and  accord- 
ingly he  consented  to  answer  without 
further  torture,  stipulating  that  his  an- 
swers should  not  be  used  as  evidence 
against  the  persons  accused,  nor  himself 
confronted  with  them  as  a  witness.  These 
stipulations  were,  as  usual,  immediately 
violated,  and  an  unfair  account  of  his 
confession  published,  and  attempted  to 
be  used  against  Jerviswood,  on  whose 
death  the  council  was  bent.  It  deserves 
to  be  recorded,  to  the  credit  of  Carstares, 
that  he  was  in  the  possession  of  state  se- 
crets greatly  more  important  than  those 
which  the  council  were  attempting  to 
wring  from  him,  the  offer  to  discover 
which  would  have  secured  him  from  tor- 
ture, and  the  discovery  of  which  might 
have  frustrated  the  success  of  the  subse- 
quent enterprise  of  the  Prince  of  Orange. 
But  when  Carstares  had  answered  to  the 


272 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


questions  directly  put  by  the  council,  they  ! 
seem  to  have  concluded  that  he  was 
acquainted  with  nothing  more  ;  and,  after 
a  short  additional  imprisonment,  he  was 
permitted  to  leave  the  kingdom  and  retire 
to  Holland,  where  he  remained  till  the 
time  of  the  Revolution.* 

The  trial  of  Baillie  of  Jerviswood 
came  next,  and  demands  attention,  as  pe- 
culiarly atrocious.  Baillie  was  a  man  of 
great  natural  abilities,  soundness  of  judg- 
ment, and  high  integrity  and  blameless- 
ness  of  character.  He  was  now  consid- 
erably advanced  in  years,  and  his  consti- 
tution greatly  broken  and  enfeebled  by 
sufferings  and  imprisonment ;  yet  his 
life,  evidently  drawing  near  its  close, 
was  sought  by  his  enemies,  because  they 
were  aware  of  the  high  estimation*  in 
which  he  was  held  by  the  Presbyterians, 
whose  proceedings  and  plans  might  be 
comparatively  paralyzed  by  the  loss  of 
such  a  man.  The  main  accusation 
against  Jerviswood  had  reference  to  the 
conspiracy  of  the  English  patriots,  Rus- 
sell and  Sidney,  but  there  was  a  misera- 
ble deficiency  of  evidence  to  substantiate 
the  charge.  Every  attempt  was  made  by 
the  "  bloody  Mackenzie"  to  supplement 
this  deficiency  ;  even  the  confession  of 
Carstares  was  Drought  forward  as  corrob- 
orative evidence,  contrary  to  the  express 
stipulations  into  which  the  council  en- 
tered with  Carstares  himself.  Baillie  was 
manifestly  dying,  but  this  only  stimulated 
the  council  to  hasten  forward  his  trial, 
that  they  might  enjoy  the  gratification  of 
shaking  rudely  the  ebbing  sands  of  his 
life.  When  brought  before  the  court,  the 
venerable  man  was  wrapped  in  his  dres- 
sing-gown, as  he  had  arisen  from  his 
sick-bed,  and  attended  by  his  sister-in- 
law,  daughter  of  the  celebrated  Warris- 
ton,  who  supported  him  from  time  to 
time  with  cordials  during  the  course  of 
the  trial.  Mackenzie  pressed  the  charges 
against  him  with  the  most  malignant  bit- 
terness of  language.  At  last  the  vener- 
able man  slowly  rose,  defended  himself 
against  the  articles  of  the  accusation,  so- 
lemnly declared  his  detestation  of  all 
plots  against  the  lives  of  his  majesty  and 
his  royal  brother  ;  then  fixing  his  eyes 
on  Mackenzie,  asked  how  he  could  in 
public  so  violently  accuse  him  of  what  in 
private  he  had  declared  he  did  not  be- 

*  Dr  M'Cormack's  Life  of  Carstares,  pp.  17-22. 


lieve  him  guilty?  The  advocate  quail- 
ed beneath  the  searching  power  of  that 
calm  clear  eye,  and  confusedly  stam- 
mered out,  "  Jerviswood,  I  own  what  you  . 
say  ;  my  thoughts  there  were  as  a.  pri- 
vate man  ;  but  what  I  say  here  is  by  spe- 
cial direction  of  the  privy  council,"  and 
pointing  to  the  clerk,  added,  '•  he  knows 
my  orders."  "  Well,"  replied  Jervis- 
wood, "  if  you  have  one  conscience  for 
yourself  and  another  for  the  council,  I 
pray  God  forgive  you,  I  do;" — then  turn- 
ing to  the  j ustice-general,  he  said,  "my  lord, 
I  trouble  your  lordship  no  farther."  But 
neither  the  dignity  of  truth  nor  the  pa- 
thetic language  of  innocence  could  move 
the  cruel  conclave.  He  was  pronounced 
guilty,  and  condemned  to  die  the  same 
day,  his  head  to  be  cut  off,  his  body 
quartered,  and  the  mutilated  parts  to  be 
affixed  upon  conspicuous  places  in  the 
chief  towns  in  the  kingdom.  When  this 
barbarous  sentence  was  intimated  to  him, 
he  answered,  "  My  lords,  the  time  is 
short — the  sentence  is  sharp ;  but  I  thank 
my  God,  who  hath  made  me  as  fit  to  die 
as  you  are  to  live."  The  brief  interval 
between  the  sentence  and  its  execution 
was  to  him  one  of  joy  unspeakable  and 
full  of  glory.  His  bodily  weakness  and 
sufferings  were  unfelt,  in  the  anticipation 
of  the  glory,  honour,  and  immortality 
of  that  heavenly  inheritance  into  which 
he  was  about  to  enter.  The  hour  came. 
His  devoted  sister-in-law,  Warriston's- 
heroic  daughter,  supported  his  sinking 
frame  to  the  scaffold ;  stood  with  him 
there,  while,  leaning  on  her  shoulder,  he 
attempted  to  address  the  deeply  agitated 
and  sympathizing  spectators  ;  and  left 
him  not  till,  after  the  drums  of  the  mili- 
tary had  drowned  his  voice,  and  the  rude 
hand  of  the  executioner  had  hurried  on 
the  final  deed,  she  beheld  his  earthly  suf- 
ferings closed,  withdrawing  then  from  a 
place  where  she  had  undergone  what 
may  well  be  termed  a  martyrdom  of  the 
heart.* 

When  such  was  the  treatment  of  men 
of  considerable  rank,  it  may  well  be 
supposed  that  those  in  humble  life  would 
be  subjected  to  injustice  still  more  glar- 
ing, and  cruelties  still  more  intense. 
Such  was  indeed  the  case.  The  circuit 
courts  which  had  been  appointed  to  be 
held  in  the  districts  most  noted  for  the  at- 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  pp.  104-112. 


A   D.  1684.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


273 


tachment  of  the  people  to  Presbyterian 
principles,  executed  their  dreadful  com- 
mission with  unprecedented  barbarity. 
To  be  accused  was  almost  always  the 
sure  forerunner  of  to  be  condemned.  To 
hesitate  or  refuse  to  take  the  test  was' 
ground  enough  for  the  exaction  of  ruin- 
ous fines  from  those  who  possessed  any 
property,  or  for  death  to  those  who  had 
none.  The  curates  were  not  only  encour- 
aged, but  further  enjoined,  to  ply  their 
dreadful  and  degrading  trade  of  spies 
and  informers.  Other  spies  of  a  still  viler 
cast  were  employed  to  pretend  to  be  Cov- 
enaflters,  to  frequent  the  company  of  the 
persecuted  wanderers,  to  discover  their 
retreats,  and  then  to  give  such  informa- 
tion as  might  lead  to  their  surprise  and 
seizure.  Ren  wick  continued  to  preach 
in  the  fields  in  spite  of  the  rage  of  the 
persecutors ;  and,  notwithstanding  the 
keenness  with  which  he  and  his  follow- 
ers were  hunted  from  place  to  place,  he 
still  escaped  from  their  toils,  and  held 
aloft,  as  he  had  vowed  to  do,  the  banner 
of  the  Covenant. 

About  this  time  an  incident  occurred 
which  tended  greatly  to  increase  the  fury 
of  the  persecutors.  There  had  been  a 
meeting  of  the  Covenanters  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Drumlanrig,  where  the  sol- 
diers found  these  resolute  men  too  nu- 
merous to  be  safely  attacked.  But  when 
they  dispersed,  the  soldiers  scoured  the 
country  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
place  of  meeting,  and  intercepted  eight 
or  nine  of  the  stragglers,  among  whom 
was  the  minister.  When  the  Covenant- 
ers learned  that  thei  minister  had  been 
seized,- they  hastily  mustered  in  small 
parties,  each  speeding  to  some  advanta- 
geous spot  to  attempt  a  rescue.  The  sol- 
diers took  the  most  direct  route  to  Edin- 
burgh, and  marched  up  Enterkin  pass 
with  their  prisoners.  This  was  immedi- 
ately observed  by  the  countrymen,  who 
swiftly  scaled  the  mountain  side,  and 
placed  themselves  in  a  commanding  posi- 
tion before  the  approach  of  the  dragoons. 
A  more  suitable  position  for  such  an  en- 
terprise could  not  be  desired.  The  road 
is  cut  out  of  the  steep  side  of  a  sheer 
precipitous  mountain,  not  broader  than 
to  admit  of  two  horses  abreast,  exceed- 
ingly steep  on  the  upper  side,  unguarded 
by  wall  or  bank  on  the  under,  from 
which  the  mountain  descends  almost  per- 
35 


pendicularly  to  the  bottom  of  a  narrow 
glen,  along  which  a  mountain-stream 
toils,  foaming  through  the  shattered  rocks 
that  block  its  rugged  channel.  Nothing 
of  vegetation  is  to  be  seen  but  a  few  loose 
tufts  of  wiry  grass  whistling  in  the 
wind,  striving  ineffectually  to  bind  to- 
gether the  sharp  slaty  splinters  which 
cover  the  vast  bulk  of  the  barren  moun- 
tain, so  that  it  is  impossible  to  recover 
the  footing  once  lost  on  that  pass  of  fear. 
As  the  soldiers  were  slowly  winding  up 
that  tremendous  path,  they  were  sudden- 
ly hailed  by  a  voice  from  the  misty  hill- 
side above  them,  calling  on  them  to  stop 
and  deliver  up  their  minister  and  the 
other  prisoners.  The  officer  in  command 
refused  with  a  loud  oath.  He  was  im- 
mediately shot  through  the  head,  and  fell 
from  his  horse,  which,  startling  back, 
staggered  over  the  precipice,  rolling  and 
bounding  with  increased  velocity  till  it 
descended  in  a  mangled  indistinguisha- 
ble mass  into  the  rocky  bed  of  the  ra- 
ving torrent.  The  rest  of  the  soldiers 
stood  petrified  with  horror  at  this  appal- 
ling catastrophe,  feeling  that  their  own 
lives  were  completely  at  the  mercy  of 
the  men  posted  above  them  on  the  hill. 
But  these  men  were  not  revengeful. 
They  wished  not  to  spill  the  blood  of 
their  enemies,  if  they  could  otherwise 
rescue  their  friends.  Again  they  de- 
manded the  minister  and  the  other  pris- 
oners ;  and  the  officer  second  in  com- 
mand, aware  that  resistance  was  in  vain, 
consented  to  yield  them  up,  saying  to  the 
minister,  "  Go,  sir ;  you  owe  your  life 
to  this  damned  mountain."  "  Rather, 
Sir,"  said  the  minister,  "  to  that  God  who 
made  this  mountain."* 

When  the  intelligence  of  this  rescue 
reached  Edinburgh,  the  rage  of  the  coun- 
cil was  unbounded.  Furious  proclama- 
tions were  issued,  and  strong  detachments 
of  troops  sent  to  traverse  the  adjacent 
country,  and  apprehend  all  who  were 
suspected  of  having  been  in  any  respect 
implicated  in  the  deed.  Nor  were  they 
long  without  finding  victims  on  which  to 
inflict  their  vengeance.  Three  men  were 
found  asleep  in  the  fields,  fired  upon,  and 

*  Memoirs  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  by  De  Foe,  pp. 
188-193;  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  p.  173.  Wodrow's  account 
differ  somewhat  from  that  given  by  De  foe,  but  the- 
latter  is  here  mainly  followed,  as,  from  having  person- 
ally explored  the  pass,  and  gleaned  the  traditionary 
accounts  still  current  in  the  district,  the  author  is  safc 
isfled  of  its  accuracy. 


274 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


wounded  by  the  soldiers  where  they  lay, 
then  seized,  hurried  to  Edinburgh,  and 
put  to  death  the  very  day  on  which  they 
reached  the  capital,  without  the  shadow 
of  a  proof  that  they  were  concerned  in  the 
rescue  at  Enterkin  path.  But  this  did  not 
satiate  their  thirst  of  revenge.  The  whole 
district  was  laid  under  military  law,  and 
unparalleled  atrocities  were  perpetrated 
by  the  licentious  and  infuriated  soldiery. 
The  people  were  hunted  from  their  homes 
and  shot  to  death  in  the  fields  without 
mercy ;  their  houses  were  pillaged,  and 
then  reduced  frequently  to  ashes,  the 
women  and  children  being  abused,  and 
then  left  to  houseless  misery  and  starva- 
tion. Three  women  were  seized,  and 
with  difficulty  escaped  banishment,  for 
lending  assistance  in  her  hour  of  travail 
to  the  wife  of  one  who  was  suspected  to 
have  been  at  the  rescue.  Desolation  cov- 
ered the  country  wheresoever  the  fierce 
exterminators  directed  their  ruthless  rav- 
ages. 

But  while  peculiar  districts  were  thus 
exposed  to  excessive  devastation,  in  con- 
sequence of  peculiar  events,  the  concen- 
trated malice  of  the  persecutors  was 
directed  incessantly  against  the  unyield- 
ing remnant  of  true  Covenanters.  They 
were  hunted  like  beasts  of  prey  from  moss 
to  mountain,  from  cliff  to  cavern.  In  vain 
did  they  make  their  beds  in  the  dark 
heaths,  beneath  the  canopy  of  heaven,  or 
in  natural  caves  in  the  rocky  glens,  or  in 
artificial  lurking-places  among  the  snaggy 
thickets.  No  retreat  was  sufficiently 
wild  and  secret  to  secure  them  from  the 
keen  eye  of  the  prowling  informer,  and 
the  relentless  pursuit  of  their  vindictive 
enemies.  Thus  driven  from  the  haunts 
of  men,  outlawed,  given  up  to  pitiless 
butchery  it  would  have  been  strange  in- 
deed if  they  had  not,  like  a  stag  at  bay, 
turned  on  their  pursuers,  and  compelled 
them  to  know  that  there  were  extremities 
of  persecution  which  human  nature  would 
not  endure.  At  length,  after  their  pa- 
tience and  Christian  resignation  had  been 
tried  to  the  extremest  pitch,  they  did  come 
to  the  determination  of  warning  their  ene- 
mies not  to  press  further  upon  that  peril- 
ous boundary,  the  crossing  of  which 
might  make  the  great  law  of  self-preser- 
vation the  sole  rule  of  duty,  and  when 
stern  retaliation  might  become  the  only 
method  by  which  that  great  law  could 


act.  This  formidable  warning  they  gave 
to  their  relentless  persecutors,  by  publish- 
ing what  they  termed  "  the  apologetic  de- 
claration and  admonitory  vindication  of 
the  true  Presbyterians  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  especially  against  intelligencers 
and  informers."  This  very  remarkable 
paper  bears  to  have  been  drawn  up  on  the 
28th  of  October,  and  was  to  be  affixed  on 
the  market-crosses  of  the  chief  towns  in 
Scotland,  on  the  8th  of  November,  which 
was  accordingly  done.  It  is  of  such  im- 
portance, that  an  extract  must  be  given. 

This  "  apologetical  declaration"  begins 
by  narrating  the  course  of  persecution 
which  had  impelled  the  sufferers  to  dis- 
own the  authority  of  the  tyrannical  sove- 
reign and  government  under  whose  cruel 
sway  they  were  so  mercilessly  wasted  ;  it 
then  declares  that  they  "  utterly  detest 
and  abhor  that  hellish  principle  of  killing 
all  who  differ  in  judgment  and  persuasion 
from  us,  it  having  no  bottom  upon  the 
Word  of  God,  or  right  reason;  and 
after  stating  the  incessant  danger  in  which 
they  lived,  the  hardships  to  which  they 
were  exposed,  and  the  cruel  deaths  in- 
flicted on  their  friends,  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  spies,  informers,  and  the 
remorseless  soldiery,  this  document  pro- 
ceeds in  the  following  strain : — 

"  We  do  hereby  delare  unto  all,  that 
whosoever  stretch  forth  their  hands 
against  us  while  we  are  maintaining  the 
cause  and  interest  of  Christ  against  his 
enemies,  in  defence  of  the  Covenanted 
Reformation,  all  and  every  one  of  such 
shall  be  reputed  by  us  enemies  to  God 
and  the  covenanted  work  of  reformation, 
and  punished  as  such,  according  to  our 
power  and  the  degree  of  their  offence, 
chiefly  if  they  shall  continue,  after  the 
publication  of  this  our  declaration,  obsti- 
nately and  habitually  with  malice  to  pro- 
ceed against  us,  any  of  the  aforesaid  ways. 
Now,  let  not  any  think  that  (our  God  as- 
sisting us)  we  will  be  so  slack-handed  in 
time  coming  to  put  matters  in  execution, 
as  heretofore  we  have  been,  seeing  we 
are  bound  faithfully  and  valiantly  to 
maintain  our  Covenants  and  the  cause  of 
Christ.  Therefore,  let  all  these  aforesaid 
persons  be  admonished  of  their  hazard ; 
and  particularly  all  ye  intelligencers,  who 
by  your  voluntary  informations  endea- 
vour to  render  us  up  into  the  enemies' 
hands,  that  our  blood  may  be  shed ;  for 


A  D.  1684.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


275 


by  such  courses  ye  both  endanger  your 
immortal  souls,  if  repentance  prevent  not, 
seeing  God  will  make  inquisition  for 
shedding  the  precious  blood  of  his  saints, 
and  also  your  bodies,  seeing  you  render 
yourselves  actually  and  maliciously  guilty 
of  our  blood,  whose  innocency  the  Lord 
knoweth.  However,  we  are  sorry  at  our 
very  hearts  that  any  of  you  should  choose 
such  courses,  either  with  bloody  Doegto 
shed  our  blood,  or  with  the  flattering 
Ziphites,  to  inform  persecutors  where  we 
are  to  be  found.  So  we  say  again,  we 
desire  you  to  take  warning  of  the  hazard 
that  ye  incur,  by  following  such  courses; 
for  the  sinless  necessity  of  self-preserva- 
tion, accompanied  with  holy  zeal  for 
Christ's  reigning  in  our  land,  and  sup- 
pressing of  profanity,  will  move  us  not  to 
let  you  pass  unpunished.  Call  to  your 
remembrance,  all  that  is  in  peril  is  not 
lost,  and  all  that  is  delayed  is  not  for- 
given. Therefore,  expect  to  be  dealt 
with  as  ye  deal  with  us,  so  far  as  our 
power  can  reach,  not  because  we  are 
actuated  by  a  sinful  spirit  of  revenge,  for 
private  and  personal  injuries,  but  mainly 
because  by  our  fall  reformation  suffers 
damage."* 

It  is,  we  think,  impossible  to  peruse 
this  remarkable  document  without  strorcg 
emotions  of  mingled  sorrow,  regret,  and 
admiration  ; — sorrow,  to  contemplate  the 
sufferings  which  such  men  had  been  com- 
pelled so  long  to  endure ;  regret,  that 
these  sufferings  had  driven  them  to  the 
use  of  language,  if  not  the  adoption  of 
sentiments,  which  might  be  perverted 
into  something  like  a  sanction  of  sum- 
mary retaliation  and  lawless  bloodshed, 
notwithstanding  the  earnestness  with 
which  they  disclaimed  such  principles  ; 
and  admiration  of  the  invincible  courage 
and  perseverance  which  they  displayed  in 
the  defence  of  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
and  in  the  maintenance  of  the  fundamen- 
tal principle  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Scotland, — the  sole  sovereignty  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  over  his  spiritual  king- 
dom, the  Church. 

The  effects  resulting  from  this  declara- 
tion were  varied.  To  a  certain  extent  it 
accomplished  the  intended  object.  The 
informers,  both  curates  and  their  base 
emissarieSj  were  appalled,  and  shrunk 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  pp.  148, 149;  Informatory  Vindi- 
cation, pp.  255-251. 


from  the  possible  encounter  with  men 
rendered  desperate  by  the  deep  sense 
of  intolerable  oppression,  who  knew  no 
falsehood  and  who  felt  no  fear,  and  for 
whom  to  act  wa?  easier  than  to  threaten. 
They  dared  not,  therefore,  follow  the  per- 
secuted remnant  to  their  desolate  retreats, 
as  formerly ;  and,  consequently,  some 
diminution  took  place  in  the  deadly  accu- 
racy with  which  the  military  execution- 
ers had  previously  been  guided  to  the 
haunts  of  their  victims.  But  the  rage  of 
the  council  was  stimulated  beyond  all 
former  precedent:  and  failing  somewhat 
in  their  comparatively  private  methods  of 
destruction,  they  resolved  to  wield  all 
their  public  weapons  with  more  terrific 
energy  than  they  had  ever  yet  put  forth. 
An  act  of  the  privy  council  was  passed 
on  the  22d  of  November,  well  designated 
"  the  bloody  act,"  ordaining  "  every  per- 
son who  owns,  or  does  not  disown,  the 
late  traitorous  declaration,  upon  oath, 
whether  he  have  arms  or  not,  to  be  im- 
mediately put  to  death,  before  two  wit- 
nesses, and  the  person  or  persons  having 
commission  from  the  council  to  that  ef- 
fect." And  that  this  "  bloody  act''  might 
not  remain  inoperative  for  want  of  com- 
missions, these  were  given  to  several  no- 
blemen, gentlemen,  and  military  officers, 
empowering  and  requiring  them  "  to  con- 
vocate  all  the  inhabitants  (in  certain  par- 
ishes named),  men  and  women,  above 
fourteen  years  of  age  ;  and  if  any  own 
the  late  declaration,  you  shall  execute 
them  by  military  execution  upon  the 
place  ;  and  if  any  be  absent,  ye  shall  burn 
their  houses  and  seize  their  goods,  &c. 
And  as  to  the  families  of  such  as  you  con- 
demn or  execute,  you  shall  make  prison- 
ers of  all  persons  in  their  families  above 
the  age  of  twelve  years,  in  order  to  trans- 
portation." An  oath,  termed  the  "  abju- 
ration oath,"  was  also  framed,  according  to 
which  every  person  was  called  upon  "  to 
abjure  and  renounce,  by  solemn  oath,  the 
late  traitorous  apologetical  declaration  ;" 
and  a  proclamation  was  at  the  same  time 
issued,  "  prohibiting  all  past  the  age  of 
sixteen  years  to  presume  to  travel  without 
certificates  of  their  loyalty  and  good  prin- 
ciples, by  taking  the  oath  of  abjuration  ; 
with  certification,  that  all  who  shall  ad- 
venture to  travel  without  such  certificate, 
which  is  to  serve  for  a  free  pass,  shall  be 
holden  and  used  as  connivers  with  the 


276 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


said  rebels."*  The  indulgence  was  also 
recalled,  and  all  the  indulged  ministers 
were  obliged  to  give  bond  not  to  exercise 
any  part  of  their  ministry  in  Scotland. 

The  dread  machinery  of  extermination 
seemed  now  complete.  The  preaching 
of  the  gospel  by  any  Presbyterian  minis- 
ter was  entirely  prohibited,  on  the  penal- 
ties of  imprisonment,  exile,  or  death.  The 
power  of  enforcing  contradictory  oaths, 
such  as  the  test,  and  judicial  oaths,  such 
as  that  of  abjuration,  was  given  to  lawless 
military  commissions,  extended  even  to 
common  troopers  and  private  sentinels, 
with  authority  to  inflict  instant  death  on 
all  who  should  refuse  or  hesitate  thus 
to  violate  their  conscience.  No  man 
might  journey  from  tne  part  of  the  coun- 
try, to  another,  however  urgent  the  call  of 
duty  or  of  business,  witnout  a  pass  from 
these  armed  legislators  ;  and  many  were 
shot  dead  by  the  soldiers,  without  taking 
the  trouble  to  inquire  whether  they  had 
obtained  the  pass,  that  paper  being  found 
in  their  possession  by  the  murderers  when 
they  were  pillaging  the  dead  bodies. 
And  as  the  speeches,  testimonies,  and  de- 
clarations of  the  persecuted  party  had 
made  their  principles  familiar  to  their 
enemies,  the  latter  contrived  to  frame  a 
few  leading  questions  to  be  put  by  the 
military  inquisitors,  the  refusal  to  answer 
which  was  to  be  held  as  a  sufficient  proof 
of  guilt,  entitling  the  banditti  to  inflict 
torture  or  death  upon  their  victims  at  their 
pleasure.  These  questions  were  gener- 
ally the  following: — "  Will  you  renounce 
the  Covenant  ?" — «  Will  you  pray  for  the 
king?"—"  Was  the  killing  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  St.  Andrews  murder?" — "  Was 
the  rising  at  Bothwell  Bridge  rebellion?" 
—"Will  you  take  the  test?"— "Will 
you  abjure  the  late  treasonable  declara- 
tion ?"  The  effect  of  such  questions  may 
very  easily  be  imagined.  Many  thou- 
sands would  have  cheerfully  lost  their 
lives  rather  than  have  renounced  the 
Covenants.  To  pray  for  the  king,  as  a 
sinful  human  being,  they  were  quite 
willing,  but  not  as  thereby  acknowledg- 
ing his  right  to  exercise  a  sinful  suprem- 
acy in  matters  spiritual,  and  an  arbitrary 
despotism  in  civil  affairs.  They  regarded 
the  question  respecting  the  death  of  Sharp 
as  an  illegal  attempt  to  extort  from  them 

*  Wodrow,  Tol.  IT.  pp.  155,156. 161, 164;  Life  of  Ren- 
.  78 


a  sentence  of  condemnation  upon  the 
assassins,  which  they  were  not  entitled  to 
pronounce,  nor  their  enemies  to  require. 
Neither  did  they  feel  at  liberty  to  call  the 
rising  at  Bothwell  Bridge  rebellion,  as 
they  considered  it  essentially  an  act  of 
self-defence,  and  therefore  justifiable.  The 
test  and  the  abjuration  they  regarded  as 
not  only  illegal  and  ensnaring  oaths,  but 
as  positively  sinful,  containing  false  prin- 
ciples, and  involving  the  subjugation  of 
Christianity  to  the  arbitrary  will  of  a  per- 
jured, licentious,  and  Popish  tyrant.  It 
was  not  strange,  therefore,  that  when  the 
rude  soldiers  put  these  questions  to  the 
people,  they  generally  received  such  an- 
swers as  put  it  in  their  power  to  inflict  in- 
stant death  upon  the  faithful  Presbyterians, 
or  such  hideous  tortures  as  might  be 
prompted  by  the  wild  caprice  of  their 
savage  natures. 

[1684.]  As  the  year  1684  closed  with 
the  framing  of  the  "bloody  acts"  already 
specified,  so  1685  began  by  their  being 
put  into  relentless  execution.  Several  pri- 
soners had  been  seized  about  the  close  of 
the  preceding  year,  and  instantly  sacri- 
ficed, even  before  the  passing  of  the  new 
persecuting  enactments.  The  new  year 
was  begun  in  the  same  spirit,  and  with 
fuller  powers  of  vengeance.  About  the 
middle  of  January,  two  men  Avere  hanged 
at  Edinburgh  for  not  disowning  the  late 
declaration ;  on  the  same  day  six  men 
were  shot  in  Galloway,  because  they 
were  detected  by  the  military  in  the  act 
of  prayer.  Another  man,  sick  of  a  fever, 
not  giving  satisfactory  answers  to  the  in- 
terrogations put  to  him,  was  dragged 
from  his  bed,  and  murdered  at  his  own 
door.  Other  two  seemed  willing  to  take 
the  abjuration  oath,  but  being  told  by  the 
military  judge  that  they  must  take  the  test 
also,  refused,  and  were  put  to  death  on 
the  spot,  the  monster  exultingly  exclaim- 
ing, "  they  thought  to  have  cheated  the 
judges,  but  I  have  cheated  them."  In 
some  places  the  whole  inhabitants  of  a 
village  or  a  parish  were  called  together, 
and  commanded  to  take  the  test  and  the 
abjuration  oath,  without  distinction  of  age 
or  sex,  surrounded  by  the  troops,  with 
loaded  muskets  and  drawn  swords,  pre- 
pared to  revel  in  their  blood  if  they  should 
hesitate.* 

A  slight  pause  in  these  dreadful  butch- 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iv. 


A.  D.  16S5.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


277 


eries  took  place  upon  the  death  of  Charles 
Tl.,  which  happened  on  the  6th  day  of 
February.  The  cause  of  his  death  is 
generally  stated  to  have  been  apoplexy  j 
but  there  are  very  strong  reasons  to  sus- 
pect that  he  was  poisoned.*  It  is  not 
necessary  to  offer  any  remarks  upon  the 
character  of  a  monarch  whose  whole  life 
was  a  tissue  of  private  crime  and  public 
perfidy  and  dishonour.  "  His  ambition," 
says  Fox,  "  was  directed  against  his  sub- 
jects; unprincipled,  ungrateful,  mean, 
and  treacherous,  to  which  may  be  added, 
vindictive  and  remorseless.  I  doubt 
whether  a  single  instance  can  be  pro- 
duced of  his  having  spared  the  life  of  any 
one  whom  motives  of  policy  or  revenge 
prompted  him  to  destroy." 

Intelligence  of  the  death  of  Charles 
was  speedily  forwarded  to  Scotland,  and 
the  Duke  of  .York  was  immediately  pro- 
claimed king  in  such  terms  as  must  have 
satisfied  the  most  absolute  despot,  he  be- 
ing declared  "  our  only  righteous  king 
and  sovereign,  over  all  persons,  and  in 
all  causes,  as  holding  his  imperial  crown 
from  God  alone."  The  Scottish  council, 
with  perfect  consistency,  held  it  unneces- 
sary for  James  to  take  the  coronation 
oath,  for  they  had  already  recognised  the 
will  of  the  sovereign  as  the  source  of  all 
law,  civil  and '  sacred  ;  and  to  have  re- 
quired from  their  monarch  an  oath  that 
he  would  govern  according  to  his  own 
will,  would  have  been  a  mockery  indeed. 
Yet  this  omission  left  room  for  the 
statement  of  an  important  principle  within 
the  course  of  a  few  years,  furnishing  an- 
other instance  of  the  truth,  that  lawless 
deeds  ultimately  destroy  their  perpetra- 
tor. All  public  functionaries  were  con- 
tinued in  their  offices  ;  and  the  military 
commission  courts,  which  had  been  insti- 
tuted for  the  destruction  of  the  Presbyte- 
rians, were  renewed,  and  even  extended. 

A  meeting  of  parliament  had  been 
called  by  the  late  king,  to  have  com- 
menced its  sittings  in  March  ;  but  it  was 
summoned  anew  by  James,  and  met  on 
the  28th  of  April.  Glueensberry  was 
appointed  commissioner ;  and  as  the  test 
was  in  full  operation,  every  person  con- 
scientiously attached  to  the  Presbyterian 
Church  was  necessarily  excluded.  It 
would  be  instructive  to  dwell  somewhat 
minutely  on  the  proceedings  of  this  pure- 

*  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  i.  pp.  606-610. 


[y  Prelatic  parliament,  did  space  permit, 
as  its  slavish  spirit,  and  the  gross  flat- 
teries in  which  its  leading  members  in- 
dulged, present  a  startling  contrast  to  the 
conduct  and  language  of  the  purely  Pres- 
byterian parliament  of  1649.  A  few  of 
the  leading  acts  of  this  parliament  must 
be  mentioned.  By  one  of  them  it  was 
declared,  "  That  the  giving  or  taking  the 
National  Covenant  or  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant,  or  writing  in  defence 
thereof,  or  owning  them  as  lawful  or 
obligatory  upon  themselves  or  others, 
shall  infer  the  crime  and  pains  of  trea- 
son." Another  converted  all  the  illegal 
and  oppressive  acts  of  council  into  statute 
law.  A  third  declared  the  giving  of  sup- 
plies, or  the  concealing  of  supplies  given 
to  or  demanded  for  traitors,  to  be  treason, 
and  to  be  judged  accordingly.  By  other 
acts  it  was  ordained,  that  the  punishment 
of  death  should  be  extended  to  hearers  as 
well  as  preachers  at  conventicles ;  that 
the  worshipping  of  God,  in  a  private 
house,  if  five  individuals  more  than  the 
members  of  the  family  were  present,  was 
treason  ;  and  that  the  test  should  be  im- 
posed upon  all  heritors,  life-renters,'and 
tacksmen,  Papists  alone  excepted.  And, 
to  complete  their  proofs  of  superlative 
loyalty,  this  prelate  parliament  passed 
acts  of  attainder  against  several  Presby- 
terian noblemen  and  gentlemen,  annex- 
ing their  forfeited  estates  to  the  crown.* 
This  obsequious  parliament  had  not 
yet  quite  finished  its  labours,  when  intel- 
ligence arrived,  that  a  double  invasion  of 
the  kingdom  was  on  the  point  of  taking 
place,  conducted  in  England  by  the  Duke 
of  Monmouth,  and  in  Scotland  by  the 
Earl  of  Argyle,  "  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
covering the  religion,  rights,  and  liberties 
of  the  kingdom  from  the  usurpation  of 
James  Duke  of  York,  and  a  popish 
faction."  It  belongs  to  the  province  of 
the  civil  historian  to  narrate  events  of  a 
character  so  much  more  civil  than  eccle- 
siastical as  must  needs  be  an  attempt  like 
that  of  Monmouth  and  Argyle.  For  it  is 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  pp.  206-282.  It  may  be  stated,  as  a 
proof  that  this  parliament  had  some  perception  of  the 
dangerous  tendency  of  their  proceedings,  that  they 
passed  an  act  by  which  lands  might  be  entailed  to  per- 
petuity. They  were  bent  on  the  utter  rnin  of  all  Pres- 
byterian families  ;  but  thought,  by  this  measure,  to  se- 
cure their  own  ill-got  gains  from  similar  rum,  should  a 
change  of  administration  take  place.  For  the  law  of 
entail,  with  all  the  obstacles  which  it  presents  to  the 
progress  of  society,  Scotland  has  that  Prelatic  parlia- 
ment to  blame. 


278 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


ICHAP.  vii. 


perfectly  plain,  even  from  the  language 
of  Argyle's  declaration,  that  the  main  ob- 
ject of  his  enterprise  was  to  redress  the 
civil  wrongs  and  grievances  of  the  nation. 
He  did  not,  certainly,  and  he  could  not, 
omit  the  statement  of  those  persecutions 
on  account  of  religion  under  which  the 
nation  had  so  long  groaned  and  bled ; 
but  still  it  was  manifest,  that  both  he  and 
the  greater  part  of  those  who  joined  with 
him  were  more  intent  upon  the  restora- 
tion of  the  civil  than  of  the  religious  lib- 
erties of  the  kingdom.  The  fate  of  the 
enterprise  may  be  very  briefly  told. 

Before  leaving  Holland,  symptoms  of 
dissension  had  appeared  among  the  lead- 
ers of  the  expedition.  Argyle  was  its 
natural  leader,  as  the  man  of  the  highest 
rank  and  greatest  personal  influence  in 
Scotland ;  but  he  appears  to  have  been 
deficient  in  military  talents,  and  in  that 
high  energy  and  decision  of  character  so 
necessary  in  the  leader  of  a  dangerous 
enterprise.  All  their  councils  partook  of 
the  same  indecision,  no  one  man  of  the 
party  possessing  that  degree  of  genius 
which  would  have  given  him  unques- 
tioned ascendency  over  the  rest.  The 
first  attempt  was  made  in  the  Highlands, 
but  with  little  success.  They  then  moved 
to  the  Lowlands, — met  forces  greatly  su- 
perior in  numbers, — avoided  a  general 
engagement, — began  to  be  dispirited,  and 
to  melt  away, — divided,  a  very  few  con- 
tinuing with  Argyle  till  he  was  taken,  a 
large  party  following  Sir  John  Cochrane, 
— till,  after  having  crossed  the  Clyde,  and 
been  engaged  in  a  sharp  skirmish  at 
Muirdykes,  near  Lochwinnoch,  where 
they  beat  back  their  assailants,  they  sep- 
arated, every  man  seeking  his  personal 
safety  by  flight.* 

So  ended  this  unfortunate  attempt. 
The  persecuted  Covenanters,  or  Came- 
ronians  as  they  are  often  called,  declined 
uniting  with  Argyle,  on  the  ground  chief- 
ly that  the  declaration  of  that  nobleman 
did  not  sufficiently  assert  the  essential 
principles  in  behalf  of  which  they  were 
willing  to  suffer  and  to  die  ;  that  it  made 
no  direct  mention  of  the  Covenants,  nor 
of  Presbyterian  Church  government ; 
and  that  some  of  the  leaders  had  been  im- 
plicated in  the  persecuting  measures  of 
the  prelatists,  and  such  as  Sir  John  Coch- 

•  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  pp.  282-320 ;  Memoirs  of  Veitch 
and  Brysson,  pp.  305-340. 


rane,  who  directed  Earlshall  to  Airdsmoss 
where  Cameron  was  killed :  nor  had 
they  forgot  that  Argyle  himself  had 
given  his  vote  for  the  putting  of  Cargill 
to  death  :  and  on  these  grounds  they  held 
it  right  to  avoid  the  hazard,  and,  it  might 
be,  the  sin  of  entering  into  a  close  alli- 
ance with  men  whom  they  still  regarded 
with  distrust,  both  on  account  of  their 
principles  and  their  previous  conduct. 
Even  had  they  been  willing  to  join  with 
Argyle,  they  had  not  the  opportunity  of 
doing  so.  The  country  between  him  and 
where  they  chiefly  resorted  was  com- 
pletely in  the  possession  of  the  enemy ; 
and  they  were  not  sufficiently  numerous 
to  have  forced  their  way  openly  through 
the  opposing  troops.  Their  standing 
aloof,  which  was  chiefly  caused  by  their 
adherence  to  their  own  high  principles, 
had  the  effect  of  preserving  them  from  a 
portion  of  the  ruin  produced  by  Argyle's 
failure  ;  and  their  junction  with  him,  had 
it  been  practicable,  could  not  have  given 
such  an  accession  of  strength  as  to  have 
ensured  his  success.  Their  conduct, 
therefore,  need  not  be  either  censured  or 
deplored  ;  and  were  we  disposed  to  enter 
into  a  more  minute  investigation  of  the 
subject,  it  might  be  shown  to  have  been 
not  undeserving  of  the  meed  of  approba- 
tion, both  for  soundness  of  principle  and 
for  consistency. 

Argyle,  after  his  capture,  was  conduct- 
ed to  Edinburgh,  and  imprisoned  in  the 
castle.  His  trial  was  short,  yet  strange. 
Instead  of  being  condemned  for  his  inva- 
sion of  the  kingdom,  and  attempt  to  de- 
throne the  sovereign,  he  was  sentenced 
to  death  on  the  ground  of  his  former  re- 
fusal to  take  the  test  without  a  qualinVa- 
tion.  There  was  a  pertinacious  consis- 
tency of  despotism  in  this  determination 
to  abide  by  a  previous  unjust  and  tyranni- 
cal sentence  ;  but  it  shocked  the  public 
mind  much  more  than  condemnation  on 
the  ground  of  his  recent  attempt  could 
have  done,  and  in  that  view  his  death  was 
in  all  probability  much  more  serviceable 
to  the  cause  of  liberty  than  his  life  could 
have  been.  The  interval  between  the 
passing  of  the  sentence  and  its  execution 
was  brief ;  but  it  was  spent  by  Argyle  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  raise  his  character 
in  the  estimation  of  all  men  to  a  degree 
immeasurably  beyond  what  it  had  pre- 
viously reached.  He  acknowledged  his 


A.  D.  1685.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


279 


former  sinful  compliances  with  the  guilty 
deeds  of  the  council,  in  language  of  deep 
contrition,  admitting  his  own  unworthi- 
ness  to  be  the  instrument  of  deliverance  to 
his  suffering  country  ;  his  personal  piety 
was  displayed  signally  in  that  calrri  and 
profound  peace  of  mind  which  the  prospect 
of  an  ignominious  death  could  not  for  a 
moment  ruffle,  and  which  breathed  no 
word  of  reproach  against  his  revengeful 
enemies ;  and,  though  his  own  enterprise 
had  failed,  he  expressed  the  utmost  con- 
fidence in  the  near  and  complete  deliver- 
ance of  his  beloved  native  land  from  ty- 
ranny and  oppression.  On  the  scaffold  he 
was  attended  by  two  ministers — one  ap- 
pointed by  the  council,  Annand,  dean  of 
Edinburgh,  and  the  other  one  of  his  own 
choice,  Chartris.  who  had  been  laid  aside 
for  refusing  to  take  the  test ;  but  no  Pres- 
byterian minister  was  allowed  to  be  with 
him.  When,  after  his  speech,  he  declar- 
ed that  he  forgave  all  men  their  wrongs 
against  him,  as  he  desired  to  be  forgiven 
of  God,  Annand  repeated  these  words, 
adding,  "  this  nobleman  dies  a  Protes- 
tant ;"  upon  which  Argyle,  stepping  for- 
ward, added  emphatically,  "  I  die  not 
only  a  Protestant,  but  with  a  heart-hatred 
of  Popery,  Prelacy,  and  all  superstition 
whatsoever."  Then,  kneeling  down,  he 
embraced  the  instrument  of  execution, 
prayed  earnestly,  gave  the  signal,  and 
joined  his  martyred  father.*  Thus  died 
the  Earl  of  Argyle,  on  the  30th  day  of 
June  1685,  another  noble  martyr  in  the 
great  and  sacred  cause  of  Scottish  civil 
and  religious  liberty. 

Several  other  victims  of  less  note,  but 
not  less  excellence  of  character,  speedily 
followed  Argyle.  Rumbold,  an  English 
officer,  who  had  served  under  Cromwell, 
was  executed  in  the  same  barbarous  man- 
ner as  Rathillet  had  been.  The  Rev. 
Thomas  Archer,  a  young  minister  of 
great  promise,  who  had  been  severely 
wounded  in  the  skirmish  at  Muirdykes, 
was  hanged.  Gavin  Russel  and  David 
Law  died  by  a  similar  sentence  ;  and  up- 
wards of  twenty  of  Argyle's  own  clan 
were  hanged  at  Inverness,  while  great 
numbers  were  banished  to  the  plantations. 

The  preceding  public  events  have 
been  related  in  a  consecutive  order,  for 
the  sake  of  perspicuity;  and  for  the 
same  reason  we  must  now  give 

•  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  pp.  300-307. 


)rief  continuous  narrative  of  the  suffer- 
ngs  of  the  persecuted  Presbyterians. 
The  pause  occasioned  by  the  death  of 
one  sovereign  and  the  accession  of  ano- 
her  was  of  brief  duration  ;  and  the  mill- 
ary  judges  resumed  their  murderous 
career  with  increased  eagerness,  making 
he  whole  south  and  west  of  Scotland  one 
scene  of  indiscriminate  carnage.  Claver- 
louse  had  been  elevated  to  the  dignity 
of  a  privy  councillor,  and  Dumfriesshire 
and  Galloway  were  assigned  to  him  as  his 
peculiar  domain.  To  Grierson  of  Lagg, 
and  Windram,  were  given  districts  of  the 
alter  county,  over  which  they  might 
spread  devastation  at  will ;  while  Claver- 
louse  himself,  like  a  superior  fiend,  tra- 
versed the  whole  province,  cheering  on 
the  red  exterminators,  a  bloodier  and 
fiercer  glare  of  destruction  marking  the 
spot  where  he  was  present,  or  the  path 
along  which  he  had  swept.  The  em- 
ployment of  spies,  who  could  assume  the 
appearance  and  imitate  the  language  and 
manners  of  the  wandering  Covenanters, 
was  one  of  the  favourite  methods  pursued 
by  Claverhouse,  that  by  their  information 
he  might  trace  the  persecuted  men  to 
their  most  sacred  lurking-places.  At 
times,  marking  out  a  district,  and  muster- 
ing a  sufficient  force,  he  would  drive  all 
the  inhabitants  into  one  spot,  gird  them 
round  with  the  armed  soldiery,  and  com- 
pel them  to  swear  allegiance  to  James, 
and  to  take  the  test  and  the  oath  of  abju- 
ration, instant  death  being  the  penalty  of 
refusal  or  hesitation.  At  other  times  he 
would  collect  all  the  children  from  six  to 
ten  years  of  age,  draw  up  a  line  of  sol- 
diers before  them,  and  order  them  to  pray, 
for  the  hour  of  death  was  come ;  then, 
while  in  the  agony  of  mortal  terror,  would 
offer  them  their  lives  if  they  would  dis- 
cover where  their  friends,  their  fathers, 
or  their  elder  brothers  were  concealed, 
causing  occasionally  the  troops  to  fire 
over  their  heads,  to  increase  their  fear 
and  stimulate  their  discoveries.  Nor  did 
he  hesitate  to  stain  his  own  hands  with 
the  blood  of  guiltless  victims,  rather  than 
they  should  escape,  when  the  troops 
showed  signs  of  reluctance.  Of  this  the 
death  of  John  Brown  of  Priesthill  is  a 
fearful  instance. 

John  Brown  lived  at  a  place  called 
Priesthill,  in  the  parish  of  Muirkirk,  and 
earned  his  subsistence  by  the  humble 


280 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


employment  of  a  carrier.  He  was  a 
man  of  deep  personal  piety,  but  had  not 
joined  in  any  acts  of  open  resistance  to 
the  government.  He  was,  however, 
hated  by  the  curate,  because  of  his  sin- 
cere attachment  to  Presbyterian  princi- 
ples, his  refusal  to  attend  upon  that  worth- 
less man's  degraded  ministry,  and  the 
shelter  which  his  solitary  abode  occasion- 
ally furnished  to  the  persecuted  wanderers 
and  their  ministers.  Of  this  information 
had  been  given  to  Claverhouse,  who  im- 
mediately determined  on  his  death.  On 
the  morning  of  the  1st  of  May,  day  hav- 
ing scarcely  dawned,  Brown,  while  at 
work  in  the  fields,  was  surprised  by  a 
troop  of  dragoons,  led  by  Claverhouse 
himself.  He  was  brought  back  to  his 
own  house,  and  there  the  usual  ensnaring 
questions  were  put  to  him,  the  brief  exami- 
nation closing  by  Claverhouse  saying  to 
him,  "  Go  to  your  prayers,  for  you  shall 
immediately  die."  Calmly  the  martyr 
kneeled  down  upon  the  heath,  and  poured 
forth  the  emotions  of  his  heart  in  a  strain 
of  such  fervent  and  lofty  devotion  as  to 
move  the  rude  and  hardened  soldiery,  if 
not  to  tears  of  repentance,  at  least  to 
strong,  though  transient  remorse.  Thrice 
was  he  interrupted  by  the  relentless  Cla- 
verhouse, who  exclaimed  that  "  he  had 
given  him  time  to  pray,  but  not  to  preach." 
Turning  to  the  merciless  man,  he  an- 
swered, "  Sir,  you  know  neither  the  na- 
ture of  preaching  nor  of  praying,  if  you 
call  this  preaching,"  and  continued  his 
devotions,  untroubled,  unconfused.  When 
he  stopped,  Claverhouse  bade  him  take 
farewell  of  his  wtfe  and  children.  Turn- 
ing to  the  afflicted  woman,  who  was 
standing  beside  him,  with  one  infant  in 
her  arms  and  another  clinging  to  her 
knee,  he  said,  "  Now,  Isabel,  the  day  is 
come  that  I  told  you  would  come,  when 
I  first  spoke  to  you  of  marriage."  "  In- 
deed, John,"  replied  she,  "  I  can  willingly 
part  with  you."  "  Then,"  said  he,  "  that 
is  all  I  desire ;  I  have  no  more  to  do  but 
die  ;  I  have  been  in  case  to  meet  death 
for  many  years."  After  he  had  kissed  his 
wife  and  children,  Claverhouse  ordered 
six  soldiers  to  fire.  They  hesitated  ;  the 
prayers  of  the  martyr  were  still  sounding 
in  their  souls ;  they  positively  refused. 
Enraged  at  their  delay  and  refusal,  Cla- 
verhouse with  his  own  hand  shot  him 
through  the  head;  then  turning  to  the 


new-made  widow,  in  a  voice  of  fiend-like 
mockery,  said,  "  What  thinkest  thou  of 
thy  husband  now,  woman  ?"  "  I  ever 
thought  much  good  of  him,"  she  answer- 
ed, "  and  as  much  now  as  ever."  "  II 
were  but  justice  to  lay  thee  beside  him,' 
exclaimed  the  murderer.  "  If  you  were 
permitted,"  replied  she,  "  I  doubt  not  but 
your  cruelty  would  go  that  length  ;  but 
how  will  you  answer  for  this  morning's 
work  ?"  "  To  man  I  can  be  answer- 
able," said  the  ruthless  persecutor  ;  "  and 
as  for  God  I  will  take  him  in  my  own 
hand !"  and  wheeling  about,  rode  off  at  the 
head  of  his  horror-stricken  troop.  The 
poor  woman  laid  down  her  fatherless  in- 
fant on  the  ground,  gathered  together  the 
scattered  brains  of  her  beloved  husband, 
then  taking  the  kerchief  from  her  neck 
and  bosom,  wound  it  about  his  mangled 
head,  straighted  his  stiffening  body,  cov- 
ered it  with  her  plaid,  and  sat  down  and 
wept  over  him,  with  one  infant  on  her 
knee,  and  the  other  again  clasped  closely 
to  her  desolate  heart.  Not  a  friend  or  a 
neighbour  was  near  in  the  dismal  soli- 
tude of  that  dark  hour,  to  aid  her  in  per- 
forming the  last  sad  duties  of  humanity, 
"  it  bei||g  a  very  desert  place,  where 
never  victual  grew  ;"  but  she  was  not 
alone,  for  her  soul  felt  the  strong  support 
of  her  very  present  God.* 

From  the  murder  of  John  Brown, 
Claverhouse  proceeded  to  the  county  of 
Dumfries,  where  another  victim  fell  into 
his  hands,  and  was  dragged  to  the  house 
of  Johnstone  of  Westerraw  or  Wester- 
hall.  This  man,  Andrew  Hislop,  Cla- 
verhouse would  have  spared — his  mind, 
as  he  himself  afterwards  acknowledged, 
not  being  able  to  shake  off  the  deep  im- 
pression which  John  Brown's  prayer  had 
made  ;  but  Johnstone  insisted  on  his  death, 
and  orders  were  given  to  a  Highland  offi- 
cer who  was  with  the  party  to  shoot  the 
man.  He  refused,  and  drew  off  his  troop, 
declaring  that  he  would  fight  Claverhouse 
and  his  dragoons  rather  than  do  so  bar- 
barous a  deed.  Claverhouse  then  com- 
manded three  of  his  own  men  to  execute 
the  sentence,  and  this  time  they  did  not 
refuse.  Placing  the  innocent  man  before 
them,  they  desired  him  to  draw  his  bon- 
net over  his  eyes.  Raising  it  higher  on 
his  dauntless  brow,  and  stretching  out  his 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  pp.  244,  245 ;  Life  of  Peden,  pp. 

72-74. 


A.  D.  1685.1 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


281 


hand,  in  which  he  held  his  Bible,  he  re- 
plied, that  he  could  look  his  death-bringers 
in  the  face  without  fear,  charging  them 
to  answer  for  what  they  had  done,  and 
were  about  to  do,  at  the  great  day,  when 
they  should  be  judged  by  that  book — 
and  so  fell  a  dreadless  martyr  for  the 
truth.* 

On  the  same  day  in  which  Hislop  was 
thus  murdered,  the  llth  of  May,  a  still 
more  hideous  crime  was  committed  near 
Wigton,  in  Upper  Galloway.  Gilbert 
Wilson  occupied  a  farm  belonging  to  the 
laird  of  Castlestewart,  in  the  parish  of 
Penningham.  He  and  his  wife  had  both 
yielded  to  the  acts  enforcing  conformity 
to  Prelacy ;  but  his  children  had  im- 
bibed higher  principles,  and  refused  to 
conform.  At  length  they  were  com- 
pelled to  quit  their  father's  house  and 
join  the  persecuted  wanderers,  that  they 
might  avoid  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
soldiers.  Margaret  Wilson,  aged  about 
eighteen,  her  brother  Thomas,  aged  six- 
teen, and  their  sister  Agnes,  aged  only 
thirteen,  were  all  thus  compelled  to  seek 
refuge  in  the  wild  moors  of  Upper  Gal- 
loway ;  and  by  the  dreadful  intercom- 
muning  act,  their  parents  were  forbid  to 
give  them  food  or  shelter,  under  the  pen- 
alty attached  to  treason.  In  the  slight 
pause  of  persecution  which  took  place  at 
the  death  of  Charles,  the  two  sisters  ven- 
tured to  quit  the  desert  solitudes,  and  to 
come  to  Wigton,  where  they  resided  a 
short  time  in  the  house  of  an  aged  and 
pious  widow,  named  Margaret  M'Lauch- 
lan.  A  base  wretch,  named  Stuart,  gave 
information  against  them,  and  they  were 
all  three  dragged  to  prison.  After  they 
had  lain  there  for  some  weeks,  and  had 
suffered  much  inhuman  treatment,  they 
were  brought  to  trial  before  Lagg  and 
Major  Windram,  who  commanded  the 
military  force  in  that  district.  As  if  to 
stretch  this  mockery  of  justice  to  the  ut- 
most extreme  at  once  of  cruelty  and  of 
intense  absurdity,  these  three  helpless  wo- 
men were  accused  of  rebellion  at  Both- 
well  Bridge  and  Airdsmoss,  and  also  of 
having  been  present  at  twenty  conven- 
ticles. This  accusation  it  was  impos- 
sible to  urge;  but  they  were  required 
to  take  the  abjuration  oath,  which  all 
three  refused,  and  were  accordingly 
condemned  to  die.  The  specific  terms 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  p.  250. 

36 


of  the  sentence  were,  that  they  should  be 
tied  to  stakes  fixed  within  the  flood-mark 
in  the  water  of  Blednock,  where  it  meets 
the  sea,  and  there  be  drowned  by  the  tide. 
From  this  dreadful  doom  the  entreaties 
of  the  distracted  father  prevailed  so  far 
as  to  rescue  the  innocent  girl  of  thirteen, 
yet  only  by  the  payment  of  one  hundred 
pounds  sterling  to  the  merciless  and  mer- 
cenary murderers.  But  nothing  could 
avail  to  save  the  lives  of  the  young  wo- 
man and  her  widowed  friend. 

The  day  of  execution  came,  the  1 1th 
of  May,  bright,  it  may  be,  with  the  fresh 
smiles  of  the  reviving  year,  but  dark  and 
terrible  to  many  a  sympathizing  heart. 
Windram  and  his  troop  guarded  the  vic- 
tims to  the  place  of  doom,  accompanied 
by  a  crowd  of  people,  filled  with  fear  and 
wonder,  and  still  doubting  whether  yet 
the  horrid  deed  would  be  done.  The 
stakes  were  driven  deep  into  the  oozy 
sand.  That  to  which  the  aged  widow 
was  tied  was  placed  farthest  in,  that  she 
might  perish  first.  The  tide  began  to 
flow, — the  water  rose  around  them, — the 
hoarse  rough  billows  came  advancing 
on,  swelling  and  mounting  inch  by  inch, 
over  limb,  and  breast,  and  neck,  and  lip, 
of  the  pious  and  venerable  matron,  while 
her  young  companions  in  martyrdom, 
still  in  shallower  water,  gazed  on  the  aw- 
ful scene,  and  knew  that  in  a  few  minutes 
more  her  sufferings  would  be  the  same. 
At  this  dreadful  moment  some  heartless 
ruffian  asked  Margaret  Wilson  what  she 
thonght  now  of  her  fellow-martyr  in  her 
dying  agonies  ?  Calmly  she  answered, 
"  What  do  I  see  but  Christ,  in  one  of  his 
members,  wrestling  there  ?  Think  you 
that  we  are  the  sufferers  ?  No,  it  is 
Christ  in  us  ;  for  he  sends  none  a  war- 
fare on  their  own  charges."  But  the 
water  now  began  to  swell  cold  and  deadly 
round  and  over  her  own  bosom ;  and, 
that  her  last  breath  might  be  expended  in 
the  worship  of  God,  she  sung  the  25th 
psalm,  repeated  a  portion  of  the  8th  chap- 
ter of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and 
prayed  till  her  voice  was  lost  amid  the 
rising  waves.  Before  life  was  quite  ex- 
tinct the  torturers  cut  the  cords  that  bound 
her  to  the  stake,  dragged  her  out,  waited 
till  she  was  restored  to  consciousness, 
and  then  asked  her  if  she  would  pray  for 
the  king.  She  answered,  "  I  wish  the 
salvation  of  all  men,  and  the  damnation 


282 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


of  none."  "  Dear  Margaret,"  exclaimed 
one  of  the  spectators,  in  accents  of  love 
and  sorrow,  "  $ay  God  save  the  king ! 
say  God  save  the  king!"  With  the 
steady  composure  of  one  for  whom  life 
had  few  attractions  and  death  no  terrors, 
she  replied,  "  God  save  him,  if  he  will, 
for  it  is  his  salvation  I  desire."  Her 
relatives  and  friends  immediately  cried 
aloud  to  Windram,  "  Oh,  Sir,  she  has 
said  it,  she  has  said  it !"  The  ruthless 
monster,  reluctant  thus  to  lose  his  victim, 
required  her  to  answer  the  abjuration 
oath.  In  the  same  firm  tone  she  an- 
swered, "  I  will  not ;  I  am  one  of  Christ's 
children ;  let  me  go  !"  By  his  command 
she  was  again  plunged  into  the  heaving 
waters,  and,  after  a  brief  struggle,  the 
spirit  of  this  virgin  martyr  entered  into 
the  rest  and  peace  of  everlasting  happi- 
ness.* 

This  and  similar  instances  of  heroic 
Christian  fortitude  were  termed  by  the 
persecutors,  and  will  still  be  termed  by 
their  apologists,  instances  of  obstinate 
fanaticism.  And  men  who  wish  to  be 
regarded  as  peculiarly  persons  of  en- 
lightened minds  and  liberal  sentiments, 
will  affect  to  pity  the  narrow  and  gloomy 
bigotry,  as  they  will  term  it,  which  im- 
pelled these  Christian  martyrs  to  encoun- 
ter death  in  every  form  the  most  terrific, 
rather  than  abandon  the  principles  of 
eternal  truth.  But  the  true  Christian 
alone  can  comprehend  by  what  sacred 
might  it  was  that  not  only  the  strength 
of  manhood,  but  the  weakness  of  age, 
womanhood,  and  infancy,  was  upheld 
and  enabled  to  triumph  gloriously  in  the 
midst  of  persecutions  so  fierce  and  bar- 
barous that  the  heart  turns  with  sick  and 
shuddering  horror  from  the  bare  recital. 
Their  hearts  were  filled  with  "  the  peace 
of  God  which  passeth  all  understanding," 
beyond  the  power  of  human  rage  to  dis- 
turb; tljeir  souls  had  obtained  both  an 
earnest  and  foretaste  of  heaven,  in  that 
love  of  God  and  communion  with  him 
which  had  been  imparted  to  them  by 
"  the  spirit  of  adoption  ;"  and  feeling  that 
"  the  Son  had  made  them  free,"  they  re- 
cognised it  as  their  bounden  duty  and 
their  great  privilege  to  defend  the  rights, 
and  liberties  of  Christ's  spiritual  kingdom, 
willing  to  die  rather  than  violate  their 
allegiance  to  their  Divine  Redeemer,  by 

•  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  pp.  247-249. 


yielding  to  a  sinful  mortal  that  sole  su- 
premacy and  lordship  over  the  conscience 
which  belongs  to  Him  alone,  and  that 
high  and  undivided  sovereignty  over  His 
Church,  which  is  the  inalienable  prerog- 
ative of  the  Mediator's  crown.  These 
principles  they  held,  and  by  these  prin- 
ciples they  triumphed  over  every  foe  :  for 
thus  were  they  enabled  to  do  all  things, 
and  bear  all  things,  "  through  Christ 
strengthening  them,"  and  to  go  forward 
along  their  perilous  and  blood-dyed  path 
undismayed  and  invincible,  strong  in  the 
Lord  and  in  the  power  of  His  might." 

With  the  brief  recital  of  one  instance 
more  of  the  horrors  of  the  "  killing  time," 
we  shall  quit  that  dreadful  period.  When 
the  tidings  of  the  Earl  of  Argyle's  enter- 
prise reached  the  council,  orders  were 
immediately  given  to  remove  the  prisoners 
confined  in  Edinburgh,  probably  that 
there  might  be  room  for  the,  incarceration 
of  the  new  victims,  on  whom  they  ex- 
pected speedily  to  lay  their  grasp.  On 
the  18th  of  May,  these  prisoners,  both 
men  and  women,  about  two  hundred  and 
forty  in  number,  were  collected  together, 
hurried  to  Leith,  embarked  in  open  boats, 
and  conveyed  in  this  manner  to  Burnt- 
island.  There  they  were  crammed  into 
two  small  rooms  in  the  prison,  incapable 
of  affording  tolerable  space  for  half  the 
number,  and  kept  in  that  condition  for 
two  days,  without  being  permitted  to  taste 
so  much  as  bread  and  water.  The  oath 
of  supremacy  was  then  tendered  to  them. 
About  forty  accepted,  and  were  sent  back 
to  Edinburgh  ;  the  rest,  refusing  to  ac- 
knowledge an  avowed  Papist  to  be  the 
head  of  the  Church,  were  prepared  for 
their  northward  journey.  Their  hands 
were  tied  together  behind  their  backs, 
and  in  this  helpless  condition  they  were 
driven  forward  by  the  rude  unfeeling-  sol- 
diers, who  heaped  upon  them  mockery 
and  abuse  of  every  kind.  The  sufferings 
which  they  endured  in  their  journey  were 
so  great  that  several  died  by  the  way, 
and  many  contracted  diseases  from  which 
they  never  recovered.  They  reached 
Dunnottar,  the  place  of  their  destination, 
on  the  24th  of  May,  and  were  immedi- 
ately thrust  into  a  dark  vault  in  the  castle, 
which  had  but  one  small  window  on  the 
side  next  the  sea,  was  full  of  mire,  ankle 
deep,  and  was  of  such  narrow  dimensions 
as  to  allow  scarcely  more  than  room  to 


A.  D.  1685.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


283 


stand  upright.  In  this  dreadful  dungeon 
they  remained  almost  the  whole  summer, 
crowded  together,  men  and  women,  in 
one  dense  mass,  without  the  slightest 
means  of  preserving  what  decency  re- 
quires ;  compelled  to  purchase  the  worst 
provisions  at  the  most  extravagant  prices, 
so  long  as  they  had  any  money,  even 
water  being  refused  without  a  heavy 
price.  Not  even  the  horrors  of  the  Black 
Hole  of  Calcutta  surpassed  those  of  Dun- 
nottar  Castle ;  for,  in  the  former,  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  victims,  if  more  intense, 
were  of  shorter  duration,  while  the  per- 
secuted Scottish  Presbyterians  died  many 
deaths  in  the  lingering  agonies  of  these 
slow  dreadful  months.  At  length  disease 
began  to  release  them  more  quickly  from 
their  miseries  ;  and  the  governor's  lady, 
having  been  induced  to  look  into  the 
hideous  dungeon,  was  so  shocked  and 
appalled  with  the  scene  which  met  her 
brief  gaze,  that  she  prevailed  upon  her 
husband  to  remove  the  women  to  an 
apartment  by  themselves,  and  to  put  the 
men  into  other  places,  where  they  might 
at  least  breathe  a  less  noisome  and  pesti- 
lential air.  But  many  died  of  the  dis- 
eases which  they  had  already  contracted, 
and  about  the  end  of  the  year  the  wasted 
survivors  were  banished  to  the  planta- 
tions for  slaves, — the  men  after  having 
their  ears  cut  off,  and  the  women  branded 
with  hot  irons  on  the  face.  Many  died 
on  the  passage  ;  the  remainder  met  with 
humane  treatment  and  Christian  pity  from 
the  American  settlers,  which  their  own 
countrymen  had  denied  them.* 

Although  the  Society  People  declined 
joining  in  Argyle's  enterprise,  yet  they 
were  no  inattentive  or  careless  spectators 
of  its  progress,  and  especially  of  the  events 
which  had  directly  led  to  it.  The  suc- 
cession of  the  Duke  of  York,  an  avowed 
Papist,  to  the  throne,  they  regarded  with 
the  utmost  abhorrence ;  and  immediately 
published  a  full  and  able  declaration 
against  it,  and  also  against  the  legality 
and  validity  of  that  servile  parliament, 
which  had  been  called  by  him  whom 
they  did  not  hesitate  to  term  a  usurper. 
But  this  declaration,  though  even  more 
pointed  and  argumentative  than  its  pre- 
decessors, did  not  so  strongly  attract  the 
notice  of  the  council,  probably  because 
their  attention  was  for  the  time  engrossed 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  pp.  322-328,  333. 


by  the  more  dangerous  movements  of 
Argyle  and  his  adherents.  The  Cove- 
nanters, though  they  did  not  join  Argyle, 
manifested  their  sympathy  with  his  enter- 
prise by  assisting  in  the  escape  of  his 
scattered  followers,  notwithstanding  the 
certainty  that  they  were  thereby  increas- 
ing their  own  dangers,  and  provoking 
the  rage  of  the  victorious  enemy.  John 
Nisbet  of  Hardhill,  who  had  been  en- 
gaged in  the  insurrections  both  of  Pent- 
land  and  of  Bothwell  Bridge,  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  persecutors  in  November, 
and  accordingly  sealed  his  testimony  in 
the  cause  of  true  religion  with  his  blood. 

[1686.]  The  fires  of  persecution  began 
to  grow  fainter,  and  the  sword  was  less 
incessantly  bathed  in  blood,  during  the 
year  1 686  ;  not,  however,  because  the 
rage  of  the  persecutors  had  abated,  but 
partly  because  the  exterminating  process 
had  so  far  reduced  the  number  of  accessi- 
ble victims,  that  they  could  not  now  so 
easily  lay  hold  on  objects  on  whom  to 
exercise  their  barbarities.  Their  pro- 
gress had  been  like  that  of  Roman  con- 
quest, characterised  in  such  briefly  and 
terribly  emphatic  terms  by  the  historian  ; 
they  had  made  a  solitude, — they  called  it 
peace. 

There  was  also  another  cause  which 
tended  to  abate  the  violence  of  the  perse- 
cution. The  king  appears  to  have 
thought  the  state  of  the  country  now 
nearly  ripe  for  that  great  change,  to  pro- 
duce which  had  been  the  main  though 
unavovved  cause  of  the  greater  part  of 
the  previous  persecuting  enactments. 
Both  Charles  and  James  knew  well  that 
the  Presbyterian  Church  formed  the 
strongest  obstacle  to  the  restoration  of 
Popery,  and  neither  of  them  expected 
Prelacy  to  offer  any  very  determined  or 
protracted  opposition  to  it.  They  there- 
fore directed  all  their  efforts  against  Pres- 
bytery, confidently  anticipating,  that  if  it 
were  destroyed,  they  would  easily  induce 
Prelacy  to  accept  what  would  be  a  com 
paratively  slight  change,  from  a  hierarchy 
acknowledging  the  headship  of  the  king, 
to  a  hierarchy  acknowledging  the  head- 
ship of  the  pope.  In  this  they  erred  ;  foi 
the  Episcopalian  Church,  though  prela- 
tic,  was  still  truly  Protestant.  Yet  there 
was  much  probability  in  the  error ;  foi 
they  had  experienced  so  much  subser- 
viency from  the  prelates,  that  they  were 


284 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII, 


led  to  conclude  that  they  could  command 
nothing  with  which  the  prelates  would 
not  comply.  Still  it  was  thought  expedi- 
ent to  cover  the  ulterior  designs  of  the 
Popish  monarch  a  little  longer  under 
some  plausible  pretexts,  and  to  remove  a 
few  more  obstacles  before  the  final  at- 
tempt should  be  made. 

The  first  step  towards  restoring  the 
Papis:s  to  power  had  been  already  made 
by  their  exemption  from  taking  the  test, 
which  was  still  urged  upon  Presbyterians. 
The  next  was  to  repeal  the  penal  statutes 
against  them,  and  the  disabilities  under 
which  they  were  placed.  For  this  pur- 
pose a  parliament  was  summoned  to  meet 
at  Edinburgh  on  the  29th  of  April. 
When  parliament  met,  the  Earl  of  Mur- 
ray, his  majesty's  commissioner,  produced 
a  letter  from  the  king,  the  most  prominent 
topic  of  which  was,  a  glowing  encomium 
on  the  loyalty  and  peacefulness  of  his 
Roman  Catholic  subjects  ;  concluding 
with  recommending  them  to  the  care  of 
the  parliament,  that  they  "  might  not  lie 
under  obligations  which  their  religion 
could  not  admit  of;"  "  by  doing  whereof 
you  will  do  us  most  acceptable  service." 
In  vain  did  the  commissioner  employ  all 
his  eloquence  to  enforce  compliance  with 
the  suggestion  of  his  majesty's  letter.  In 
vain  did  several  of  the  prelates  argue 
strenuously  for  the  complete  toleration  of 
Popery.  A  considerable  proportion  of 
the  parliament  saw,  in  such  a  toleration, 
the  first  step  towards  the  complete  ascen- 
dency of  a  religion  from  which  they 
could  expect  nothing  else  but  a  persecu- 
tion as  severe  as  that  which  they  had  em- 
ployed against  the  Presbyterians  ;  and, 
however  willing  to  inflict  injuries  upon 
others,  and  to  violate  to  the  utmost  of  their 
power  every  conscientious  principle  or 
scruple  entertained  by  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  they  were  sufficiently  reluctant 
to  be  exposed  themselves  to  similar  inju- 
ries. The  recent  events  which  had  oc- 
curred in  France  tended  greatly  to  con- 
firm this  dread  of  Popery,  where  the 
unjust  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantz 
exposed  innumerable  French  Protestants 
to  every  kind  of  suffering.  The  public 
mind  caught  the  alarrrs  both  in  England 
and  Scotland,  and  this  Had  no  small  in- 
fluence in  preventing  the  Scottish  parlia- 
ment's compliance  with  the  king's  desire. 
In  more  guarded  terms  than  any  Scottish 


parliament  since  the  Restoration  had  been 
accustomed  to  use,  they  promised  to  take 
the  subject  into  their  serious  considera- 
tion, and  to  go  as  great  lengths  therein 
as  their  consciences  would  allow,  not 
doubting  that  his  majesty  would  be  care- 
ful to  secure  the  Protestant  religion. 
Baffled  and  disappointed,  the  commis 
sioner  prorogued  the  parliament,  which 
met  no  more  during  the  reign  of  James. 

The  weight  of  the  king's  indignation 
fell  upon  some  of  the  prelates  who  had 
presumed  to  oppose  his  wish.  The  arch 
bishop  of  Glasgow  and  the  bishop  of 
Dunkeld  were  deprived  of  their  benefices. 
Paterson,  who  had  been  exceedingly  ac 
live  in  striving  to  promote  the  king's 
views,  was  made  archbishop  of  Glasgow : 
and  one  Hamilton,  "noted  for  profane- 
ness  and  impiety,  which  sometimes  broke 
into  blasphemy,"*  was  made  bishop  of 
Dunkeld.  But  the  greater  part  of  these 
servile  and  unprincipled  men  signed  an 
address  to  his  majesty,  offering  to  concur 
with  him  in  all  he  desired,  provided  the 
laws  might  still  continue  in  force  and  be 
executed  against  the  Presbyterians. f 

But  the  previous  servility  of  the  Scot- 
tish parliaments  had  put  into  his  majesty's 
hand  a  weapon  which  he  was  resolved  to 
wield  against  them.  They  had  admitted 
his  absolute  supremacy  in  the  strongest 
possible  terms,  and  he  now  employed  this 
absolute  supremacy  to  accomplish  what 
the  parliament  had  shrunk  from  doing. 
On  the  21st  of  August,  a  letter  was  ad- 
dressed to  the  council,  from  which  he  had 
previously  expelled  the  best  men,  replac- 
ing them  by  sycophants,  in  which  his 
majesty  gives  them  to  know,  that  "  it  was 
not  any  doubt  he  had  of  his  power  that 
made  him  bring  his  designs  before  the 
parliament,  but  merely  to  give  them  an 
opportunity  of  showing  their  duty  to  him; 
that  he  now,  according  to  his  undoubted 
right  and  prerogative,  takes  the  Roman 
Catholics  under  his  royal  protection,  al- 
lowing to  them  the  free  exercise  of  their 
religion,  and  giving  to  them  the  chapel 
of  Holyrood-house  for  a  place  of  public 
worship,  appointing  chaplains  and  others, 
whom  he  recommended  to  special  pro- 
tection." Thus  had  the  Prelatic  party 
prepared  the  way  for  the  restoration  of 
Popery,  by  their  yielding  up  all  power 

*  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  i.  p.  681.  t  Burnet's 

Own  Times,  vol.  i.  p.  680. 


A.  D.  1687.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


285 


and  law  co  the  absolute  supremacy  of  the 
monarch,  upon  whose  will,  according  to 
their  own  principles,  must  depend  the  re- 
ligion of  his  subjects.  And  they  could 
not,  without  the  most  glaring  inconsis- 
tency, offer  any  resistance  to  the  despotic 
conduct  of  a  sovereign  whose  will  they 
had  declared  to  be  the  fountain  of  law, 
which  no  man  was  entitled  to  question  or 
resist.  But  the  Presbyterians  were  still 
the  bold  guardians  of  the  nation's  liber- 
ties, civil  and  sacred,  and  under  their  pro- 
tection that  inestimable  charge  was  safe. 
In  the  meantime,  there  were  some 
movements  taking  place  among  the 
Presbyterians  of  considerable  importance. 
Several  conferences  were  held  between 
the  persecuted  followers  of  Renwick,  and 
that  larger  body  who  had  partially  sub- 
mitted to  the  indulgences  of  former  years, 
or  remained  silent  and  passive,  while 
their  more  daring  brethren  maintained  an 
open  conflict.  The  object  of  these  con- 
ferences was  to  attempt  a  union  among  all 
Presbyterians,  both  for  mutual  protection 
and  to  be  ready  for  any  propitious  mo- 
ment in  which  to  secure  their  common 
rights  and  liberties.  But  the  desired 
union  was  found  impracticable.  The 
larger  body  had  unquestionably  yielded 
a  sinful  compliance  with  much  that  was 
directly  subversive  of  Presbyterian  prin- 
ciples ;  but  their  pride  would  not  allow 
them  to  acknowledge  their  errors.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  society  people  or 
Cameronians,  or,  more  properly,  the 
strict  Covenanters,  would  not  consent  to 
any  union  without  a  previous  acknow- 
ledgment from  their  brethren  that  they 
had  indeed  fallen  into  greivous  and  sin- 
ful defections.  There  were,  besides,  some 
points  of  minor  importance  on  which 
their  disputes  were  equally  warm,  and 
with  much  less  reason.  The  result  was, 
that  it  was  found  impracticable  to  form  a 
union  of  all  Presbyterians,  although  it 
was  earnestly  desired  by  the  wisest  and 
the  best  of  both  parties.  When  the  sub- 
ject is  contemplated  at  this  distance  of 
time,  we  may  form  a  more  dispassionate 
opinion  on  the  conduct  of  both  parties 
than  either  of  them  could  have  done  ; 
and  our  opinion  is,  that  decidedly  the 
greatest  amount  of  blame  rests  not  on  the 
Covenanters,  but  on  their  brethren,  who 
had  meanly  and  unfaithfully  yielded  far 
more  to  fear  than  now  they  were  required 


to  yield  to  principle.  Had  they-  possses- 
sed  magnanimity  enough  to  have  admit- 
ted that  they  had  failed  in  the  hour  of 
conflict,  through  human  weakness,  there 
is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  high-hearted 
and  dauntless  Covenanters  would  have 
ceased  to  stickle  pertinaciously  for  less 
important  matters,  and  almost  the  entire 
body  of  the  Scottish  Presbyterians  might 
have  been  prepared  to  assume  a  more 
commanding  attitude  at  the  Revolution, 
such  as  would  have  secured  a  more  com- 
plete re-establishment  of  all  their  great 
principles  than  they  actually  obtained. 

The  celebrated  Alexander  Pederi  died 
early  in  this  year,  after  a  reconciliation 
had  been  effected  between  him  and  Ren- 
wick,  from  whom  he  had  been  for  a  time 
estranged.  Renwick  was  joined  by  Mr. 
David  Houston  and  Mr.  Alexander 
Shields,  and  field-preaching  was  con- 
tinued, although  the  king,  in  the  midst 
of  his  zeal  for  toleration  to  the  Papists, 
issued  a  furious  proclamation  against 
them,  offering  a  large  reward  to  any 
person  who  should  seize  Renwick,  alive 
or  dead. 

[1687.]  Although  the  king  had  failed 
in  obtaining  from  parliament  that  ready 
submission  to  his  wishes,  which  he  had 
expected  with  regard  to  the  legislative 
repeal  of  the  penal  statutes  against  Papists, 
he  was  by  no  means  disposed  to  mention 
his  intention,  but  thought  it  expedient  to 
adopt  another  mode  of  procedure.  His 
plan  was  now  to  quit  the  crimson  robe 
of  the  fierce  persecutor,  and  to  assume 
the  garb  of  universal  toleration.  Ac- 
cordingly, on  the  12th  of  February  1687, 
a  letter  was  sent  to  the  council,  accompa- 
nied by  a  proclamation,  in  which  his 
majesty,  "by  his  sovereign  authority, 
prerogative  royal,  and  absolute  power, 
which  all  his  subjects  are  to  obey  with- 
out reserve,  did  give  and  grant  his  royal 
toleration  to  the  several  professors  of 
Christian  religion."  "  In  the  first  place," 
continues  his  majesty,  "we  allow  and 
tolerate  the  moderate*  Presbyterians  to 
meet  in  their  private  houses,  and  there  to 
hear  all  such  ministers  as  either  have,  or 
are  willing  to  accept  of  our  indulgence, 
and  none  other."  But  all  those  who  held 
or  attended  field-preachings  were  still 
subjected  to  the  utmost  rigour  of  law. 
Then  comes  the  main  object  of  the  pro- 

*  Is  this  the  origin  of  that  ill-omened  designation. 


286 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


clamation,  in  which,  by  his  prerogative 
and  absolute  power,  his  majesty  at  once 
abrogates  and  annuls  all  acts  of  parlia- 
ment and  laws  against  Roman  Catholics, 
gives  them  the  free  and  public  exercise 
of  their  worship,  and  renders  them  eligi- 
ble to  all  places  of  public  trust,  abolishing 
the  test,  and  enacting  a  new  oath,  which 
affirmed  chiefly  the  entire  supremacy  and 
absolute  power  and  authority  01  the 
sovereign.* 

This,  which  was  called  King  James's 
First  Indulgence,  gave  satisfaction  to  no 
party  but  the  Papists.  The  Prelatists 
were  irritated  and  alarmed  to  see  their 
own  weapons  wrested  out  of  their  hands, 
dreading  that  the  power  which  they  had 
so  long  and  relentlessly  employed  against 
the  Presbyterians  might  soon  be  put  into 
the  hands  of  Papists,  and  directed  against 
themselves.  The  Presbyterians  gener- 
ally regarded  it  with  suspicion  and  dis- 
trust, viewing  it  as  not  intended  for  their 
relief,  but  as  a  deceptive  mode  of  restor- 
ing Popery ;  and  the  Covenanters  not 
merely  rejected  it,  but  set  its  thread  at 
defiance,  and  continued  their  field-preach- 
ings as  usual. 

On  the  31st  of  March  a  second  indul- 
gence was  published,  by  which  the  coun- 
cil were  empowered  to  dispense  with  the 
oath,  and  to  suffer  Presbyterian  ministers 
to  preach  in  private  houses  during  his 
majesty's  pleasure.  This  was  equally 
disregarded  by  the  Presbyterians,  with 
this  exception,  that  some  of  the  ministers 
preached  in  private  houses,  having  been 
requested  to  do  so,  irrespective  of  the  in- 
dulgence ;  and  this  was  represented  by 
the  council,  in  their  letter  to  the  king, 
as  the  compliance  of  the  whole  body. 
The  king,  imagining  that  his  schemes 
were  producing  the  desired  effect,  issued 
a  still  more  extensive  toleration  to  the 
Dissenters  in  England ;  but  neither  did 
this  hollow  and  crafty  stratagem  delude 
that  conscientious  body  of  Christians, 
who,  greatly  to  their  honour,  declined  to 
avail  themselves  of  the  power  of  retalia- 
tion against  the  Established  Church, 
which  was  so  far  placed  within  their 
reach, 

At  length  a  third  indulgence  was 
granted  to  the  Scottish  Presbyterians, 
dated  from  London  on  the  28th  of  June, 
and  from  Edinburgh  on  the  5th  of  July, 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  pp.  417-419. 


In  this  third  indulgence,  his  majesty,  in 
his  usual  strain,  "  by  his  sovereign  au- 
thority, prerogative  royal,  and  absolute 
power,"  suspends  all  penal  and  sangui- 
nary laws  made  against  any  for  non-con- 
formity to  the  religion  established  by 
law ;  granting  to  the  Presbyterians 
"  leave  to  meet  and  serve  God  after  their 
own  way  and  manner,  be  it  in  private 
houses,  chapels,  or  places  purposely  hired 
or  built  for  that  use,  so  that  they  take 
care  that  nothing  be  preached  or  taught 
among  them  which  may  any  ways  tend 
to  alienate  the  hearts  of  our  people  from 
us  or  our  government."  It  was,  how- 
ever, expressly  provided  that  they  were 
not  to  meet  in  the  open  fields  ;  and  all 
the  laws  against  field-preaching  were 
left  "  in  full  force  and  vigour,"  on  the 
ground  that,  after  this  act  of  royal  grace 
and  favour,  there  was  not  a  shadow  of 
excuse  left  for  them. 

His  majesty  had  now  declared  himself 
an  advocate  for  liberty  of  conscience  and 
universal  toleration.  But  few  were  de- 
ceived by  these  hypocritical  pretences. 
All  true  Protestants,  whether  Episcopa- 
lians, Presbyterians,  or  Dissenters,  per- 
ceived clearly  enough,  that  direct  favour 
to  the  Papists  was  intended  ;  and  it  was 
not  unfairly  surmised  that,  by  the  univer- 
sal toleration,  the  king  hoped  to  throw 
the  various  denominations  of  Protestants 
into  such  a  state  of  rivalry  and  collision, 
that  they  would  weaken  each  other,  and 
prepare  for  the  establishment  of  Popery 
upon  their  ruins.  There  is  little  reason 
to  doubt  that  such  was  his  majesty's  aim 
and  expectation  ;  but  both  the  immediate 
and  the  ultimate  consequences  were  very 
different  from  what  he  intended  and 
hoped.  In  England  a  sharp  controversy 
was  carried  on  against  the  distinctive 
tenets  of  the  apostate  Church  of  Rome, 
in  which,  as  might  be  exoected,  both  from 
the  goodness  of  their  cause  and  the  high 
talents  of  the  learned  and  eminent  men 
who  engaged  in  it,  the  English  divines 
were  signally  victorious.  The  universi- 
ties also  joined  in  the  opposition  to  Po 
pish  ascendency;  even  royalist  Oxford, 
notwithstanding  its  previous  declaration 
of  passive  obedience,  resisted  when  op- 
pression was  directed  against  itself.  The 
nation  began  to  awaken,  alarmed  by  the 
rapid  strides  which  his  majesty  was  mak- 
ing towards  Popery,  and  by  the  utter  dis- 


A.  D.  1688.] 


HISTORY    OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


287 


regard  for  all  liberty,  civil  and  religious, 
which  he  displayed  in  his  impetuous 
haste  to  accomplish  what  he  regarded  as 
the  great  object  of  his  life. 

In  Scotland  the  third  indulgence  led 
to  a  result  different  in  aspect,  but  not  more 
favourable  to  the  designs  of  the  king. 
Almost  all  the  Presbyterian  ministers  in 
the  kingdom  availed  themselves  of  the  op- 
portunity which  it  gave  them  of  resuming 
public  worship,  and  collecting  again  their 
scattered  congregations.  Many,  both 
ministers  and  people,  were  released 
from  prison,  returned  to  their  long-lost 
homes,  and  engaged  with  renewed  fer- 
vour in  the  reconstruction  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  by  the  revival  of  its  unfor- 
gotten  forms  of  government  and  disci- 
pline, the  reunion  of  its  scattered  but  still 
living  members,  and  the  resuscitation  of 
its  imperishable  principles.  Several  of  the 
ejected  or  intercommuned  ministers  who 
had  fled  to  Holland,  returned  and  resum- 
ed the  discharge  of  their  sacred  duties 
among  their  countrymen  in  their  own  be- 
loved native  land.  Thus  did  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  begin  to  "  shake  her- 
self from  the  dust,  and  to  put  on  her 
beautiful  garments ;"  yet  the  yoke  was 
not  wholly  loosened  from  her  neck,  nor 
was  her  robe  unstained.  A  meeting  of 
ministers  from  different  parts  of  the  coun- 
try was  held  in  Edinburgh,  to  deliberate 
respecting  the  course  which  ought  to  be 
followed  in  this  change  of  circumstances. 
It  was  generally  agreed,  that  the  benefit 
of  this  indulgence  should  be  accepted  ; 
but  a  strong  difference  of  opinion  arose, 
whether  an  address  of  thanks  should  be 
transmitted  to  the  king.  Fortunately  for 
the  character  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
so  large  a  number  of  the  ministers  disap- 
proved of  any  address  of  thanks  to  a  Po- 
pish tyrant  for  giving  what  he  had  no 
right  either  to  give  or  withhold,  that  the 
meeting  separated  without  consenting  to 
transmit  such  an  address  as  from  the 
body,  leaving  it  to  individual  ministers 
to  act  as  they  might  think  proper  in  the 
matter.  This,  however,  while  it  pre- 
vented a  total  loss  of  character,  was  an 
ominous  manifestation  of  weakness,  and 
want  of  resolute  adherence  to  Presby- 
terian principles.  Not  merely  no  address 
of  thanks  should  have  been  sent  from 
them  as  a  body,  but  there  should  have 
been  a  prohibition  issued,  forbidding  any 


to  do  what  in  reality  amounted  to  at  least 
a  partial  admission  of  the  royal  supre- 
macy in  matters  spiritual.  Yet  a  con- 
siderable number  of  the  ministers  con- 
curred in  writing  and  transmitting  an  ad 
dress  of  thanks,  but  ill  accordant  with 
the  free  and  independent  principles  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church.* 

The  firm,  unyielding  Covenanters 
adopted  a  more  consistent  course.  The 
conferences  in  which  they  had  been 
engaged  with  their  more  compliant  bre- 
thern  during  the  preceding  year  had 
caused  them  to  institute  a  thorough  in- 
quiry into  the  nature  and  value  of  their 
own  leading  principles,  the  result  of 
which  was  the  publication,  early  in  this 
year,  of  a  work  entitled  "  An  Informatory 
Vindication,"  &c.  In  this  work  they 
republished  their  former  declarations, 
giving  a  mitigated  explanation  of  some 
objectionable  sentiments  arid  expressions, 
but  reasserting  the  great  principles  in  de- 
fence of  which  they  had  suffered,  and 
were  willing  still  to  suffer,  every  extreme 
of  persecution.  The  writing  of  this 
work  had  tended  both  to  give  clearness 
to  their  conception  of  what  these  principles 
were,  and  to  confirm  them  in  their  reso- 
lute determination  to  resist  every  infringe- 
ment of  what  they  firmly  believed  to  be 
principles  of  infinite  value  and  eternal 
truth.  They  therefore  rejected  at  once 
any  and  every  indulgence  or  toleration 
of  man's  inalienable  right  to  worship  God 
according  to  the  direction  of  His  own  re- 
vealed word  and  will,  and  the  dictates  of 
an  enlightened  conscience;  especially 
when  such  indulgence  was  founded  upon 
and  proceeded  from  that  pernicious  prin- 
ciple, the  unlimited  prerogative  and  ab- 
solute power  of  the  monarch, — a  princi- 
ple equally  inconsistent  with  the  laws  of 
God  and  the  liberties  of  mankind.  Alike 
defying  the  tyrant's  threats  and  spurning 
his  favours,  they  resolved  to  hold  on  their 
unswerving  course,  to  continue  their 
field-preachings,  and  to  oppose  the  exer- 
cise of  arbitrary  power  on  the  one  hand, 
and  a  course  of  weak  and  sinful  submis- 
sion on  the  other. f  Men  may  censure 
their  conduct  as  too  rigidly  unaccommo- 
dating but  none  who  understand  the  sub- 
ject will  deny  that  at  least  "their  fail- 
ings leaned  to  virtue's  side,"  and  that 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  p.  428. 
t  Faithful  Contendings,  p.  310;  Hind  Let  Loose,  p.  182. 


288 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


their  principles  and  proceedings  bore  a 
closer  resemblance  to  those  of  the  First 
and  Second  Reformations,  than  did  the 
measures  adopted  by  the  greater  number 
of  the  more  compliant  and  larger  party. 
Still,  notwithstanding  these  dissensions, 
the  Presbyterian  cause  grew  and  pros- 
pered generally.  Some  important  regu- 
lations were  framed  by  the  meeting  of 
ministers,  for  the  guidance  of  the  body 
in  the  great  work,  on  which  they  were 
about  to  enter,  of  reviving  the  worship, 
government,  and  discipline  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church. 

[1688.J  The  year  1688,  destined  to  be 
so  memorable  in  the  annals  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty,  wore  at  its  beginning 
in  Scotland  the  aspect  of  returning  per- 
secution. The  bold  language  and  un- 
yielding behaviour  of  Renwick  and  the 
Covenanters  provoked  the  council,  and 
led  to  redoubled  efforts  for  the  seizure  of 
that  fearless  asserter  of  religious  purity 
and  freedom,  and  for  the  enforcement  of 
all  the  acts  against  field-preaching.  A 
proclamation  was  issued  also,  condemn- 
ing all  books  which  defended  the  conduct 
of  the  Presbyterians,  censured  that  of  the 
persecutors,  and  assailed  Popery ;  from 
which  the  Bible  was  scarcely  exempted, 
although  its  suppression  was  deemed  yet 
premature.*  Several  instances  of  cruelty 
and  oppression  inflicted  upon  the  perse- 
cuted wanderers  might  be  mentioned ; 
but  omitting  these,  we  proceed  to  relate 
the  sufferings  and  death  of  the  last  and 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  victims  of 
prelatic  tyranny. 

It  has  been  already  stated,  that  the 
small  band  of  determined  Covenanters 
refused  to  accept  the  indulgence  offered 
by  King  James,  which  was  accepted  by 
so  many  Presbyterian  ministers.  In  this 
refusal  Renwick  not  only  heartily  concur- 
red, but  was  anxious  that  those  who 
might  accept  it  should  at  least  guard 
against  giving  utterance  to  any  such  sen- 
timents as  might  disgrace  the  Presby- 
terian cause,  and  widen  the  breach  be- 
tween them  and  him,  which  he  so  much 
deplored.  For  this  purpose  he  wrote  a 
paper  containing  his  views,  and  went 
privately  to  Edinburgh  to  lay  it  before 
the  meeting  of  ministers  held  there. 
When  this  was  done,  he  went  to  Fife, 
where  he  continued  preaching  some  time, 

*  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  p.  444. 


and  then  returned  to  Edinburgh,  where 
he  lodged  for  the  night.  On  the  very 
next  day,  the  1st  of  February,  early  in 
the  morning,  he  was  seized,  dragged  be- 
fore the  council,  committed  to  prison,  and 
heavily  fettered  like  a  condemned  felon. 
His  accusation  was  based  chiefly  on  his 
disowning  the  king,  refusing  to  pay  the 
cess,  condemning  the  toleration,  main- 
taining the  right  of  self-defence,  and  con- 
tinuing to  hold  field-preachings.  All 
these  points  he  openly  and  unhesitatingly 
admitted  and  defended,  never  once  shrink- 
ing from  a  full  and  clear  avowal  of  the 
principles  which  he  had  taught.  The 
pleasing  simplicity  of  his  manners,  the 
manly  and  candid  frankness  of  his 
answers,  the  unflinching  integrity  of  his 
sentiments,  and  the  youthful  elegance  of 
his  handsome  person,  all  combined  to 
command  the  respect  and  awaken  the 
compassion  of  his  council,  who  manifest- 
ed an  unusual  desire  to  save  his .  life. 
After  he  was  condemned  to  die,  he  was 
asked  if  he  wished  longer  time  to  be 
granted  to  him  ;  his  answer  was,  "  It  is 
all  one  to  me :  if  it  be  prolonged,  it  is 
welcome ;  if  it  be  shortened,  it  is  wel- 
come: my  Master's  time  is  the  best." 
The  day  of  execution  was  however,  post- 
poned, and  considerable  efforts  were  made 
to  induce  him  to  yield,  or  to  make  such 
a  concession  as  would  have  justified  the 
council  in  sparing  his  life.  He  was  visit- 
ed by  one  of  the  bishops,  by  some  of  the 
curates,  and  by  the  lord  advocate ;  but  he 
remained  unshaken  in  his  principles, 
and  calmly  resolute  to  lay  down  his  life 
rather  than  consent  to  their  violation  in 
the  slightest  degree.  He  had  been  ex- 
posed to  much  calumny  and  reproach  for 
his  unbending  maintenance  of  them,  in 
his  conferences  with  other  Presbyterian 
ministers ;  and  he  judged  rightly,  to 
abandon  them  through  the  fear  of  death, 
if  unconvinced  that  they  were  erroneous, 
would  cast  great  discredit  upon  these 
principles,  discourage  those  who  had 
been  his  faithful  followers  and  fellow- 
martyrs,  and  be  utterly  ruinous  not  only 
to  his  own  character,  but  also  and  espe- 
cially to  his  peace  of  mind.  For  him  to 
die  was  infinitely  less  terrible  than  to  dis- 
own the  Covenants,  cast  a  stumbling- 
block  in  the  way  of  God's  people,  and 
violate  his  own  allegiance  to  Christ. 
Finding  that  there  was  no  prospect  of 


A.  D.  1688.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAI^D. 


289 


his  submission,  orders  were  given  for  his 
execution.  On  the  day  appointed,  the 
17th  of  February,  he  obtained  permission 
for  his  mother  and  sisters  to  spend  a  little 
time  with  him  in  the  prison.  To  them  he 
spoke  even  in  terms  of  joyful  anticipation 
of  his  near  approaching  death-hour,  ad- 
dressing to  them  the  kind  and  gentle  lan- 
guage of  warm  and  pure  affection,  which, 
while  it  smoothes  the  stream  of  sorrow, 
increases  its  depth  and  perpetuity.  When 
the  hour  approached,  the  council,  appre- 
hensive of  the  effect  which  might  be  pro- 
duced, sent  to  request  him  neither  to  pray 
nor  address  the  people  from  the  scaffold ; 
intimating  that,  if  he  would  not  comply 
the  drums  should  be  beat  so  that  not  a 
word  should  be  heard.  He  refused  to 
comply ;  and  accordingly,  whenever  he 
attempted  to  speak,  his  voice  was  drown- 
ed, or  nearly  so,  in  the  harsh  discordant 
sound  of  the  beaten  drums.  Yet  a  few 
broken  sentences  were  caught  by  the 
keen  ears  of  his  admiring  followers  and 
friends,  and  treasured  up  as  the  precious 
fragments  of  a  distinguished  martyr's  dy- 
ing testimony.*  So  died  James  Renwick, 
three  days  after  he  had  completed  his 
26th  year ;  a  youth  in  years,  but  an  ex- 
perienced Christian,  and  a  most  faithful, 
zealous,  and  indefatigable  minister ;  in 
temper  mild,  gentle,  and  patient, — in  man- 
ners courteous  and  amiable, — in  contro- 
versial discussion  clear,  vigorous,  and 
eloquent,  as  his  writings  amply  prove, — 
in  principle  a  Presbyterian  of  the  ancient 
and  heroic  mould,  inflexible  as  Knox  and 
vehement  as  Melville,  though  unequal  to 
either  in  genius  and  power.  This  sin- 
gularly pious  and  highly-gifted  youth 
was  the  last  who  publicly  sealed  with  his 
blood  his  testimony  in  behalf  of  Scot- 
land's Covenant,  and  the  Divine  Media- 
tor's sole  sovereignty  over  his  Church. 

The  dreadless  banner  of  the  Covenant, 
which  Renwick  had  so  long  upheld,  was 
not  allowed  to  fall  prostrate  to  the  earth 
when  his  hand  was  cold  in  death.  It 
was  seized  and  borne  aloft  by  the  Rev. 
Alexander  Shields,  who  had  previously 
been  a  sufferer  in  the  same  cause,  and 
who,  having  been  called  by  the  society 
people  to  be  their  minister,  boldly  stept 
into  that  honourable  but  most  perilous 
path  of  duty.  They  held  a  large  gene- 

*  Wodrow.  vol.  iv.  pp.  445-454;  Life  of  Renwick; 
Cloud  of  Witnesses. 

37 


ral  meeting  in  the  parish  of  Galston, 
where  Mr.  Shields  preached  in  defiance 
of  the  sanguinary  laws  still  in  force 
against  them.  The  soldiery  were  sent 
immediately  to  pursue  the  delinquents; 
but  though  they  pillaged  the  country  se- 
verely, only  one  youth  fell  into  theif 
hands,  who  was  killed  on  the  spot  with 
out  so  much  as  the  form  of  a  trial 
Several  of  the  indulged  ministers  were 
interrupted  in  their  ministry  and  brought 
to  trial  on  account  of  alleged  violations 
of  the  terms  of  the  late  indulgence.  By 
these  proceedings  the  country  was  made 
fully  aware  that  the  king's  boasted  uni- 
versal toleration  was  not  intended  to  be  a 
measure  of  mercy,  but  merely  a  decep- 
tive pretext  for  the  restoration  of  Popery 
to  universal  power  in  the  kingdom. 

It  is  not  our  province  to  trace  the  civil 
events  of  this  period,  by  which  the  revo- 
lution was  effected,  esp-ecially  as  it  may 
be  assumed  that  these  are  familiar  to  al- 
most every  reader.  A  few  sentences  will 
contain  an  outline  sufficient  for  our  pur- 
pose, which  is  merely  to  preserve  the  con- 
tinuity of  the  narrative,  that  what  belongs 
peculiarly  to  the  church  of  Scotland  may 
chiefly  engage  our  attention,  and  at  the 
same  time  be  seen  in  proper  sequence  and 
natural  connection. 

The  attention  of  all  lovers  of  freedom 
had  for  some  time  been  directed  to  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  husband  of  James's 
eldest  daughter,  and  heir-presumptive  to 
the  crown.  But  on  the  10th  of  June  the 
queen  gave  birth  to  an  infant  prince,  by 
which  the  joy  of  the  Papists  was  raised 
to  the  highest  pitch,  and  the  nation 
generally  alarmed  by  the  dread  of  a  suc- 
cession of  Popish  sovereigns.  At  the  same 
time,  the  acquittal  of  the  seven  bishops, 
who  had  been  committed  to  the  Tower 
by  James  because  of  their  petitioning 
against  being  compelled  to  read  one  of 
his  arbitrary  indulgences  from  the  pulpit 
gave  occasion  to  the  display  of  the  na- 
tion's joy  at  the  defeat  of  absolute  power. 
The  vigilant  eye  of  William  marked  well 
the  importance  of  the  juncture.  He  saw 
the  Scottish  Presbyterians  availing  them- 
selves of  the  king's  deceptive  truce,  to 
muster  their  strength,  and  to  recover  that 
position  which  belonged  to  them  as  form- 
ing the  great  majority  of  the  population 
in  the  kingdom.  He  perceived  th0 
James  had  succeeded  in  alienating  the  af- 


290 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  Vll. 


feetions  of  the  English  Church  and  peo- 
ple, while  yet  his  popish  support  was  in- 
considerable. The  nation,  he  perceived, 
was  ripe  for  a  change,  and  the  favourable 
moment  was  come,  which,  if  not  prompt- 
ly seized,  might  never  return.  The 
birth  of  the  infant  prince  put  an  end  to 
all  indecision,  as  it  put  an  end  to 
his  hope  of  ascending  the  throne  by  nat- 
ural succession.  Having  made  the  ne- 
cessary preparations  for  an  enterprise  so 
momentous,  he  committed  the  cause 
solemnly  to  God,  set  sail,  and  landed  at 
Torbay,  without  having  encountered  any 
opposition,  on  the  5th  of  November. 

In  the  meantime,  James  had  been  act- 
ing like  a  man  under  the  spell  of  infatua- 
tion. In  England  he  ceased  not  to  ir- 
ritate the  feelings  of  that  high-spirited 
people,  already  provoked  beyond  endur- 
ance by  his  despotism.  He  attempted  the 
perilous  measure  of  remodelling  the  ar- 
my, from  which  he  was  compelled  to 
desist.  He  drew  the  greater  part  of 
the  forces  from  Scotland,  with  the  view 
of  employing  them  to  keep  his  refractory 
English  subjects  in  obedience,  but  leav- 
ing his  Scottish  minions  destitute  of  pow- 
er to  maintain  his  interests  in  that  coun- 
try against  the  rising  and  rapidly  increas- 
ing strength  of  the  Presbyterians.  A 
proclamation  was  issued  for  raising  the 
militia  in  Scotland  ;  but  that  was  little 
else  than  putting  arms  into  the  hands  of 
his  opponents.  Yet  the  Scottish  council 
showed  their  willingness,  if  not  their 
power,  by  transmitting  an  address  making 
offer  of  their  lives  and  fortunes  to  the 
king,  and  requesting  directions  how  to 
act  in  such  a  dangerous  juncture.  When 
the  Prince  of  Orange  issued  his  declara- 
tion and  manifesto,  that  document  was 
prohibited  to  be  circulated  or  read ;  but 
the  zealous  Covenanters  assisted  greatly 
in  spreading  it  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land,  in  spite  of  all  prohibi- 
tions, and  it  was  received  with  general 
satisfaction.  On  the  3d  of  November,  all 
the  Scottish  prelates,  except  two,  concurred 
in  sending  a  letter  to  the  king,  containing 
the  most  extravagant  eulogiums  on  that 
tyrant  and  his  course  of  government, 
avowing  their  steadfast  allegiance  to  him, 
"as  an  essential  part  of  their  religion," 
and  wishing  him  "the  hearts  of  his  sub- 
jjcts  and  the  necks  of  his  enemies."* 

•  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  p.  463.    The  address  of  the  Pres- 


Any  thing  more  servile,  and  at  the  same 
time  despotic  and  persecuting  in  its  spirit, 
it  is  impossible  to  imagine  ;  and  as  this 
was  the  last  public  act  of  Scottish  Prela- 
cy, at  the  close  of  its  bloody  reign,  it  de- 
serves to  be  recorded,  as  a  proof  that  it 
was  still  the  same  slavish,  intolerant, 
irreligious,  and  persecuting  system  which 
it  had  ever  been,  and  as  a  warning  also, 
that  Prelacy  and  civil  and  religious  free- 
dom cannot  exist  together  in  Scotland. 

On  the  10th  of  December  there  oc- 
curred a  riot  in  Edinburgh,  caused  chiefly 
by  the  students  of  the  college  and  the 
city  apprentices,  which  ended  in  their 
driving  a  body  of  troops  out  of  Holyrood 
House,  which  had  been  fortified  and  gar- 
risoned, rifling  the  Abbey,  and  burning 
the  images  and  other  idolatrous  symbols 
employed  in  the  popish  worship.  This 
riot  the  council  had  not  power  to  quell ; 
and  the  Duke  of  Perth,  the  chancellor, 
fled  from  the  capital  in  terror  of  his  life. 
On  the  14th  the  council  published  an  act 
for  disarming  Papists,  and  at  the  same 
time  protecting  their  persons  and  proper- 
ty against  tumults,  which  was  intended  to 
prevent  the  recurrence  of  similar  riotous 
scenes.  On  the  24th  they  issued  a  pro- 
clamation, founded  upon  a  rumour  that 
the  Irish  Papists  had  been  called  on  by 
the  king  to  invade  Scotland.  In  this  pro- 
clamation they  require  all  Protestant  sub- 
jects to  put  themselves  in  a  state  of  defence, 
for  securing  their  religion,  lives,  liberties, 
and  properties,  against  the  attempts  of 
Papists ;  and  all  heritors  are  summoned 
to  meet,  well  armed  and  provided,  at  the 
head  burghs  of  their  respective  counties, 
and  to  place  themselves  under  the  com- 
mand of  the  persons  named  in  the  procla- 
mation. This  was  a  virtual  repeal  of  the 
whole  proceedings  of  the  government 
during  the  preceding  twenty-eight  years, 
in  which  to  appear  armed  in  defence  of 
life  and  religion  was  condemned  and  pun- 
ished as  treason.  After  this  act  the  Scot- 
tish privy  council  voluntarily  dissolved 
and  disappeared,  leaving  the  people  in  a 
great  measure  to  their  own  government, 
and  to  the  defence  of  that  form  of  reli- 
gion to  which  they  were  most  attached. 
This,  therefore,  we  may  regard  as  the 
end  of  the  long  and  bloody  persecution 


byterian  ministers  to  the  Prince  of  Oranse  furnishes  a 
noble  contrast  to  this  servile  letter,  as  will  be  shown  io 
its  proper  place. 


A.  D.  1688.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


291 


which  the  Church  of  Scotland  endured 
from  perjured  and  remorseless  Prelacy, 
and  the  absolute  despotism  of  the  Brother 
Tyrants. 

It  would  not  have  heen  strange  if  the 
Presbyterians  had  inflicted  a  terrible 
retribution  on  their  merciless  oppressors. 
But  they  acted  in  general  like  men  con- 
scious of  a  glorious  cause,  which  they 
might  not  permit  their  own  passions  to 
sully  and  disfigure.  When  the  rumour 
that  an  Irish  invasion  was  intended 
reached  the  Covenanters,  they  immedi- 
ately mustered  in  a  considerable  body, 
and  prepared  to  defend  their  country  and 
their  friends  from  the  invaders  ;  but  find- 
ing the  rumour  groundless,  they  resolved 
to  take  that  opportunity  of  expelling  the 
prelatic  curates  from  the  parishes  which 
they  had  so  long  polluted  with  their  pre- 
sence and  devastated  with  their  cruelty. 
They  accordingly  seized  upon  these 
wretched  men,  turned  them  out  of  their 
usurped  abodes,  marched  them  to  the 
boundaries  of  their  respective  parishes, 
and  sent  them  away,  without  offering 
them  further  violence.*  No  plunder,  no 
bloodshed,  stained  the  hands  of  the  Cove- 
nanters. As  their  constancy  through  the 
long  period  of  fiery  trial  had  been  almost 
unparalleled,  so  their  high-principled 
self-government  was  conspicuous  in  their 
hour  of  bloodless  triumph.  How  glori- 
ously different  the  conduct  of  the  Scottish 
Presbyterians  from  that  of  their  prelatic 
persecutors,  rendering  it  manifest  to  the 
world,  as  if  written  with  a  sunbeam, 
which  of  these  two  forms  of  Church 
government  possessed  most  of  the  princi- 
ples, and  displayed  most  of  the  charac- 
ter of  the  gospel  of  peace  and  good-will. 
When  the  landing  of  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  and  the  revolution  which  fol- 
lowed, put  an  end  to  the  persecution 
which  had  continued  for  twenty-eight 
years,  a  computation  was  made,  from 
which  it  appeared,  that  above  eighteen 
thousand  had  suffered  by  death,  slavery, 
exile  or  imprisonment,  inflicted  in  the 
vain  endeavor  to  destroy  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Scotland,  and  establish  Prela- 
cy on  its  ruins.f  This  is  exclusive  of 
the  desolation  spread  over  the  country  by 
oppressive  fines,  assessments,  and  the 

*  Crnickshank,  vol.  ii.  p.  474;  Burnet's  Own  Times, 
vol.  i.  p.  805. 
t  Memoirs  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  pp.  290-294. 


lawless  pillage  of  the  licentious  soldiery 
by  which  whole  districts  were  almost 
turned  into  a  wilderness.  Surely  those 
who  talk  of  the  possibility  of  Prelacy 
ever  becoming  the  religion  of  Scotland, 
must  expect  it  to  be  preceded  by  such  a 
revolution  both  in  the  constitution  of  the 
human  mind  and  in  the  frame  of  nature, 
as  shall  completely  sweep  away  all  re- 
cords of  the  past ;  for  so  long  as  our 
mountains,  heaths,  and  glens,  are  studded 
with  the  gray  memorials  of  our  martyred 
fathers,  and  so  long  as  the  free  blood 
courses  more  warmly  and  the  heart  beats 
higher  in  one  true  Scottish  bosom,  at  the 
narrative  of  their  glorious  sufferings  and 
the  savage  cruelty  of  their  merciless  per- 
secutors, so  long  must  it  be  absolutely  im- 
possible for  Prelacy  to  be  regarded  in 
Scotland  with  any  other  feelings  than 
those  of  indignant  reprobation,  as  alike 
hostile  to  the  principles  of  civil  liberty, 
and  contrary  to  the  mild  and  gracious 
spirit  of  Christianity. 

In  taking  a  retrospective  glance  over 
that  dark  and  stormy  period  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland's  history  between  the 
Restoration  and  the  Revolution,  there  are 
some  topics  which  force  themselves  upon 
the  mind  so  strongly  as  to  demand  a  brief 
investigation  before  proceeding  further. 
What  was  the  ruling  motive  which  in- 
duced Charles  and  James  to  persecute  the 
Presbyterian  Church  with  such  retentless 
cruelty  ?  In  the  case  of  Charles,  it  could 
not  have  been  his  preference  of  Prelacy 
on  religious  grounds,  as  he  was  evidently 
a  man  of  no  religion  at  all.  In  the  case 
of  James,  it  was  as  manifest,  that  if  he 
preferred  that  form  of  church  govern- 
ment, it  was  only  because  he  regarded  it 
as  less  directly  opposed  to  Popery,  on  the 
re-establishment  of  which  his  heart  was 
bent.  The  steady  and  unswerving  per- 
severance with  which  the  whole  course  of 
public  affairs  was  guided  in  Scotland,  to- 
wards the  effecting  of  one  object,  during 
so  many  years,  proves  clearly  that  some 
one  ruling  principle  was  in  continual 
operation  all  the  while.  That  principle, 
we  think.  Burnet's  "  History  of  His  Own 
Times"  furnishes  the  means  of  detecting. 
From  that  work,  as  well  as  from  many 
other  sources,  we  learn  that  Charles  had 
joined  the  Church  of  Rome  before  he  left 
France.  Burnet  tells  us  further,  that 
soon  after  the  restoration,  Charles  in  con- 


292 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


versation  with  him,  reprobated  the  liberty 
that,  under  the  reformation,  all  men  took 
of  inquiring  in  matters  of  religion,  from 
vhich  they   proceeded   to   inquire   into 
matters  of  state ;  adding,  that  he  thought 
government  was  a  much  safer  and  easier 
thing  when  the  authority  was  believed 
infallible,  and  the  faith  and  submission  of 
the  people  were   implicit.     The  king's 
predilection  for  Popery  was  evidently  not 
on  the  ground  of  conscience,  but  because 
by  its  means  alone  he  could  hope  to  ac- 
quire absolute  power,  and  to  reduce  the 
people  to  the  implicit  obedience  of  slaves. 
To  effect  this  tyrannical  intention  was 
the   constant   endeavor  of  both  Charles 
and  his  brother  ;  and  there  are  many  sig- 
nificant indications,  that  even  in  the  case 
of  James,  the  love  of  Popery  was  subor- 
dinate to   the  love  of  despotism.     This 
view  completely  explains  both  the  direct 
endeavors  and  the  evasive  changes  and 
fluctuations  of  these  two  reigns.     Lau- 
derdale  appears  to  have  early  penetrated 
into  the  king's  designs,  and  to  have  made 
the  attempt  to  realize  them  the  ruling  aim 
and  effort  of  his  whole  administration. 
Remembering  also,  that  it  was  the  pres- 
ence  of  the  Scottish  army  in  England 
which  turned  the  wavering  balance  in  fa- 
vor of  the  parliament   during  the   civil 
wars,  he  made  it  his  ste'ady  endeavour  to 
bring  Scotland  into  a  state  of  such  com- 
plete  subserviency  to   the  king,  that  a 
powerful  army  might  be  raised  in  sup- 
port of  his  majesty,  should  any  contest 
arise  between  him  and  his  English  sub- 
jects.     In  this  view,  the  act  which  Lau- 
derdale  procured  from  the  Scottish  par- 
liament in  1663,  offering  to  the  king  an 
army  of  twenty  thousand  foot  and  two 
thousand  cavalry  to  be  at  his  own  dispo- 
sal, was  no  empty  bravado,  as  it  has  gen 
erally  been  regarded,  but  a  significant 
hint  from  that  despotic  statesman,  that  the 
time  for  the  monarch's  assumption  of  ab- 
solute power  was  near  at  hand.      The 
oath  of  supremacy,  and  the  acts  enforcing 
it  became,  when  viewed  in  this  light,  not 
only  perfectly  intelligible,  but  pregnant 
with  meaning  of  fearful  import.     They 
were  all  so  many  steps  towards  that  abso- 
lute despotism  which  the  king  desired  to 
establish,  and  that  state  of  utter  slavery 
to  which  he  wished  to  reduce  the  king- 
dom.    It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that 
the  prelatic  party  were  fully  aware  of 


his  intention,  and  were  willing  to  become 
he  base  instruments  by  which  it  should 
)e  accomplished ;  yetftheir  conduct  and 
;heir  written  sentiments  not  only  support- 
ed, but  too  often  seemed  to  lead  the  way  to 
he  full  establishment  of  the  most  arbitra- 
ry and  cruel  tyranny,  And  it  must  nev- 
er be  forgotten,  that  the  execrable  design 
of  reducing  Britain  to  a  state  of  abject 
slavery  was,  under  Providence,  frustrated 
solely  by  the  unconquerable  fortitude  with 

ich  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scot- 
land endured  every  extremity  of  suffering 
which  a  long,  relentless,  and  desolating 
persecution  could  inflict. 

At  the  same  time  it  must  be  observed, 
that  the  resistance  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  proceeded  from  a  far  higher 
principle  than  merely  the  determination 
to  defend  the  civil  liberties  of  the  country, 

a  principle  without  which  civil  liberty 
can  never  be  fully  realized,  and  which, 
in  free  and  active  operation,  would  ren- 
der the  dire  counterparts — absolute  power 
and  abject  slavery — for  ever  impossible. 
This  great  principle,  as  abstractly  stated 
and  most  tenaciously  maintained  by  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  is,  "  That  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  sole  Head  and  King  of 
the  Church,  and  hath  therein  appointed  a 
government  distinct,  from  that  of  the  civil 
magistrate."  In  the  form  in  which  it 
practically  appears,  this  great  principle 
realizes  such  a  disjunction  of  the  civil 
and  the  ecclesiastical  powers  from  each 
other  as  to  assign  and  secure  to  each  a 
separate,  co-ordinate,  and  independent  su- 
preme court  for  the  exercise  of  their  re- 
spective functions.  The  direct  conse- 
quence of  this  great  and  sacred  principle, 
thus  realized,  is,  that  it  preserves  the 
whole  region  of  the  conscience  entirely 
free  from  the  control  of  external  power . 
and  where  the  conscience  is  free,  men 
cannot  be  enslaved.  The  attempt  to  es- 
tablish an  absolute  despotism,  involved, 
of  necessity,  the  destruction  of  this  prin- 
ciple :  and  the  oath  of  supremacy  was 
the  weapon  by  which  it  was  directly  and 
fiercely  assailed.  The  cruel  policy  of 
the  assailants  needs  little  explanation.  It 
was  an  easy  matter  for  them  to  enact  an 
unjust  and  irreligious  law,  such  as  that 
which  virtually  declared  that  the  sove- 
reignty of  the  Church  should  be  taken 
from  Christ,  and  given  to  the  king,  and 
then  to  shout,  "  Obey  the  law,  obey  the 


A.  D.  1688.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


293 


law !"  proclaiming  men  rebels  and  trai- 
tors, and  persecuting  them  to  the  death, 
because  they  could  not  yield  obedience  to 
a  law  which  required  the  violation  of 
their  allegiance  to  the  Divine  Redeemer, 
but  chose  to  obey  God  rather  than  man  in 
matters  of  religion.  It  requires  but  little 
Christian  principle,  metaphysical  acumen, 
or  knowledge  of  the  general  principles  of 
jurisprudence,  to  perceive  that  no  law  can 
possibly  be  binding  upon  man  which 
is  manifestly  contrary  to  the  law  of  God. 
So  reasoned  and  so  felt  our  covenanted 
fathers  ;  and  in  defence  of  that  sacred 
and  eternal  principle  they  "  endured  a 
great  fight  of  afflictions,"  through  which 
they  were  triumphantly  borne  by  the 
mighty  power  of  God,  unfolding  and 
realizing  in  the  fearful  struggle,  what, 
though  of  subordinate  importance,  was 
still  of  inestimable  value,  that  noblest 
charter  of  civil  liberty  which  man  has 
ever  framed,  the  British  Constitution. 

The  only  accusation  which  can,  with 
any  degree  of  propriety,  be  urged  against 
the  Covenanters  is,  that  they  did  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  misunderstand  and  overpass 
some  of  the  essential  distinctions  between 
things  civil  and  things  sacred.  But  this 
cannot  justly  either  excite  our  surprise  or 
Call  forth  our  censure.  Few  seem  yet  to 
have  any  accurate  perception  of  these  dis- 
tinctions ;  and  many  seem  disposed  to 
deny  that  they  either  do  or  can  exist,  or, 
at  least,  that  they  can  be  so  specifically 
marked  out  as  to  prevent  the  incessant 
mutual  encroachments  of  the  civil  and 
the  ecclesiastical  jurisdictions  upon  the 
respective  provinces  which  rightfully  be- 
long to  each.  It  was  not  strange,  there- 
fore, that  the  Covenanters  partially  erred, 
especially  when  engaged  in  such  a  deadly 
struggle.  The  contest  was,  on  their  part, 
at  first  waged  solely  in  defence  of  the  cen- 
tral principle  of  religious  liberty.  But  as 
civil  and  religious  liberty  exist  or  perish 
together,  they  were  soon  compelled  to 
contend  equally  for  both,  and  thus  the 
scene  of  conflict  was  both  enlarged  and 
altered,  involving  a  complication  of  in- 
terests which  tended  to  produce  confusion. 
It  was  this  which  led  them  to  the  idea  of 
disowning  the  king,  and  declaring  what 
they  explained  to  be  a  "defensive  war" 
against  him,  as  against  a  lawless  tyrant, 
whose  own  acts  involved  the  invalidation 
of  his  right  to  reign.  The  Revolution 


was  indeed  a  substantial  confirmation  of 
the  justness  of  their  bold  opinions.  But 
still,  for  any  section  of  a  community  to 
proclaim  and  act  upon  such  opinions, 
must  unavoidably  expose  them,  as  citi- 
zens, to  the  charge  of  rebellion,  and  as 
ministers  and  members  of  the  Christian 
Church,  to  the  charge  of  interfering  with 
matters  beyond  their  legitimate  province. 
There  seem  to  be  but  two  conditions  by 
which  such  a  course  of  procedure  can  be 
fully  justified,  either  of  which  can  rarely 
occur,  and  the  one  of  which  cannot  be 
known  beforehand,  and,  therefore,  ought 
not  to  be  assumed  as  a  primary  cause. 
These  are,  the  direct  command  of  God^ 
of  which  the  Bible  relates  various  in- 
stances; and  ultimate  success,  which,  cor- 
rectly speaking  does  not  justify  the  at- 
tempt, but  merely  ratifies  the  deed,  from 
which  it  may  be  inferred,  that  the  enter- 
prise was  accordant  with  the  will  of 
Divine  Providence.  This  second  con- 
dition, we  are  aware,  may  be  both  misun- 
derstood and  misrepresented,  as  if  it  were 
identical  with  the  false  principle,  that  the 
end  justifies  the  means.  What  we  mean 
is  this,  that  when  an  attempt  is  made  by 
any  considerable  party  in  a  nation,  for  an 
object  which  appears  to  be  in  accordance 
with  Scripture,  reason,  and  civil  liberty, 
its  failure  may  prove  it  to  have  been  pre- 
mature, but  will  not  prove  it  to  have  been 
wrong ;  whereas  its  success  will  go  far  to 
prove  it  to  have  been  essentially  right. 
The  first)  many  of  the  Scottish  Covenant- 
ers conceived  themselves  to  have,  both  by 
reasoning  from  Scripture  analogies,  and 
from  the  directly  unchristian  character  of 
the  principles  attempted  to  be  enforced  by 
their  opponents:  the  second  they  obtained 
when  the  Revolution  completed  what  they 
had  begun  and  carried  forward  with 
determined  resolution,  heroic  fortitude, 
and  Christian  patience ;  and  it  must  be 
remarked,  that  they  never  doubted  of  the 
ultimate  triumph  of  their  sacred  cause, 
even  in  the  most  disastrous  periods,  and 
amidst  the  darkest  horrors  of  the  fierce 
exterminating  persecution  directed  against 
them  by  their  despotic  and  merciless  op- 
pressors. Any  censure,  therefore,  which 
could  justly  be  pronounced  against  them, 
must  be  exceedingly  slight,  and,  when 
compared  with  the  vast  debt  of  gratitude 
due  to  them  by  the  entire  empire,  must  be- 
come almost  invisible,  like  a  speck  in  the 


294 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII 


sun.  Still,  while  such  must  be  the  senti- 
ments of  every  enlightened  lover  of  free- 
dom, it  is  the  true  spiritually-minded 
Christian  alone  who  can  enter  fully  into 
the  feelings  of  these  much-enduring  and 
devoted  men,  comprehend  the  true  nature 
of  the  great  and  sacred  principles  in  de- 
fence of  which  they  encountered  the  perils 
and  suffered  the  extremities  of  poverty, 
imprisonment,  exile,  torture,  and  death, 
and  appreciate  the  real  value  of  the 
service  rendered  by  them  to  the  cause  of 
vital  piety,  and  to  the  interests  of  the 
Divine  Redeemer's  spiritual  kingdom. 


CHAPTER  VIIL 


FROM  THE  REVOLUTION,  IN  THE  YEAR  1688, 
TO  THE  TREATY  OF  UNION  IN  1707. 

Meeting  of  the  Convention  of  Estates— Declaration  and 
Claim  of  Right— Petition  of  the  Covenanters— Their 
Loyalty  and  Patriotism — Condition  of  the  Church 
and  Country — King  William  and  Carstares — The 
Prelatists — Meeting  of  Parliament — Acts  abolishing 
Prelacy,  ratifying  the  Confession  of  Faith,  establish- 
ing the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  abolishing  Patron- 
age— Meeting  of  the  General  Assembly — Acts  of 
Assembly — Remarks  on  the  Revolution  Settlement — 
State  of  the  Conflicting  Parties — The  restored  Min- 
isters, the  Conformists,  the  Covenanters — Views  of 
the  King,  of  the  Church,  and  of  the  Jacobites,  and 
Prelatic  Party— Origin  of  the  Moderate  Party— The 
Commission — The  Assembly  forcibly  adjourned— Its 
Firmness— Act  of  Parliament  for  settling  the  Quiet 
and  Peace  of  the  Church — Its  Character  and  Conse- 
quences— A  Mu-tual  Compromise — A  New  Collision 
threatened — The  King  and  Carstares — Meetings  of 
the  Assembly — Proceedings  of  the  Church — Conduct 
of  the  Jacobites  and  Prelatists — Act  against  intruding 
into  Churches— Competing  Calls  and  Transporta- 
tions— The  Rabbling  Act — Misrepresentations  of  the 
Prelatic  Party— Death  of  King  William— Queen  Anne 
— Political  Intrigues  against  the  Church — Proposals 
for  a  Union— Act  of  Security— The  Union— General 
View  of  the  State  of  the  Church 

THE  dissolution  of  the  Scottish  privy 
council  relieved  the  country  instantly  and 
completely  from  a  tyranny  and  persecution 
under  which  it  had  groaned  and  bled  for 
a  period  of  twenty-eight  terrible  years  ; 
but  it  left  the  kingdom  in  a  state  of 
anarchy  dangerous  to  the  peace  and  wel- 
fare of  the  community.  Had  the  Presby- 
terians been  influenced  at  all  by  the  spirit 
of  revenge,  there  was  nothing  to  have 
prevented  them  from  inflicting  a  dreadful 
retribution  upon  their  paralyzed  and  de- 
fenceless oppressors  in  their  hour  of  utter 
weakness.  Nothing,  therefore,  could 
have  given  a  more  perfect  proof  of  the 
injustice  and  falsehood  of  the  accusations 
formerly  urged  so  vehemently  against 


them  on  account  of  the  pernicious,  treach. 
erous,  and  murderous  principles  which 
they  were  said  to  hold,  than  the  fact,  that 
when  their  principles  had  free  scope,  the 
most  remarkable  characteristic  which 
they  displayed  was  the  forgiveness  of 
their  falJen  enemies.  The  expelling  of 
the  curates,  which  has  been  already  no- 
ticed, was  in  truth  nothing  else  but  the 
ejection  of  lawless  intruders  from  positions 
and  property  on  which  they  had  wrong- 
fully seized,  with  the  view  of  haying 
them  restored  to  their  rightful  owners. 
Still,  the  condition  of  the  country  was  full 
of  peril,  which  was  held  in  check  by  the 
power  of  religious  principle  alone ;  and 
it  was  the  manifest  interest  of  all  classes 
to  reconstruct  the  disorganized  frame 
of  society  as  speedily  as  possible.  On 
this  account  men  of  all  political  par- 
ties hastened  to  London,  to  hold  inter- 
course with  each  other  and  with  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  to  ascertain  their  re- 
spective strength,  and  to  deliberate  on 
the  course  to  be  pursued. 

[1689.]  The  legislature  of  England 
met  in  the  form  of  a  convention,  avoiding 
the  term  parliament,  as  not  being  called 
by  the  king,  and,  after  considerable  dis 
cussion,  voted,  "  That  James  the  Second 
having  endeavored  to  subvert  the  con 
stitution  of  the  kingdom,  by  breaking  th(^ 
original  contract  between  the  king  and 
the  people,  and,  by  the  advice  of  Jesuits 
and  other  wicked  persons,  having  vio- 
lated the  fundamental  laws,  and  with- 
drawn himself  out  of  this  kingdom,  has 
abdicated  the  government,  and  the  throne 
is  become  vacant."  After  some  further 
discussion,  the  vacant  throne  was  given 
to  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Orange,  as 
joint  sovereigns,  the  title  constantly  run- 
ning William  and  Mary,  King  and 
Queen  of  England, — the  sole  administra- 
tion resting  in  the  king.  On  the  8th 
of  January,  1689,  William  assembled 
the  leading  Scottish  noblemen  and  gentle- 
men who  were  in  London,  and  after  re- 
ferring to  his  Declaration,  told  them  that 
he  had  called  them  together  to  ask  their 
advice  respecting  the  best  method  of 
securing  the  civil  and  religious  liberties 
of  their  country.  Their  advice  was,  thai 
he  would  assume  the  administration  of 
affairs  till  a  convention  of  estates  could 
be  held  in  Edinburgh,  and  a  proper 
settlement  be  effected,  which  convention 


A.  D.  1689.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


295 


they  requested  to  be  empowered  to  meet 
on  the  14th  of  March;  and  to  this  he 
gave  his  assent. 

The  Scottish  convention  met  on  the 
day  appointed,  the  short  interval  having 
been  employed  by  the  two  contending 
parties, — the  adherents  of  James,  who 
were  generally  Prelatists,  and  the  sup- 
porters of  the  Revolution,  who  were 
Presbyterians, — in  the  most  strenuous 
endeavours  to  muster  their  whole  strength 
for  the  struggle.  It  had  been  stipulated 
by  the  meeting  in  London,  that  in  the 
election  of  representatives  to  the  conven- 
tion, none  who  were  protestants  should  be 
excluded  from  legally  voting,  or  from  be- 
ing returned  as  members.  This  at  once 
removed  the  disabilities  under  which  the 
oppressive  acts  of  the  preceding  reigns 
had  laid  the  greater  part  of  the  Presby- 
terians, and  enabled  them  to  send  to  the 
convention  a  majority  of  right-minded 
men.  Still  the  peril  was  great.  Claver- 
house,  who  had  been  created  Viscount 
Dundee  by  James,  was  fully  determined 
to  maintain  the  right  of  that  despot  by 
war ;  and  had  brought  with  him  to 
Edinburgh  a  considerable  body  of  armed 
and  desperate  men  to  overawe  the  con- 
vention. There  were  no  military  forces 
in  the  kingdom  to  prevent  Dundee  from 
any  extreme  to  which  his  daring  and 
ferocious  spirit  might  impel  him ;  and 
the  castle  was  held  by  the  Duke  of  Gor- 
don, who  also  favoured  the  interests  of  the 
fallen  monarch.  In  this  dangerous  junc- 
ture recourse  was  had  to  the  Cameronian 
Covenanters,  as/ the  only  body  which 
both  possessed  the  power  and  the  inclina- 
tion to  protect  their  country's  liberties, 
and  might  be  trusted  in  this  hour  of 
peril.  They  were  requested  to  come  to 
Edinburgh,  armed  and  prepared  to  resist 
any  outrage  which  might  be  offered  to 
the  convention  or  the  town  by  Dundee, 
their  former  relentless  persecutor.  This 
was  a  noble  tribute  to  the  character  of 
these  much  injured  and  greatly  calum- 
niated men.  They  had  formerly  been 
hunted  down  as  disturbers  of  peace  and 
the  very  enemies  of  society  ;  they  were 
now  sought  and  hailed  as  conservators  of 
peace,  and  protectors  of  the  public  wel- 
fare. 

T/.*  first  trial  of  strength  in  the  con- 
vention took  place  on  the  subject  of 
choosing  a  president.  The  Duke  of 


Hamilton  was  named  by  the  Presby- 
terians ;  the  Prelatists  gave  their  support 
to  the  Marquis  of  Athol.  The  Duke  of 
Hamilton  was  chosen  by  a  majority  of 
fifteen ;  and  as  this  proved  the  superiority 
of  the  Presbyterian  party,  a  considerable 
number  of  that  wavering  class  of  poli- 
ticians who  act  from  selfish  motives, 
joined  the  side  which  they  saw  to  be  the 
strongest,  increasing  its  majorities,  though 
adding  nothing  to  its  moral  influence. 
The  struggle  was  no  longer  doubtful,  so 
far  as  regarded  the  transfer  of  the  crown 
from  James  to  William,1  but  the  adjust- 
ment of  the  many  great  interests  therein 
involved,  was  still  a  matter  of  an  ex- 
tremely difficult  nature.  Viscount  Dun- 
dee, having  in  vain  attempted  to  disturb 
or  overawe  the  convention,  abandoned 
the  wily  arts  of  the  politician,  and  deter- 
mined to  have  recourse  to  the  sword. 
His  abrupt  and  threatening  departure 
ruined  the  plans  of  the  adherents  of 
James,  by  precipitating  them  into  a  conflict 
for  which  they  were  not  prepared,  and  by 
relieving  the  convention  in  a  great  mea- 
sure from  the  impediments  which  the 
supporters  of  despotism,  had  they  re- 
mained, might  have  thrown  in  the  way  of 
the  Revolution  Settlement.  The  conven- 
tion then  ratified  the  London  Address,  in 
all  its  tenor  and  conditions.  A  committee 
was  next  appointed,  similar  to  the  Lords 
of  the  Articles,  for  preparing  the  over- 
tures for  settling  the  government;  and  in 
this  committee  the  prelates  were  omitted, 
— by  which  a  sufficiently  intelligible  inti- 
mation was  given  what  was  likely  to  be 
the  fate  of  Prelacy.  Two  letters  were 
presented  to  the  convention,  the  one  from 
King  James,  the  other  from  the  Prince  of 
Orange  ;  the  first  was  disregarded,  the 
other  treated  with  great  respect.  An  an- 
swer to  the  Prince's  letter  was  prepared, 
and  then  the  convention  proceeded  to  de- 
clare their  opinion  respecting  the  state  of 
the  nation,  and  the  necessary  remedial 
measures.  This  declaration  was  pub 
licly  read  and  agreed  to,  on  the  4th  of 
April,  the  day  on  which  the  Prince's  let- 
ter in  reply  was  received  ;  and  having 
been  embodied  in  the  "  Claim  of  Right," 
in  the  conclusion  of  which  was  contained 
an  offer  of  the  Scottish  crown  to  William 
and  Mary,  together  with  a  brief  and 
simple  oath  of  allegiance,  the  whole  docu- 
ment was  read,  and  the  king  and  queen 


296 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIIL 


publicly  proclaimed  in  Edinburgh,  on  the 
llthday  of  April,  1689. 

A  few  sentences  of  this  most  important 
document  must  be  engrossed  in  the  body 
of  this  work,  in  vindication  of  the  princi- 
ples and  conduct  of  the  oppressed  and 
persecuted  Church  of  Scotland.  It  be- 
gins as  follows  :— 

•  "  Whereas  King  James  VII.  being  a 
professed  Papist,  did  assume  the  regal 
power,  and  acted  as  king,  without  ever 
taking  the  oath  required  by  law,  whereby 
the  king,  at  his  accession  to  the  govern- 
ment, is  obliged  to  swear  to  maintain  the 
Protestant  religion,  and  to  rule  the  people 
according  to  the  laudable  laws,  and  did, 
by  the  advice  of  wicked  and  evil  counsel- 
lors, invade  the  fundamental  constitution 
of  this  kingdom,  and  alter  it  from  a  legal 
limited  monarchy  to  an  arbitrary  despotic 
power  ;  and  in  a  public  proclamation  as- 
serted an  absolute  power  to  cass,  annul, 
and  disable  all  the  laws,  particularly  the 
laws  establishing  the  Protestant  religion, 
and  did  exercise  that  power  to  the  sub- 
version of  the  Protestant  religion,  and  to 
the  violation  of  the  laws  and  liberties  of 
the  kingdom."  (Then  follows  an  enu- 
meration of  the  arbitrary  acts,  complained 
against,  forming,  in  fact,  a  brief  outline 
of  the  history  of  the  persecuting  period.) 
"  Therefore,  the  estates  of  the  kingdom  of 
Scotland  find  and  declare  that  King 
James  VII.  being  a  professed  Papist,  did 
assume,  <fcc.  (in  the  same  terms  as  above,) 
WHEREBY  HE  HATH  FORFEITED  THE  RIGHT 
TO  THE  CROWN,  AND  THE  THRONE  IS  BE- 
COME VACANT." 

The  reader  will  observe,  that  this  de- 
claration of  the  Scottish  convention  of  es- 
tates is  the  same  in  spirit,  and  almost  the 
same  in  words,  as  the  declarations  emitted 
by  the  covenanted  Presbyterians,  on  ac- 
count of  which  they  were  calumniated 
and  persecuted  as  rebels  and  traitors. 
The  only  essential  difference  between 
their  declarations  and  that  of  the  conven- 
tion is,  that  the  Covenanters  took  for 
their  central  and  leading  principle  that 
which  forms  the  essence  of  religious 
liberty,  and  at  the  same  time  renders  ab- 
solute civil  despotism  impossible,  namely, 
the  sole  sovereignty  of  Christ,  as  the  only 
Head  and  King  of  his  free  spiritual  king- 
dom, the  Church.  This  the  convention 
did  not  declare, — in  all  probability  they 
neither  understood  nor  held  it ;  but  so  far 


as  their  declaration  went,  it  stated  the 
very  same  reasons  for  the  tyrant's  forfei- 
ture of  the  crown  which  had  been  re- 
peatedly stated  by  the  followers  of  Came- 
ron, Cargill  and  Ren  wick,  and  in  defence 
of  which  these  high-principled  men  had 
cheerfully  laid  down  their  lives. 

A  short  time  previous  to  the  issuing  of 
the  convention's  Declaration  and  Claim 
of  Right,  a  petition  was  laid  before  them, 
embodying  the  sentiments  and  requests 
of  the  maligned  Cameronian  Covenant- 
ers, in  a  strain  at  once  of  sublimity  and 
pathos,  such  as  rarely  has  been  sur- 


"  We  prostrate  ourselves,  yet  under  the 
sorrowing  smart  of  our  still  bleeding 
wounds,  at  your  honours'  feet,  who  have 
a  call,  a  capacity,  and,  we  hope,  a  heart 
to  heal  us ;  and  we  offer  this  our  petition, 
conjuring  your  honours  to  hearken  to  us. 
By  all  the  formerly  felt,  presently  seen, 
and.  for  the  future,  feared  effects  and 
efforts  of  Popery  and  tyranny, — by  the 
cry  of  the  blood  of  our  murdered  brethren, 
— by  the  sufferings  of  the  banished  free- 
born  subjects  of  this  realm,  now  groaning 
in  servitude,  having  been  sold  into  slavery 
in  the  English  plantations  of  America, 
by  the  miseries  that  many  thousands  for- 
feited, disinherited,  harassed,  and  wasted 
houses  have  been  reduced  to, — by  all  the 
sufferings  of  a  faithful  people,  for  adher- 
ing to  the  ancient  covenanted  establish- 
ment of  religion  and  liberty,  and  by 
all  the  arguments  of  justice,  necessity, 
and  mercy,  that  ever  could  join  together, 
to  begin  communication  among  "men  of 
wisdom,  piety,  and  virtue, — humbly,  be- 
seeching, requesting,  and  craving  of  your 
honours,  now  when  God^hath  given  you 
this  opportunity  tp  act  for  His  glory,  the 
good  of  the  Church,  of  the  nation,  your 
own,  honour,  and  the  happiness  of  pos- 
terity,— now  when  this  kingdom,  the 
neighbouring,  and  all  the  nations  of 
Europe, '  have  their  eyes  upon  you,  ex- 
pecting you  will  acquit  yourselves  like 
the  representatives  of  a  free  nation,  in  re- 
deeming it  from  slavery  otherwise  inevi 
table, — that  you  will  proceed  without  any 
delay  to  declare  the  wicked  government 
dissolved,  the  crown  and  throne  vacant, 
and  James  VII.,  whom  we  never  owned, 
and  resolved  in  conjunction  with  many 
thousands  of  our  countrymen  never  to 
own,  to  have  really  forfeited,  and  rightly 


A.  D.  1689.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


297 


to  be  deprived  of,  all  right  and  title  he 
ever  had,  or  ever  could  pretend  to  have 
hitherto,  and  to  provide  that  it  may  never 
be  in  the  power  of  any  succeeding1  ruler 
to  aspire  unto  or  arise  to  such  a  capacity 
of  tyrannizing."  (They  then  petition 
that  the  crown  may  be  bestowed  on 
William,  with  such  necessary  provisions 
as  may  secure  liberty  civil  and  religious, 
specify  the  king's  duty  to  profess  and 
preserve  the  pure  religion  and  the  work 
of  reformation,  and  conclude  thus :) — 
"  Upon  such  terms  as  these  we  render 
our  allegiance  to  King  William,  and 
hope  to  give  more  pregnant  proofs  of  our 
loyalty  to  his  majesty,  in  adverse  as  well 
as  prosperous  providences,  than  they 
have  done,  or  can  do,  who  profess  im- 
plicit subjection  to  absolute  authority  so 
long  only  as  Providence  preserves  its 
grandeur."* 

'  Such  were  the  earnest,  free,  and  digni- 
fied, loyal,  and  pious  sentiments  of  men 
who  had  been  slandered,  reviled,  and 
persecuted  for  the  space  of  twenty-eight 
years ;  and  whose  characters,  principles, 
and  memory,  the  greatest  author  of  mo- 
dern times  has  vainly  striven  to  blacken 
and  disgrace,  his  own  reputation  alone 
suffering  from  the  malignant  and  abortive 
attempt,  through  the  fatal  recoil  which,  ig- 
norant and  calumnious  falsehood  sustains, 
when  it  dares  to  encounter  unsullied  and 
majestic  truth.  |  Their  loyalty  and  patriot- 
ism were  not  confined  to  words.  In  the 
distressed  state  of  the  country,  a  civil  war 
commencing,  led  on  by  the  fierce  and  in- 
furiated Dundee  (Claverhouse),  with  few 
troops  in  the  kingdom,  and  some  of  these 
disaffected  to  the  new  sovereign,  and 
others  almost  undisciplined,  the  generous 
Covenanters  stood  forward  in  defence  of 
their  native  land,  and  offered  to  raise  a 
regiment  for  public  service,  stipulating 
only  that  the  officers  should  be  men  of 
conscience,  honour,  arid  fidelity,  and  un- 
stained by  the  persecuting  proceedings 
of  the  late  reigns,  and  that  their  service 
should  be  for  the  defence  of  the  nation 
and  the  preservation  of  religion,  in  oppo- 
sition to  Popery,  Prelacy,  and  tyranny. 
These  terms  were  gladly  accepted  ;  and 
in  one  day,  without  beat  of  drum,  or  the 

*  Cruickshfink,  vol.  ii.  pp.  279,280;  Memoirs  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  pp.  303-308. 

t  See  Sir  Walter  Scott's  Old  Mortality  ;  and  Dr. 
M'Crie's  Vindication  of  the  Covenanters,  in  his  Miscel- 
aneous  Works. 

38 


expenditure  of  levy-money,  they  raised  a 
regiment  of  eight  hundred  men,  com- 
monly termed  the  Cameronian  regiment, 
commanded  by  the  Earl  of  Angus,  and 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Cleland  ;  the  latter 
of  whom  had  led  a  party  of  the  insur- 
gents both  at  Drumclog  and  Bothwell 
Bridge,  and  was  afterwards  killed  in  the 
gallant  and  successful  defence  of  Dun- 
keld  by  that  regiment  against  a  far  supe- 
rior force  of  Highlanders.  Such,  indeed, 
was  their  loyalty  and  zeal,  that  they  even 
offered  to  raise  two  more  regiments,  if 
their  services  should  be  required,  for  the 
protection  of  the  nation's  liberties ;  a  suffi- 
cient proof  that  they  were  neither  the 
narrow-minded  fanatics,  nor  the  misera- 
ble handful,  which  their  enemies  and 
persecutors  pretended,  but  in  reality  a 
powerful  body  of  high-hearted  and  pa- 
triotic men. 

It  deserves  to  be  remarked,  that  in  the 
Claim  of  Right,  which  forms  the  basis  of 
the  Revolution  Settlement,  the  convention 
did  not  rest  satisfied  with  the  rather  am- 
biguous mention  of  the  Protestant  re- 
ligion, but  inserted  a  clause  in  the  follow- 
ing terms :  u  That  Prelacy,  and  the 
superiority  of  any  office  in  the  Church 
above  Presbyters,  is,  and  hath  been,  a 
great  and  insupportable  grievance  and 
trouble  to  this  nation,  and  contrary  to  the 
inclinations  of  the  generality  of  the  peo- 
ple, ever  since  the  Reformation,  they 
having  been  reformed  from  Popery  by 
Presbyters,  and,  therefore,  ought  to  be 
abolished."  The  insertion  of  such  a 
clause  was  imperatively  necessary  in 
order  to  satisfy  the  Presbyterians,  who 
had  at  least  as  much  reason  to  dread 
Prelacy  as  they  had  to  dread  Popery  it- 
self, having  suffered  from  Prelacy  a  per- 
secution unspeakably  more  intense  than 
ever  Popery  had  been  in  a  condition  to 
inflict. 

The  Revolution  Settlement  was  now 
as  complete  as  the  temporary  expedient 
of  a  convention  of  estates  could  legally 
render  it ;  and  in  order  to  connrm  it  in 
the  amplest  manner,  without  incurring 
the  danger  of  intrigues  and  dwisions,  the 
king  empowered  them  to  pass  an  act 
converting  the  convention  into  a  parlia- 
ment, to  meet  formally  on  the  5th  of 
June,  and  for  despatch  of  business  on  the 
17th  of  the  same  month,  in  which  the 
Earl  of  Crawford  was  to  preside,  the 


298 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


Duke  of  Hamilton  representing  his  ma- 
jesty as  commissioner.  The  general 
confusion  prevailing  in  the  kingdom  at 
this  time  rendered  the  sitting  of  the  par- 
liament short,  and  comparatively  unsatis- 
factory. Yet  some  important  measures 
were  carried  and  others  proposed.  On 
the  22d  of  July  an  act  was  passed  "  abol- 
ishing Prelacy,  and  all  superiority  of 
any  office  in  the  Church  in  this  kingdom 
above  Presbyters,"  and  rescinding  those 
acts  of  parliament  passed  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  II.,  by  which  Prelacy  had  been 
established.  An  "overture  for  settling 
church  government  in  Scotland"  was 
then  laid  before  the  parliament  by  the 
Duke  of  Hamilton,  but  was  so  ill  re- 
ceived, that  it  was  withdrawn.  An  act 
was  prepared,  and  with  some  difficulty 
passed,  excluding  from  places  of  public 
trust  those  persons  who  had  either  been 
ready  instruments  of  tyranny  and  perse- 
cution in  the  former  reigns,  or  had  ex- 
erted themselves  against  the  recent  pro- 
pitious changes  which  had  rescued  the 
nation  from  civil  and  religious  despotism. 
But  this  the  commissioner  refused  to 
ratify,  and  it  was  not  again  revived  in 
any  subsequent  parliament.  The  dissen- 
sions in  the  parliament  continued  to  run 
high,  increased  on  the  one  hand  by  ru- 
mours of  conspiracies  among  the  adhe- 
rents of  James,  who  began  to  be  termed 
Jacobites,  and  who  were  composed  of 
Papists,  Prelatists.  and  supporters  of  ab- 
solute power,  whether  of  any  religious 
creed,  or  of  none  ;  and  on  the  other,  by 
the  disappointment  of  the  Presbyterians, 
who  had  as  yet  experienced  little  return 
of  gratitude  from  the  king  for  having  so 
greatly  contributed  to  that  Revolution 
which  transferred  to  his  brow  the  crown 
of  three  kingdoms.  It  was  accordingly 
adjourned,  and  appointed  to  meet  again 
early  in  the  beginning  of  the  following 
year. 

Having  thus  traced  a  brief  outline  of 
the  main  civil  events  which  took  place 
during  the  first  year  of  the  new  reign, 
and  while  the  nation  was  still  tossing  in 
all  the  fitful  uncertainties  which  charac- 
terize a  state  of  transition,  it  is  necessary 
to  direct  our  attention  a  little  more  closely 
to  the  actual  condition  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  which  was  now  struggling  from 
amidst  the  ruins  in  which  it  had  been  so 
long  overwhelmed  and  kept  prostrate. 


When  King  James's  last  indulgence 
was  issued,  several  of  the  exiled  and  in- 
tercommuned  ministers  returned  from 
abroad,  and  availed  themselves  of  its  pro- 
visions so  far  as  to  recommence  preach- 
ing, some  in  the  parishes  from  which 
they  had  been  formerly  ejected,  in  barns 
or  in  meeting-houses  erected  expressly 
for  their  accommodation  ;  others  in  such 
places  as  their  friends  could  procure  hv 
the  most  favourable  situations.  Some  of 
these  were  again  interrupted,  driven 
from  their  places  of  worship,  and  impri- 
soned, or  otherwise  silenced,  before  the 
abdication  of  James,  and  the  dissolution 
of  the  persecuting  privy  council.  And 
when,  by  the  act  of  forfeiture  passed  by 
the  convention,  the  despotic  power  was 
abolished  and  religious  liberty  secured, 
all  the  surviving  Presbyterian  ministers 
were  at  once  allowed  to  come  forward, 
ready  for  the  reconstruction  of  their  na- 
tional temple.  It  then  appeared,  that  of 
upwards  of  four  hundred  ministers,  who 
had  been  ejected  to  make  way  for  Prelacy, 
only  about  sixty  survived  to  see  the  res- 
toration of  Presbytery.  Well  might  the 
worn  and  wasted  band  gaze  sadly  on 
each  other,  as  they  contemplated  the 
great  work  which  was  to  be  done,  and 
their  own  inadequacy  to  accomplish  the 
arduous  task. 

The  difficulties  to  be  encountered  were 
both  numerous  and  formidable.  They 
had  to  meet  the  determined  and  deadly 
hostility  of  the  defeated  Prelatists  through- 
out the  kingdom  ;  under  which  designa- 
tion must  be  classed  not  only  the  few  who 
favoured  Prelacy  on  purely  religious 
grounds,  if  any  such  there  were,  but 
also,  and  especially,  all  secular  politicians, 
all  ambitious  or  licentious  men  of  the 
world,  all  Papists,  and  all  who  hated  re- 
ligion because  they  loved  immorality. 
They  had  also  to  attempt  the  very  diffi- 
cult task  of  uniting  all  Presbyterians  into 
one  compact  harmonious  body,  able  both 
to  confront  their  enemies,  and  to  insure 
the  respect  and  support  of  their  friends. 
But  the  greater  part  of  the  Presbyterian 
ministers  in  Scotland,  at  that  juncture, 
were  those  who  had  either  partially  con- 
formed to  Prelacy,  or  had  accepted  of  the 
indulgences  which  had  from  time  to  time 
been  offered,  and  had  repeatedly  excited 
such  unhappy  and  pernicious  divisions 
among  them.  These  men  conscious  of 


A.  D.  1689.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


299 


their  feeble-minded  and  faithless  defec- 
tions, were  on  that  very  account  the  more 
ready  to  take  offence  at  the  slightest  allu- 
sion to  their  former  conduct  by  their 
more  consistent  brethren.  There  was, 
therefore,  the  utmost  reason  to  dread  the 
instantaneous  rising  of  such  internal  dis- 
sensions as  would  prevent  the  possibility 
of  reuniting  the  Presbyterian  body  into 
such  a  harmonious  form  as  might  enable 
it  to  become  again  the  Established  Church 
of  the  nation.  The  danger  of  such  a  dis- 
astrous result  was  greatly  increased  by 
two  entirely  opposite  causes.  On  the  one 
hand,  those  who  were  merely,  or  chiefly, 
political  Presbyterians,  strongly  urged 
upon  the  ministers,  that  all  mention  of 
past  defections,  errors,  and  weaknesses 
among  their  brethren  should  be  most 
carefully  avoided,  so  that  offence  might 
neither  be  given  nor  received  ;  on  the 
other,  the  unyielding  Covenanters,  who 
had  not  shrunk  from  the  hottest  of  the 
conflict,  whose  firm  and  steady  strength 
had  contributed  greatly  to  the  protection 
of  the  convention,  and  by  that  means  had 
lent  effectual  aid  to  the  assertors  of  free- 
dom, and  who  were  doubtless  somewhat 
elated  to  see  so  many  of  theft  boldest  prin- 
ciples in  the  course  of  being  realized, — 
these  high-minded  and  inflexible  men 
urged  upon  the  whole  Presbyterian  body 
the  absolute  necessity  of  making  a  full 
acknowledgement  of  all  past  errors  and 
defections,  and  of  resting  satisfied  with 
nothing  short  of  the  revival  of  the  Na- 
tional Covenants,  and  the  restoration  of 
the  Church  to  the  position  she  had  occu- 
pied in  the  year  1 649.  It  was  absolutely 
impossible  that  views  so  diametrically 
opposed  to  each  other  could  both  be 
adopted  ;  and  it  was  almost  inevitable 
that  the  wish  and  the  endeavour  to  frame 
some  compromise,  or  to  take  up  some  in- 
termediate position,  would  plunge  the 
Church  into  inextricable  difficulties,  and 
perhaps  also  into  serious  errors. 

The  peculiar  character  and  views  of 
King  William,  and  the  advice  given  to 
him  by  those  in  whom  he  reposed  the 
greatest  confidence,  did  not  tend  to  dimin- 

f'  h  the  difficulties  of  the  Scottish  Pres- 
yterians.  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  William  was  well  aware  of  the 
value  of  true  religion,  and  was  himself 
considerably  under  its  influence.  But  he 


was  a  statesman  in  the  strictest  sense  of 
the  term  ;  and  his  mind  was  so  engrossed 
with  the  great  idea  of  maintaining  the 
balance  of  power  in  Europe  against  the 
gigantic  strength  of  France,  that  every 
other  thing  occupied  but  a  subordinate 
place  and  value  in  his  thoughts.  A  com- 
plete union  between  Scotland  and  Eng- 
land he  regarded  as  of  essential  impor- 
tance, to  enable  him  to  meet  the  compact 
might  of  the  French  monarchy  ;  and 
though  personally  favourable  to  the  Pres- 
byterian form,  yet  seeing  the  improba- 
bility that  he  could  persuade  England  to 
accept  of  it,  he  was  desirous  to  induce 
Scotland  to  consent  to  a  modified  Episco- 
pacy. He  did  not  regard  any  form  of 
church  government  as  of  divine  authority; 
and  therefore  thought  it  practicable  to  in- 
duce both  kingdoms  to  abate  somewhat 
of  their  distinctive  peculiarities,  and  to 
meet  and  unite  in  some  intermediate  ar- 
rangement. For  that  reason  he  abstained 
from  a  full  recognition  of  Presbytery  in 
Scotland  at  first,  waiting  to  try  the  effect 
of  returning  peace  to  produce  unanimity ; 
and  when  he  did  consent  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Scot- 
land, he  did  so  in  terms  which  have  been 
thought  to  admit  of  a  somewhat  lax  in- 
terpretation, declaring  it  to  be  "agree- 
able to  the  Word  of  God,"  instead  of 
"  grounded  upon  the  infallible  truth  of 
God's  Word,"  which  was  the  form  of 
expression  used  by  Knox,  at  the  first  es- 
tablishment of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
The  same  course  of  policy  led  him  to 
desire  in  Scotland  itself  a  union  of  the 
prelatic  clergy  of  the  two  preceeding 
reigns  and  the  restored  Presbyterians ; 
though,  how  he  could  expect  any  degree 
of  cordiality  to  subsist  between  humbled 
and  fangless  persecutors  and  their  res- 
cued, yet  wounded  and  still  bleeding  vic- 
tims, it  is  not  easy  to  imagine.  By 
prosecuting  this  specious  yet  most  bane- 
ful policy,  dictated  do  doubt  by  that  great 
deceiver  of  the  world's  sages  and  states- 
men, expediency,- William  both  alienated 
and  so  far  paralyzed  his  Presbyterian 
friends,  to  whom  chiefly  he  owed  the 
British  crown,  left  power  in  the  hands 
of  enemies  and  traitors,  and  excited  those 
feelings  of  discontent  in  the  minds  of  the 
one  party,  and.turbulent  anticipations  of 
change  and  counter-revolution  in  the 


300 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIIL 


other,  by  which  his  whole  reign  was 
rendered  a  scene  of  distraction  and  tur- 
moil. 

Nor  was  it  fortunate  for  either  William 
or  the  Church  of  Scotland,  that  Car- 
stares,  whom  he  had  made  his  private 
chaplain,  and  on  whose  advice  he  so 
much  relied  in  the  management  of  Scot- 
tish affairs,  held  opinions  so  congenial 
to  those  of  his  royal  master.  Carstares 
was  unquestionably  a  man  of  great  abil- 
ity, and  his  resolution  and  fidelity  had 
borne  a  severe  trial  on  a  former  occasion. 
But,  though  a  sincere  Presbyterian,  he 
seems  to  have  been  so  more  from  politi- 
cal than  from  religious  considerations, 
and  to  have  viewed  a  religious  establish- 
ment more  as  an  engine  of  state  than  as 
a  Church  of  Christ.  The  great  Presby- 
terian principle,  that  the  Lord  Jesus  is 
the  only  Head  and  King  in  his  Church, 
he  does  not  seem  to  have  understood  or 
felt,  at  least  neither  his  conduct  nor  any 
of  his  writings  give  any  indication  that 
it  formed  the  ruling  principle  in  his 
views  of  ecclesiastical  polity.  That  he 
was  a  sincere  friend  to  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  is  certain  ;  but  the  defective 
nature  of  his  own  perception  of  its  great 
principles  not  only  prevented  him  from 
making  any  effort  to  obtain  their  free  de- 
velopement,  but  even  led  him  to  obstruct 
and  thwart  what  it  ought  to  have  been 
the  business  of  his  life  to  promote.  It 
was,  therefore,  morally  impossible  that 
Carstares  should  give  to  the  king  the 
wisest  and  the  best  advice  with  regard  to 
the  establishment  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  since  he  did  not  himself  under- 
stand the  very  essence  of  the  Presby- 
terian system  of  Church  government. 
Some  will  think  this  a  strange  assertion, 
when  employed  respecting  a  man  of 
such  eminence  as  Carstares,  and  one  to 
whom  the  Church  of  Scotland  is  in  re- 
ality under  deep  obligations.  Let  them 
studiously  compare  the  principles  and 
conduct  of  Carstares  with  those  of  the 

treat  men  who  conducted  the  First  and 
econd  Reformations  in  Scotland,  and 
they  will  be  compelled  to  feel,  whether 
they  fully  understand  the  cause  or  not, 
that  in  him  they  perceive  but  a  cold  re- 
flected lunar  light, — in  them  the  life-giv- 
ing power  and  fervour  of  direct  sun- 
shine. He  was  a  Presbyterian  greatly, 
if  not  chiefly,  through  the  force  of  edu- 


cation and  habit,  and  by  the  convictions 
of  human  prudence  and  political  saga- 
city;  and  therefore,  he  strove  for  the  re-es 
tablishment  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
as  most  likely  to  confirm  his  sovereign's 
throne,  and  most  agreeable  to  the  inclina 
tions  of  the  people  ; — they  were  Presby- 
terians by  the  grace  of  God  and  the  in- 
dwelling power  of  divine  truth  within 
their  souls  ;  and,  therefore,  they  strove 
for  the  establishment  of  a  Presbyterian 
Church,  as  directly  founded  upon  the 
Word  of  God,  and  therefore  of  divine 
institution  and  authority.  Yet  the  errors 
of  Carstares  were  those  chiefly  of  omis- 
sion :  to  the  extent  to  which  his  own  de- 
fective views  enabled  him  to  reach,  he 
had  an  accurate  conception  of  the  Pres- 
byterian polity  and  discipline,  and  did 
his  utmost  to  obtain  its  establishment,  and 
to  protect  it  in  times  of  danger. 

Another  point  demands  our  observa- 
tion. On  the  1 3th  of  April  a  proclama- 
tion was  issued  by  the  convention  of 
estates,  against  the  owning  of  King- Jarnes, 
and  appointing  public  prayers  for  Wil- 
liam and  Mary,  as  king  and  queen  of 
Scotland  ;  with  certification,  that  those 
who  refused  should  be  deprived  of  their 
benefices.  This  proclamation  was  disre- 
garded by  a  great  number  of  the  prelatic 
clergy,  who  neither  read  it  as  required, 
prayed  for  William  and  Mary,  nor  kept 
a  day  of  thanksgiving,  subsequently  ap- 
pointed. They  were,  besides,  discovered 
to  be  in  close  correspondence  with  the 
exiled  king,  and  with  Dundee,  both  giv- 
ing him  information  and  doing  their  ut- 
most to  furnish  him  with  supplies  of  men 
and  money.  This  was  very  different 
from  any  thing  which  the  Presbyterians 
had  done  during  any  period  of  the  perse- 
cution ;  and  to  have  allowed  it  to  pass 
unpunished  would  have  been  giving  di- 
rect encouragement  to  a  counter-revolu- 
tion. The  matter  was  therefore  taken  up 
by  the  privy  council,  during  the  interval 
between  the  convention  and  the  parlia- 
ment, and  after  the  adjournment  of  the 
latter,  and  prosecutions  were  instituted 
against  the  delinquents.  From  the  records 
of  council  it  appears  that,  in  all,  two  hun- 
dred  and  two  were  publicly  tried  for  dis- 
obeying the  proclamation  and  maintain- 
ing direct  intercourse  with  the  armed 
supporters  of  James,  twenty-three  were 
acquitted,  and  one  hundred  and  seventy- 


A.  D.  1689.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


301 


nine  were  deprived  of  their  benefices.* 
Such  was  the  sentence  pronounced  against 
them  ;  but  in  a  very  great  number  of  in- 
stances this  sentence  was  not  enforced, 
and  these  men  continued  to  enjoy  their 
official  situations  and  emoluments,  not- 
withstanding their  direct  and  pertinacious 
hostility  to  the  existing  government  of  the 
country.  This  has  been  termed  perstcu- ; 
tion  ;  and  loud  and  vehement  have  been 
the  vituperative  outcries  of  prelatic  writers 
against  the  Presbyterian  Church,  accus- 
ing it  of  excessive  cruelty  and  intoler- 
ance the  moment  it  obtained  power.  But 
Ihe  whole  procedure  was  the  work  of  the 
convention  and  the  council ;  the  Presby- 
terian ministers  were  not  consulted  in  the 
matter  ;  and  the  process  had  been  begun 
nearly  three  months  before  the  passing 
of  the  act  abolishing  Prelacy.  One  in- 
evitable consequence,  however,  was  the 
increased  hatred  with  which  the  Prelat- 
ists  regarded  the  Presbyterians,  rendering 
William's  scheme  for  a  compromise,  and  | 
a  union  founded  upon  it  between  those : 
rival  parties,  the  more  hopelessly  imprac- 
ticable. 

It  has  been  already  stated,  that  Wil- 
liam's general  views  of  state  policy  led 
him  to  be  anxious  for  a  thorough  union 
of  all  interests  and  parties  in  the  empire. 
He  well  knew  that  this  was  impossible  so 
long  as  men  were  not  only  divided,  but 
keenly  opposed  to  each  other  in  religious 
matters.  Having  failed  to  induce  the 
prelatic  Church  of  England  to  abate  its 
haughty  pretensions,  and  having  ascer- 
tained that  the  Scottish  Presbyterians 
were  not  disposed  to  submit  to  the  replac- 
ing upon  their  necks  of  that  bloody  yoke 
from  which  they  had  yet  but  scarcely 
escaped,  he  proposed  a  general  toleration, 
intended  to  give  immediate  religious 
liberty  to  all  Protestants,  and  to  prepare 
the  way  gradually  for  that  complete  union 
which  he  so  much  desired.  But  the  true 
principles  of  toleration  were  at  that  time 
little,  if  at  all,  understood  ;  and  instead  of 
giving  satisfaction  to  the  contending  par- 
ties, the  greatest  hazard  was  incurred,  of 
giving  offence  to  all,  and  completely  frus- 
trating his  own  favourite  object.  It  is, 
indeed,  scarcely  possible  to  use  the  very 
word  toleration  even  now  without  being 
misunderstood  by  some  party,  and  offence 

*  Records  of  the  Privy  Council ;  Life  of  Carstarea. 
pp.  41  42. 


being  taken  on  the  ground  of  that  misun- 
derstanding. When  the  mere  politician 
uses  the  word,  he  too  generally  means 
nothing  more  than  that  he  regards  all 
religious  creeds  and  forms  with  equal  in- 
difference ;  and  that,  in  his  opinion,  it  is 
a  matter  of  convenience  or  expediency, 
whether  a  certain  amount  of  encourage- 
ment should  be  shown  to  all  alike,  or  to 
none  at  all.  The  mode  of  viewing  the 
matter  every  man  of  principle  must  un- 
hesitatingly condemn  ;  and  it  may  safely 
be  presumed,  that  few  of  any  Christian 
denomination  would  support  religious 
toleration  on  the  plea  that  religious  truth 
could  not  be  known,  and,  since  it  might 
possibly  be  in  the  possession  of  some 
party,  it  was  best  to  tolerate  all.  Even  if 
statesmen  and  mere  politicians  should  take 
that  ground,  it  is  not  likely  that  sincere 
Christians  will.  Yet  almost  all  will 
admit,  that  error  cannot  be  suppressed, 
nor  truth  taught,  by  means  of  civil  pains 
and  penalties,  which,  therefore,  ought 
never  to  be  employed  in  matters  of  reli- 
gion ;  but  surely  it  might  be  easily  per- 
ceived, that  abstaining  from  conferring 
power  on  those  who  hold  certain  opinions 
is  a  very  different  thing  from  inflicting 
pains,  penalties,  persecution,  and  death. 
The  utmost  that  the  Church  of  Scotland 
ever  required  was  the  former, — the  mere 
abstaining  from  conferring  power  on  men 
by  whom  it  was  certain  to  be  abused ; 
while  Prelacy,  not  content  with  exclud- 
ing Presbyterians  from  places  of  public 
trust,  followed  them  into  private  life, 
assailed  them  in  person  and  property, 
drove  ti.om  from  their  houses,  hunted 
them  to  u'e  wildest  dens  and  lurking- 
places,  and  in-flicted  upon  them  every 
kind  and  degree  of  suffering  which  the 
most  intolerant  and  savage  persecution 
coyld  suggest  and  execute.  The  true 
Presbyterian  cannot  adopt  the  politician's 
plea,  which  is  scepticism  and  indifference, 
for  he  believes  that  truth  may  be  known, 
and  that  he  has  been  taught  to  know  it ; 
but  while  he  tolerates  no  error,  he  perse- 
cutes no  erring  man,  but  pities,  forgives, 
loves,  and  endeavours  to  instruct  him, 
that  he  may  be  relieved  from  the  dark- 
ness and  the  bondage  of  ignorance  and 
be  rendered  capable  of  enjoying  that  full 
and  glorious  liberty  experienced  by  those 
alone  whom  truth  has  made  free  indeed. 
The  only  direct  steps  taken  by  the 


302 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII 


Presbyterian  ministers  in  the  course  of 
the  year  1689,  were  the  resumption  of 
their  churches,  where  that  was  rendered 
practicable  by  the  departure  of  the  curates ; 
the  holding  of  several  meetings  with  each 
other,  preparatory  to  the  re-establishment 
of  their  general  forms  of  government  and 
discipline  ;  and  the  drawing  up  of  an  ad- 
dress to  the  Prince  of  Orange,  early  in 
the  year,  before  the  meeting  of  the  con- 
vention. The  free,  generous,  and  noble 
sentiments  contained  in  that  address,  con- 
trast strongly  with  the  spirit,  equally  ser- 
vile and  tyrannical,  of  the  address  trans- 
mitted by  the  Scottish  prelates  to  James, 
on  the  very  eve  of  his  abdication.*  The 
very  comparison  of  those  two  documents 
alone,  might  have  been  enough  to  have 
convinced  William  to  which  of  these 
Churches  his  entire  and  strenuous  sup- 
port was  due,  if  he  were  indeed  sincere  in 
his  assumed  character  of  a  defender  of  re- 
ligious and  civil  liberty. 

[1690.J  When  parliament  met  in  April 
1690,  it  was  felt  by  the  conflicting  parties 
that  their  proceedings  would  be  of  vital 
importance  in  determining  the  completed 
form  which  the  Revolution  Settlement 
must  now  assume.  The  Earl  of  Mel- 
ville was  appointed  commissioner,  instead 
of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  and  the  Earl 
of  Crawford  president, — changes  which 
augured  well  of  the  king's  favourable  in- 
tentions, both  of  those  noblemen  being 
sound  Presbyterians,  particularly  the  lat- 
ter, who  was  distinguished  by  an  upright 
integrity  of  character,  and  an  earnest  sin- 
cerity of  religious  principle,  but  rarely 
seen  in  men  of  rank.  The  Jacobites 
were  considerably  weakened  oy  the  de- 
feat and  death  of  Dundee,  r.nd  the  sup- 
pression of  the  insurrection  raised  by  him, 
and  also  by  the  detection  of  subsequent 
plots  in  which  they  had  been  engaged. 
Their  attempts  had  satisfied  William  of 
the  truth  of  what  Carstares  had  told  him, 
that  the  stability  of  his  government  would 
depend  upon  the  Presbyterians  ;  and  had 
correspondingly  disposed  him  to  grant 
their  requests.  The  private  instructions 
to  that  effect  which  he  gave  to  the  com- 
missioner were  sufficiently  ample,  prov- 
ing that  he  was  prepared  to  grant  larger 
concessions  than  he  did,  had  they  been 
seriously  and  urgently  required,  while  he 
was  desirous  to  retain  as  much  direct 

•  Wodrow,  vol.  iv.  pp.  481,  482. 


influence  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  as  might 
be  practicable.  On  the  25th  of  April  an  act 
was  passed,  rescinding  the  act  of  suprem 
acy,  which  had  been  the  cause  of  so  much 
Suffering  to  the  Church  of  Scotland.  On 
the  same  day  another  important  act  was 
passed,  restoring  to  their  churches  all  that 
were  still  alive  of  the  Presbyterian  minis- 
ters who  had  been  ejected  since  the  1st  of 
January  1 66 1 ,  and  orderin g  the  removal  of 
the  prelatic  incumbents  from  these  usurped 
parishes.  Some  difficulty  arose  about  the 
passing  of  an  act  restoring  the  Presbyte- 
rian form  of  church  government  partly* 
from  the  attempts  of  those  who  favoured 
Prelacy,  and  partly  from  the  king's  re- 
luctance to  make  any  decided  recognition 
of  the  divine  right  of  Presbytery,  which 
might  preclude  the  possibility  of  some 
future  modification  of  both  that  and  the 
prelatic  form,  such  as  might  enable  them 
to  be  moulded  into  one.  When  the 
draught  of  the  proposed  act  was  sent 
to  him  for  his  approbation,  he  made  sev- 
eral remarks  on  its  language,  altering 
some  expressions  so  far  as  to  allow  at 
least  a  possible  construction  of  the  mean- 
ing according  to  his  views,  yet  leaving  to 
the  commissioner  u  some  latitude,"  in  case 
he  might  find  it  necessary  to  adhere  more 
closely  to  the  original  form  than  his  ma- 
jesty's alterations  seemed  to  allow.*  At 
length,  on  the  7th  of  June,  that  impor- 
tant act  was  passed,  "  ratifying  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith,  and  settling  Presbyterian 
church  government." 

In  this  act  Prelacy  is  again  termed  a 
"  great  and  insupportable  grievance,  and 
contrary  to  the  inclination  of  the  general- 
ity of  the  people,  ever  since  the  Reforma- 
tion, they  having  been  reformed  from 
Popery  by  Presbyters:"  the  Presbyte- 
rian government  is  characterized  as  "  the 
government  of  Christ's  Church  within 
this  nation,  agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God, 
and  most  conducive  to  the  advancement 
of  true  piety  and  godliness,  and  the  estab- 
lishing of  peace  and  tranquillity  within 
this  realm."  The  act  then  "  ratifies  and 
establishes  the  Confession  of  Faith,  now 
read  in  their  presence,  and  voted  and  ap- 
proven  by  them,  as  the  public  and  avowed 
confession  of  this  Church  ;"  "  as  also, 
they  do  establish,  ratify,  and  confirm  the 
Presbyterian  church  government  and 
discipline,  ratified  and  established  by  the 

*  Life  of  Carstares,  pp.  44-46. 


A.  D.  1G89  ] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


303 


act  of  1592,  reviving-,  renewing,  and  con- 
firming the  foresaid  act  in  the  whole 
heads  thereof,  except  that  part  of  it  relat-  i 
ing  to  patronages,  which  is  hereafter  to  | 
be  taken  into  consideration ;"  "  and  allow- 
ing and  declaring  that  the  church  govern- 
ment be  established  in  the  hands  of,  and 
exercised  by  these  Presbyterian  ministers 
who  were  outed  since  the  1st  of  January 
1661,  and  such  ministers  and  elders  only 
as  they  have  admitted  and  received,  or 
shall  hereafter  admit  and  receive."  The 
General  Assembly  was  allowed  also  "to 
try,  and  purge  out,  all  insufficient,  negli- 
gent, scandalous,  and  erroneous  ministers, 
by  due  course  of  ecclesiastical  proofs  and 


censures. 


On  the  19th  of  July  the  subject  of 
patronage  was  taken  into  consideration, 
and  an  act  passed,  "discharging,  cassing, 
annulling,  and  making  void  the  power 
of  presenting  ministers  to  vacant  church- 
es ;"  and  declaring,  "  that  in  the  case  of 
the  vacancy  of  any  parish,  the  heritors 
of  the  said  parish,  being  Protestants,  and 
the  elders,  are  to  name  and  propose  the 
person  to  the  whole  congregation,  to  be 
either  approven  or  disapproven  by  them," 
their  reasons  to  be  stated  if  they  disap- 
proved, to  be  judged  of  by  the  Presbytery. 
And  in  lieu  of  the  right  of  patronage,  the 
patrons  were  empowered  to  raise  from 
the  heritors  and  life-renters  of  the  several 
parishes  the  sum  of  600  merks  (£33.  6s. 
8d.),  on  the  payment  of  which  the  patron 
was  bound  to  execute  a  renunciation  of 
his  right  in  favour  of  the  parish.  By 
the  same  act  the  teinds  or  tithes,  to  which 
no  person  could  show  an  heritable  title, 
and  which  had  been  considered  always 
as  the  proper  patrimony  of  the  Church, 
were  also  made  over  to  the  patron,  who, 
however,  was  bound  to  sell  to  each  heritor 
the  teinds  of  his  own  lands,  at  the  rate  of 
six  years'  purchase,  subject  to  the  deduc- 
tion of  the  ministers'  stipends.  In  this 
manner  a  very  valuable  compensation 
was  given  to  patrons  for  relinquishing 
the  right  of  patronage,  as  it  was  termed, 
— a  right  which  in  by  far  the  majority  of 
cases  was  a  most  flagrant  wrong,  a  direct 
and  illegal  usurpation.  But  the  friends 
jf  the  Presbyterian  Church  were  so  de- 
sirous to  be  released  from  the  grievous 
yoke  of  patronage,  that  they  were  con- 
tent to  submit  to  the  loss  of  their  rightful 
property,  if,  by  the  same  means,  they 


could  obtain  deliverance  from  that  galling 
and  pernicious  bondage.  The  act  was 
drawn  up  by  a  true  Presbyterian,  Sir 
James  Stewart  of  Goodtrees,  assisted  by 
three  ministers,  Gabriel  Cunningham, 
Hugh  Kennedy,  and  Gilbert  Rule. 
Goodtrees  told  the  historian  Wodiovv, 
that  the  design  of  those  who  framed  the 
act  was  to  bring  the  matter  of  settling 
ministers  as  near  the  ancient  primitive 
%eiQOTot>ta  as  the  circumstances  of  the 
time  would  permit ;  that  they  were  care- 
fully cautious  not  to  bring  the  heritors 
and  elders  into  the  patron's  room  in  the 
matter  of  presentation,  when  the  patron- 
age was  abolished  ;  which  in  their  judg- 
ment would  have  been  as  great  slavery, 
if  not  worse,  and  a  mere  substitution  of 
many  patrons  in  the  room  of  one.  "  And 
therefore  they  were  very  careful  to  ab- 
stract the  word  present,  which  might 
have  imported  something  like  this,  and 
of  design  put  in  the  word  propose  in  its 
room."  Goodtrees  further  expressed  his 
astonishment  that  people  still  confounded 
these  two,  and  supposed  that  the  heritors 
and  elders  were  in  the  patron's  place, 
when  they  were  only  to  propose,  and  the 
people  to  approve,  or,  if  they  disapprove, 
to  give  their  reasons  to  the  presbytery. 
The  express  intention  of  the  act  was  to 
abolish  patronage  entirely,  to  put  an  end 
to  presentations,  and  to  cause  the  voice  of 
the  people  to  be  heard  as  much  as  pos- 
sible in  the  choice  of  ministers,  and  the 
assigning  of  the  six  hundred  merks  as  an 
equivalent  was  intended  to  prevent  the 
possibility  of  a  subsequent  parliament 
rescinding  the  act  and  restoring  patron- 
age.* ,  Such  were  the  legislative  enact- 
ments 'for  the  re-establishment  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church ;  and,  that  they 
might  take  full  effect,  a  meeting  of  the 
General  Assembly  was  appoint!  d  to  be 
held  in  Edinburgh  on  the  16th  of  Oc- 
tober. 

On  the  appointed  day,  the  16th  of  Oc- 
tober 1690,  after  a  violent  and  illegal  in- 
terruption of  nearly  forty  years,  the 
General  Assembly  again  met  for  the  dis- 
charge of  its  sacred  duties.  The  first 
day  was  appointed  as  a  day  of  fasting  and 
humiliation,  previous  to  entering  upon  the 
discharge  of  any  official  duties,  when 
Mr.  Gabriel  Semple,  who  had  assisted  in 

*  Wodrow,  MS.  as  given  in  the  evidences  of  Dr. 
M'Crie,  in  the  Patronage  Report,  pp.  361,  362. 


304 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII 


renewing  the  Covenants  at  Lanark  before  \  and  Protesters  against  each  other,  during 
the  battle  of  Pentland  Hills,  preached, —  j  their  time  of  angry  contention  ;  appointed 
Mr.  Gabriel  Cunningham  acting  as  in-  |  a  commission  to  visit  the  northern  dis- 
terim  moderator  till  the  Assembly  was  |tricts  of  the  kingdom,  and  to  inquire  into 
properly  constituted,  when  Mr.  Hugh  |  the  conduct  of  the  ministers  in  those 
Kennedy,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Edin-  j  parts  of  the  country,  giving  them  full  in- 
burgh,  was  elected.*  Lord  Carrnichael  .  structions  for  their  course  of  procedure, 
was  the  commissioner  appointed  by  his  j  and  enjoining  them  to  act  with  temperate 
majesty  ;  and  produced  a  letter  from  the  j  caution  towards  the  accused,  and  giving 
king,  strongly  recommending  calm  and  urgent  directions  respecting  the  dissemi- 
peaceable 'procedure.  The  reply  of  the 


The 

Assembly  was  expressed  in  the  most  tern 
perate  language  ;  and  was  followed  by  a 
declaration,  "  that  it  was  not  the  mind  of 
the  Assembly  to  depose  any  incumbent 
simply  for  his  judgment  anent  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Church,  or  to  urge  reordina- 
tion,  nor  to  ratify  any  sentences  against 
any  ministers  but  such  as  were  either 
ignorant,  insufficient,  scandalous,  or  erro- 
neous." Proceeding  in  the  same  spirit, 
the  Assembly  received  into  the  national 
Church  the  three  Cameronian  ministers, 
Messrs.  Shields,  Linning,  and  Boyd. 
But  in  the  very  act  of  receiving  these  min- 
isters offence  was  given  to  their  inflexible 
adherents,  by  the  refusal  of  the  Assembly 
to  enter  so  fully  into  the  subject  of  griev- 
ances and  defections  as  that  strict  section 
of  zealous  Presbyterians  required.  The 
consequence  was,  that  though  the  minis- 
ters were  admitted,  the  people  recoiled, 
continued  to  remain  aloof,  and  ultimately 
succeeded  in  obtaining  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  ministers  holding  similar  opinions 
to  form  themselves  into  a  separate  body, 
since  known  by  the  designation  of  the 
Reformed  Presbytery. 

An  act  of  Assembly  appointing  a  na- 
tional fast,  and  stating  the  causes  of  it, 
gave  rise  to  a  long  and  somewhat  perilous 
discussion.  The  more  zealous  party  in- 
sisted that  there  should  be  a  full  enumera- 
tion of  all  the  sinful  deeds  of  the  nation, 
whether  committed  by  the  rulers,  the 
Church,  or  the  people  generally  ;  but  the 
same  dread  of  uttering  any  thing  which 
might  tend  to  rekindle  strife,  or  to  widen 
divisions,  induced  the  Assembly  to  avoid 
any  very  specific  mention  of  several 
topics,  and  to  restrict  their  confession  as 
much  as  possible  to  general  acknowledg- 
ments of  public  guilt  displayed  in  the 
conduct  of  all  ranks  and  classes  in  the 
kingdom.  The  Assembly  then  rescinded 
all  the  sentences  passed  by  Resolutioners 

•  Acts  of  Assembly,  and  MS.  Minutes. 


nation  of  the  Scriptures  among  the  High- 
landers in  their  own  language,  and  the 
settling  of  no  ministers  among  them  who 
were  ignorant  of  Gaelic.  A  letter  was 
sent  to  the  king,  informing  him  respect- 
ing what  had  been  done,  and  was  intend- 
ed ;  and  Messrs.  Gilbert  Rule  and  David 
Blair  were  appointed  to  confer  with  his 
majesty  concerning  the  affairs  of  the 
Church.  Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  first  General  Assem- 
bly after  the  Revolution. 

So  much  has  been  written  regarding 
the  Revolution  Settlement,  both  in  terms 
of  approbation  and  censure,  that  it  seems 
necessary  to  offer  a  few  remarks  on  it, 
less  in  the  character  of  a  logician  or  a 
churchman,  than  in  that  of  a  historian, 
for  the  purpose  of  directing  the  reader's 
attention  to  those  points,  the  considera- 
tion of  which  may  enable  him  to  farm 
his  own  judgment  respecting  its  merits 
and  demerits.  The  situation  of  the 
General  Assembly,  when  it  met,  was 
one  of  peculiar  difficulty.  It  was  not 
merely  surrounded  by  numerous  and 
conflicting  hostile  forces,  but  it  contained 
also  within  itself  many  jarring  and  dis- 
cordant elements,  threatening  to  produce 
instantaneous  disruption.  The  king's 
4esire  for  the  admission  of  the  prelatic 
party  was  well  known,  and  the  danger 
of  offending  him  was  great ;  Carstares 
was  incessantly  and  strongly  urging  the 
necessity  of  compliance  with  his  ma- 
jesty's desires  ;  the  prelatists  were  loud 
in  their  complaints  and  vehement  in  their 
demands  for  such  a  measure  of  power  as 
would  have  enabled  them  speedily  to 
have  resumed  their  persecuting  and  ex- 
terminating career ;  and  the  Jacobites 
were  secretly  instigating  the  enemies  of 
William  to  employ  every  method  for 
embroiling  the  Church  in  internal  strife, 
till  their  schemes  for  a  counter-revolution 
should  be  ripe.  Within  the  Church 
there  were  three  parties  :  the  aged  minis- 


A.  D.  1685.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


305 


ters  who  had  been  ejected  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  persecution,  and,  hav- 
ing escaped  its  deadly  perils,  were  now 
the  proper  representatives  of  the  Church 
of  the  Second  Reformation;  the  ministers 
who  had,  to  a  greater  or  lesser  degree, 
conformed  to  Prelacy,  accepted  the  indul- 
gences, and  become  tainted  somewhat 
with  a  tendency  to  laxity  and  indifference 
in  doctrine,  discipline,  and  government : 
and  the  unconquered  Covenanters,  who 
had  followed  Cameron,  Cargill,  and 
Renwick,  spurning  every  weak  com- 
pliance, braving  every  danger,  and  seal- 
ing cheerfully  their  testimony  in  defence 
of  Christ's  Crown  and  Covenant  with 
their  blood.  The  ministers  of  the  first 
party  were  not  more  than  sixty,  those  of 
the  last  only  three,  while  those  of  the 
middle  party  amounted  to  more  than 
double  the  number  of  both  the  others 
combined.  It  was  perfectly  manifest, 
therefore,  that  no  measure  which  the 
more  faithful  and  zealous  party  should 
propose  could  be  carried,  if  the  middle 
party  should  resolve  to  oppose  it ;  and 
there  was  no  reason  to  hope  that  men 
who  had  tamely  submitted  to  the  tyranny 
of  Charles  and  James,  and  even  bowed 
beneath  the  prelatic  yoke,  would  readily 
assume  an  attitude  of  bold  resistance  to 
the  Erastian  policy  of  William.  Ac- 
cordingly, from  the  very  hour  when  it 
met,  the  Assembly  was  laid  under  an 
almost  fatal  necessity  of  entering  into  a 
compromise,  and  keeping  in  comparative 
abeyance  what  its  wisest  and  best  mem- 
bers knew  to  be  the  great  and  essential 
principles  of  the  true  Presbyterian 
Church. 

Such  being  the  estate  of  affairs,  it  was 
not  strange  that  the  Revolution  Settle- 
ment was  defective  in  several  very  im- 
portant respects.  The  chief  of  these 
arose  out  of  the  Erastian  policy  of  Wil- 
liam, and  his  unwise  desire  to  include  the 
prelatic  clergy  within  the  established 
Church  of  Scotland,  in  both  of  which 
views  he  was  supported  by  the  temporiz- 
ing management  of  Carstares.  This  is 
manifest  from  the  two  leading  maxims 
recommended  to  his  majesty  by  that 
politic  divine  ;  which  were,  to  avoid  giv- 
ing the  slightest  ground  to  either  of  the 
contending  parties,  for  supposing  that  he 
entertained  more  regard  for  the  one  than 
the  other ;  and,  to  be  extremely  cautious 
39 


in  giving  up  any  one  branch  of  the  royal 
prerogative.*  By  adhering  to  these  max- 
ims, William  discouraged  and  offended 
the  Presbyterians,  not  only  without  con- 
ciliating the  prelatists,  but  even  giving 
occasion  to  them  to  entertain  the  hope 
that  he  would  cast  off  the  Presbyterians 
and  restore  Prelacy.  There  is  no  reason 
to  think  that  such  was  ever  his  intention, 
though  it  has  often  been  asserted  by  pre- 
latic writers.  His  scheme  was  to  retain 
as  much  of  an  Erastian  power  within  the 
Presbyterian  Church  as  might  be  pos- 
sible, and  for  that  reason  he  was  ex- 
tremely reluctant  to  consent  to  the  aboli- 
tion of  patronage.  For  the  same  reason, 
the  act  re-establishing  the  Church  revived 
the  act  of  the  year  1592,  instead  of  the 
more  perfect  acts  which  were  passed  at 
the  close  of  the  Second  Reformation, 
carefully  avoiding  all  mention  of  the  Na- 
tional Covenant  and  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant.  To  have  mentioned 
these  and  acknowledged  their  obligation, 
would  unquestionably  have  put  an  end  to 
all  possibility  of  including  the  prelatists 
within  the  National  Church ;  and  it 
might  have  given,  at  the  same  time, 
ground  of  serious  alarm  to  the  Church 
of  England,  which  his  majesty  was  not 
in  a  condition  to  hazard.  But  even 
with  these  conflicting  interests  and  de- 
signs operating  to  the  detriment  of  the 
Revolution  Settlement,  it  approaches  very 
near  to  what  it  ought  to  have  been, — 
much  more  so  than  many  will  allow. 
The  various  acts  restoring  Presbyterian 
church  government  never  assume  the 
tone  of  conferring  power,  but  merely  re- 
move obstructions  by  rescinding  the 
tyrannical  and  unconstitutional  enact- 
ments of  Charles  and  James,  and  thereby 
permitting  the  Church  to  put  forth  anew 
its  own  intrinsic  powers.  These  acts 
gave  nothing  to  the  Church  which  she 
did  not  previously  possess  ;  they  did  not 
even  pretend  to  restore  what  had  been 
taken  away ;  but  they  broke  the  fetters 
which  had  been  forcibly  imposed,  and 
allowed  the  Church  to  resume  the  exer- 
cise of  her  own  indestructible  energies 
and  inalienable  rights,  derived  from  her 
own  Divine  and  only  Head  and  King. 
This  was  at  least  a  tacit  recognition  of  the 
great  truth,  that  the  State  can  neither 
give  nor  take  away  any  of  the  tru*v 

•  Life  of  Carstares,  pp.  40, 42. 


306 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


essential  powers  of  a  Church.  These 
are  derived  from  Christ  alone.  The 
State  may  obstruct  their  public  and  na- 
tional exercise,  or  give  them  freedom  and 
encouragement ;  but  it  can  neither  create 
them  nor  destroy  them,  though  it  may 
destroy  itself  in  the  wicked  and  vain 
attempt 

The  conduct  of  the  Church  is,  per- 
haps, more  censurable  than  that  of  Wil- 
liam. It  was  the  duty  of  the  Church  to 
take  care  that  none  of  her  inherent  prin- 
ciples should  be  overborne  and  fall  into 
abeyance  at  such  a  juncture.  She  could 
not  of  herself  repeal  any  act  of  parlia- 
ment j  and  her  appropriate  attitude  was 
that  of  calmly  and  respectfully,  but 
firmly,  stating  her  own  principles  and 
powers,  and  leaving  it  to  the  State  to 
rescind  those  despotic  and  unchristian 
enactments  which  impeded  their  free  ex- 
ercise. Where  that  was  not  obtained,  it 
was  her  duty  to  remonstrate  and  petition  ; 
and  if  still  unsuccessful,  then  to  enter 
such  declarations  and  protests  as  should 
reserve  her  rights  till  a  more  propitious 
period  might  arrive,  when  they  could  be 
re-asserted  and  obtained.  Instead  of  this, 
yielding  to  the  force  of  external  circum- 
stances and  internal  dissensions,  she 
abstained  from  the  bold  and  free  state- 
ment of  those  great  principles  which  at 
the  same  time  she  continued  to  hold, 
seeking  a  temporary  peace  by  a  weak 
suppression  or  concealment  of  what  she 
thought  it  inexpedient  to  avow,  yet  could 
not  abandon.  Though  the  acts  of  par- 
liament made  no  mention  of  the  Second 
Reformation  and  the  National  Covenants, 
it  was  the  direct  duty  of  the  Church  to 
have  declared  her  adherence  to  both  ; 
and  though  the  State  had  still  refused  to 
recognise  them,  the  Church  would,  by 
this  avowal,  have  at  least  escaped  from 
being  justly  exposed  to  the  charge  of  hav- 
ing submitted  to  a  violation  of  her  own 
sacred  Covenants.  In  the  same  spirit  of 
compromise,  the  Church  showed  herself 
but  too  ready  to  comply  with  the  king's 
pernicious  policy,  of  including  as  many 
as  possible  of  the  prelatic  clergy  within 
the  National  Church.  This  was  begun 
by  the  first  General  Assembly,  and  con- 
tinued for  several  succeeding  years, 
though  not  to  the  full  extent  wished  by 
William,  till  a  very  considerable  number 
of  those  men  whose  hands  had  been 


deeply  dyed  in  the  guilt  of  the  persecu- 
tion were  received  into  the  bosom  of  that 
Church  which  they  had  so  long  striven 
utterly  to  destroy.  It  was  absolutely  im- 
possible that  such  men  could  become  true 
Presbyterians ;  and  the  very  alacrity 
with  which  many  of  them  subscribed  the 
Confession  of  Faith,  only  proved  the 
more  clearly  that  they  were  void  of 
either  faith  or  honour.  Their  admission 
into  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scot- 
land was  the  most  fatal  event  which  ever 
occurred  in  the  strange  eventful  history 
of  that  Church.  It  infused  a  baneful 
poison  into  her  very  heart,  whence,  ere 
long,  flowed  forth  a  lethal  stream,  cor- 
rupting and  paralyzing  her  whole  frame. 
It  sowed  the  noxious  seed  which  gradu- 
ally sprang  up,  and  expanded  into  the 
deadly  upas-tree  of  Moderatism,  shedding 
a  mortal  blight  over  the  whole  of  her 
once  fair  and  fruitful  vineyard,  till  it 
withered  into  a  lifeless  wilderness. 

It  was,  in  short,  the  weak  policy  of  all 
parties  at  that  time,  to  temporise  and 
watch  the  progress  of  events ;  to  keep 
concealed,  or  at  least  undeveloped,  their 
own  ruling  principles,  without  any  in- 
tention of  abandoning  them  ;  and  thuSj 
by  a  process  of  general  and  deceptive 
compromise,  to  give  time  to  the  still  seeth- 
ing elements  of  the  great  revolutionary 
movement  to  subside  and  gradually  crys- 
tallize into  their  most  congenial  forms. 
The  king  so  far  relinquished  his  Eras- 
tianism  as  to  abolish  Prelacy  and  patron- 
age, and  to  pass  general  enactments  giv 
ing  the  sanction  of  law  to  the  liberated 
Presbyterian  Church  ;  but  he  carefully 
avoided  all  mention  of  the  Second  Re- 
formation and  the  National  Covenants, 
although  the  very  act  abolishing  patron- 
age was  in  itself  a  virtual  ratification  of  all 
that  tthe  Church  had  done  in  that  period  of 
her  greatest  purity  and  faithfulness.  The 
Church  abstained  from  the  direct  mention 
of  her  Covenants,  partly  in  compliance 
with  the  known  wishes  of  his  majesty, 
and  partly  in  consequence  of  the  reluc- 
tance of  many  of  her  own  members  to 
refer  to  those  sacred  bonds,  the  very  men- 
tion of  which  would  have  been  a  severe 
condemnation  of  their  own  previous  con- 
duct ;  but  there  are  such  allusions  to  the 
Covenants  in  several  of  the  acts  of  that 
Assembly,  as  to  show  distinctly  that  the 
best  and  ablest  of  the  ministers  still  ac- 


A.  D.  1689.] 


HISTORY    OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


307 


knowledged  their  obligation,  and  wished 
to  act  in  their  spirit.  The  Jacobites  and 
the  Prelatic  party  were  sufficiently  lavish 
of  their  professions  of  loyalty  to  King- 
William,  and  of  their  earnest  desire  of 
such  moderate  measures  of  church  policy 
as  might  comprehend  all  forms  and  per- 
suasions within  one  National  Church  ; 
but  they  were  at  the  same  time  maintain- 
ing a  private  intercourse  with  James,  and 
cherishing  the  hopes  of  speedily  obtain- 
ing such  an  ascendency  in  both  Church 
and  State  as  might  enable  them  to  repeal 
all  that  had  been  done,  and  resume  their 
reign  of  terror.*  The  Cameronian  Co- 
venanters alone  disdained  to  stoop  to  com- 
promise or  concealment,  boldly  avowed 
their  principles,  and  loudly  censured  the 
Church  for  want  of  faithfulness  and  zeal, 
especially,  because  in  the  Revolution  Set- 
tlement no  direct  recognition  had  been 
made  of  the  National  Covenants,  and  of 
the  Reformation  which  these  solemn 
bonds  had  been  so  instrumental  in  effect- 
ing ;  but  while  they  deserve  the  praise 
due  to  courage  and  consistency,  it  may 
be  doubted  whether  their  own  conduct 
did  not  tend  to  injure  the  very  cause  which 
they  wished  to  promote.  Had  they  joined 
the  Church  in  a  body,  without  any  com- 
promise, recording  their  protests  against 
those  omissions  of  which  they  complained, 
they  might  have  contributed  powerfully 
to  counteract  the  pernicious  influence  of 
those  men  of  lax  principles  and  prelatic 
tendencies  who  were  but  too  willing  to 
enter ;  whereas  by  standing  aloof,  and 
indulging  too  much  in  the  utterance  of 
sharp  and  bitter  censures  of  their  bre- 
thren, they  gave  a  repulsive  aspect  to 
their  cause,  alienated  the  minds  of  many 
whom  a  different  course  would  have 
gained,  and  furnished  somewhat  of  plausi- 
bility to  the  statements  of  those  who  loved 
to  declaim  against  the  intolerance  of  Pres- 
byterians, and  who  were  ready  enough  to 
refer  to  the  language  and  conduct  of  the 
Cameronians  as  the  inevitable  result  to 
which  Presbyterian  principles  led,  instead 
of  being,  as  it  really  was,  the  intemperate 
outbreak  of  honest  but  imprudent  zeal,  in 
high-minded  and  fearless  men,  who  had 
been  roused  by  persecution  and  irritated 
by  disappointment. 

Every  candid  reader  will  perceive,  that 
the  Revolution  Settlement,  though  not  so 

*  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  ii.  p.  74. 


full  and  perfect  as  it  might  have  been 
made,  did,  nevertheless,  contain  and  dis- 
play, either  directly  or  virtually,  all  the 
great  principles  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  for  which  she  had  so  long  con- 
tended, removing  several  restrictions 
which  had  been  left  in  force  by  the  act 
of  1592,  in  particular  the  clause  relating 
to  patronage ;  and  realized  to  both  the 
Church  and  the  kingdom  an  amount  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty  greatly  beyond 
what  had  ever  previously  been  enjoyed. 
By  the  ratification  of  the  Confession  of 
Faith,  the  great  and  sacred  principle  of 
Christ's  sole  Headship  and  Sovereignty 
over  the  Church,  and  its  direct  conse- 
quence, her  spiritual  independence,  were 
affirmed  ;  and  by  the  abolition  of  patron- 
age, the  religious  rights  and  privileges 
of  the  Christian  people  were  secured,  as 
far  as  security  could  be  given  by  human 
legislation.  Its  defects  were  of  a  nega- 
tive rather  than  of  a  positive  character  ; 
and  though  some  vitiating  elements  were 
allowed  to  remain,  and  some  others  intro- 
duced, of  which  it  could  not  have  been 
very  safely  predicted  whether  the  pro- 
gress of  events  would  cause  their  devel- 
opement  or  their  extinction,  still  it  merits 
its  lofty  designation,  the  Glorious  Revo- 
lution ;  and  for  it,  and  the  precious  bles- 
sings which  it  secured  to  the  empire  at 
large,  our  grateful  thanks  are  due,  under 
Providence,  to  the  persecuted  but  uncon- 
querable Presbyterian  Church  of  Scot- 
land. 

Soon  after  the  Assembly  rose,  the  Com- 
mission which  had  been  appointed  to  visit 
and  purify  the  Church,  by  making  in- 
quiry into  the  state  of  religion  and  the 
conduct  of  ministers  throughout  the  king- 
dom, began  its  labours.  The  instructions 
given  by  the  Assembly  were  exceedingly 
cautious,  for  the  purpose  of  preventing 
any  thing  which  might  even  bear  the 
semblance  of  severity  and  oppression. 
The  Commission  were  not  empowered 
to  depose  any  minister  summarily,  nor  to 
receive  every  kind  of  accusation :  the 
only  charges  which  they  were  allowed 
investigate  were,  "  Doctrine  inconsistent 
with  the  Confession  of  Faith,"  and  «  Con- 
versation unbecoming  the  grace  of  the 
Gospel,"  and  these  were  to  be  substanti- 
ated by  sufficient  evidence.  A  consider- 
able number  of  worthless  men  were  de- 
posed from  the  ministry,  on  account  of 


308 


HISTORY   OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII 


their  grossly  vicious  and  immoral  con- 
duct ;  few  for  unsoundness  of  doctrine ; 
and  very  few  •  for  a  conscientious  ad- 
herence to  the  forms  of  Episcopacy. 
The  greatest  error  committed  by  tne 
Church  of  Scotland  consisted  in  a  degree 
of  leniency,  and  readiness  to  admit  "  on 
the  easiest  terms"  into  the  bosom  of  the 
Church  its  most  deadly  enemies,  which 
almost  amounted  to  either  a  suicidal  in- 
fatuation, or  a  treacherous  dereliction  of 
principle. 

[1691.)  The  year  1691  was  chiefly 
employed  by  the  Church  of  Scotland  in 
repairing  its  broken  walls,  and  rebuild- 
ing its  ruined  temple,  impeded  by  the 
most  violent  assaults  which  its  inveterate 
enemies,  the  Jacobites  and  the  Prelatists, 
now  thoroughly  united,  could  make. 
Loud  were  the  outcries  of  oppression 
raised  by  the  disarmed  tyrants,  whose 
own  deeds  in  their  day  of  power  had 
made  Scotland  a  field  of  blood.  Their 
complaints  were  carried  to  the  ears  of 
William,  and  repeated  incessantly  in  the 
most  exaggerated  terms,  till  they  made 
some  impression  on  his  mind,  and  in- 
duced him  to  write  twice  to  the  Com- 
mission, urging  the  admission  of  the  pre- 
latic  clergy.  Irritated  by  the  failure  of 
his  scheme,  based  on  a  compromise,  the 
king  adjourned  the  meeting  of  the  Assem- 
bly from  November  1691  till  January 
1692,  in  the  hope  that  this  mark  of  his 
displeasure  might  render  the  Church 
more  compliant. 

[1692.]  The  General  Assembly  met 
on  the  15th  of  January  1692,  and  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  his  majesty,  convey- 
ing sufficiently  plain  indications  of  his 
dissatisfaction  with  the  proceedings  of  the 
Commission.  He  censured  them  for  not 
having  complied  with  his  desire,  that  those 
who  were  willing  to  conform  should  be 
admitted  to  the  full  possession  of  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  enjoyed  by  them- 
selves ;  and,  that  there  might  be  no  doubt 
respecting  the  full  amount  of  what  he 
wished,  he  signified  his  pleasure  that 
those  of  the  Episcopalian  persuasion  who 
were  willing  to  sign  the  Confession  of 
Faith  should  not  only  retain  their 
churches,  but  also  be  admitted  to  sit  and 
act  in  church  judicatories  ••  and  that  the 
Commission  of  Assembly  should  be  com- 
posed of  one-half  Presbyterians,  and  the 


other  half  of  these  admitted  Prelatists.* 
This  was  an  extent  of  compromise  to 
which  the  Church  was  not  prepared  to  sub- 
mit. The  General  Assembly  had  frankly 
consented  that  the  curates  should  not  be 
disturbed  in  the  possession  of  their 
hurches  and  stipends  on  account  of  their 
views  of  church  government, — a  degree 
of  toleration  and  forbearance  totally  un- 
known to  Prelacy  in  any  age  or  country ; 
but  to  admit  their  persecutors  to  the  enjoy- 
ment of  equal  power  of  government  in  the 
Church  which  they  had  striven  to  destroy, 
was  what  the  king  ought  never  to  have 
sked,  and  what  the  Assembly  could  not 
grant.  At  the  same  time,  the  conduct  of 
the  Prelatists  was  violent  and  insulting 
in  the  extreme.  They  seemed  to  regard 
themselves  as  on  the  point  of  being  not 
only  restored  to  equal  power,  but  of  ob- 
taining a  decided  ascendency  ;  and  they 
gave  no  obscure  indications  of  the  temper 
and  spirit  in  which  they  were  prepared  to 
exercise  it.  But  the  Assembly  remained 
firm ;  and  when  the  commissioner,  the 
Earl  of  Lothian,  found  that  they  could 
neither  be  intimidated  nor  deluded,  he,  in 
his  majesty's  name,  declared  the  Assem- 
bly dissolved.  The  moderator  asked 
whether  it  were  to  be  dissolved  without  a 
day  being  named  for  the  meeting  of  an- 
other. His  grace  replied,  that  his  majesty 
would  appoint  another  in  due  season,  of 
which  they  should  receive  timely  notice. 
The  moderator  then  declared  the  intrinsic 
power  of  the  Church  to  meet  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  only  Head 
and  King  thereof,  for  the  discharge  of  its 
necessary  spiritual  affairs;  and  that  its 
dissolution  now  should  be  without  preju- 
dice to  its  right  to  meet  annually,  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  the  kingdom.  He 
then  named  the  third  Wednesday  of 
August  1693  for  the  next  meeting,  and 
concluded  in  the  usual  form,  dissolving 
the  Assembly  after  prayer,  and  praise, 
and  blessing,  f 

Great  was  the  excitement  caused  by 
this  most  injudicious  procedure  on  the 
part  of  the  king  ;  but  the  calmness  of  the 
ministers,  waiting  with  deliberate  intre- 
pidity the  issue  of  their  adherence  to  theii 
principles,  and  to  the  constitution  of  the 

*  MS.  Minutes  of  the  Assembly  ;  Volume  of  Tracts. 

t  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  ii.  pp.  87,  88^  MS.  Min- 
utes ;  Tracts  ;  Willison's  Fair  and  Impartie 
pp.  25,  26 ;  Hog's  Memoirs,  pp.  64,  f 


A.  D.  1G92.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


309 


country,  contributed  greatly  to  prevent 
the  ferment  from  producing  any  convul- 
sion. They  had  done  their  duty,  and 
they  were  ready  patiently  to  »meet  the 
result.  The  fearful  massacre  of  Glen- 
coe,  which  took  place  about  the  same 
time,  tended  also  both  to  divide  the  atten- 
tion of  the  public  mind,  and  to  direct  its 
indignation  so  strongly  against  the  Scot- 
tish administration,  that  they  did  not  dare 
to  provoke  additional  hostility  by  further 
interference  with  the  Church.  A  season 
of  half-suppressed  dissatisfaction,  intrigue, 
and  jealousy  prevailed,  tending  greatly  to 
alienate  the  mind  of  Scotland  from  Wil- 
liam, and  fostering  the  hopes  of  the  Jaco- 
bites, that  they  might  ere  long  succeed  in 
overturning  the  government,  and  bring- 
ing back  the  exiled  king. 

[1693.]  In  the  spring  of  the  year  1693, 
the  Scottish  parliament  again  met,  in  cir- 
cumstances certainly  very  far  from  pro- 
pitious, though  somewhat  less  fraught 
with  the  elements  of  strife  than  had  been 
the  case  during  the  preceding  year.  The 
chief  management  of  affairs  was  intrusted 
to  Secretary  Johnston,  son  of  the  cele- 
brated Warriston,  chiefly  because  of  the 
respect  entertained  for  that  family  by  the 
Presbyterians.  The  great  difficulty  to 
be  surmounted  was  with  regard  to  the 
General  Assembly.  The  king  had  no 
intention  of  calling  an  Assembly,  and  the 
Church  was  determined  to  hold  one  on 
the  day  specified  by  the  last  moderator, 
in  virtue  of  its  own  inherent  powers.  But 
great  apprehensions  were  entertained  that, 
if  this  was  done,  the  king  might  be  so 
highly  offended  as  to  proceed  to  enforce 
coercive  measures,  and  probably  to  throw 
the  kingdom  into  a  convulsion.  The 
great  endeavour  of  Johnston  was,  to  per- 
suade the  Church  to  desist  from  meeting 
on  the  appointed  day  ;  and  to  induce  the 
ministers  to  submit  so  far,  he  promised  to 
prevail  upon  the  parliament  to  address 
the  king,  requesting  that  an  Assembly 
might  be  held.  By  great  exertions  he 
succeeded  in  the  accomplishment  of  his 
scheme,  and  by  this  new  compromise 
partially  saved  the  honour  of  both  the 
king  and  the  Church,  neither  directly 
yielding  to  the  other,  and  both  abandon- 
ing the  antagonist  attitudes  which  they 
had  assumed.* 

But  there  were  other  and  scarcely  less 

'  Carstares'  State  Pacers,  p.  160. 


perilous  matters  to  manage.  The  Jaco- 
bite party,  and  especially  the  prelatic 
clergy,  had  still  continued  to  evade  as  far 
as  possible  the  direct  recognition  of  Wil- 
liam as  king.  A  new  oath  was  framed 
for  the  purpose  of  putting  an  end  to  these 
evasions,  termed  the  Oath  of  Assurance, 
because  it  declared  William  and  Mary 
king  and  queen,  both  dejure  and  de  facto 
— both  rightfully  and  in  reality.  This 
oath  caused  nearly  equal  dissatisfaction 
to  both  the  Prelatic  clergy  and  the  Pres- 
byterian ministers.  The  former  were  dis- 
posed to  refuse  it,  because  it  was  contrary 
to  their  secret,  yet  determined,  allegiance 
to  James ;  the  latter,  because  they  re- 
garded the  imposition  of  any  civil  oaths 
as  a  qualification  to  sit  in  church  courts, 
as  an  Erastian  encroachment  upon  the 
freedom  of  a  Christian  Church,  although 
they  had  no  positive  objection  to  the  oath 
itself.  The  enactment  of  this  oath  was, 
neverthless,  carried  in  the  parliament, 
there  being  a  tacit  understanding  that  it 
would  not  be  rigorously  enforced. 

Another  act  was  passed  on  the  12th  of 
June,  "for  settling  the  quiet  and  peace  of 
the  Church,"  the  object  of  which  was  to 
promote  the  admission  of  the  prelatic  cler- 
gy to  the  full  enjoyment  of  all  the  privile- 
ges of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  After 
ordaining  that  no  person  be  admitted  as  a 
minister  or  preacher  within  this  Church, 
till  he  take  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  as- 
surance,— subscribe  the  Confession  of 
Faith,  acknowledge  Presbyterian  church 
government,  and  conform  to  its  worship 
and  discipline, — the  act,  after  addressing 
his  majesty  with  an  humble  request  to  call 
a  General  Assembly  for  the  ordering  of 
the  affairs  of  the  Church,  and  the  admis- 
sion to  the  exercise  of  church  government 
of  those  ministers  prossessing  churches 
who  had  not  yet  conformed,  provides, 
"that  if  any  of  the  said  ministers  who  have 
not  been  hitherto  received  into  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Church,  shall  offer  to  qualify 
themselves,  and  to  apply  in  manner  fore- 
said,  they  shall  have  their  majesties'  full 
protection,  aye  and  until  they  shall  be  ad- 
mitted and  received  in  manner  foresaid." 
The  meaning  of  the  latter  clause  is,  that 
if  the  Assembly  should  refuse  to  admit  to 
a  participation  in  church  government 
those  of  the  Prelatists  who  might  apply 
for  it,  his  majesty  would  not  attempt  to 
compel  the  Assembly  to  admit  them,  but 


310 


HISTORY"  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


would  secure  to  them  the  possession  of 
their  churches,  manses,  and  stipends. 
Even  in  that  act  there  is  a  distinct  recog- 
nition of  the  independence  of  the  Church 
in  spiritual  matters.  Anxious  as  the  king- 
was  to  secure  the  admission  of  the  prela- 
tic  incumbents  into  the  National  Church 
of  Scotland,  he  did  not  attempt  to  employ 
any  directly  compulsive  measures  for  at- 
taining the  object  on  which  he  was  so 
much  bent.  Admission  to  an  equal  share 
in  church  government  was  for  the  Church 
alone  to  give  or  to  withhold  ;  but  the  en- 
joyment of  the  fruits  of  the  benefice  was 
a  civil  matter,  and  that  he  could  bestow 
according  to  his  pleasure, — with  the 
strong  conviction,  that  those  who  pos- 
sessed the  wealth  would  ere  long  obtain 
possession  also  of  the  power. 

The  baneful  effects  of  this  act  did  not 
immediately  appear  in  their  full  extent ; 
for  the  heavings  of  the  Revolution  had 
not  yet  completely  subsided.  The  Pre- 
latists  still  entertained  the  hope  that  the 
exiled  monarch  might  be  yet  restored; 
and  therefore  they  were  not  eager  in 
pressing  for  admission  into  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church,  which  they  could  not  enter 
without  swearing  allegiance  to  William, 
and  obedience  to  Presbyterian  church 
government,  which  their  whole  heart 
longed  to  subvert ;  and  the  Presbyterians, 
aware  of  the  king's  strong  desire  for  a 
"  comprehension"  of  both  parties  within 
the  National  Church,  of  which  they 
could  not  approve,  and  of  the  jealousy 
with  which  he  regarded  themselves, — 
influenced  also  by  a  temperate  and  for- 
giving Christian  spirit  towards  their  ene- 
mies,— did  not  eagerly  institute  proceed- 
ings against  those  of  the  Prelatists  who 
still  refused  to  conform  and  make  appli- 
cation to  be  admitted,  but  allowed  them 
to  retain  possession  of  their  manses,  sti- 
pends, and  even  churches,  sending  mere- 
ly from  time  to  time  Presbyterian  minis- 
ters to  preach  and  instruct  the  people  in 
those  parishes  where  the  curates  still  con- 
tinued to  reside.  But  in  the  course  of  a 
series  of  years  the  pernicious  consequen- 
ces of  the  act  became  but  too  apparent,  in 
the  numbers  of  unfaithful,  irreligious,  and 
worldly-minded  men,  who  were  admitted 
into  the  Church,  and  who,  joining  natu- 
rally with  the  lax  moderate  party  already 
within  it,  gave  to  that  party  the  ascenden- 


cy which  it  so  long  enjoyed  and  so  griev 
ously  abused. 

These  acts  it  seemed  expedient  to  state 
and  explain  at  considerable  length,  be- 
cause of  the  erroneous  notions  which 
prevail  so  widely  regarding  them.  It  is 
not  strange  that  the  leaders  and  adherents 
of  that  party  which  owed  its  being  to  the 
defects  of  the  Revolution  Settlement, 
should  endeavour  to  represent  these  de- 
fects as  positive  merits.*  And  there  are 
many  so  enamoured  of  that  which  pro- 
fesses to  secure  "  quiet  and  peace,"  that 
they  yield  at  once  the  homage  of  their 
weak  applause  to  whatsoever  employs 
these  terms,  however  fallaciously, — una- 
ble apparently  to  distinguish  between 
that  peace  which  is  but  the  appalling 
stillness  of  a  deadly  lethargy,  and  that 
peace  which  is  the  harmonious  movement 
of  warm  and  energetic  life.  But  it  is 
desirable  for  the  true  friends  and  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  know, 
that  almost  all  the  defects  which  have  at 
any  time  marred  her  beauty  and  impaired 
her  usefulness,  have  been  caused  by  the 
unwise  and  unhallowed  influence  of 
kings,  and  statesmen,  and  politicians  of  a 
lower  order,  within  her  pale  and  with- 
out, obstructing  the  free  developement  of 
her  pure  scriptural  principles,  and  endea- 
vouring to  infuse  into  her  system  the  ele- 
ments of  a  worldly  policy,  more  conge- 
nial to  themselves,  but  fatally  pernicious 
to  any  true  Christian  Church. 

It  has  been  already  stated  that  a  spe- 
cies of  mutual  compromise  took  place 
between  the  State  and  the  Church,  for 
the  purpose  of  avoiding  a  destructive  col- 
lision. The  General  Assembly,  in  con- 
sequence of  this  arrangement,  was  not 
held  on  the  day  named  by  the  moderator  ; 
but  a  proclamation  was  issued  appointing 
it  to  meet  at  a  later  period  of  the  same 
year.  The  absence  of  the  king  on  the 
continent,  and  the  entire  engrossment  of 
his  mind  by  wars  and  continental  politics, 
led  to  another  adjournment,  so  that  no 
meeting  of  Assembly  was  held  that  year 
at  all,  and  additional  time  was  thereby 
allowed  for  the  animosity  of  the  antago- 
nists either  to  ripen  or  subside.  It  soon 
appeared  that  the  former  had  been  the 
case,  to  a  remarkable  degree. 

[1694.]  A  short  time  previous  to  the 

*  Cook's  History  of  the  Reformation,  vol.  iii.  p.  452 


A.  D.  1693.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND, 


'.Ml 


meeting  of  the   Assembly,  which   had 
been  appointed  to  take  place  in  March 
1694,  the  ministers  applied  to  the  privy 
council  to  be  released  from  the  necessity 
of  taking  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  as- 
surance, especially  since  these  oaths  had 
not  been  enforced  with  regard  to  the  Pre- 
latists.     The  council  refused  to  comply 
with  this  request ;  and  instructions  were 
issued  in  the  name  of  his  Majesty,  not  to 
permit  any  member  to  take  his  seat  till 
he  had  taken  the  oaths.     The  ministers 
were   equally  resolute  not  to   take  the 
oaths,  and   yet   to   hold   an   Assembly. 
They  had  consented  to  refrain  from  hold- 
ing the  previous  meeting  appointed  by 
their  own  intrinsic  authority  and  rights, 
in  order  to  avoid  an  immediate  collision, 
and  to  allow  time  to  his  Majesty  to  recon- 
sider the  line  of  conduct  on  which  he 
was  entering ;  but  they  had  reached  the 
extreme  limits  of   prudent  forbearance, 
and  they  would  not  submit  to  the  sacri- 
fice of  a  sacred  principle  and  inherent 
right,  to  whatsoever  perils  the  assertion 
of  principles  indestructible  and  rights  in- 
alienable might  expose  them.     Such  was 
the  state  of  matters  when  Lord  Carmi- 
chael,  who  had  been  appointed  commis- 
sioner, arrived  in  Edinburgh.     Perceiv- 
ing clearly  the  extreme  peril  in  which 
the  peace  and  safety  of  both  Church  and 
nation  was  placed,  the  commissioner  im- 
mediately despatched  a  messenger  to  the 
king,  who  had  recently  returned  to  Lon- 
don, with  an  account  of  the  state  of  af- 
fairs, and  a  request  for  further  instruc- 
tions.    At  the  same  time  the  ministers 
sent  a  memorial  to  Carstares,  earnestly 
requesting  his  interference  with  his  Ma- 
jesty in  behalf  of  the  Church  at  this  cri- 
tical juncture.     When  the  express  reach- 
ed the  King,  Carstares  happened  not  to 
be  at  hand,  and  before  he  returned  to 
court,  William,  by  the  advice  of   Stair 
and  Tarbet,  who  represented  the  conduct 
of  the  Church  as  obstinate  and  rebellious, 
renewed  his  orders  in  more  peremptory 
terms,  and  commanded  them  to  be  re- 
turned by  the  same  messenger.  Carstares 
returned  the  same  evening,  received  and 
perused  the  memorial  which  had  been 
sent  to  himself,  immediately  inquired  into 
the  nature  of  the  despatches  which  had 
been  ordered  to  be  sent  off  to  Scotland ; 
having  ascertained  this  point,  and  avail- 
ing himself  of  his  known  free  intercourse 


with  the  king,  he  went  to  the  messenger, 
and   in    his  majesty's    name  demanded 
Tom  him  the  papers  with  which  he  had 
been  intrusted.     It  was  now  late,  but  the 
welfare  of  the  Church  and  kingdom  was 
wavering  on  the  point  of  the  passing  mo- 
ment, and  Carstares  hastened  to  the  king 
The  lord  in  waiting  informed  him  that 
bis  majesty  had  retired  to  repose ;  but 
"arstares  insisted  on  being  admitted  to 
nis  presence  even  at  that   unseasonable 
bour.     Entering  the  chamber,  he  found 
the  king  fast  asleep  ;  but  turning  the  cur- 
tain aside,  and  falling  on  his  knees,  he 
gently  awoke  him.    The  king,  surprised 
;o  see  him  at  so  late  an  hour,  and  in  such 
a  posture,  inquired  what  was  the  matter. 
I  come,"  he  answered, "  to  beg  my  life." 
Is  it  possible,"  said  the  king,  "  that  you 
can  have  been  guilty  of  a  crime  that  de- 
serves death?"     He  acknowledged  that 
he  had,  and  then  produced  the  despatches 
which  he   had  brought  back  from  the 
messenger.     "  Have  you  indeed  presu- 
med," exclaimed  William,  frowning  se- 
verely, "  to  countermand   my  orders  ?" 
Carstares  begged  leave  to  be  heard  only 
a  few  words,  and  then  he  would  submit 
to   any  punishment   which  his  majesty 
might  think  proper  to  inflict.     The  king 
gave  him  permission  to  explain  his  con- 
duct, and  listened  attentively  to  his  state- 
ment respecting  the  peculiar  principles, 
views,  and  position  of   the  Church  of 
Scotland,  and  the  malicious  intrigues  and 
misrepresentations  of  her  enemies,  and 
to  the  clear  proof  which  he  adduced,  that 
the  Presbyterians  were  the  only  party  in 
that  country  who  were  truly  attached  to 
his   majesty's   person   and  government. 
The   king  remained   for   a  moment  in 
deep  and  thoughtful  silence,  then  com- 
manded him  to  throw  the  despatches  into 
the  fire,  and  drew  up  new  instructions  to 
the  commissioner  in  whatsoever  terms  he 
thought  best,  and  he  would  sign  them. 
Carstares  immediately  wrote  to  his  grace, 
signifying  that  it  was  his  majesty's  plea- 
sure to  dispense  with  putting  the  oaths  to 
the  ministers.     This  was  signed  by  the 
king,   and  sent  off  by  the  messenger, 
who  was  commanded  to  use  the  utmost 
expedition  in  his  power,  that  he  might 
reach   Edinburgh  before   any  collision 
should  take  place. 

The  short  delay  caused  by  these  trans- 
actions  had  retarded  the  messenger  so 


312 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


much  that  he  did  not  reach  the  Scottish 
capital  till  the  morning  of  the  day  on 
which  the  Assembly  was  to  meet  The 
most  intense  anxiety  prevailed  universal- 
ly respecting  the  possible  events  of  that 
d*ay.  The  commissioner  was  bound  by 
his  instructions  to  dissolve  the  Assembly, 
or  rather  to  prevent  its  being  held,  unless 
the  oaths  were  previously  taken ;  and 
the  ministers  were  resolved  to  assert  and 
maintain  the  intrinsic  rights  and  liberties 
of  the  Church,  as  independent  of  the 
civil  magistrate ;  but  both  looked  for- 
ward to  the  struggle  with  dark  anticipa- 
tions of  disaster  to  the  Church,  and  ruin 
to  the  peace  and  welfare  of  the  commu- 
nity. The  messenger  arrived, — the"  in- 
structions were  read, — and.  it  was  felt, 
that  He  in  whose  hands  are  the  hearts 
of  kings  had  interposed  and  given  deli- 
verance to  his  own  free  spiritual  king- 
dom in  the  hour  of  extremest  danger.* 
This  timely  concession,  made  by  the  king 
to  the  just  claims  and  sacred  inherent 
rights  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  may 
be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant and  instructive  events  recorded  in 
her  history ;  proving  that  the  path  of 
duty  is  the  path  of  safety, — that  when  ad- 
herence to  sacred  principle,  like  a  divine 
command,  says,  "  Go  forward!"  a  divine 
power  will  point  out  and  guide  along  the 
opening  way, — and  that  the  cloud  which 
seemed  surcharged  with  danger  will  de- 
scend pregnant  with  blessings.  It  was 
deeply  felt  by  all  parties,  that  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  was  now  indeed  the  Es- 
tablished Church  of  Scotland. 

The  General  Assembly  met,  in  the 
full  enjoyment  of  its  spiritual  indepen- 
dence, on  the  29th  of  March.  Grateful, 
but  not  unduly  elated  with  the  victory 
which  God  had  granted  to  their  firm  ad- 
herence to  their  principles,  they  proceed- 
ed to  the  discharge  of  their  important  du- 
ties ;  and  instead  of  exhibiting  pride  and 
severity  in  the  hour  of  triumph,  they 
passed  an  act  respecting  the  instructions 
to  be  given  to  the  Commission  for  receiv- 
ing the  ministers  who  had  conformed 
to  Prelacy  into  ministerial  communion, 
granting  very  nearly  all  that  the  king 
had  required  for  giving  facility  to  the  ad- 
mission of  these  ministers.!  This  cer- 
tainly approached  more  nearly  to  what 


*  Life  of  Carstares,  pp.  57-61. 
594,  act  xi. 


*  Assembly  of 


may  be  termed  undue  concession  than  to 
persecution ;  and  indeed  heavy  com- 
plaints were  made  by  many,  and  severe 
reproaches  uttered  by  some,  against  the 
conduct  of  the  Assembly,  as  indicating 
great  laxity  of  principle,  and  tending  to 
unfaithfulness  in  the  important  duty  of 
preserving  the  purity  and  efficiency  of 
the  Church, — a  charge  which  it  would 
not  be  easy  to  meet  with  a  complete  and 
satisfactory  vindication. 

Other  acts  of  that  Assembly  deserve 
attention,  as  indicating  the  state  both  of 
the  Church  and  of  the  country,  such  as 
an  "  Act  appointing  some  ministers  for 
the  supply  of  the  north," — "  Act  for 
the  better  regulating  transportations  of 
ministers," — u  Act  anent  intrusion  upon 
kirks," — and  "  Act  against  fixing  in  the 
Lowlands  of  preachers  who  have  the 
Irish  (Gaelic)  language."  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  throughout  the  whole  his- 
tory of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  the 
northern  districts  had  been  the  least  tho- 
roughly Presbyterian,  and  the  readiest  to 
comply  with  whatever  Erastian  and  Pre- 
latic  measures  were  proposed  by  the  king 
and  the  government.  The  Highland 
counties  had  riot  indeed  been  ever  fully 
reformed  from  Popery,  and  therefore 
were  the  more  disposed  to  rest  in,  or  re- 
turn to,  the  intermediate  state  of  Prelacy  ; 
nearly  all  the  Highland  ministers  accord- 
ingly conformed  cheerfully  and  at  once 
to  Prelacy  at  the  restoration  of  Charles 
II.  At  the  Revolution  a  large  propor- 
tion of  them  refused  to  conform  again  to 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  did  their 
utmost  to  keep  the  people  in  the  same 
state  of  hostility  against  the  Revolution 
Settlement,  both  in  Church  and  State. 
Some  of  them  were  ejected  by  the  privy 
council ;  but  by  far  the  greater  number 
were  allowed  to  remain  in  the  possession 
of  their  ecclesiastical  position  and  tem- 
poral emoluments.  It  was  evidently  a 
matter  of  great  importance  for  the  Gene- 
ral Assembly  to  provide  such  a  remedy 
for  this  injurious  state  of  affairs  as  it  was 
competent  for  them  to  do.  They  did  not 
seek  to  have  these  ministers  silenced  and 
ejected  by  the  civil  power,  as  the  Prela- 
tists  had  done  to  them  ;  but  they  sent  sup- 
plies  of  able  and  zealous  ministers  to 
those  districts  where  either  there  were 
vacant  churches,  or  where  prelatic  dark- 
ness prevailed.  This  they  accomplished 


A.  D.  1691  ] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


313 


by  appointing  the  southern  synods  to  send 
such  proportions  of  their  members  as 
should  furnish  sixteen  among  them,  who 
were  to  remain  in  the  north  three  months, 
to  be  replaced  by  a  similar  number  for 
an  equal  time,  throughout  the  course  of 
the  year.*  This  process  was  continued 
from  year  to  year  for  a  considerable 
time,  the  number  sent  gradually  dimin- 
ishing as  the  churches  became  supplied 
with  Presbyterian  ministers  permanently 
settled. 

This  mode  of  sending  merely  tempo- 
rary supplies  was  rendered  inevitable  by 
the  paucity  of  ministers  in  the  whole 
kingdom.  For  during  the  time  of  the 
persecution  there  were  few  that  could  ob- 
tain means  and  opportunities  of  being 
educated  for  the  ministry,  and  it  was  held 
treason  for  the  ejected  Presbyterian  min- 
isters to  ordain  young  men  even  when 
properly  qualified.  It  was  consequently 
impossible  at  once  to  supply  all  the  par- 
ishes in  the  kingdom  with  regular  minis- 
ters, though  there  had  been  no  obstruction. 
And,  besides,  many  of  the  Highland 
congregations  understood  no  language 
but  Gaelic,  on  which  account  it  was  that 
preachers  who  could  speak  that  tongue 
were  not  permitted  to  settle  in  the  Low- 
lands. Great  encouragement  was  at  the 
same  time  offered  to  the  Highland  youth, 
by  giving  them  bursaries,  to  induce  them 
to  prepare  themselves  for  the  office  of  the 
ministry  among  their  countrymen  ;  and 
by  some  acts  of  subsequent  Assemblies, 
no  minister  was  allowed  to  refuse  a  call 
from  a  parish  in  the  north,  however  re- 
luctant he  might  be  to  leave  his  present 
situation.  Such  was  the  attention  shown 
by  the  General  Assembly  to  the  spiritual 
instruction  of  the  Highlanders  in  their 
own  language, — a  degree  of  practical 
Christian  wisdom  which  it  required  the 
lapse  of  centuries  for  the  Episcopalian 
Establishment  in  Ireland  even  to  begin  to 
learn  to  imitate.  It  is  indeed,  a  melan- 
choly fact,  that  no  Prelatic  Church  has 
ever  attempted,  as  a  church,  to  teach  the 
body  of  the  people,  though  individual 
clergymen  have  laboured  zealously  in  the 
discharge  of  that  all-important  and  im- 
perative duty. 

The  necessity  of  an  "  Act  for  regulating 
transportations  [translations]  of  ministers," 
arose  out  of  some  of  the  causes  already 

*  Acts  of  Assembly. 

40 


specified.  Not  only  was  there  a  great 
deficiency  of  duly  qualified  ministers  for 
the  immediate  supply  of  all  the  parishes 
upon  the  re-establishment  of  the  Presby 
terian  Church,  and  an  equal  deficiency  of 
preachers  to  meet  the  natural  demands 
arising  from  the  death  of  incumbents,  but 
there  was  also  a  great  difference  in  the 
characters  of  the  existing  ministers. 
Those  who  had  conformed  to  Prelacy 
during  its  usurped  domination,  had  both 
sustained  a  real  and  personal  injury  from 
the  deadening  effect  on  their  own  minds 
of  their  weak  and  sinful  compliance,  and 
had  also  sunk  in  the  estimation  of  all 
men  of  sound  principle  and  firm  integri- 
ty. On  the  other  hand,  the  faithful  min- 
isters, who  had  braved  all  dangers  and 
sufferings  in  defence  of  religious  liberty 
and  truth,  were  regarded  with  great  love 
and  veneration  by  the  people  generally ; 
and  happy  was  that  parish  which  could 
secure  the  ministrations  of  one  of  these 
honoured  and  revered  servants  of  the 
Lord.  When,  therefore,  any  parish  in 
which  a  curate,  a  conformed  or  an  in- 
dulged minister,  had  been  the  incumbent, 
became  vacant,  the  most  strenuous  endea- 
vours were  made  by  the  parishioners 
to  procure  the  translation  of  one  of  the 
faithful  few  from  his  own,- perhaps  smaller 
and  less  important  sphere  of  labour,  and 
his  settlement  among  themselves.  It  of- 
ten happened  that  two  or  more  vacant 
parishes  gave  a  call  to  the  same  minister, 
and  then  arose  a  contest  who  should  ob- 
tain him.  His  own  parish  strove  to  pre- 
vent his  removal, — the  others  were  as  ea- 
ger to  have  him  removed  j  a  sharp  con- 
tention not  unfrequently  occurred,  termi- 
nated only  by  the  decision  of  the  supe- 
rior church  courts,  being  appealed  from 
one  to  another,  till  it  reached  the  General 
Assembly.  Yet  these  were  essentially 
contests  of  love.  They  were  not  caused 
by  the  opposition  of  the  people  to  the  set- 
tlement of  an  unacceptable  minister,  but 
by  the  eager  anxiety  of  the  people  to  ob- 
tain a  good  and  beloved  minister.  The 
contests  arising  from  the  resistance  of 
a  religious  people  to  the  settlement  among 
them  of  an  irreligious  and  unfaithful 
minister,  it  was  reserved  as  the  disgrace- 
ful characteristic  of  patronage  and  mode- 
ratism  to  produce;  while  the  contests 
which  took  place  during  the  time  when 
patronage  did  not  exist,  and  moderatism 


314 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


was  in  its  infancy,  were  the  kindly  and 
generous  rivalries  arising  from  a  deep 
regard  to  gospel  truth,  and  a  warm  affec- 
tion to  the  zealous  and  devoted  ambassa- 
dors of  Christ.  Even  then,  the  Assem- 
bly, anxious  to  prevent  the  disagreement 
which  might  possibly  arise,  passed  the 
act  regulating  transportations  of  minis- 
ters, and  securing  that,  when  such  events 
took  place,  they  should  be  guided  by  re- 
gard to  what  would  most  contribute  to 
the  general  good  of  the  Church. 

To  give  a  full  explanation  of  the 
circumstances  which  caused  the  Assem- 
bly to  pass  an  "  Act  anent  Intrusion  upon 
Kirks,"  might  lead  to  too  long  a  digres- 
sion from  the  course  of  the  narrative; 
but  a  few  remarks  are  necessary.  It  has 
been  already  stated  that  a  considerable 
number  of  the  Prelatic  clergy  were  ex- 
pelled from  their  churches  by  the  privy 
council  in  the  summer  of  1689.  In  a 
great  majority  of  instances  they  returned, 
and  resumed  possession  of  both  the  cleri- 
cal office  and  the  temporal  benefice. 
And  in  the  northern  counties,  where  they 
were  supported  by  the  Jacobite  nobility 
and  gentry,  they  did  so  even  after  Pres- 
byterian ministers  had  been  seeded  in  the 
churches  out  of  which  they  had  been  le- 
gally ejected.  This  was  often  done  in 
the  most  violent  and  disorderly  manner, 
the  ejected  Prelatists  coming  to  the  church 
accompanied  by  a  band  of  Jacobite  gentle- 
men and  their  serfs,  rudely  intruding 
themselves  upon  the  assembled  worship- 
pers, expelling  the  Presbyterian  minister, 
and  taking  forcible  possession  of  both 
church  and  manse,  in  direct  defiance  of 
the  law.  Against  this  conduct  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  complained,  in  the  above- 
mentioned  act,  and  applied  to  the  lords  of 
the  privy  council  for  redress  and  protec- 
tion. So  undeniable  and  so  flagrantly 
illegal  were  the  facts  adduced  by  the  As- 
sembly, that  in  the  following  session  of 
parliament  an  act  was  passed  on  the  sub- 
ject, ordering  the  removal  of  those  who 
had  so  intruded,  and  enjoining  the  coun- 
cil to  take  some  effectual  course  for  pre- 
venting the  recurrence  of  similar  illegal 
and  forcible  intrusions.* 

*  It  is  somewhat  instructive  to  trace  what  may  be 
termed  the  personal  history  of  intrusion.  To  the  union 
of  Jacobitism  (that  is,  despotism)  with  Prelacy,  it  owes 
Us  parentage.  In  its  rash  youth  it  showed  its  character 
.n  the  attempt,  to  force  itself  into  Presbyterian  churches, 
contrary  both  to  the  will  of  congregations  and  minis- 
ters, and  to  the  law  itself.  Forming  afterwards  a 


[1695-96.]  The  Genera1  Assembly 
met  on  the  17th  of  December  1695,  and 
continued  to  sit  till  the  4th  of  January 
1696,  no  other  meeting  taking  place  dur- 
ing the  remainder  of  the  latter  year. 
None  of  its  acts  are  of  peculiar  impor- 
tance, being  generally  of  the  same  tenor 
with  those  which  have  been  already  men- 
tioned and  explained.  The  chief  sub- 
ject which  occupied  the  attentron  of  the 
Church  was  what  ought  always  chiefly 
to  occupy  its  attention — anxious  care  to 
promote,  in  the  most  efficient  manner, 
the  moral  and  religious  welfare  of  the 
community.  In  this  important  task  the 
Church  was  not  less  successful  than  zeal- 
ous ;  and  the  happiest  results  began  to 
appear  throughout  the  kingdom.  Some 
more  direct  countenance  began  to  be  giv- 
en to  the  exertions  of  the  Church  by  the 
king ;  the  most  valuable  proof  of  which 
was  the  act  of  parliament  respecting 
schools,  realizing  what  had  been  long 
and  earnesily  sought  by  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Scotland,  and  by  no  other- 
Church  in  Christendom — a  school  in 
every  parish  throughout  the  whole  king- 
dom, so  far  supported  by  the  public  funds 
as  to  render  education  accessible  to  even 
the  poorest  in  the  community. 

[1697.]  The  year  1697  presents  noth- 
ing demanding  attention  so  far  as  the 
Church  is  concerned  ;  for  it  is  unnecessa- 
ry to  repeat  statements  respecting  the 
steady  and  persevering  care  for  the  pro- 
motion of  religion  displayed  by  the  As- 
sembly in  the  passing  of  acts  against  pro- 
faneness  and  immorality — enjoining  fami- 
ly worship — directing  ministers  in  the 
discharge  of  their  sacred  duties — and 
urging  the  utmost  diligence  in  supplying 
the  deficiences  still  existing  in  the  north- 
ern counties. 

[1698.]  Almost  the  only  thing  which 
requires  mention  in  the  year  1698,  is  the 
act  of  parliament  commonly  termed  the 
Rabbling  Act.  The  object  of  this  act 
has  been  often  misunderstood  and  misre- 


clandestine  connection  with  the  Church,  unrter  cover 
of  an  unconstitutional  enactment ;  and  assuming  a 
new  name  in  its  riper  years,  it  obtained  free  scope  for 
acting  according  to  its  nature,  to  the  paralyzed  aston- 
ishment of  the  Church  whose  powers  it  had  contrived 
furtively  to  seize,  and  to  the  terror  and  indignation  of 
the  aggrieved  community.  In  what  appears  to  be  its 
period  of  decrepitude,  clinging  to  civil  magistracy, 
and  sophistically  misinterpreting  statute  law,  it  still 
strives  to  perpetrate  its  old  enormities,  themorosenesa 
of  its  aspect  and  the  savage  ferocity  of  its  growl  prov- 
ing that  its  native  malignity  is  unabated,  however 
nearly  it  has  reached  the  close  of  its  baleful  existence 


A.  D.  1695.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


315 


presented  ;  and  reference  has  been  made  | 
to  it  as  a  proof  that  riotous  proceedings  ; 
often  took  place  at  the  settlement  of  min- 
isters during  the  period  when  there  was  no 
patronage,  to  prevent  which  tumults  was 
one  of  the  reasons  assigned  for  its  resto- 
ration. What  the  real  reasons  for  the 
re-imposition  of  patronage  were,  we  shall 
have  future  occasion  to  show :  meanwhile 
a  very  short  statement  will  explain  the 
cause  of  the  passing  of  the  Rabbling  Act. 
It  has  been  already  shown  that  the  perti- 
nacious obstinacy  of  the  northern  Ja- 
cobites and  Prelatists,  both  in  refusing  to 
take  the  oaths  to  government,  and  in  re- 
taining their  churches,  and  intruding  in- 
to those  where  Presbyterian  ministers 
had  been  placed,  rendered  an  act  of  par- 
liament necessary  to  prevent  such  con- 
duct. But  their  hostility  remaining  un- 
changed, they  adopted  another  method  of 
giving  it  scope  without  bringing  them- 
selves within  the  direct  terms  of  the  law. 
They  privately  instigated  the  lowest,  ru- 
dest, and  most  immoral  of  the  populace  to 
assemble  in  a  tumultuous  manner  at  the 
churches  to  which  Presbyterian  ministers 
had  been  sent  by  the  Assembly,  or  had 
been  called  by  the  more  respectable  and 
pious  part  of  the  congregation,  and  to 
offer  every  obstruction  in  their  power  ; 
not  unfrequently  inflicting  severe  person- 
al injury  upon  the  ministers.  These 
riotous  mobs  were  often  collected  from 
other  parishes,  and  in  all  cases  they  were 
persons  who  had  no  sense  of  religion 
themselves,  so  that  their  opposition  was  in 
no  respect  that  of  a  conscientious  resis- 
tance to  the  settlement  among  them  of 
a  minister  whose  doctrinal  opinions  they 
regarded  as  unsound,  whose  character 
failed  to  command  their  respect,  or  by 
whose  ministrations  they  felt  that  they 
could  not  be  edified.  The  persons,  in 
short,  who  formed  these  riotous  assem- 
blages were  not  the  real  congregations  of 
the  parishes  where  they  occurred,  but  a 
mere  rabble  of  irreligious  and  immoral 
vagrants,  collected  together  by  the  Jaco- 
bite politicians  and  the  Prelatic  clergy, 
for  the  purpose  of  creating  disturbances, 
and  preventing  the  peaceful  settlement  of 
Presbyterian  ministers.  Those  who  re- 
fer to  such  scenes,  and  to  the  act  of  par- 
liament passed  for  preventing  them,  as 
proving  that  the  want  of  patronage  leads 
to  confusion  and  popular  tumult,  must 


either  be  very  ignorant  of  the  history  of 
the  period,  or  must  presume  largely  on 
the  supposed  ignorance  of  others.* 

It  has  been  stated  that  the  rabbles  al- 
luded to  were  caused  by  irreligious  and 
immoral  vagrants.  This  expression  may 
seem  to  require  explanation.  In  a  pamph- 
let written  by  the  celebrated  Fletcher  of 
Salton,  in  the  year  1 698,  entitled, "  Second 
Discourse  concerning  the  Affairs  of  Scot- 
land," it  is  stated  that  the  beggars  and 
vagrants  who  infested  the  country,  sub- 
sisting solely  by  charity,  or  by  riot  and 
pillage,  amounted  to  at  least  two  hundred 
thousand  people.  It  was  no  difficult  mat- 
ter to  collect  together  sufficient  numbers 
to  create  a  rabble,  or  riotous  mob,  ready 
to  engage  in  mischief  and  depredation  of 
any  kind  on  the  shortest  notice,  out  of 
such  a  formidable  host  of  lawless  and  de- 
graded vagrants ;  and  to  them  recourse 
was  most  unscrupulously  had  by  those 
who  wished  to  harass  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  and  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
country.  But  the  question  forces  itself 
upon  the  mind,  "  What  led  to  the  exist- 
ence of  such  a  dreadful  amount  of  pover- 
ty and  crime  in  Scotland  at  that  period  ?" 
This,  too,  can  be  easily  and  satisfactorily 
explained.  Twenty-eight  years  of  ty- 
ranny and  persecution  had  wasted  the 
land,  reducing  many  of  its  most  fertile 
districts  to  the  condition  of  a  wilderness, 
and  throwing  a  vast  proportion  of  the 
middle  and  industrious  classes  into  a  state 
of  deep  poverty.  The  inevitable  conse- 
quence was,  that  nearly  all  the  lowest 
classes  of  the  population  were  both 
thrown  completely  out  of  employment 
by  the  ruin  of  the  class  immediately 
above  them,  and  habituated  to  idleness, 
vagrancy,  and  pillage,  by  the  encourage- 
ment and  example  of  the  devastating  sol- 
diery, and  the  use  made  of  them  to  assist 
in  destroying  the  property  of  the  respec- 
table Presbyterians.  Thus  the  existence 
of  two  hundred  thousand  vagrants,  by 
whom  the  country  was  so  grievously  in- 
fested, was  one  of  the  direct  results  of  the 
attempt  to  establish  Prelacy  in  Scotland  ; 
and  it  was  no  wonder  that  such,  people 
were  ready,  at  the  instigation  of  those 
around  whose  paths  of  carnage  they  had 
so  long  prowled  and  battened,  to  rush 
anew  to  their  wonted  task  of  perpetrating- 

*  See  the  act  itself,— the  tracts  and  pamphlets  of  the 
period,— and  the  Patronage  Report. 


316 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


insult  and  violence  against  the  persons  of 
Presbyterian  ministers,  and  of  interrupt- 
ing the  most  sacred  ordinances  of  re- 
ligion. 

It  deserves  also  to  be  stated,  as  a  point 
of  principle,  in  answer  to  those  who  wish 
to  represent  the  Revolution  Settlement  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  as  decidedly 
Erastian,  and  the  Church  itself  as  aban- 
doning its  own  fundamental  principles, 
and  not  having  courage  to  assert  its  own 
intrinsic  powers,  that  in  1698  the  Com- 
mission of  Assembly  published  a  paper, 
termed,  "  A  Seasonable  Admonition,"  in 
which  the  following  passage  occurs: — 
"  We  do  ^believe  and  own,  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  only  Head  and  King  of  his 
Church ;  and  that  he  hath  instituted  in 
his  Church  officers  and  ordinances,  order 
and  government,  and  not  left  it  to  the  will 
of  man,  magistrate,  or  church,  to  alter  at 
their  pleasure.  And  we  believe  that  this 
government  is  neither  Prelatical  nor 
Congregational,  but  Presbyterian,  which 
now,  through  the  mercy  of  God,  is  esta- 
blished among  us ;  and  we  believe  we 
have  a  better  foundation  for  this  our 
church  government  than  the  inclination 
of  the  people  or  the  laws  of  men."*  The 
occasion  of  publishing  this  paper  was  to 
vindicate  the  conduct  of  the  Church  from 
the  accusations  brought  against  it  by  the 
Cameronians,  and  to  prove  that  there  was 
was  no  just  reason  for  these  people  to  con- 
tinue in  a  state  of  separation  from  the  Es- 
tablished Church. 

[1699.]  It  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  that 
the  Assembly  of  1699  continued  to  pursue 
the  laudable  exa  mple  set  by  its  predecessors 
in  the  most  strenuous  exertions  to  promote 
vital  religion  throughout  the  community. 
But  it  may  be  observed  that  this  Assembly 
expressed  its  approbation  of  the  "  Season- 
able Admonition,"  and  thereby  gave  to  that 
faithful  assertion  of  Presbyterian  principles 
the  sanction  of  the  Assembled  Church. 

[1700.]  The  year  1700  presents  little 
demanding  peculiar  attention.  In  an  act 
appointing  a  national  fast,  one  of  the 
causes  mentioned  by  the  Assembly  is, 
k'Our  continued  unfaithfulness  to  God, 
notwithstanding  of  our  solemn  covenants 
and  engagements."  This  may  fairly  be 
regarded  as  proving  that  the  Church  of 
Scotland  had  not  abandoned  the  ground 
occupied  by  the  fathers  of  the  Second  Re- 

*  Seasonable  Admonition,  p.  5. 


formation,  but  continued  to  acknowledge 
the  binding  and  descending  obligation  of 
her  National  Covenants.  In  the  parlia- 
ment of  the  same  year  an  act  was  passed 
for  securing  the  Protestant  religion  and 
the  Presbyterian  church  government  and 
for  preventing  the  growth  of  Popery. 
This  was  caused  by  the  jealousy  which 
was  entertained  respecting  the  probable 
effect  of  the  alliances  which  the  conti- 
nental politics  of  William  led  him  to  form 
with  Popish  powers,  together  with  the 
activity  displayed  by  Popish  and  Jacobite 
emissaries  in  endeavouring  to  propagate 
their  political  and  religious  tenets,  which 
werejustly  regarded  as  alike  hostile  to 
civil  liberty  and  religious  truth. 

[1701.]  The  General  Assembly  held  in 
the  year  1701  was  called  to  discharge  a 
duty  of  a  different  kind  from  any  that  had 
for  a  considerable  time  occupied  the  at- 
tention of  the  Church.  This  was  the  con- 
demnation of  heresy,  and  the  deposition  of 
one  of  its  ministers  for  holding  and  de- 
fending heretical  opinions.  Dr.  George 
Garden,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Aberdeen, 
had  espoused  the  wild  enthusiastic  notions 
of  Antonio  Bourignon,  and  written  a  book 
in  defence  of  them.  Refusing  to  retract 
his  opinions,  the  Assembly  first  con- 
demned the  opinions  themselves  as  heret- 
ical, and  then  deposed  him  from  the 
office  of  the  ministry.  It  would  be  inex- 
pedient to  state  here  what  these  heretical 
opinions  were ;  but  it  may  be  mentioned 
in  passing,  that  some  of  them  are  much 
akin  to  several  of  those  with  which  reli- 
gion has  been  disturbed  in  our  own  times. 

[1702.]  The  year  1702  began  its  round 
in  the  midst  of  gloomy  anticipations, 
which  were  too  soon  and  too  completely 
realized.  When  the  Assembly  met  on 
the  6th  of  March,  the  commissioner,  the 
Earl  of  Marchmont,  communicated  to 
them  the  melancholy  intelligence  of  his 
majesty's  dangerous  illness,  and  warned 
them  to  expedite  the  despatch  of  all 
imperatively  necessary  business,  and  to 
prepare  a  Commission  empowered  to 
watch  over  and  maintain  discipline  and 
order  in  the  Church,  whatever  might 
take  place.  The  Assembly  manifested 
equal  propriety  and  judgment  in  the  ap- 
pointment of  this  Commission.  All  the 
old  and  experienced  ministers  of  the  period 
antecedent  to  the  persecution,  who  were 
still  alive,  were  first  nominated,  and  to 


A.  D.  1703.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


317 


them  were  added  a  sufficient  number 
of  such  others  as  were  most  distinguished 
by  experience  and  ability,  ready  to  meet 
the  possible  exigencies  of  a  crisis  so  dan- 
gerous. For  it  was  well  understood  that 
(he  Jacobites  anticipated  an  immediate 
change  of  measures  upon  the  demise 
of  William  and  the  accession  of  Anne ; 
and  the  Prelatists  confidently  expected  a 
degree  of  direct  favour  more  answerable 
to  their  wishes  than  the  toleration  or  the 
comprehension  schemes  of  the  reigning 
monarch. 

King  William  died  on  the  8th  day  of 
March,  1702,  in  the  fifty-second  year  of 
ms  age,  having  reigned  thirteen  years  and 
one  month.  By  the  Church  of  Scotland 
nis  memory  will  ever  be  much  and  justly 
revered,  as  having  been,  under  Provi- 
dence, the  instrument  by  whom  she  was 
delivered  from  Prelatic  tyranny  and  per- 
secution. But  it  cannot  be  concealed,  and 
ought  not  to  be  forgotten,  that  his  sys- 
tematic treatment  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  was  both  unwise,  ungrateful,  and 
injurious.  If  he  did  not  succeed  in  bring- 
ing her  under  an  Erastian  yoke,  it  was 
not  for  want  of  inclination  to  have  done 
so.  But  by  the  gracious  support  of  God 
she  was  enabled  to  be  faithful  to  her 
Divine  Head  and  King,  and  He  did 
not  forsake  her  in  her  hour  of  trial  and 
danger.  And  though  the  Church  did  not 
in  all  points  take  the  high  ground  to 
which  her  principles  ought  to  have  led 
her,  and  yielded  compliance  in  matters 
where  she  ought  to  have  maintained 
an  attitude  of  uncompromising  firmness, 
yet,  remembering  her  wasted  and  weak 
condition,  the  many  perilous  and  distract- 
ing circumstances  surrounding  her,  and 
even  the  biassing  influence  of  gratitude  to 
her  earthly  deliverer,  it  seems  but  just  to 
say,  that  instead  of  harsh  upbraiding  cen- 
sure, the  conduct  of  the  Church  deserves, 
upon  the  whole,  the  tribute  of  grateful 
approbation. 

In  the  parliament  which  met  in  June, 
after  the  accession  of  Queen  Anne,  an  act 
was  passed,  similar  to  those  passed  on 
former  occasions,  securing  the  Protestant 
religion  and  the  Presbyterian  church 
government.  This  was  thought  ne- 
cessary, on  account  of  the  danger  appre- 
hended from  the  intrigues  of  the  Jacobites, 
who  entertained  sanguine  anticipations  of 
favour  from  James's  daughter  which  they 


could  not  expect  from  William  The. 
proposals  for  a  union  between  England 
and  Scotland  which  had  latterly  engrossed 
much  of  William's  thoughts,  were  again 
renewed  and  considerably  forwarded, 
though  in  the  midst  of  much  hostility  and 
opposition. 

[1703.]  The  prospect  of  peace  and  se- 
curity to  the  Church  began  again  to  dar- 
ken in  the  year  1703.  The  language  of 
the  queen's  letter  appeared  less  favourable 
than  previous  communications  of  the  same 
kind  for  several  years  past.  Her  majesty 
renewed  her  assurances  of  protection  to 
the  Presbyterian  church  government, 
"as  that  which  she  found  acceptable 
to  the  inclinations  of  the  people,  and  esta- 
blished by  the  laws  of  the  kingdom."  It 
was  feared  that  this  might  be  regarded  as 
equivalent  to  a  denial  of  its  claim  to  any 
higher  and  more  sacred  authority.  But 
the  Assembly,  in  their  answer,  and  es- 
pecially in  an  address  to  her  majesty,  did 
not  hesitate  to  assert  their  true  position. 
In  the  latter  document  their  language  is 
peculiarly  strong  and  explicit ;  reminding 
her  majesty  that  the  Reformation  from 
Popery  in  Scotland  was  by  presbyters, — 
that  the  Claim  of  Right  had  declared 
against  Prelacy  as  a  great  and  insupport- 
able grievance, — and  that  by  the  acts  of 
parliament  founded  thereon,  "  Presby- 
terian church  government  was  settled,  as 
agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  most 
conducive  to  the  advancement  of  true 
piety  and  godliness,  and  the  establishment 
of  peace  and  tranquillity,  and  therefore  to 
be  the  only  government  of  Christ's  Church 
within  this  kingdom."*  On  a  subse- 
quent session,  on  the  thirteenth  day  of  the 
Assembly's  meeting,  the  records  of  several 
synods  were  under  consideration,  in  which 
the  intrinsic  power  of  the  church  courts 
to  meet  and  deliberate  in  all  spiritual 
matters  on  their  own  sole  authority  was 
very  strongly  stated  ;  but  while  the  As- 
sembly was  preparing  to  express  full  and 
entire  concurrence  in  these  sentiments, 
the  commissioner,  Lord  Seafield,  rose  and 
proceeded  to  dissolve  the  meeting  in  her 
majesty's  name.  This  was  met  by  an 
immediate  though  brief  remonstrance, 
and  by  protests  from  great  numbers  of 
the  members  ;  and  though  the  Assembly 
did  not  continue  to  sit,  there  being  no  pe- 
culiarly urgent  business  before  it,  and  hav- 

*  Acts  of  Assembly,  year  1703,  p.  16. 


318 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


ing  already  continued  thirteen  days,  the 
dissolution 'did  not  take  place  till  the  next 
day  of  the  meeting  was  named,and  the  meet- 
ing concluded  with  the  usual  solemnities.* 

Regarding  their  cause  as  rapidly  rising 
towards  the  re-assumption  of  superiority, 
the  Prelatic  party  attempted  to  procure 
from  parliament  an  exemption  from  the 
necessity  of  taking  the  oaths  to  govern- 
ment ;  and  anticipating  success,  they  pro- 
ceeded to  renew  their  intrusion  into 
parishes,  and  in  several  instances  took 
forcible  possession  of  the  churches.  But 
their  precipitation  and  violence  tended  to 
defeat  their  object.  The  Duke  of  Argyle 
and  the  Earl  of  Marchmont  procured  the 
passing  of  an  act  for  the  protection  of 
Presbyterian  church  government,  ex- 
pressed in  the  very  terms  of  the  Assembly's 
address  to  the  queen,  quoted  above.f  To 
narrate  the  further  proceedings  of  this 
parliament,  and  in  particular  the  passing 
of  that  remarkable  act  for  protecting  the 
interests  and  liberties  of  Scotland  from 
suffering  through  foreign  influence,  is  the 
appropriate  task  of  the  civil  historian.  It 
is  merely  alluded  to  here  for  the  purpose 
of  showing  that  the  Scottish  character  was 
resuming  its  native  bold  and  independent 
spirit,  in  proportion  to  the  growing  in- 
fluence and  energy  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  and  enabling  the  nation  to  as- 
sume such  an  attitude  as  to  convince  En- 
glish statesmen  that  it  could  not  be 
trampled  upon  with  impunity.  Had  it 
been  otherwise,  Scotland  might  very  soon 
have  become  an  English  province,  but  an 
incorporating  union  would  never  have 
taken  place. 

[1704]  When  the  Assembly  met  in 
1704,  no  time  was  lost  in  asserting  the  in- 
herent rights  and  intrinsic  powers  of  the 
Church.  In  the  answer  to  the  queen's 
letter  the  following  significant  passage 
occurs  :  "  We  are  now  again,  with  your 
majesty's  countenance  and  favour,  met  in 
the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  a 
national  assembly. "|  The  synod  records, 
to  avoid  the  ratification  of  which  had  been 
one  great  cause  of  the  precipitate  dis- 
solving of  the  preceding  Assembly,  were 
deliberately  produced,  approved,  and  rati- 
fied, so  that  nothing  was  gained  by  the 
civil  power,  and  nothing  lost  by  the 
Church  ;  or  rather,  the  civil  power  was 

*  Willison's  Testimony,  p.  31.  t  Acts  of  Parliament ; 
Lockhart's  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  65.  $  Acts  of  Assembly. 


weakened  by  the  failure  of  the  attempted 
aggression,  and  the  Church  gained  ir 
character  and  moral  strength.  Some  very 
important  steps  were  taken  by  this  As- 
sembly, with  regard  to  providing  schools 
and  other  modes  of  religious  instruction 
for  the  Highlands,  which  subsequently 
ripened  into  that  noble  institution  of 
Christian  benevolence,  the  Society  for 
Propagating  Religious  Knowledge. 
Thus,  in  the  midst  of  all  her  perils  and  all 
her  contests,  did  the  Church  of  Scotland 
persevere  in  discharging  her  duty  to  her 
Head  and  King,  by  promoting  the  growth 
and  welfare  of  His  spiritual  kingdom. 

[1705.]  The  year  1705  presents  little 
of  importance  to  demand  attention.  The 
records  of  the  Church  prove  that  great 
care  continued  to  be  taken  to  promote  the 
interests  of  religion  in  every  part  of  the 
kingdom,  particularly  the  Highlands. 
But  the  public  mind  was  deeply  occu- 
pied with  those  two  great  political  sub- 
jects,— the  settlement  of  the  order  of  suc- 
cession to  the  throne,  and  the  proposals  for 
union  between  Scotland  and  England. 
The  latter  was  the  more  important  of  the 
two,  and  caused  the  most  intense  anxiety 
in  both  kingdoms.  It  was  felt  by  all 
parties,  that  unless  a  union  upon  satisfac- 
tory terms  could  be  accomplished,  a  fierce 
devastating  war  was  not  unlikely  to  arise, 
in  which  Scotland  would  certainly  re- 
ceive aid  from  France,  and  both  countries 
might  sustain  irreparable  injury.  Mutual 
apprehensions  of  danger  served  to  coun- 
terbalance the  mutual  jealousies  of  the 
two  kingdoms ;  and  commissioners  were 
appointed  by  the  two  parliaments  to  meet 
and  arrange  the  preliminaries  of  a  Treaty 
of  Union.  In  passing  this  act,  the  Scot- 
tish parliament  expressly  restricted  the 
commissioners  from  treating  at  all  about 
the  government,  worship,  and  discipline 
of  the  Church.*  The  nomination  of  the 
Scottish  commissioners  was  left  to  the 
queen,  which  prevented  the  intrigues  of 
the  parties  who  wished  to  prevent  the 
Treaty  of  Union  from  being  concluded. 

[1706.]  Several  valuable  acts  were 
passed  by  the  Assembly  of  1706,  respect- 
ing the  internal  purity  and  efficiency  of 
the  Church.  One  of  these  was  of  consi- 
derable importance,  enjoining  presbyteries 
to  be  more  frequent  and  conscientious  in 
visiting  the  several  parishes  within  their 

*  Carstares'  State  Papers,  p.  750. 


A.  D.  1706.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


319 


bounds,  for  the  purpose  not  more  of  sti- 
mulating- than  of  encouraging  ministers 
in  the  discharge  of  their  important  duties. 
An  act  was  also  passed  appointing  a 
national  fast,  for  the  purpose  of  suppli- 
cating the  Divine  direction  respecting  the 
Treaty  of  Union,  on  the  consideration  of 
which  the  nation  was  about  to  enter 
"that  all  might  be  done  to  the  glory 
of  God  and  the  good  of  the  Church ;" 
and  the  commission  was  directed  to  pay 
particular  attention  to  the  deliberations 
of  parliament,  and  to  be  ready  to  as&ist 
with  advice,  or  to  warn  by  remonstrance, 
as  might  be  necessary. 

The  Scottish  parliament  met  on  the 
13th  of  October,  to  commence  those  delib- 
erations which  should  end  in  the  termi- 
nation of  its  separate  existence.  The 
Duke  of  Queensberry  was  commissioner, 
and  the  Earl  of  Seafield  chancellor. 
When  parliament  met,  the  whole  nation 
was  roused  to  the  most  intense  and  feverish 
anxiety  and  excitement  as  to  what  might 
be  the  possible  result  of  their  delibera- 
tions. The  Jacobites  beheld  in  a  union 
the  ruin  of  all  their  hopes  ;  the  Prelatists 
anticipated  support  from  the  Church  of 
England  if  the  union  could  be  effected 
without  the  express  confirmation  of  the 
Presbyterian  establishment,  but  if  that 
were  ratified,  they  dreaded  that  their  own 
restoration  to  power  would  be  forever  pre- 
cluded ;  the  Presbyterians  generally  were 
painfully  apprehensive  that  the  liberty, 
and  even  the  permanent  existence,  of  the 
Church  would  be  greatly  endangered  by 
the  union,  from  the  ascendency  of  the  Pre- 
latic  Church  of  England  in  a  united  par- 
liament, and  the  presence  of  the  prelates 
themselves  in  the  House  of  Peers ;  and 
the  Cameronians  regarded  the  measure 
as  the  consummation  of  national  guilt, 
being  a  direct  violation  of  the  great  cove- 
nants by  which  both  kingdoms  were  sol- 
emnly bound.  The  court  party  alone 
had  any  real  wish  for  a  union  with  Eng- 
land ;  yet  such  was  the  effect  of  so  many 
and  such  conflicting  grounds  of  hostility, 
that  the  antagonists  merely  neutralized 
each  other,  and  rendered  any  well  organ- 
ized and  vigorously  combined  opposition 
impossible.  In  this  we  cannot  but  see 
the  hand  of  a  superintending  Providence, 
bringing  order  out  of  chaos,  and  over- 
ruling the  elements  of  danger  to  the  pro- 
duction of  peace  and  safety. 


Again  retiring  from  the  province  of  the 
civil  historian,  which  the  discussion  of 
such  subjects  would  lead  us  to  invade,  we 
shall  but  state  that, after  a  long  and  highly 
animated  debate,  it  was  carried,  that  an 
entire  incorporating  union  should  take 
place,  and  not  merely  one  of  a  federal 
character.  Before  proceeding  to  consider 
the  articles  of  the  union,  the  parliament 
then  directed  its  attention  to  the  security 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  The  im- 
portance of  this  was  fully  understood  by 
all  parties,  and  gave  rise  not  only  to  a 
new  trial  of  strength,  but  to  a  series  af 
intrigues  by  those  who  sought  to  prevent 
the  union,  and  of  earnest  and  anxious 
prudential  management  by  those  who  fa- 
voured that  measure  and  were  friendly  to 
the  Church.  The  Jacobites  now  pre- 
tended great  zeal  for  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, and  declaimed  on  the  danger  to 
which  it  would  be  exposed  by  a  union — 
a  danger  which  they  themselves  were  the 
first  to  realize  at  a  subsequent  period. 
The  Commission,  which  had  been  direct- 
ed by  the  Assembly  to  meet  and  watch 
over  the  welfare  of  the  Church,  was 
greatly  agitated  by  the  dubious  and 
gloofcay  aspect  of  affairs.  But  they  were 
not  allowed  to  fall  into  the  pit  dug  for 
them  by  their  enemies.  The  Divine 
Head  of  the  Church  continued  to  protect 
the  interests  of  his  spiritual  kingdom,  and 
to  defeat  the  councils  of  the  most  cunning 
adversary.  They  joined  no  political 
party, — they  yielded  not  to  the  deceitful 
persuasions  of  their  foes, — they  did  not 
give  way  to  distempered  fears, — they 
uttered  no  violent  and  unwary  declara- 
tions,— they  even  exerted  themselves  to 
calm  the  excitement  which  pervaded  the 
nation,  and  which  they  might  have  easily 
roused  to  a  fierce  and  universal  convul- 
sion.* At  length  an  Act  of  Security  was 
passed,  in  which  the  acts  confirming  the 
Confession  of  Faith  and  the  Presbyterian 
form  of  church  government  were  ratified 
and  established,  "  to  continue  without  any 
alteration  to  the  people  of  this  land  in  all 
succeeding  generations  ;"  and  it  was  fur- 
ther declared,  that  this  ACT  OF  SECURITY, 

With  the  ESTABLISHMENT  THEREIN  CON- 
TAINED, shall  be  held  and  observed  in  all 
time  coming,  as  a  FUNDAMENTAL  AND 

ESSENTIAL    CONDITION   OF   ANY    TREATY   OF 

UNION  to  be   concluded  betwixt  the  two 

*  Carstares'  State  Paper,  pp.  754-758. 


320 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  VII 


kingdoms^    WITHOUT     ANY    ALTERATION 

THEREOF,  OR   DEROGATION  THERETO,  IN 
ANY  SORT,  FOR  EVER."* 

It  would  be  very  difficult,  if  not  im- 
possible, for  language  to  convey  more 
clearly  and  strongly  the  idea,  that  the 
Church  of  Scotland  was  thus  intention- 
ally placed  beyond  the  power  of  the 
united  parliament  to  interfere  in  the 
slightest  degree  with  her  constitutional 
.  rights  and  privileges  ;  since  the  main- 
tenance of  her  integrity  unimpaired,  in- 
tact, inviolable,  was  itself  the  very  basis 
of  the  union,  without  which  it  would  not 
have  taken  place,  to  interfere  with  which 
was  declared  to  be  beyond  the  power  of 
the  British  parliament,  and  any  infringe- 
ment of  which  was  necessarily  equivalent 
to  a  virtual  dissolution  of  that  great  inter- 
national treaty. 

The  remaining  Articles  of  Union  were 
proposed  and  carried  with  comparative 
ease.  And  at  length,  after  they  had  been 
accepted  and  ratified  by  the  English  par- 
liamentjf  and  returned  to  Scotland,  they 
were  registered  by  the  Scottish  parlia- 
ment on  the  25th  of  March,  1707, 
and  on  the  22d  of  April  the  parlia- 
ment of  Scotland  adjourned  to  meet  no 
more. 

[1707.]  The  General  Assembly  met 
at  Edinburgh  on  the  8th  April  1707. 
Before  their  meeting  the  Articles  of  Union 
had  been  ratified  by  the  Scottish  parlia- 
ment, and  sent  to  London  for  the  ratifica- 
tion of  that  of  England  In  the  queen's 
letter  to  the  Assembly  the  following  sen- 
tence occurs :  "  We  take  this  opportunity 
of  renewing  to  you  our  assurance,  that 
you  shall  have  our  protection  in  the  free 
enjoyment  of  all  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges that  by  law  you  are  possessed  of;" 
and  it  is  rather  remarkable  that  her  ma- 
jesty makes  no  allusion  to  the  topic  of 
receiving  into  the  Church  those  of  the 
Episcopalian  dissenters  who  should  be 
willing  to  subscribe  the  Confession  of 
Faith,  and  conform  to  Presbyterian  go- 
vernment. The  most  important  act  pas- 
sed by  this  Assembly  was  one  respecting 
the  Form  of  Process.  This  subject  had 
occupied  the  attention  of  the  Church  for 
several  years,  and  had,  acpording  to  the 

"  Act  of  Security,  Appendix. 

t  Carstares'  State  Papers,  p.  760,  "The  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  said,  that  he  believed  the  Church  of 
Scotland  to  be  as  true  a  Protestant  Church  as  that  of 
England,  though  he  could  not  say  it  was  so  perfect." 


Barrier  Act,  been  transmitted  to  the  pres- 
byteries by  the  preceding  Assembly.  It 
was  now  ratified,  and  has  ever  since 
continued  to  form  the  chief  rule  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  for  the  direction  of 
the  various  ecclesiastical  judicatories  in 
the  matters  which  come  before  them.  It 
is  not  undeserving  of  notice,  that  this  im- 
portant act,  completing  the  judicial  ar- 
rangements of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
took  place  at  the  very  juncture  of  the 
Union,  and  was  accordingly  placed,  of 
necessity,  within  the  protection  of  the  Act 
of  Security,  before  the  Scottish  parlia- 
ment, by  which  it  was  ratified,  had  ceased 
to  exist.  Thus  the  Confession  of  Faith, — 
the  form  of  church  government  by  Ses- 
sions, Presbyteries,  Synods,  and  General 
Assemblies, — the  "mode  of  worship, — the 
rules  of  discipline, — and  the  process  of 
judicial  proceedings, — were  all  rendered 
as  secure  as  the  most  solemn  and  conclu- 
sive national  enactments, — the  Revolution 
Settlement,  the  Act  of  Security,  and  the 
Articles  of  Union, — could  make  them. 
If  they  had  since  been  thwarted,  violated, 
or  impeded,  the  blame  must  rest  upon 
those  who  presumed  to  tamper  with  na- 
tional faith,  or  who,  in  their  endeavours 
to  put  a  forced  construction  upon  the  let- 
ter of  subordinate  laws  and  statutes,  griev- 
ously misconceived  or  utterly  forgot  the 
principles  and  the  spirit  of  the  constitution. 
One  very  pernicious  act  was  passed  at 
this  time,  which  has  ever  since  continued 
to  operate  most  injuriously  to  the  best  in- 
terests of  the  Church  and  people  of  Scot- 
land. The  lords  of  the  Court  of  Session 
were  appointed  to  be  commissioners  of 
teinds,  and  power  was  given  to  them  to 
determine  "  the  transporting  of  kirks," 
that  is,  the  removal  of  a  church  from  one 
part  of  the  parish  to  another,  according 
to  the  fluctuation  of  the  population  which 
may  have  rendered  such  a  measure  ex- 
pedient,— and,  by  implication,  the  build- 
ing of  an  additional  church  for  the  accom 
modation  of  an  increased  population. 
The  consent  of  three-fourths  of  the  heri- 
tors, in  point  of  valuation,  is  declared  by 
the  act  to  be  necessary  to  warrant  this 
removal.*  The  effect  has  been,  that  the 
narrow  and  selfish  policy  of  the  heritors 
has  generally  been  strong  enough  to  pre- 
vent the  concurrence  of  a  sufficient  num- 
ber to  procure  the  removal,  however  glar- 

*  Dunlop's  Parochial  Law,  p.  32. 


A.  D.  1707.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


321 


ingly  necessary  for  the  accommodation 
of  the  people  ;  crystallizing,  as  it  were, 
the  Church  of  Scotland  into  a  state  of 
rigid  immobility,  and  rendering  her  una- 
ble to  adapt  her  arrangements  to  the 
changing  necessities  of  the  country. 
How  strangely  ignorant,  to  say  the  least, 
statesmen  and  legislators  have  always 
been  of  what  is  most  conducive  to  the 
true  welfare  of  a  nation,  and  especially, 
how  ready  to  employ  every  practical 
mode  of  hampering  the  movements  and 
obstructing  the  exercise  of  the  native  en- 
ergies of  the  Christian  Church,  and,  in 
particular,  of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
But  this,  and  all  such  hostile  or  jealous 
measures,  may  be  fairly  viewed  as  the 
instinctive  testimony  given  by  worldly 
men  to  the  spirituality  of  her  character, 
with  which  they  cannot  sympathize^  and 
which  they  regard  with  the  natural  en- 
mity of  the  fallen  mind. 

By  the  Treaty  of  Union  the  Church 
of  Scotland  was  placed  in  a  new  position, 
fitted  to  try  severely  the.  vitality  and  the 
power  of  her  constitutional  principles. 
The  Act  of  Security  had  indeed  preclu- 
ded the  British  parliament  from  interfer- 
ing with  her  doctrine,  government,  and 
discipline,  as  they  existed  before  the  pas- 
sing of  that  act ;  but  the  removal  of  the 
seat  of  civil  government  from  Edinburgh 
to  London  was  certain  to  have  an  injuri- 
ous effect  upon  the  Scottish  nobility  and 
gentry,  in  alienating  them  from,  the 
Church  of  their  native  land,  and  accus- 
toming them  to  the  forms,  ceremonies, 
want  of  discipline,  and  Erastian  subser- 
viency, of  the  Church  of  England.  It 
was,  therefore,  to  be  expected,  that  early 
and  persevering  attempts  would  be  made, 
both  by  the  British  Legislature  and  by 
our  own  Anglicized  countrymen,  if  not 
to  alter  the  government  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  at  least  to  reduce  it  to  that  con- 
dition of  political  thraldom  in  which  the 
Church  of  England  was  held.  That 
this  should  be  desired  by  mere  politicians, 
need  excite  no  wonder  ;  for  it  is  not  polit- 
ical sagacity,  but  spiritual  enlightenment, 
which  enables  men  to  perceive  and  un- 
derstand what  are  the  true  and  essential 
principles  of  the  Christian  Church.  They 
are  naturally  incapable  of  understanding 
on  what  terms  alone  a  true  Church  can 
enter  into  an  alliance  with  the  State  ;  and 
they  therefore  always  regard  the  Church 
41 


as  a  subordinate  court,  erected  by  the 
State,  receiving  directions  from  it,  and 
necessarily  subservient  to  it  in  the  dis- 
charge of  all  its  functions.  And  the  fatal 
facility  which  the  Prelatic  form  of  church 
government  has  always  shown  of  adapt- 
ing itself  to  the  capricious  designs  of 
statesmen,  and-  submitting  to  their  baneful 
control,  has  necessarily  given  it  a  recom- 
mendation in  their  eyes,  which  the  Pres- 
byterian form  cannot  possibly,  obtain, 
without  first  becoming  unfaithful  to  its 
own  principles. 

The  danger  to  which  the  Church  of 
Scotland  was  exposed  by  the  Union  was 
very  greatly  increased  by  the  admission 
of  so  many  of  the  Prelatic  curates,  in 
weak  compliance  with  the  pernicious 
policy  of  William.  It  would  have  re- 
quired the  united  energy  and  determined 
front  of  the  entire  Presbyterian  Church 
to  have  promptly  met,  and  triumphantly 
resisted,  every  attempted  encroachment  of 
the  British  parliament  upon  her  secured 
rights  and  privileges.  But  this,  with 
such  a  numerous  band  of  cold  friends  and 
treacherous  mercenaries  within  her  own 
camp,  was  impossible.  From  this  time 
forward,  accordingly,  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land presents  the  melancholy  aspect  of  a 
declining  and  unfaithful  Church,  assailed 
by  enemies  without,  and  corrupted  and 
betrayed  by  worse  and  more  deadly  foes 
within  her  own  communion.  To  trace- 
faithfully  the  sad  steps  of  her  defection 
must  be  now  our  painful  and  unwelcome 
task  ;  with  the  perfect  certainty  of  being 
compelled  to  record  deeds  and  give  ex- 
pression to  sentiments  which  will  rouse 
the  fierce  rage  of  many,  but  with  the  de- 
liberate determination  to  state  the  truth, 
be  offended  who  may,  and  whatever 
amount  of  hostility  may  be  thereby  pro- 
voked. Let  the  intelligent  and  thought- 
ful man  mark  well  the  course  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland's  procedure,  as  well 
as  that  of  the  British  parliament,  from 
the  period  of  the  Union  till  now,  with  as 
much  fairness  and  candour  as  he  can ; 
and  especially  let  him  trace  accurately, 
and  with  unprejudiced  mind,  the  conduct 
of  the  faithful  minority,  testing  it  as  rigid- 
ly as  he  will  by  reference  to  the  funda- 
mental principles  and  avowed  standards 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  ;  and  he  will 
have  little  difficulty  in  deciding  who  have 
been  the  defenders',  and  who  the  betrayers 


322 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


and  the  foes  of  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
— by  whom  the  cause  of  vital  religion 
and'national  welfare  has  been  promoted, 
and  by  whom  retarded, — by  whose  ill-re- 
quited exertions  the  interests  of  the  Re- 
deemer's spiritual  kingdom  within  our 
land  have  been  maintained,  and  by  whom 
they  have  been  betrayed  and  violated, 
through  the  influence  of  secular  motives, 
and  in  the  spirit  of  a  base  subserviency  to 
narrow-minded  arid  worldly  politicians. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


FROM   THE  UNION   TO  THE   RISE    OF  THE  SECOND 
SECESSION   IN    1752. 

Position  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  at  the  Union— Me- 
morials respecting  the  Poor,  and  beneficial  Manage- 
ment of  the  Church— Political  Movement!  in  Eng- 
land, and  Jacobite  Intrigues  in  Scotland — Rise  of 
erroneous  Opinions  in  the  Church  of  Scotland- 
Jacobite  Intrigues ;  Case  of  Greenshields— Hostility 
of  the  British  Parliament  under  the  Administration 
ofHarley  and  Bolingbroke— Act  of  Toleration — Oath 
of  Abjuration— Act  reimposing  Patronage- Ineffec- 
tual Attempt  of  the  Church  to  prevent  its  Enactment 
—Examination  of  the  Spirit,  Tendency,  and  Intension 
of  that  Act— Argument  to  prove  it  essentially  invalid 
—Assertions  in  its  Preamble  refuted— Conduct  of  the' 
General  Assembly— Remarks— Causes  of  the  Weak- 
ness of  the  ( 'hurch— The  Cameronians— Effects  of  the 
Abjuration  Oath — Case  of  Burntisland— Commence- 
ment of  the  Process  against  Professor  Simson  for 
Heresy— Second  Rabbling  Act— Death  of  Queen 
Anne— Memorial  against  Patronage— The  Rebellion 
—Professor  Simson— The  Auchterarder  Case— First 
"Riding  Committee" — Progress  of  unsound  Opin- 
ions, how  caused — Act  restricting  Patronage — Origin 
of  the  Marrow  Controversy — Conduct  of  the  Assem- 
bly— The  Representers — First  Case  of  Intrusion — 
Professor  Simson — Boston  and  others— First  direct 
Acceptance  of  a  Presentation — Origin  of  the  First 
Secession — Partial  Change  in  the  Conduct  of  the 
Assembly — Act  against  Intrusion— The  Secession 
.completed — Revivals  at  Cambuslans  and  Kilsyth — 
Violent  Settlements— Opinions  of  the  Court  of  Session 
— New  Policy  of  the  Moderate  Party — Case  of  In- 
•v«rkeithing — Deposition  of  Mr  Gillespie — Origin  of 
the  Second  Secession,  the  Relief,  in  1752— Moderate 
Mauifesto. 

BY  the  Act  of  Security,  which,  was  the 
basis  of  the  Union,  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land obtained  the  clearest  recognition  of 
her  own  principles,  and  the  strongest  rati- 
fication of  her  rights  and  privileges,  which 
could  be  conveyed  by  legislative  enact- 
ments and  secured  by  the  solemn  pledge 
of  national  faith.  Yet  were  those  prin 
ciples  as  much  disliked  by  statesmen  as 
they  had  ever  been  ;  and  at  the  very  time 
when  the  ratification  was  given,  a  power- 
ful party  was  secretly  plotting  the  viola- 
tion of  those  rights  and  privileges  for  th 
security  of  which  the  faith  of  the  sove- 
reign and  ,the  united  kingdom  was 


pledged.  The  Jacobites,  who  wished  the 
restoration  of  the  exiled  Stuart  race,  knew 
well  that  the  establishment  of  the  Pres- 
Dyterian  Church  was  the  main  obstacle 
to  their  resumption  of  power  in  Scotland  ; 
and  the  not  unnatural  sympathy  which 
the  English  Episcopalians  felt  for  their 
Scottish  brethren  of  that  persuasion,  in 
duced  them  to  take  every  measure  in  their 
power  for  the  discouragement  and  depres- 
sion of  the  rival  Church.  Of  this  char- 
acter was  the  jealous  and  intolerant 
policy  of  the  English  High-Church  party, 
requiring  the  sacramental  test,  according 
to  the  forms  of  Episcopacy,  before  any 
man  could  be  eligible  to  a  place  of  public 
trust  in  civil  affairs,  while  no  such  limita- 
tion was  applied  to  them  in  Scotland. 
This  was  manifestly  contrary  to  the  spirit 
of  the  Union,  and  a  grievance  to  every 
true  Presbyterian.  But  it  had  still  more 
pernicious  tendencies.  It  was  calculated 
to  cause  disregard  to  that  sacred  ordinance, 
by  degrading  it  to  the  character  of  a  civil 
qualification  ;  aod  it  tended  to  allure  the 
Scottish  nobility  and  gentry  to  conform  to 
Prelacy,  to  which  they  were  already 
sufficiently  prone.  This  effect  was,  in  all 
probability,  what  Prelatists  expected  and 
desired  ;  but  it  was  evident  that  it  could 
not  be  otherwise  than  offensive  to  Pres- 
byterians, especially  when  contrasted  with 
the  repeated  and  pressing  applications 
made  to  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  receive 
into  its  bosom  thePrelatic  curates,  and  to 
give  them  an  equal  share  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Church  which  they  had  so 
long  persecuted,  and  were  still  seeking  to 
subvert.  In  the  circumstances  and  ar- 
rangements of  the  Union  itself,  and  not- 
withstanding the  Act  of  Security,  there 
was  reason  for  the  Church  of  Scotland  to 
be  jealous  of  her  rights  and  privileges,  so 
far  as  it  was  in  the  power  of  the  Church 
of  England  to  impair  and  obstruct  them. 
The  bitter  hostility  of  the  Scottish  Jaco- 
bites and  Prelatists  was  even  increased 
by  the  Union,  which  opposed  a  mighty 
obstacle  to  their  hopes,  and  which,  they 
well  knew,  could  not  have  been  accom- 
plished if  the  Church  of  Scotland  had 
offered  a  strong  and  determined  resistance. 
Placed  thus  in  a  position  surrounded 
with  danger,  the  Presbyterian  Church 
had  a  very  difficult  part  to  act.  To  act 
that  part  aright  demanded  the  union  of 
high-principled  religious  integrity,  and 


A.  D.  1708.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


323 


consummate  prudence.  From  the  rul- 
ing powers  of  the  empire  she  had  little 
favour  to  expect,  beyond  what  they  might 
deem  it  for  their  own  interest  to  give. 
If  she  could  succeed  in  retaining  and 
wielding  the  compact  energies  of  the 
Scottish  community,  politicians  would 
not  dare  to  tamper  with  her  rights  and 
privileges  ;  but  if  in  that  she  failed,  to  be 
scorned  and  trampled  upon  by  insulting 
adversaries  was  her  certain  doom.  And 
unfortunately  her  prospect  of  obtaining 
that  element  of  security  was  greatly 
diminished  by  recent  events.  The  great 
mass  of  the  Scottish  people  were  hostile 
to  the  Union,  for  various  causes ;  and 
the  conduct  of  the  Church  in  not  oppos- 
ing that  great  Treaty  had  alienated  to  a 
very  considerable  degree  the  minds  of  a 
large  proportion  of  the  most  conscientious 
Presbyterians.  Nothing  but  the  most 
determined  adherence  to  strict  Presby- 
terian principles,  and  their  exhibition  in 
all  her  proceedings,  could  have  regained 
the  affection  and  the  confidence  of  the 
people :  and  such  a  line  of  conduct  it  was 
now  scarcely  possible  for  her  to  follow. 
The  baneful  policy  of  William,  which 
had  caused  the  reception  of  so  many  of 
the  Prelatic  curates,  had  vitiated  the  mi- 
nisterial body  to  such  a  degree,  that  in- 
stead of  a  faithful  assertion  and  bold  de- 
fence of  Presbyterian  principles,  in 
government,  doctrine,  and  discipline,  the 
utmost  that  could  be  obtained  from  the 
General  Assembly  was  a  faint  remon- 
strance, or  a  half  apologetic  statement  of 
rights  and  privileges,  or  a  feeble  and 
tame  petition  for  redress,  even  when 
much  aggrieved.  This  increasing  un- 
souridness  of  doctrine,  tame  and  compro- 
mising spirit,  and  moderate  policy,  how- 
ever much  lauded  by  wily  politicians, 
was  not  calculated  to  reinstate  the  Church 
in  the  affections  of  a  people  distinguished 
for  national  pride,  intellectual  strength, 
and  inflexible  adherence  to  religious 
principle.  On  the  contrary,  it  was 
sure  to  alienate  them  more  and  more, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  encourage  the 
foes  of  Presbytery  to  fresh  aggressions. 
Such  was  the  character  and  condition  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  such  the 
nature  of  the  hostile  influences  by  which 
it  was  surrounded,  and  to  a  considerable 
extent  interpenetrated,  at  the  momentous 
period  of  the  Union.  To  what  extent 


these  hostile  influences  prevailed,  whe- 
ther by  external  force  or  by  internal  cor- 
ruption, and  to  what  degree  Presbyterian 
principles  were  repressed  or  allowed  to 
fall  into  abeyance,  remains  now  to  be 
briefly  but  faithfully  traced. 

[1708.]  The  period  immediately  suc- 
ceeding the  Union  had  been  employed 
by  the  Jacobites  in  making  the  most 
strenuous  exertions  to  produce  a  counter- 
revolution, by  means  of  an  attempted  in- 
surrection at  home,  supported  by  an  inva- 
sion from  France.  In  this  time  of  pub- 
lic danger  the  loyalty  and  zeal  of  the 
Scottish  Presbyterians  had  been  signally 
displayed,  both  ministers  and  people  ex- 
erting themselves  to  the  utmost  in  prepar- 
ing to  defend  the  constitution  and  govern- 
ment of  the  country.  When  the  As- 
sembly met  in  April  1708,  her  majesty, 
both  by  letter  and  through  the  commis- 
sioner, expressed  her  entire  satisfaction 
with  the  conduct  of  the  Scottish  Church, 
and  her  renewed  assurance  of  her  unal- 
terable resolution  to  maintain  to  it  unim- 
paired all  its  rights  and  privileges.  The 
answer  of  the  Assembly  expressed  the 
most  unswerving  loyalty,  and  at  the  same 
time  not  obscurely  indicated  to  her  ma- 
jesty in  what  manner  that  loyalty  could 
be  best  recompensed,  and  the  peace  and 
welfare  of  the  country  maintained. 
They  plainly  declared,  that  a  "  pious, 
learned,  and  faithful  ministry"  was  the 
greatest  support,  under  God,  of  true  reli- 
gion and  national  welfare ;  trusting  that 
her  majesty  \^ould  discourage  the  opposi- 
tion made  to  the  planting  of  such  a  mi- 
nistry in  several  places,  "  by  some  that 
are  not  more  disaffected  to  our  church 
constitution  than  to  your  majesty's  royal 
person  and  government."*  Had  her 
majesty  and  her  government  appreciated 
and  acted  upon  the  spirit  of  this  sugges- 
tion, the  Church  and  the  nation  must  soon 
have  entered  upon  a  career  of  public  tran- 
quillity and  religious  purity  very  different 
from  that  which  the  historian  has  to  record. 

Two  acts  of  this  Assembly  deserve  at- 
attention.  One  was  for  the  suppression 
of  schism  and  disorders  in  the  Church : 
the  other,  recommending  ministerial  visi- 
tation of  families.!  The  first  arose  from 
the  cause  already  specified,— the  disagree- 
ment which  could  not  but  exist  between 
the  true  Presbyterian  ministers  and  the 
*  Acts  of  Assembly,  year  1708.  t  Ibid. 


324 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


admitted  Prelatic  curates,  and  also  be- 
tween the  Established  Church  and  the 
inflexible  Cameronians.  The  second 
was  expressly  designed  to  promote  the 
progress  of  vital  and  personal  religion 
throughout  the  community,  by  giving  to 
ministers  well  digested  and  authorative 
directions  respecting  the  discharge  of 
that  very  important  part  of  their  duty,  so 
that  it  might  not  be  in  the  power  of  any 
to  neglect  it,  without  being  immediately 
called  to  account,  and  censured  accord- 
ing to  their  demerits.  Such  a  process 
was  more  certain  to  secure  the  stability 
of  the  Church,  by  resting  it  on  the  afTec- 
lon  and  respect  of  the  poeple,  than  could 
oe  done  by  mere  acts  of  the  legislature. 
But  unhappily  it  was  an  act  which  the 
Prelatic  conformists  could  not  possibly 
discharge  in  a  suitable  manner.  Too 
many  of  them  had  been  known  to  their 
parishioners  as  spies  and  informers  during 
the  persecution,  for  their  visits  to  be  re- 
ceived with  a  ready  and  affectionate  wel- 
come; so  that,  when  the  Assembly  en- 
joined the  discharge  of  a  duty  which  the 
previous  misconduct  of  a  large  section 
rendered  it  impracticable  for  them  to  at- 
tempt, this  injunction,  however  excellent 
in  itself,  and  fitted  to  produce  the  best  re- 
sults when  adequately  performed,  tended 
to  increase  the  disagreement  between  the 
faithful  ministers  and  their  less  zealous 
brethren,  who  disliked  directions  which 
they  could  not  cordially  and  successfully 
obey. 

[1709.]  Several  important  transactions 
took  place  in  the  Assembly  which  met  in 
1709  ;  one  of  which  was  the  maturing  of 
the  Society  for  Propagating  Christian 
Knowledge,  which  obtained  the  approba- 
tion of  the  queen  in  council,  and  has  ever 
since  continued  in  the  discharge  of  its 
important  duties,  on  which  a  large  mea- 
sure of  the  Divine  favour  has  manifestly 
rested.  An  act  was  passed  also  for  erect- 
ing public  libraries,  one  in  each  presby- 
tery throughout  the  kingdom  ;  a  measure 
well  adapted  to  promote  the  knowledge 
and  the  usefulness  of  the  ministers,  by 
placing  within  their  reach  the  means  of 
prosecuting  their  own  studies,  which  their 
remote  situations  and  scanty  maintenance 
must  have  greatly  impeded. 

Among  the  unprinted  acts  of  this  As- 
sembly is  one  of  great  national  impor- 
tance. It  is  entitled,  "  A  memorial  to  be 


presented  by  the  queen's  commissioner  to 
her  majesty,  concerning  the  interfering 
of  justices  of  the  peace  with  the  offices  of 
church  deacons."  The  full  purport  of 
this  memorial,  and  the  object  accom- 
plished by  it,  require  to  be  explained, 
and  merit  attention.  At  the  period  of  the 
Reformation,  it  will  be  remembered,  the 
Church  of  Scotland  proposed  to  take 
upon  itself  the  care  of  the  poor,  and  to 
support  them  out  of  its  own  patrimony. 
The  avaricious  nobility  frustrated  this 
benevolent  design  to  the  utmost  of  their 
power,  by  seizing  forcibly  upon  the  pa- 
trimony of  the  Church,  regardless  alike 
of  justice  and  humanity.  But  the  Church, 
nevertheless,  following  the  example  of 
the  Apostolic  Church,  appointed  collec- 
tions to  be  made  for  the  support  of  the 
poor,  and  instituted  the  order  of  deacons 
for  the  proper  management  of  the  funds 
so  raised.  This  method  of  supporting 
the  poor  was  almost  immediately  crowned 
with  the  most  remarkable  success.  Po- 
verty and  its  dire  attendants,  degradation 
and  immorality,  almost  disappeared,  and 
peace,  intelligence,  comfort,  and  purity, 
spread  their  blessings  over  the  land. 
But  when  Charles  II.,  in  1661,  abolished 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  established 
Prelacy  on  its  ruins, — as  attention  to  the 
religious  and  intellectual  instruction  of 
the  poor,  and  the  alleviation  of  their  per- 
sonal wants,  formed  no  part  of  the  insti- 
tutions, nor  had  ever  been  regarded  in 
the  practice  of  the  Prelatic  Church, — the 
whole  matter  was  intrusted  to  the  charge 
of  the  justices  of  the  peace,  who  were  em- 
powed  to  appoint  overseers  in  every 
parish  for  the  management  of  matters 
connected  with  the  maintenance  of  the 
poor.  The  utter  inefficiency  of  this  sys- 
tem, attempted  as  it  was  in  a  time  of  per- 
secution which  destroyed  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  middle  class,  which  has 
always  been  the  most  charitable,  was  de- 
monstrated with  dreadful  precision,  when 
at  the  Revolution  it  appeared  that  about 
the  fifth  part  of  the  population  were  in  a 
state  of  utter  beggary  and  homelessness, 
and  so  fearfully  degraded  and  demoral- 
ized as  to  startle  and  appal  the  most  in- 
different. But  the  Presbyterian  Church 
was  again  established,  and  immediately 
resumed  its  hallowed  labours  and  its 
charitable  cares.  Again  was  its  un- 
rivalled excellence,  as  a  national  institu 


A.  D.  1710.] 


HISTORY    OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


325 


tion  for  promoting  the  moral  and  religious 
welfare  of  the  community,  most  signally 
displayed.  The  faithful  and  earnest 
preaching  of  the  gospel  arrested  the 
attention  of  the  people  ;  schools  were  pro- 
vided for  the  instruction  of  the  young: 
the  charitable  donations  of  the  congrega- 
tions relieved  the  truly  necessitous,  and 
the  sacred  and  moral  atmosphere  of 
Christianity  diffused  itself  over  the  king- 
dom, checking  and  repressing  vice,  re- 
buking open  crime,  and  imparting  a 
more  pure,  healthful,  and  lofty  tone  to 
the  feelings  and  desires  of  the  renovated 
community.  So  manifestly  was  this  the 
case,  that  the  commissioner,  the  Earl  of 
Glasgow,  readily  undertook  to  present 
the  memorial,  and  enforced  it  with  such 
statements  respecting  the  efficiency  of  the 
Scottish  system,  on  his  own  knowledge, 
that  the  justices  of  the  peace  were  in- 
structed to  abstain  from  interfering  with 
the  management  of  the  poor,  leaving  that 
matter  to  the  care  of  the  kirk-sessions,  by 
whose  judicious  superintendence  the 
country  had  been  rescued  from  poverty 
and  crime.  Had  it  not  been  for  this 
prompt  and  decisive  conduct  on  the  part 
of  the  Church,  Scotland  would  have  been 
speedily  subjected  to  the  pressure  of  an 
intolerable  burden  of  poor-laws,  similar 
to  that  under  which  England,  notwith- 
standing its  superior  national  wealth,  and 
in  spite  of,  not  to  say  in  consequence  of, 
its  hierarchical  church,  has  so  long 
groaned. 

This  incident  would  of  itself  convince 
any  unprejudiced  and  intelligent  person 
how  much  Scotland  owes  to  its  National 
Church,  proving,  at  the  same  time,  how 
much  superior  that  Church  is  to  any 
other  in  Christendom,  in  the  efficient 
accomplishment  of  one  great  object  for 
which  a  National  Church  is  established 
— the  promotion  of  the  moral  and  reli- 
gious welfare  of  the  community.  And 
yet,  at  the  very  time  when  the  Church 
was  thus  generously  taking  upon  herself 
the  care  of  the  poor,  she  had  been  recently 
deprived  of  the  remains  of  her  patrimony, 
the  third  part  of  the  teinds,  which  had 
•been  given  back  to  the  patrons  as  a  com- 
pensation for  the  loss  of  those  patronages 
which  they  had  obtained  by  conduct  of 
the  most  flagrantly  illegal,  unjust,  and 
wrongful  character.  Surely,  to  do  good 
and  to  suffer  injury, — to  promote  peace 


and  to  sustain  persecution, — to  advance 
the  welfare  of  all,  and  to  be  generally 
calumniated, — has  been  more  the  fate  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  than  of  any 
Christian  Church  since  the  days  of  the 
apostles.  But  this  is  no  equivocal  proof 
that  she  is  indeed  a  true  Church  of  Christ, 
reviled  and  persecuted  by  the  world,  be- 
cause she  is  not  of  the  world.  The  suc- 
cess with  which  the  exertions  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  had  been  blessed  in 
repressing  vice  and  irreligion,  and  pro- 
moting pure  and  personal  Christianity, 
may  be  stated  in  the  language  of  an  acute 
and  impartial  observer,  a  native  of  Eng- 
land, who  came  to  Scotland  to  aid  in 
promoting  the  Union  : — "  You  may  pass 
through  twenty  towns  in  Scotland  with- 
out seeing  any  broil,  or  hearing  an  oath 
sworn  in  the  streets  :  whereas,  if  a  blind 
man  was  to  come  from  thence  into  Eng- 
land, he  shall  know  the  first  town  he  sets 
his  foot  in  within  the  English  border,  by 
hearing  the  name  of  God  blasphemed  and 
profanely  used,  even  by  the  very  little 
children  in  the  streets."* 

[1710.]  Before  the  General  Assembly 
met  in  1710,  a  movement  had  taken  place 
in  England  which  fell  little  short  of  a  re- 
volution. This  was  occasioned  by  the 
notorious  Sacheveral,  who,  by  the  plenti- 
ful use  of  a  strange  mixture  of  blind 
bigotry,  fierce  invective,  and  the  hardy 
assertions  of  intolerant  ignorance,  roused 
the  prejudices  of  the  High-Church  party 
and  the  rude  populace  to  such  a  degree 
as  to  overthrow  the  Whig  government  of 
the  Revolution  and  the  Union,  and  to 
place  a  Tory  administration  in  office, 
nominally  headed  by  Harley,  soon  after- 
wards Earl  of  Oxford,  and  really  by  the 
philosophic,  yet  unprincipled  infidel  Bo- 
lingbroke.  Strange  as  it  might  at  first 
sight  appear,  this  triumph  of  High- 
Church  Episcopacy  and  Tory  state  poli- 
tics tended  directly  to  the  restoration  of 
Popery,  and  of  the  exiled  claimant  of  the 
crown,  the  Popish  Pretender.  Yet  every 
thinking  person  will  easily  perceive  the 
natural  connection  which  subsists  between 
the  principles  of  High-Church  bigotry, 
strenuously  inculcating  passive  obedience 
and  non-resistance  to  "the  right  divine 
of  kings  to  govern  wrong,"  and  those  on 
which  Popery  itself  is  founded.  Nor 
were  the  Scottish  Jacobites  inattentive 

*  De  Foe's  Memoirs,  p.  428. 


326 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


spectators  of  these  changes  in  England, 
or  unskilful  to  avail  themselves  of  events 
which  promised  to  advance  the  objects 
for  which  they  longed.  They  saw  well 
that  the  ascendency  of  High-Church  po- 
litics in  England  presented  a  favourable 
opportunity  of  crushing  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Scotland,  which  was  the  most 
formidable  obstacle  they  had  to  encounter 
in  seeking  to  secure  the  return  of  the 
Popish  Pretender.  Instantly  a  course  of 
deep  intriguing  policy  was  begun,  con- 
ducted principally  by  Lockhart  of  Carn- 
wath,  the  ablest  of  the  Scottish  Jacobites. 
This  designing  man  did  not  expect  to 
prevail  upon  the  Presbyterians  to  strive 
for  the  recall  of  the  Pretender ;  the 
wrongs  which  they  had  suffered  were 
too  recent  for  them  to  be  induced  to  take 
such  a  step.  But  he  thought  that,  by 
prevailing  upon  the  High-Church  party 
in  the  British  parliament  to  infringe  the 
Union,  so  far  as  to  endanger  the  stability 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  the  Presby- 
terians might  be  brought  to  demand 
a  repeal  of  the  Union  itself;  which, 
if  granted,  would  leave  Scotland  open 
to  Jacobite  intrigues,  and,  if  refused, 
might  lead  to  some  forcible  attempt 
to  overthrow  Presbytery  and  re-estab- 
lish Prelacy,  or  at  least  throw  the 
country  into  such  a  state  of  confusion  as 
would  give  a  greater  probability  of  suc- 
cess to  a  French  invasion  and  a  civil 
war.  To  the  artful  prosecution  of  these 
deep  schemes  we  shall  have  further  occa- 
sion to  advert. 

When  the  Assembly  met,  these  mea- 
sures necessarily  engaged  their  attention, 
though  they  did  not  deem  it  expedient  to 
mention  them  in  explicit  terms.  Yet 
there  could  be  no  doubt  what  was  meant 
by  such  language  as  the  following : — 
"  We  crave  leave  upon  this  occasion  to 
assure  your  majesty,  that  we  abhor  all 
the  principles  that  stain  the  glory  of 
the  reformed  religion,  and  all  the  opin- 
ions that  have  a  tendency  to  shake 
the  excellent  and  solid  foundations  upon 
which  your  majesty's  just  title  to  the 
supreme  government  of  your  domin- 
ions, and  the  security  of  your  throne  in 
a  Protestant  succession  against  all  Popish 
Pretenders,  are  happily  established."  It 
is  not  likely  that  her  majesty  received 
this  address  with  much  satisfaction,  the 
allusion  it  contained  to  the  Claim  of 


Right  and  the  Revolution  Settlement  be- 
ing much  less  flattering  to  a  monarch, 
than  the  glowing  reference  to  hereditary 
and  indefeasible  right  poured  forth  by  the 
High-Church  sycophants.  A  slight  jar 
arose  between  the  Church  and  the  de- 
parting administration,  on  account  of  the 
Assembly  having  appointed  a  fast,  to 
which  the  sanction  of  her  majesty  had  to 
be  procured.  This  was  promptly  grant- 
ed ;  but  the  Earl  of  Sunderland,  in  a 
letter  to  Carstares,  warned  him  against 
the  danger  which  the  Church  might  in- 
cur, if  she  were  to  repeat  such  a  proce- 
dure on  her  own  authority.*  This  was 
sufficiently  indicative,  both  that  the  ad- 
ministration watched  the  conduct  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  with  a  jealous  and 
unfriendly  eye,  and  that  English  states- 
men were  alike  ignorant  of  the  charac- 
ter and  hostile  to  the  proceedings  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church. 

An  act  was  passed  by  this  Assembly, 
apparently  of  a  very  harmless,  or  rather 
of  a  laudable  character,  yet  pregnant 
with  meaning  of  ominous  import.  This 
was  an  "  Act  for  Preserving  the  Purity 
of  Doctrine,"  in  which  all  persons  are 
prohibited  from  uttering  any  opinions, 
or  using  any  expressions,  in  relation  to 
the  articles  of  faith,  "  not  agreeable  to 
the  form  of  sound  words  expressed  in 
the  Word  of  God  and  the  Confession  of 
Faith ;"  and  further  enacting,  "  that  no 
minister  or  member  of  this  Church  pre- 
sume to  print,  or  disperse  in  writing,  any 
catechism,  without  the  allowance  of  the 
presbytery  of  the  bounds,  and  of  the 
Commission."  The  direct  cause  of  fram- 
ing this  act  was  the  offence  taken  by 
Principal  Stirling  of  Glasgow,  and  Prin- 
cipal Haddow  of  St.  Andrews,  with  the 
language  of  a  catechism  on  the  cove- 
nants of  works  and  grace,  written  by  Mr. 
Hamilton,  minister  of  Airth,  which  these 
two  influential  men  contrived  to  get  the 
Assembly  thus  to  stigmatize,  without  due 
examination,  and  on  the  strength  of  their 
representation  respecting  the  tenor  of  the 
production.  But  the  more  remote  cause, 
which  was  indeed  the  real  moving  prin- 
ciple of  that  and  many  subsequent  events 
in  the  history  of  that  period,  is  to  be 
found  in  a  strong  leaven  of  unsound  doc- 
trines which  was  spreading  rapidly  in 
the  Church,  especially  in  that  large  divi- 

*  Carstares'  State  Papers,  p.  786. 


A.  D.  1711.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND, 


327 


sion  of  it  which  was  formed  hy  the  con- 
junction of  the  indulged  ministers,  the 
admitted  Prelatic  curates,  and  a  consider- 
ble  number  of  young  men,  who  had  im- 
bibed the  lax  notions  of  a  modified  Armi- 
nianism,  at  that  time  becoming  very  pre- 
valent both  in  England  and  on  the  Con- 
tinent. The  most  sound  and  able  divines 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland  marked  the 
progress  of  these  opinions  with  deep  re- 
gret, and  set  themselves  to  oppose  them 
by  every  means  in  their  power,  [t  was 
with  this  view  that  Mr.  Hamilton  had 
written  the  above  mentioned  catechism  ; 
and  it  was  to  prevent  the  diffusion  of  it 
and  similar  productions  that  the  leading 
men  of  the  Assembly  procured  the  pass- 
ing of  the  act  for  preserving  the  purity 
of  doctrine.*  It  may  seem  strange  that 
an  act  so  designated  should  in  reality 
have  been  an  act  to  prevent  the  defence 
of  truth,  and  to  permit  the  unchecked 
diffusion  of  error.  Yet  so  it  was ;  and 
nothing  could  more  clearly  prove  the 
pernicious  tendency  of  that  moderate 
management  so  highly  recommended  by 
William,  so  perseveringly  followed  by 
Carstares,  ana  so  destructively  successful 
in  introducing  into  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land such  a  body  of  men,  not  more  than 
half  Presbyterian  in  their  principles, 
doctrines,  and  practice,  by  whom  she  was 
early  and  deeply  vitiated,  ere  long  griev- 
ously enthralled,  and  from  the  baneful 
influence  of  whose  long  and'dreary  do- 
mination she  is  yet  but  striving  painfully 
to  recover. 

[1711.]  The  machinations  of  the  Ja- 
cobites for  the  destruction  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland  were  not  only  prosecuted 
with  unremitting  ardour,  but  began  about 
this  time  to  assume  the  aspect  of  near 
success.  One  event  which  hastened  the 
struggle  rather  prematurely  for  the  ene- 
mies of  Presbstery,  arose  out  of  the  at- 
tempt of  one  Greenshields,  an  Episcopa- 
lian minister,  to  open  a  meeting-house  and 
use  the  English  Liturgy  in  Edinburgh. 
The  Prelatic  party  of  the  persecution 
had  never  used  a  Liturgy,  with  the  sole 
exception  of  Burnet,  afterwards  bishop 
of  Salisbury,  while  he  was  curate  of 
Salton  ;  being  deterred  probably  by  the 
remembrance  of  the  tumult  which  the 

For  a  full  account  of  this  matter,  and  of  the  contro- 
versy respecting  the  Marrow  of  Modern  Divinity,  see 
a  series  of  papers  by  Dr  M-Crie,  in  the  Christiun  In- 
structor, in  the  years  1831, 1832. 


attempt  to  introduce  the  Liturgy  in  the 
year  1637  had  caused  But  now,  when 
the  Scottish  Prelatists  began  to  hope  for 
support  from  their  brethren  in  England, 
they  thought  it  expedient  to  conform  to 
the  whole  ritual  of  that  Church.  When 
Greenshields  first  made  the  attempt,  to- 
wards the  end  of  the  year  1709,  he  war 
called  before  the  Presbytery  of  Edin- 
burgh, but  declining  their  jurisdiction,  he 
was  interdicted  by  the  magistrates  of  the 
city,  and  his  meeting-house  closed  by 
their  authority.  The  affair  was  brought 
before  the  Court  of  Session,  and  decided 
against  Greenshields,  his  conduct  being 
regarded  as  a  direct  infraction  of  the 
articles  of  the 'Treaty  of  Union.  But 
the  Jacobites  and  Prelatists,  buoyed  up 
by  the  High-Church  frenzy  in  Eng- 
land, carried  the  matter  by  appeal  to 
the  House  of  Lords,  auguring  but  too 
surely  that  the  Church  of  Scotland  would 
meet  no  favour  and  but  little  justice  there. 
When  the  case  first  came  to  London,  the 
whole  country  was  in  a  ferment  about 
Sacheverel's  trial,  so  that  the  affair  of 
Greenshields  was  laid  aside  till  a  more 
convenient  opportunity.  But  after  the 
formation  of  a  new  cabinet,  and  the  com- 
plete ascendency  of  High-Church  and 
Tory  principles  in  the  legislature,  it  was 
again  brought  forward,  and  given  in  fa- 
vour of  Greenshields,  the  sentence  of  the 
Court  of  Session  being  reversed,  and  the 
magistrates  of  Edinburgh  subjected  to 
heavy  damages  for  wrongful  imprison- 
ment. Great  was  the  exultation  of  the 
Prelatists  and  Jacobites  when  the  deci- 
sion was  made ;  and  great  also  was  the 
indignation  of  the  Presbyterians.  There 
was  a  mixture  of  right  and  wrong  in  the 
decision,  viewed  abstractly,  with  regard 
to  its  essence,  and  to  the  state  of  the  law 
at  the  time.  It  was  right  that  no  man 
should  be  liable  to  imprisonment  for  wor- 
shipping God  according  to  the  light  of 
his  own  conscience  ;  but  according  to 
the  un repealed  laws  of  the  country, 
Greenshields  was  guilty  of  a  high  mis- 
demeanour, especially  when  it  is  remem- 
bered that  he  and  all  his  party  had  re- 
fused to  swear  allegiance  to  the  reigning 
sovereign,  and  were  known  to  be  en- 
gaged in  plotting  for  the  restoration  of  the 
Popish  Pretender.  In  that  view  he  merit- 
ed punishment  as  guilty  of  rebellious 
conduct, — not  on  account  of  his  religious 


328 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX 


opinions  ;  and  his  acquittal,  and  the  fine 
exacted  from  the  magistrates  of  Edin- 
burgh, was  a  direct  violation  of  the  prin 
ciples  of  the  Revolution,  arid  tended  to 
shake  the  throne  of  Q,ueen  Anne,  and  to 
produce  a  counter-revolution.  It  is  in- 
deed evident  that  this  was  the  very  effect 
which  the  Jacobites  and  Bolingbroke  in- 
tended and  anticipated,  when  they  pressed 
this  decision  contrary  to  the  inclinations 
of  the  Earl  of  Oxford.*  But,  as  usual, 
they  contrived  to  misrepresent  the  whole 
affair,  and  to  declaim  about  it  as  a  mere 
act  of  protection  to  an  injured  Episcopa- 
lian against  Presbyterian  intolerance. 

When  the  Assembly  met,  there  was  a 
general  'eeling  pervading  the  house  that 
a  dangerous  crisis  was  at  hand.  The 
pernicious  effects  of  English  prelatic  in- 
fluence were  beginning  to  be  but  too  ap- 
parent, not  only  in  such  a  case  as  that  of 
Greenshields,  but  in  a  growing  tendency 
in  various  quarters  to  imitate  the  English 
disregard  of  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath, 
which  had  always  been  peculiarly  main- 
tained by  the  Church  of  Scotland.  They 
were  well  aware  also,  that  the  main  ob- 
ject of  the  Jacobites  was  to  alter  the  suc- 
cession to  the  throne  :  and  they  knew 
that  Scottish  Prelacy  would  very  readily 
endure  a  Popish  monarch,  though  the 
Church  of  England  might  not  be  equal- 
ly willing  to  violate  all  Protestant  princi- 
ples. The  attachment  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland  was  therefore  very  distinctly 
stated  to  the  succession  of  the  Protestant 
House  of  Hanover,  both  in  the  Assem- 
bly's letter  to  the  Queen,  and  in  an  act 
passed  recommending  prayers  to  be  offer- 
ed up  for  her  majesty,  and  for  the  Pro- 
testant line  of  succession.  Several  acts 
were  also  passed  for  the  better  regulation 
of  internal  matters  in  the  worship  go- 
vernment, and  discipline  of  the  Church  — 
recommending  family  worship, — for  the 
better  observance  of  the  Sabbath, — con- 
cerning the  administration  of  the  sacra- 
ments of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  sup- 
per,— respecting  students  of  divinity, — 
and  appointing  the  questions  to  be  put  to 
probationers  before  being  licenced  to 
preach,  and  to  ministers  at  their  ordina- 
tion. It  is  remarkable,  that  almost  im- 
mediately before  the  occurrence  of  any 
peculiarly  important  or  dangerous  junc- 

*  Lockhavt  Papers,  vol.  i.  pp.  346  347;  Stuart  Papers, 


ture  in  the  history  of  the  Church,  there 
has  been  some  arrangement  made  in  her 
internal  regulations,  calculated  to  prepare 
her  for  the  struggle,  and  to  confirm  her 
vitality  when  about  to  be  severely  tried. 
These  questions  to  be  put  to  probationers 
and  ministers  were  calculated  to  deter 
the  ungodly  and  worldly-minded  from 
entering  the  Church,  at  the  very  time 
when  the  door  of  admission  to  such  per- 
sons was  about  to  be  thrown  open  ;  and 
though  unprincipled  men  can,  and  do 
break  through  every  sacred  and  moral 
barrier,  yet  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the 
existence  of  such  barriers  has  a  strong 
tendency  to  preserve  the  sanctity  of  the 
ground  which  they  inclose  from  the  tread 
of  the  unhallowed  intruder. 

Aware  of  the  coming  dangers  to  be 
apprehended  from  the  unprincipled  states- 
men who  swayed  the  councils  of  the  na- 
tion, the  General  Assembly  gave  specific 
directions  to  the  Commission  to  do  what 
might  be  necessary  for  the  preservation 
of  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
Church,  and  empowered  them  to  send  a 
commission  to  London,  if  they  should 
see  cause,  to  watch  over  the  progress  of 
events,  and  to  seek  the  redress  of  griev- 
ances. 

[1712.  The  year  1712  must  ever  be 
regarded  as  a  black  year  in  the  annals  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland.  The  triumph 
which  the  prelatic  Jacobites  had  gained 
in  the  case  of  Greenshields,  instead  of 
satisfying,  had  merely  encouraged  them 
to  further  aggressions  upon  the  Presby- 
;erian  Church,  against  which  they  cher- 
'shed  the  most  deadly  hatred.  When 
the  British  parliament  met,  in  December 

1711,  their  first  attention  was  occupied  in 
cecuring  the  ascendency  of  despotic  prin- 

;iples  in  both  houses.  This  was  accom- 
plished in  the  House  of  Lords  by  the 
creation  of  twelve  new  peers  at  once, 
whose  votes  enabled  the  cabinet  to  com- 
mand a  majority  for  the  time.  Early  in 

1712,  the  Jacobites,  deeming  their  prepa- 
rations complete,  unmasked  those  batte- 
ries with  which  they  hoped  to  lay  pros- 
trate the  Church  of   Scotland.     A  bill 
was  introduced  into  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, purporting  to  be  for  the  granting 
of  a  legal  toleration  to  those  of  the  Epis 
copalian  dissenters  in  Scotland  who  wish 
ed  to  use  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church  of 
England;  repealing,  at  the  same  time. 


A.  D.  1712.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


329 


those  acts  of  the  Scottish  parliament  by 
which  they  were  subjected  to  the  juris- 
diction and  discipline  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian church  courts,  and  forbidding  the 
civil  sanction  to  be  added  to  ecclesiastical 
sentences  for  their  enforcement.  This 
bill  was  introduced  on  the  21st  of  Janu- 
ary ;  and  so  secretly  had  the  Jacobites 
concerted  their  scheme,  that  the  intention 
of  proposing  suph  a  bill  was  not  known 
till  the  motion  was  made  in  the  House 
of  Commons  respecting  it.  The  Com- 
mission of  the  General  Assembly  imme- 
diately sent  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Carstares, 
Blackwell,  and  Baillie,  to  London,  with 
instructions  to  use  every  exertion  in  their 
power  for  preventing  the  passing  of  such 
a  bill,  and  to  watch  over  the  threatened 
rights  and  privileges  of  the  Church. 
Their  earnest  remonstrances  were  in 
vain.  The  House  of  Commons  passed 
the  bill,  and  transmitted  it  to  the  House 
of  Lords.  The  Scottish  Commission  re- 
newed their  remonstrances,  and  prevail- 
ed so  far  as  to  procure  the  addition  of  the 
oath  of  abjuration  to  the  Bill  of  Tolera- 
tion, for  the  purpose  of  preventing  Pa- 
pists and  Jacobites  from  obtaining  any 
advanta;.  from  this  bill.  But  the  wily 
Jacobites  contrived  to  have  a  clause  in- 
serted in  the  bill,  requiring  the  ministers 
of  the  Established  Presbyterian  Church 
to  come  under  the  same  obligation.  There 
was  one  clause  in  the  abjuration  oath 
which  rendered  it  impossible  for  a  Pres- 
byterian to  take  it  without  explanation. 
In  the  act  of  succession,  settling  the 
crown  on  the  Hanoverian  Protestant  line, 
one  of  the  conditions  specified  was,  that 
the  successor  should  be  of  the  commu- 
nion of  the  Church  of  England  ;  and  in 
he  oath  of  abjuration,  the  person  was 
required  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  suc- 
cessor as  limited  by  that  act.  This  the 
Presbyterians  regarded  as  requiring  them 
to  swear  that  the  sovereign  ought  to  be 
an  Episcopalian,  thereby  declaring  a 
Presbyterian  incapable  of  wearing  the 
crown.  To  this  they  could  not  submit 
without  stamping  reprobation  upon  their 
own  religion.  But  they  procured  from 
the  House  of  Lords  an  alteration  in  that 
clause,  changing  the  word. as  to  which, 
thereby  making  the  clause  merely  a  nar- 
rative of  the  general  limitation  to  a  Pro- 
testant line,  without  any  direct  reference 
to  special  conditions.  The  Scottish  Ja- 
42 


cobites  were  acute  enough  to  perceive 
the  import  of  this  alteration,  and  had 
sufficient  influence  to  procure  in  the 
House  of  Commons  the  restoration  of 
the  word  as,  well  knowing  the  offence 
which  it  would  give  to  the  Presbyterians. 
They  knew  that  the  Prelatic  Jacobites 
would  not  take  the  abjuration  oath,  be- 
cause they  regarded  the  Popish  Pretend- 
er, whom  that  oath  abjured,  as  the  right- 
ful heir  to  the  British  crown,  and  their 
great  aim  was  to  render  it  equally  im- 
possible for  Presbyterians  to  take  it ;  that 
both  parties  being  placed  in  eq_ual  peril, 
so  much  of  a  mutual  compromise  might 
ensue  as  to  leave  the  Prelatists  undis- 
turbed in  the  prosecution  of  their  rebel- 
lious designs  for  the  subversion  of  the 
Revolution  Settlement  and  the  restoration 
of  a  Popish  king.*  Too  well  their 
crafty  policy  succeeded.  No  more  than 
one  of  the  Prelatic  clergy  ever  took  the 
oath  of  abjuration,  while  every  one  avail- 
ed himself  of  the  toleration,  and  imme- 
diately began  to  celebrate  public  wprship- 
with  all  the  pomp  and  ceremony  in 
which  the  Church  of  England  delights, 
to  a  degree  not  previously  seen  in  Scot- 
land since  the  Reformation.  At  the  same 
time,  so  great  was  the  dissatisfaction  felt 
by  the  ministers  and  people  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  on  account  of  this  oath, 
that  it  nearly  caused  a  schism  in  the 
Church,  the  refusal  to  take  it  being  re- 
garded by  many  as  a  criterion  of  minis- 
terial faithfulness,  and  almost  a  term  of 
communion  ;  while  the  people  equally 
hated  and  despised  those  ministers  who 
consented  to  take  the  ensnaring  and  dan- 
gerous bond.f 

Some  have  endeavoured  to  represent 
this  Act  of  Toleration  as  a  wise  and 
laudable  scheme  for  securing  religious 
liberty  to  all  denominations  of  Protestant 
Christians.  How  much  soever  it  may 
have  ultimately  contributed  to  that  result 
such  was  not  the  intention,  in  even  the 
slightest  degree,  of  those  by  whom  it  was 
framed.  They  wished  for  toleration, 
:hat  they  might  obtain  ascendency. 
They  were  anxious  to  open  Episcopalian 
chapels,  only  that  they  might  soon  have 
it  in  their  power  to  shut  Presbyterian 
churches.  And  they  were  eager  to  over- 

•  Lockhart  Papers,  vol.  i.  pp.  379-381 ;  Burnet's  Own 
Times,  vol.  ii.  p.  649. 

t  Boston's  Memoirs,  p.  221,  e*  MO. ;  Hog  of  Carnock'* 
Memoirs ;  Wodrow,  Analecta  and  Letters. 


330 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND 


[CHAP.  IX. 


throw  the  Presbyterian  Church,  because 
they  knew  that  the  principles  of  religious 
and  civil  liberty  had  there  obtained  a  safe 
retreat,  till  they  issued  forth  triumphant- 
ly in  the  Revolution,  which  the  Jacobites 
wished  to  d_  driving  from  the  throne 
the  Popish  tyrant,  whose  lawless  despot- 
ism they  were  conspiring  to  restore. 

The  "next  measure  brought  forward  by 
the  Scottish  Jacobites  was  of  a  still  more 
pernicious  character,  and  involved  a  still 
more  direct  violation  of  the  national  faith, 
so  solemnly  pledged  in  the  Act  of  Secu- 
rity and  the  Treaty  of  Union.  On  the 
13th  of  March  Mr.  Murray,  second  son 
of  Lord  Stormont,  one  of  the  Scottish 
members,  rose  and  obtained  leave  to  bring 
in-  a  bill  for  restoring  cjiurch  paitronage 
in  Scotland.  By  this  time  the^cottish 
commissioners  from  the  Church  had  re- 
turned to  their  own  country,  not  antici- 
pating any  further  infringement  of  their 
legal  rights  and  privileges  at  that  period. 
Availing  themselves  of  the  absence  of 
her  defenders,  the  enemies  of  the  Church 
passed  the  bill  with  unusual  rapidity 
through  all  its  successive  stages.  On  the 
7th  of  April  it  passed  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, one  hundred  and  seventy-three 
members  voting  for  it,  and  seventy-six 
against  it.  The  very  next  day  it  was 
carried  up  to  the  House  of  Lords  for  their 
consideration.  By  this  time  tidings  had 
reached  Scotland  of  the  deadly  blow  aim- 
ed against  the  Church  ;  and  Carstares, 
Blackwell,  and  Baillie,  were  again  sent 
to  London,  with  instructions  to  offer  the 
most  strenuous  opposition  to  the  fatal 
measure.  Before  they  arrived  the  bill 
had  reached  the  House  of  Lords  ;  and 
although  their  Lordships  consented  to  hear 
them  by  counsel  on  the  subject,  yet  this 
was  little  more  than  empty  courtesy,  for 
the  fate  of  the  bill  had  been  pre-deter- 
mined.  So  manifestly  was  this  the  case, 
that  their  lordships  did  not  even  allow 
time  for  decent  deliberation  on  a  subject 
of  such  vast  international  and  religious 
importance.  They  heard  the  council  for 
the  Scottish  Commissioners,  read  the  bill 
a  second  time,  committed  it,  reported  it, 
and  read  it  a  third  time,  all  in  one  day, 
the  fatal  12th  of  April.  On  the  14th.  it 
was  returned  to  the  Hpuse  of  Commons 
with  some  slight  amendments,  which 
were  agreed  to  without  opposition  ;  and 
on  the  22d  of  April  that  unconstitutional 


and  most  disastrous  bill  received  the  roy- 
al assent.  Whether  the  hand  of  the  mis- 
guided sovereign  shook  when  affixing  the 
sign  manual  has  not  been  recorded  ;  but 
certainly  at  that  moment  she  put  her 
hand  to  a  deed  by  which  her  right  to 
reign  was  virtually  rescinded,  the  Revo- 
lution Settlement  overturned,  and  the 
Treaty  of  Union  repealed  ;  unless,  in- 
deed, the  bill  itself  were, to  be  regarded 
as  an  absolute  nullity, — an  idle  arrange- 
ment of  mere  words,  "  full  of  sound  and 
fury,  signifying  nothing."  For  it  will 
not  be  disputed  by  any  person  possessing 
competent  knowledge,  that  the  British 
sovereign  reigns  over  the  united  empire, 
solely  in  virtue  of  the  Act  of  Security, 
which  is  the  basis  of  Union.  Any  in- 
fringement of  that  great,  and,  as  it  may 
almost  be  termed,  creative  act,  must  there- 
fore be  either,  with  regard  to  the  British 
parliament,  a  suicidal  deed,  and  with  re- 
gard to  the  sovereign  a  virtual  abdica- 
tion ;  or  must  be  altogether  and  for  ever 
null  and  void,  incapable  of  acquiring  any 
possible  degree  of  validity,  or  of  impos- 
ing upon  any  British  subject  the  slightest 
shadow  of  obligation.  It  may  be  safely 
affirmed,  that  no  jurist  will  ever  prove 
that  the  British  parliament  ever  did  or 
can,  pass  an  act  greater  than,  and  subver- 
sive of,  that  to  which  it  owes  its  own  ex- 
istence. It  might  have  dethroned  the 
sovereign, — it  might  have  repealed  the 
Union  ;  but  it  did  not,  it  could  not,  and  it 
never  can,  impair  the  Act  of  Security, 
unless  the  thing  created  can  annihilate 
its  creator  !  But  the  law  of  patronage  is 
contrary  to  the  Act  of  Security,  which  it 
was,  and  is  avowedly  beyond  the  power 
of  the  British  legislature  to  violate ;  there- 
fore that  unconstitutional  attempt  to  reim- 
pose  patronage  was,  is,  and  must  for 
ever  be,  absolutely  null  and  void,  accord' 
ing  to  every  dictate  of  justice,  sound  rea- 
son, and  constitutional  law. 

Both  the  contending  parties,  the 
Church  of  Scotland  and  her  enemies,  re- 
gard the  patronage  act  as  a  violation  of 
the  Act  of  Security,  as  appears  from  their 
respective  statements.  Lockhart  of  Carn- 
wath  says  concerning  it,  "  I  pressed  the 
Toleration  and  Patronage  Acts  more 
earnestly,  that  I  thought  the  Presbyterian 
clergy  would  be  from  thence  convinced 
that  the  establishment  of  their  Kirk 
would  in  time  be  overturned,  as  it  was 


A.  D.  1712.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


33, 


obvious  that  the  security  thereof  was  not 
so  thoroughly  established  by  the  Union  as 
they  imagined."*  The  commissioners  of 
the  Church  had,  in  their  address  and  re- 
presentation to  the  queen,  when  they 
were  in  London  for  the  purpose  of  op- 
posing the  passing  of  the  Patronage  Act, 
declared  it  to  be  "  contrary  to  our 
Church  constitution,  so  well  secured  by 
the  Treaty  of  Union."  This  address  the 
General  Assembly  approved  and  em- 
bodied in  an  act,  thereby  giving  it  the 
ratification  of  the  whole  Church.  And 
in  a  meeting  of  the  Commission  of  As- 
sembly, as  Wodrow  states,  "  it  was  own- 
ed by  all,  that  patronages  were  a  very 
great  grievance,  and  sinful  in  the  impo- 
sers,  and  a  breach  of  the  security  of 
the  Presbyterian  constitution  by  the 
Union."! 

*  Lockhart  Papers,  vol.  i.  p.  418. 

t  Wodrow  MS.  In  addition  to  the  direct  statements 
in  the  text  from  two  such  opposite  yet  concurrent 
authorities  as  Lockhart  and  Wodrow,  with  regard  to 
the  views  entertained  by  both  parties  respecting  the 
effects  intended  by,  or  to  be  expected  from,  the  Patron- 
age Act,  as  calculated  to  impair  the  Scottish  Church, 
shake  the  Union,  and  prepare  for  the  return  of  the 
exiled  Popish  Pretender,  the  following  extracts  deserve 
attention  — "  After  that,  an  act  was  brought  in  for  the 
restoring  of  patronages  :  these  had  been  taken  away 
by  an  act  in  King  William's  reign.  It  was  set  up  by 
the  Presbyterians  from  their  first  beginning,  as  a  prin- 
ciple, that  parishes  had,  from  warrants  in  Scripture,  a 
right  to  choose  their  ministers ;  so  that  they  had 
always  looked  on  the  right  of  patronage  as  an  invasion 
made  on  that.  It  was  therefore  urged,  that  since,  by 
the  Act  of  Uni6n,  Presbytery  with  all  its  rights  and 
privileges,  was  unalterably  secured,  and  since  their 
kirk-session  was  a  branch  of  their  constitution,  the 
taking  from  them  the  right  of  choosing  their  ministers 
was  contrary  to  that  act.  Yet  the  bill' passed  through 
both  houses,  a  small  opposition  being  only  made  in 
either.  By  these  steps  the  Presbyterians  were  alarm- 
ed when  they  saw  the  success  of  every  motion  that 
was  made  on  design  to  weaken  and  undermine  their 
establishment."  (Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  ii.  p.  595.) 

"Although  Mr  Carstares  did  not  .succeed  in  his  ap- 
plication to  parliament  against  the  bill  for  restoring 
patronages,  yet  his  presence  to  London  was  of  consid- 
erable advantage  to  the  Church  of  Scotland,  by  giving 
him  ;ni  opportunity  of  thwarting  some  other  projects, 
which  he  considered  as  more  dangerous  in  their  ten- 
dency, because  they  affected  her  constitution  in  a  more 
sensible  manner.  Some  of  her  enemies,  who  were 
then  in  administration,  had  proposed  that  her  annual 
AsM-mMics  should  be  discontinued,  as  the  source  of  all 
the  opposition  to  the  measures  then  pursued  by  the 
court;  others  were  of  opinion  that  they  ought  to  be 
permitted  to  meet,  but  should  be  prorogued  by  her 
majesty'*  authority,  so  soon  as  they  were  constituted. 
And.  to  take  away" the  only  pretext  for  holding  Assem- 
blu's.  for  the  future,  or  their  sitting  for  any  time,  a  bill 
was  proposed,  obliging  presbyteries,  under  certain 
penalties,  to  settle,  upon  a  presentation,  every  man  to 
whom  the  Church  had  given  license  to  preach,  with- 
out any  further  trial  or  form."  (Life  of  Carstares,  pp. 
82,83.) 

"  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  restoration  of  the  right 
of  lay  patrons  in  Queen  Anne's  time  was  designed  to 
separate  the  ministers  of  the  Kirk  from  the  people, 
who  could  not  be  supposed  to  be  equally  attached  to, 
or  influenced  by,  a  minister  who  held  his  living  by  the 
gift  of  a  great  man,  as  by  one  who  was  chosen  by 
their  own  free  voice, — and  to  render  them  more  de- 
pendent on  the  nobility  and  amongst  gentry,  whom, 
much  more  than  the  common  people,  the  sentiments 
of  Jacobitism  predominated."  (Sir  Walter  Scott's 
Tales  of  a  Grandfather,  vol.  ii.  p.  242.) 


Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  when  the 
General  Assembly  met  on  the  1st  of  May 
1712.  Notwithstanding  the  recent  viola- 
tions of  the  Act  of  Security,  the  Duke  of 
Athol,  the  commissioner,  was  instructed 
to  use  the  language  of  approbation, 
mingled  with  deceitfully  soothing  assur- 
ances of  her  majesty's  "  firm  purpose  to 
maintain  the  Church  of  Scotland  as  es- 
tablished by  law,"  In  answer  to  this,  the 
Assembly  referred  her  majesty  to  the  re- 
presentations and  petitions  laid  before  her 
by  the  Commission,  as  containing  the 
views  and  feelings  of  the  Church  respect- 
ing the  recent  proceedings  of  Parliament. 
The  Assembly  further  embodied  the  re- 
presentations, petitions,  and  addresses 
of  the  Commission  in  specific  acts,  giving 
them  thereby  the  fullest  sanction  of  the 
whole  Church  ;  and  gave  also  particular 
instructions  to  the  Commission  to  use  all 
dutiful  and  proper  means  for  obtaining 
redress  of  these  grievances, — instructions 
which  were  repeated  to  every  succeeding 
Commission  till  the  year  1784.  An  at- 
tempt was  also  made  by  the  Assembly  to 
frame  such  an  explanation  of  the  abjura- 
tion oath  as  would  enable  ministers  to 
take  it  without  doing  direct  violence  to 
their  conscientious  scruples  ;  and  an  ad- 
dress was  prepared  to  be  laid  before  the 
queen,  testifying  their  inviolate  loyalty  to 
her  person  and  government,  and  their  firm 
adherence  to  the  principles  of  religious 
and  civil  liberty,  and  to  the  Protestant 
succession,  and  supplicating  her  majesty 
to  employ  her  utmost  care  to  protect  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  and  to  interpose  her 
royal  authority  for  a  just  redress  of  these 
recent  grievances.* 

The  enemies  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land were  considerably  disappointed  by 
the  conduct  of  the  General  Assembly. 
They  had  expected  that  the  passing  of 
these  iniquitous  and  unconstitutional  laws 
would  at  once  excite  such  an  uncontrol- 
lable storm  of  indignation  as  would  dis- 
solve the  Union,  and  throw  all  Scotland 
into  the  hands  of  the  Jacobites,  who 
would  so  direct  the  torrent  of  popular 
fury  as  to  procure  the  restoration  of  the 
Pretender  first  to  the  Scottish  throne,  and 
then,  by  the  aid  of  the  vantage-ground  so 
gained,  and  through  the  intrigues  of  Bo- 
lingbroke,  to  that  of  England.  That 
they  thoroughly  misunderstood  the  prin- 

•  Acts  of  Assembly,  year  1712. 


332 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


ciples  and  character  of  Presbyterians  is 
manifest,  since  they  presumed  to  think, 
that  in  a  weak  and  sinful  revenge  of 
wrongs  sustained,  true  Presbyterians 
would  perpetrate  the  greater  wrong  of 
aiding  in  replacing  an  avowed  Papist 
on  the  throne.  Presbyterians  could 
not  indeed  but  regard  the  law  of 
patronage  as  sinful,  since  it  was  so  far  an 
attempt  to  interfere  with  the  great  Pres- 
byterian principle  of  the  sole  Sovereignty 
and  Headship  of  the  Lord  Jesus  over  his 
Church ;  but  they  could  not  fail  to  see, 
that  to  place  a  Popish  monarch  on  the 
throne  of  the  kingdom  would  involve  an 
immeasurably  more  flagrant  violation  of 
that  sacred  principle.  And  because  they 
thus  felt  and  thought,  the  outrage  which 
they  had  sustained  not  only  brought  them 
not  one  hair's-breadth  nearer  to  a  junc- 
tion with  the  Jacohites,  but  as  they  knew 
by  whom  the  nefarious  deed  had  been 
instigated,  they  were  the  more  confirmed 
in  their  detestation  of  that  treacherous 
and  tyrannical  faction.  This  may  be  re- 
garded as  another  proof  how  utterly  im- 
possible it  is  for  mere  worldly-minded 
men  to  comprehend  the  principles  and 
anticipate  the  conduct  of  Christians. 
The  Jacobites  knew  what  they  would 
have  done,  had  they  been  so  treated  ;  but 
they  failed  miserably  in  their  conjectures 
of  what  the  Church  of  Scotland  would 
do.  So  has  it  always  been,  so  will  it 
ever  be,  when  the  man  of  the  world  pre- 
sumes to  foretell  the  conduct  of  the  reli- 
gious man,  by  the  consciousness  of  what, 
in  similar  circumstances,  would  be  his 
own. 

But  the  friends  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land had  reason  also  to  be  disappointed 
by  the  conduct  of  the  General  Assembly. 
Had  her  councils  been  at  that  time  guid- 
'  by  a  Knox,  a  Melville,  or  a  Hender- 
son, instead  of  a  Qaiatares,  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  the  Assembly  would  not 
only  have  declared  the  Act  of  Patronage 
an  infraction  of  the  Treaty  of  Union,  as 
indeed  was  done,  but  also  they  would 
have  declared  it  to  be,  for  that  very  rea- 
son, necessarily  and  essentially  invalid  ; 
and  would  have  passed  an  act,  strictly 
prohibiting  all  probationers,  ministers, 
and  church  courts,  from  yielding  to  it  the 
slightest  degree  of  obedience,  leaving  to 
the  civil  powers  to  attempt  enforcing  it 
by  persecution  or  otherwise,  if  they  could 


and  dared.  This  they  might  have  done, 
and  at  the  same  time  have  declared  with 
the  most  perfect  truth,  that  this  was  not 
only  no  infringement  of  their  own  alle- 
giance, or  of  the  Treaty  of  Union,  but 
that  it  was  in  reality  the  fulfilment  and 
defence  of  both.  Nor  were  the  Jacobites 
so  powerful,  and  the  new  ministry  so 
firmly  seated,  as  to  have  enabled  them  to 
attempt  the  violent  enforcement  of  a  law 
so  glaringly  unconstitutional,  and  involv- 
ing such  a  manifest  and  infamous  breach 
of  national  faith.  But  that  ground  may 
yet  be  taken,  for  the  Act  of  Security  still 
remains  ;  and  the  time  may  come,  at  no 
distant  date,  when  the  Church  and  peo- 
ple of  Scotland  will  call  upon  the  British 
legislature,  with  a  voice  too  distinct  to  be 
misunderstood,  and  too  mighty  to  be  dis- 
regarded, to  rescind  its  own  unlawful  deed 
and  to  leave  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  full  possession  of  its  rights  and  privi- 
leges, founded  in  the  Redeemer's  Divine 
Sovereignty,  won  by  the  blood  of  her 
heroic  martyrs,  and  secured  by  acts  de- 
clared to  be  inviolable.  He  would  be  a 
strange  defender  of  the  British  constitu- 
tion who  should  insist,  that  to  maintain  it 
in  its  integrity  it  was  necessary  to  per- 
petuate a  vitiating  act  of  national  perfidy  ; 
and  not  less  strangely  would  any  defend 
the  Church  of  England,  who  should  as- 
sert, that  her  safety  Depended  upon  the 
permanent  continuation  of  an  act  of  griev- 
ous injustice  committed  against  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  of  Scotland. 

Not  only  was  the  Patronage  Act  so 
directly  unconstitutional  as  to  be  essen- 
tially invalid,  and  absolutely  incapable  of 
ever  acquiring  validity, — not  only  was  it 
forced  through  both  riouses  of  the  legis- 
lature with  such  unseemly  haste  as  to  re- 
semble the  swift  and  stealthy  motion  of 
one  who  is  pillaging  his  neighbour's 
property, — the  very  grounds  of  this  illegal 
and  baneful  act,  as  stated  in  the  preamble, 
were  guileful  misrepresentations  and 
direct  falsehoods.  It  begins  by  assert- 
ing, in  general  terms,  that  "by  the  an- 
cient laws  and  constitution  of  Scotland, 
the  presenting  of  ministers  to  vacant 
churches  did  of  right  belong  to  the  pa 
trons,  till,  by  the  act  of  1 690,  the  presen- 
tation was  taken  from  the  patrons,  and 
given  to  the  heritors  and  elders  of  the  re- 
spective parishes."  At  the  time  of  the 
Reformation  there  were  nine  hundred 


A.  D.  1712.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


333 


and  forty  parishes  in  Scotland,  and  of 
these,  only  about  two  hundred  were  sub- 
ject to  the  presentation  of  lay  patrons, 
"  by  the  ancient  laws  and  constitution  of 
Scotland."  Was  it  to  regulate  these  that 
the  act  of  Glueen  Anne  was  passed  ?  It 
could  not  with  truth  and  justice  apply  to 
more.  It  is  not  true  that  the  presentation 
was  given  to  the  heritors  and  elders,  for 
there  was  no  presentation  at  all  under  the 
Revolution  Settlement ;  the  very  word  to 
present,  was  rigidly  excluded  from  the 
act,  lest  some  such  idea  might  be  enter- 
tained. Under  the  act  1690,  ministers 
were  settled,  not  upon  the  foundation  of 
their  being  proposed  by  heritors  and 
elders,  but  upon  that  of  the  acceptance 
and  call  of  the  people.  This  mendacious 
preamble  further  states,  that  "  that  way 
of  calling  ministers  has  proved  inconve- 
nient, and  has  not  only  occasioned  great 
heats  and  inconveniences  among  those 
who  by  the  foresaid  act  were  entitled  and 
authorised  to  call  ministers,  but  likewise 
has  been  a  great  hardship  upon  the  pa- 
trons, whose  predecessors  had  founded 
and  endowed  those  churches,  and  who 
had  not  received  payment  or  satisfaction 
for  their  right  of  patronage."  Instead  of 
the  "  way  of  calling  ministers"  under  the 
act  1690  having  "  proved  inconvenient," 
by  occasioning  "  great  heats  and  incon- 
veniencies,"  the  very  opposite  is  the 
truth.  When  "  heats  and  inconveniences" 
did  prevail,  they  were  caused,  not  by  the 
opposition  to  the  settlement  of  pious  and 
faithful  ministers  by  turbulent  Presby- 
terian congregations, — not  even  by  reli- 
gious congregations  opposing  the  settle- 
ment of  ungoldly  ministers,  —  but  by 
Jacobites,  Prelatists,  and  mobs  of  vagrants 
who  could  not  be  termed  Christians  at 
all,  hired  and  set  on  by  the  guileful  ene- 
mies of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  to  ob- 
struct her  reforming  progress,  to  prevent 
the  consolidation  of  national  peace  and 
welfare,  and  to  keep  the  country  in  such 
a  state  of  confusion  as  might  lead  to  the 
return  of  a  Popish  tyrant.  The  framers 
of  that  preamble  were  the  very  perpetra- 
tors of  the  scenes  of  tumult  of  which  they 
complained ;  and  the  proper  remedy 
would  have  been  a  more  stringent  act 
against  those  enemies  of  their  country, 
the  Jacobites  and  Prelatists  of  Scotland. 
During  the  whole  period  from  1690  to 
1712,  not  one  single  instance  occurred  in 


which  the  great  body  of  the  people 
deserted  a  parish  church,  on  account  of 
the  settlement  of  a  minister  under  the  au- 
thority of  the  General  Assembly.* 

That  there  were  scenes  of  confusion  is 
readily  admitted  ;  but  these  were  invaria- 
bly caused  by  a  Prelatic  party  unlawfully 
obstructing  the  settlement  of  a  Presby- 
terian minister.!  And  every  one  must 
see  that  the  Prelatists  in  any  parish  could 
have  no  more  right  to  interfere  in  the  set- 
tlement of  a  Presbyterian  minister,  to 
cause  confusion,  and  then  to  complain  of 
it,  than  Presbyterians  in  England  would 
have  in  the  present  day  to  impede  the 
settlement  of  an  Episcopalian  clergyman 
in  any  parish  in  that  country,  and  then 
to  assert  that  the  strife  so  caused  was  a 
proof  of  the  evils  of  absolute  patronage  in 
England.  The  only  other  kind  of  "  heats 
and  inconveniences"  which  arose  at  times 
were  those  produced  by  competing  calls, 
when  two  or  more  different  parishes 
strove  each  to  obtain  the  same  individual 
to  be  their  minister.  The  principle  by 
which  the  Assembly  was  guided  in  de- 
termining cases  of  competing  calls  and 
transportations,  was  not  at  that  time  re- 
gard to  the  emoluments,  but  to  the  rela- 
tive importance  of  the  different  parishes, 
invariably  deciding  in  behalf  of  that 
parish  which  appeared  to  offer  the  largest 
sphere  of  public  usefulness,  which  occa- 
sionally, from  the  difficulty  of  arriving  at 
a  certain  conclusion,  caused  considerable 
delay.  Yet  these  generous  and  kindly 
contests,  as  they  may  be  termed,  were  far 
from  being  so  numerous  as  has  been 
generally  asserted.  Some  of  them  were 
determined  by  the  presbyteries  and  sy- 
nods, in  which  case  the  vacancy  in  the 
parish  would  not  extend  beyond  a  few 
months.  Others  were  carried  by  appeal 
to  the  Assembly ;  and  in  a  very  few  in- 
stances the  same  case  appeared  at  succes- 
sive Assemblies  before  a  final  settle- 
ment took  place.  But  the  whole  num- 
ber of  such  cases  mentioned  in  the  only 
authoritative  records,  those  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  amounted  to  no  more 
than  twelve  or  fourteen,:):  during  a  period 
of  twenty-two  years,  in  which  there 
must  have  been  at  least  six  or  seven  hun- 
dred settlements  of  ministers.  So  utterly 

*  Sir  Henry  MoncriefTs  Life  of  Erskine,  Appendix, 
p.  433. 

t  Carstares'  State  Papers,  p.  146. 
t  Acts  of  Assembly. 


334 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


false  is  the  assertion  of  the  preamble  to 
the  Patronage  Act,  and  so  undeniably 
true  is  the  statement  of  Sir  Henry  Mon- 
crieff,  that  "  there  is  no  period  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Church,  in  which  the  settle- 
ment of  ministers  was  conducted  with  so 
little  bustle  or  heat,  or  with  as  much  re- 
gularity, as  during  the  interval  from  1690 
to  1712."*  According  to  Wodrow  there 
were  only  five  or  six  cases  of  disputed 
settlements  which  excited  any  degree  of 
attention  during  all  that  period,  arising 
out  of  disagreements  among  the  parties 
who  had  the  right  to  propose,  and  these 
were  caused  by  improper  conduct  on  the 
part  of  the  heritors.  In  one  of  these 
cases,  that  of  the  parish  of  Cramond,  in 
1709-10,  the  two  leading  heritors  con- 
tended, each  wishing  to  procure  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  favourite  candidate  ;  and 
in  order  to  obtain  a  majority,  "  each  side 
created  new  heritors  to  increase  their 
party."  "  We  are  like,"  continues  Wod- 
row, "  to  be  in  very  sad  circumstances, 
from  the  power  of  heritors  in  calling ; 
and  the  same  way  of -choosing  of  minis- 
ters is  like  to  come  in  which  was  used  in 
choosing  members  of  parliament."!  So 
naturally  and  inevitably  does  the  secular 
element  prove  itself  to  be  of  a  -disruptive 
and  disorganizing  tendency,  when  al- 
lowed at  all  to  intermingle  among  the 
elemental  powers  of  spiritual  matters. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  notice  the 
falsehood  in  the  preamble  respecting  "the 
hardship  upon  the  patrons,  whose  pre- 
decessors had  founded  and  endowed  these 
churches,"  caused  by  the  act  abolishing 
patronage ;  for  every  one  knows  that  this 
frontless  assertion  is  not  only  destitute  of 
truth,  but  that  in  reality  many  of  these 
patrons,  instead  of  founding  and  endow- 
ing the  Church,  had  been  themselves 
founded  and  endowed  out  of  its  spolia- 
tion. Their  predecessors  had  been  either 
those  rapacious  and  unprincipled  men 
who  robbed,  defrauded,  and  attempted  to 
tyrannize  over  the  Church  at  the  time  of 
the  Reformation,  thwarting  all  its  benevo- 
lent schemes,  and  impairing  its  national 
usefulness,  or  those  mean  and  sycophan- 
tic minions  of  James  VI.,  on  whom  that 
heartless  despot  bestowed  with  lavish 
hands  the  wealth  and  honours  which  by 

*  Life  of  Erskine,  Appendix,  p.  432. 
t  Wodrow,  Analer.ta,  quoted  by  Dr  M'Crie  in  the 
Patronage  Report,  p.  363. 


force  or  treachery  he  had  succeeded  in 
pillaging  from  the  Church.  If  ever 
truth,  justice,  and  religious  principle  be 
consulted  in  framing  a  legislative  enact- 
ment respecting  the  patrimony  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  not  merely  will  pa- 
trons be  deprived  of  their  unhallowed 
power  to  interfere  with  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  Christ's  spiritual  kingdom 
in  the  appointment  of  his  office-bearers, 
but  they  will  be  called  to  account  for  that 
stewardship  into  which  they  have  unlaw- 
fully intruded,  and  to  refund  the  ill-got 
gains  which  they  had  so  long  perverted 
and  abused.  Nor  ought  it  to  be  over- 
looked, that  although  the  act  1690  gave 
to  patrons  a  right  to  the  teinds,  as  com- 
pensation for  the  loss  of  their  patronages 
(a  compensafion  to  which  it  would  be 
difficult  for  church-spoliators  to  show  any 
plausible  claim),  yet  when  their  patron- 
ages were  restored,  they  were  not  re- 
quired to  restore  the  teinds,  as  common 
justice  would  have  dictated,  but  retained 
"  both  the  purchase  and  the  price." 

Scarcely,  in  short,  can  the  annals  of 
history  furnish  a  parallel  to  the  infamous 
act  reimposing  patronage  on  the  Church 
of  Scotland.  Every  statement  in  its  pre- 
amble, on  the  strength  of  which  it  pro- 
ceeded, was  either  cunningly  deceptive  or 
directly  false  ;  it  was  manifestly  contrary 
to  the  Act  of  Security,  and  therefore  was 
either  essentially  and  necessarily  invalid, 
then  and  for  ever,  or  to  whatsoever  ex- 
tent its  validity  might  be  supposed  to 
reach,  to  that  extent  it  was  a  repeal  of  the 
Union,  and  a  deadly  stab  to  the  British 
constitution  ;  and  its  consequences,  as 
subsequent  times  have  too  amply  testified, 
have  been  and  are  fatally  pernicious  to 
the  spiritual  integrity  and  the  national 
usefulness  of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
That  it  must  be  swept  away  sooner  or 
later,  is  absolutely  certain  ;  for  the  reign 
of  fraud  and  falsehood  cannot  be  eternal, 
their  very  nature  being  self-destructive. 
And  if  the  time  has  riot  yet  come,  it  soon 
must,  when  the  generous  heart  of  Eng- 
land, roused  by  the  remonstrances  of 
the  Scottish  Church  and  people,  and  en- 
lightened and  directed  by  Him  who  is 
"  Head  over  all  things  to  the  Church," 
will  call  upon  the  British  legislature  to 
remove  from  its  records  so  foul  a  stain,  so 
black  a  violation  of  sacred  national  faith, 
perpetrated  by  the  unworthy  hands  o*" 


A.  D.  1713.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


335 


"the  most  corrupt  ministry  that  ever  sat 
at  the  helm  of  government." 

Before  passing  forward  from  this  sub- 
ject, there  is  one  remark  of  an  explana- 
tory nature  pertaining  to  the  history  of 
the  period,  which  must  he  made.  The 
representations  and  petitions  of  the  Com- 
mission, and  the  embodying  of  these  in 
the  Acts  of  Assembly,  sufficiently  prove 
the  light  in  which  the  Patronage  Act 
was  regarded  by  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
as  a  direct  infringement  upon  her  rights 
and  privileges,  and  an  unconstitutional 
violation  of  the  Union.  But  it  may  be 
asked,  why,  entertaining  such  views,  did 
not  the  Church  adopt  a  bolder  line  of 
procedure,  imitate  the  example  of  the 
high-souled  men  of  other  days,  refuse 
submission,  and  prepare  to  endure  perse- 
cution for  conscience's  sake,  if  come  it 
Anust  ?  Because  the  Church  had  lost  the 
ynartyr  spirit.  And  this  loss  was  caused 
by  the  deep  infusion  of  Prelacy,  or  semi- 
Prelacy,  arising  out  of  William's  disas- 
trous policy  and  the  Church's  sinful  com- 
pliance, in  the  admission  of  the  prelatic 
incumbents.  By  such  men  patronage 
could  not  be  regarded  as  to  any  great  ex- 
tent a  grievance,  although  they  could  not 
deny  that  it  was  utterly  repugnant  to  the 
principles  and  constitution  of  Presbyte- 
rian church  government ;  and  therefore, 
while  they  could  not  oppose  the  represen- 
tations and  petitions  of  the  Assembly, 
founded  on  principles  which  they  them- 
selves had  subscribed,  they  would  not 
have  joined  their  better  and  sincerer 
brethren  in  any  such  decided  opposition 
to  that  act  as  might  have  involved  them- 
selves in  danger.  Gravely  to  remon- 
strate, and  then  smilingly  to  yield,  was 
all  that  these  proto-moderates  could  do  ; 
and  the  faithful  defenders  of  true  Presby- 
terian principles, — the  evangelical  party 
of  the  day, — were  in  a  manner  constrained 
to  choose  between  stopping  when  they 
had  reached  the  extreme  point  to  which 
their  temporizing  brethren  would  go,  and 
incurring  the  hazard  of  an  extensive  and 
probably  fatal  schism,  should  they  attempt 
to  proceed  beyond  that  point.  Even  this 
peril  a  Luther  or  a  Knox  would  at  once 
nave  braved,  and,  by  braving,  would 
have  triumphed  over  it ;  for  as  all  history, 
especially  church  history,  testifies,  the 
path  of  principle  and  the  path  of  duty 
are  the  same ;  and,  following  their  direc- 


tion, the  boldest  course  of  conduct  is  al- 
ways both  the  safest  and  the  best.  When 
the  Act  of  Glasgow  expelled  nearly  four 
hundred  ministers  at  once,  it  still  left  a 
majority  behind  ;  and,  though  the  sword 
of  persecution  was  deeply  bathed  in  blood, 
and  the  fires  of  persecution  raged  fiercely 
over  the  land  for  twenty-eight  terrific 
years,  the  cause  of  the  homeless  and  per- 
secuted minority  triumphed,  because  it 
was  the  cause  of  truth  and  godliness. 
And  had  a  similar  course  been  taken  by 
the  right-minded  Presbyterians,  though  a 
minority,  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  that 
a  similar  result  would  have  followed  in  a 
much  shorter  period  of  time.  But,  mis- 
led by  Carstares^^  who  was  better  ac- 
quainted with  the  wiles  of  state  diplomacy 
than  with  the  unbending  firmness  of 
Christian  principle,  and  vitiated  by  the 
admission  of  the  prelatic  incumbents  and 
their  progeny  and  coadjutors,  the  grow-/ 
ing  IVIoderate_party,  the  Church  began/ 
to  prefer  expediency  to  principle,  and  waf 
left  to  experience  the  bitter  consequen- 
ces of  her  want  of  faith,  in  a  century 
of  death-like  spiritual  lethargy,  in  the 
loss  of  the  nation's  respect  and  love,  and 
in  the  dangers  by  which  she  is  surround- 
ed, and  the  agonies  which  she  endures, 
in  her  present  state  of  returning  faithful- 
ness and  re-awakening  life. 

The  Cameron ian  Covenanters,  who 
had  never  joinecTthe  ChurclrofScotland  ' 
as  established  at  the  Revolution,  and  who 
had  remained  for  a  number  of  years  with- 
out a  minister,  obtained  at  length  a  minis- 
ter, the  Rev.  John  Macmillan,  who  was 
deposed  in  the  year  1706,  on  account  of 
having  adopted  and  defended  the  opinions 
of  that  rigid  but  high-principled  body. 
The  records  of  the  proceedings  which 
led  to  his  deposition  reflect  little  cre- 
dit on  the  Church  of  Scotland,  either 
with  regard  to  principle  or  prudence. 
For  it  would  not  be  easy  to  prove  that 
the  Cameronians  held  doctrines  so  far  dif- 
ferent from  those  inculcated  in  the  Stand- 
ards of  the  Church,  and  acted  upon  in 
its  purest  times,  as  to  have  exposed  them 
justly  to  any  high  degree  of  church  cen 
sure  ;  and  while  the  Church  was  admit- 
ting prelatic  curates  "  on  the  easiest  terms" 
it  was  neither  prudent  nor  seemly  to  deal 
harshly  with  men  who  might  be  narrow 
and  limited  in  their  views,  but  who  were 
at  least  zealous  and  faithful  Presbyterians. 


336 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX 


When  Mr.  Macmillan  joined  these  men, 
they  gradually  assumed  a  more  regular 
aspect;  and  though  they  felt  themselves 
deeply  aggrieved  by  the  cold  treatment 
which  they  received,  and  were  not  slack 
in  expressing  their  resentment,  yet  they 
continued  to  watch  the  course  of  public 
affairs  with  intense  anxiety,  and  to  stand 
prepared  for  any  great  and  dangerous 
emergency.  The  Acts  of  Toleration 
and  Patronage  roused  their  indignation  ; 
and  as  the  Church  of  Scotland  had  not 
met  these  public  infringements  of  the 
Union  and  of  principle  with  such  prompt 
condemnation  as  she  ought,  the  Camero- 
nians  resolved  to  declare  their  views  in 
the  most  solemn  and  public  manner  in 
their  power.  Accordingly,  on  the  28d 
of  July,  the  societies  met  in  a  body  at 
Auchinsaugh,  near  Douglas,  and  after  a 
general  acknowledgment  of  sins,  national 
fand  personal,  they  solemnly  renewed  the 
Covenants,  making,  at  the  same  time, 
[sitch  specific  statements  in  their  engage- 
ment to  duties  as  were  necessary  to  ac- 
commodate the  general  obligations  of  the 
Covenants  to  their  own  case  and  circum- 
stances.* There  could  be  no  impropriety 
in  this  act,  viewed  in  itself;  indeed  it  was 
one  in  which  it  would  have  been  well  if 
the  whole  body  of  Scottish  Presbyterians 
had  joined ;  but  it  was  not  followed  by 
any  consequences  of  such  practical  good 
as  might  have  been  expected.  Unpropi- 
tious  strifes  and  jarrings  prevailed  among 
them,  fomented  by  a  few  men  of  greater 
zeal  than  knowledge  or  judgment,  and 
prevented  them  from  assuming,  for  many 
years,  that  united  and  harmonious  aspect 
which  could  alone  give  them  strength 
and  importance  in  the  community,  and 
which  in  later  times  they  acquired  and 
continue  to  display. 

[1713.]  The  subject  of  greatest  impor- 
tance which  occupied  the  attention  of  the 
Assembly  which  met  in  1713,  was  that 
which  arose  out  of  the  oath  of  abjuration. 
A  very  considerable  number  of  the  best 
ministers  refused  to  take  that  oath  ;  and  a 
schism  was  like  to  take  place  between 
those  who  felt  at  liberty  to  swear  and 
those  who  did  not,  or  the  jurants  and  the 
non-jurants.  And  it  deserves  to  be  re- 
marked, that  the  jurants  were  more  severe 
against  their  non-jurant  brethren,  than  the 
non-jurants  were  against  them, — accusing 

*  Struthers'  History  of  Scotland,  p.  164,  et  seq. 


them  bitterly  of  being  willing  to  disturb 
the  peace  and  endanger  the  safety  of  the 
Church,  rather  than  sacrifice  their  OWE. 
scruples  of  conscience.  Yet  it  was  clear 
that  the  non-jurants  were  exposed  to  the 
pains  and  penalties  of  the  law,  because 
they  refused  the  oath,  and  were  willing  to 
meet  the  hazard  rather  than  violate  their 
own  conscience:  whereas  the  jurants 
were  exposed  to  no  such  dangers,  arid 
ought  therefore  rather  to  have  striven  to 
protect  their  brethren,  than  to  have  aggra- 
vated their  grievances  by  harsh  and  intol- 
erant treatment.  It  is  creditable  to  Car- 
stares,  that  he  exerted  himself  strenuously 
to  prevent  the  threatened  schism ;  and 
procured  an  act  of  Assembly,  inculcating 
forbearance  with  regard  to  taking  or  not 
taking  the  oath,  representing  it  as  com- 
paratively a  matter  of  indifference.  Had 
it  not  been  for  his  influence,  which  was 
very  great  in  the  Assembly,  the  contest 
would  in  all  likelihood  have  proved  a 
schism,  which  might  have  proved  destruc- 
tive to  the  Church  in  that  period  of  danger.* 
The  non-jurants,  indeed,  acted  with  ex- 
treme forbearance,  notwithstanding  the 
perils  to  which  they  were  exposed.  Al- 
most the  entire  body  of  the  people  detested 
the  abjuration  oath ;  and  in  many  instances, 
no  sooner  did  a  minister  take  it,  than  the 
congregation  deserted  his  ministry,  and 
flocked  to  the  church  of  one  who  had  re* 
fused.  It  would  have  been  easy  for  the  non- 
jurants  to  have  raised  a  storm  of  civil  com- 
motion in  the  land,  if  they  had  been  so  dis- 
posed, but  they  generally  did  their  utmost 
to  discountenance  these  desertions,  and  con- 
tinued  to  hold  ministerial  intercourse  with 
their  jurant  brethren,  even  at  the  hazard 
of  so  far  losing  the  affection  of  their  own 
congregations.  Even  Boston  had  to  en- 
counter the  strong  displeasure  of  his  pa- 
rishioners, because,  though  he  would  not 
take  the  oath,  yet  he  would  neither  speak 
against  those  who  did,  nor  refrain  from 
holding  intercourse  with  them. 

The  Commission  of  the  Assembly,  at 
its  meeting  in  August,  drew  up  an  ad- 
dress, which  was  read  from  all  the  pulpits, 
warning  the  nation  against  the  designs  of 
the  Papists  and  Jacobites,  pointing  out 
the  deceptive  nature  of  their  intrigues, 
and  the  evils  in  which  their  success  would 
involve  the  country,  f  This  address  had 


*  Boston's  Memoirs,  pp.  223-225. 
timony,  pp.  42,  43. 


t  Wh.ison's  Tes- 


A.  D.  1714.] 


HISTORY   OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


337 


a  very  beneficial  influence  in  guarding 
the  people  against  the  machinations  of  the 
rebellious  Jacobites,  and  frustrating  their 
hopes  of  rousing  Scotland  to  arm  in  be- 
half of  the  Popish  Pretender ;  and  con- 
tributed greatly  to  break  the  force  of  the 
insurrection  when  it  did  actually  burst  out 
two  years  afterwards.  It  proved,  at  the 
same  time,  how  completely  the  most  wily 
politicians  had  misunderstood  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in  ima- 
gining that  the  wrongs  which  she  had 
sustained  would  irritate  her  to  the  com- 
mission of  treason  against  her  own  Divine 
Head  and  King,  by  aiding  in  the  restora- 
tion of  a  Popish  claimant  to  the  throne. 

In  the  index  of  the  unprinted  acts  of 
Assembly  1713,  there  are  several  refer- 
ences to  the  case  of  a  Mr.  William 
Dugud,  probationer.  This  person  had 
received  a  presentation  from  the  crown, 
as  patron  of  the  parish  of  Burntisland, 
under  the  act  1712,  and  had  the  temerity 
to  accept  it  and  lay  it  before  the  presbytery 
of  Kirkaldy.  It  was  repelled  by  the 
presbytery,  and  came  by  appeal  before  the 
Assembly.  The  Assembly  entered  warm- 
ly into  the  case,  deprived  Mr.  Dugud  of 
his  license,  and  caused  a  memorial  to  be 
drawn  up,  to  be  presented  to  her  majesty 
by  the  commissioner,  the  Duke  of  Athol, 
who  readily  undertook  the  charge.*  This 
prompt  and  decisive  conduct  on  the  part 
of  the  A&s'-mbly,  together  with  the  pro- 
tests and  resolutions  of  several  presby- 
teries and  synods  against  receiving  pre- 
sentations and  proceeding  upon  them 
without  a  call  from  the  congregation, 
which  was  then,  as  it  previously  was  and 
still  is,  regarded  as  the  primary  and  ruling 
element  in  forming  the  pastoral  connec- 
tion, had  the  effect  of  deterring  both  irre- 
ligious patrons  and  ambitious  and  wordly- 
minded  probationers  from  venturing  to  at- 
tempt the  enforcement  of  the  perfidious  and 
unconstitutional  act  reimposing  patron- 
ages, till  that  generation  was  passingaway. 

[1714.]  There  is  a  melancholy  interest 
attached  to  the  year  1714,  with  regard  to 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  as  the  first  in 
which  the  General  Assembly  manifested 
a  disinclination  to  proceed  with  due  strict- 
ness ag-ainst  ministers  who  were  accused 
of  holding  and  teach  ing  doctrines  contrary 
to  Scripture  and  to  the  Standards  of  the 

*  Unprinted  Acts  of  Assembly  ;  Patronage  Report, 
pp.  365,  366. 

43 


Church.  There  had  for  some  time  been 
current  reports  that  Mr.  John  Simpson, 
professor  of  divinity  at  Glasgow,  taught 
Arminian  and  Pelagian  tenets ;  but  the 
members  of  his  own  presbytery  appear 
to  have  been  unwilling  to  institute  a  pro- 
cess against  him.  The  report  was,  how- 
ever, taken  up  by  the  Rev.  James  Web- 
ster, one  of  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh, 
as  a  matter  of  too  serious  importance  to 
be  permitted  to  continue  without  being 
investigated.  When  the  case  came  before 
the  Assembly,  instead  of  remitting  it  to 
the  presbytery  of  Glasgow,  with  instruc- 
tions to  make  due  inquiry,  the  task  of  con- 
ducting the  prosecution  was  cast  upon 
Mr.  Webster,  as  if  it  had  been  a  private 
affair,  and  not  one  which  deeply  concern- 
ed the  whole  Church.*  The  leaven  of 
Moderatism  was  now  beginning  to  put 
forth  its  corrupting  power,  producing 
laxity  of  principle,  and  that  pernicious 
tendency  to  screen  delinquents  and  to  dis- 
courage men  of  fidelity  and  zeal,  by  which 
it  has  always  been  characterised. 

An  act  was  passed  in  this  Assembly, 
appointing  an  address  to  be  presented  to 
her  majesty,  complaining  of  "  the  griev- 
ances which  this  Church  lies  under,  from 
the  growth  of  Popery,  the  insolence  of 
Papists,  and  the  illegal  encroachments 
and  intrusions  of  the  Episcopal  ministers 
and  their  adherents."  The  necessity  for 
this  act  and  address  arose  out  of  the  riot- 
ous and  outrageous  proceedings  of  the 
Prelatic  Jacobites  of  Aberdeen,  who  had 
violently  taken  possession  of  the  Old 
Church  in  that  city,  expelling  the  profes- 
sor of  divinity,  Mr.  David  Anderson,  and 
his  congregation,  whose  regular  place  of 
worship  it  was.f  So  extravagantly  law- 
less were  the  proceedings  of  the  Scottis-h 
Prelatists  at  this  time,  trusting  in  the  fa- 
vour of  the  infidel  Bolingbroke,  who,  as 
is  well  known,  was  employing  every 
artifice  to  procure  the  succession  of  the 
Popish  Pretender,  that  it  was  found  ne- 
cessary to  pass  in  parliament  another 
Rabbling  Act,  to  prevent  them  from  abso- 
lutely pulling  down  those  Presbyterian 
churches  into  which  they  found  it  difficult 
to  intrude  so  as  to  secure  possession.  Yet 
these  lawless  men  were  at  the  very  same 
time  continuing  to  utter  loud  complaints 
of  the  persecution  which  they  had  to  sus- 


*  Unprinted  Acts  of  Assei 
Assembly  1714. 


tActxii.  of 


338 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


tain  from  Presbyterians  !  And  Scottish 
Prelatists  can  yet  be  found  rash  enough 
to  repeat  the  mendacious  tale  !  They 
would  more  consult  the  credit  of  their 
ancestors,  and  their  own  reputation  for 
knowledge  and  veracity,  did  they  allow 
the  records  of  those  times  to  sink  into 
oblivion,  lest  it  become  necessary  for  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  in  her  own  defence, 
to  drag  anew  their  deeds  of  darkness  to 
the  light. 

But  while  the  Jacobite  party  were  thus 
employing  every  violent  and  treacherous 
method  in  their  power  for  the  overthrow 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  as  a  prelim- 
inary step  to  the  subversion  of  the  Revo- 
lutio'n  and  the  recall  of  the  exiled  Pre- 
tender to  the  crown,  their  hopes  were 
suddenly  blasted  by  the  death  of  Glueen 
Anne,  on  the  1st  of  August  1714,  and 
the  instantaneous  dissolution  of  that  cor- 
rupt administration,  by  whose  evil  deeds 
so  dark  a  stain  had  been  brought  upon 
the  latter  years  of  her  reign.  The  un- 
opposed succession  of  the  Elector  of 
Hanover,  George  I.,  drove  that  fierce  and 
unprincipled  faction  into  a  frantic  and 
premature  attempt  to  place  by  force  of 
arms  the  Popish  exile  on  the  throne. 
The  detail  of  the  events  of  the  unsuccess- 
ful rebellion  must  be  left  to  the  civil  his- 
torian ;  but  it  must  here  be  stated,  that 
the  injuries  done  to  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land by  Jacobite  intrigues  had  great  in- 
fluence in  preventing  many  Presbyterians, 
who  disapproved  of  the  Union,  from  join- 
ing the  rebels,  and  thus  the  consequences 
•of  their  evil  deeds  recoiled  with  fatal  ef- 
fect upon  their  own  guilty  heads. 

[1715.]  When  the  Assembly  met  m 
May  1715,  its  attention  was  chiefly  occu- 
pied by  two  topics  which  have  always 
manifested  a  peculiar  affinity  for  each 
other  by  their  simultaneous  appearance, 
— unsoundness  of  doctrine  and  the  griev- 
ance of  patronage.  An  act  was  passed 
appointing  a  committee  for  preserving  the 
purity  of  doctrine,  and  for  considering  the 
.process  of  Mr.  Webster  against  Professor 
Simson.  The  instructions  to  the  com- 
mittee, contained  in  this  act,  exhibit  but 
too  plainly  a  predetermination  to  throw 
every  possible  obstruction  in  the  way  of 
Mr.  Webster,  so  as  to  render  the  proof 
of  the  accusation  almost  impossible ; 
while  every  facility  was  given  to  Profes- 
fior  Simson  to  frame  such  evasive  explana- 


tions as  might  eventually  secure  his 
acquittal.* 

The  next  act  of  importance  is  "  con- 
cerning the  grievances  of  the  Church 
from  toleration,  patronages,"  &c.  This 
act  embodies  a  memorial  to  his  majesty, 
which  the  Duke  of  Montrose  was  re- 
quested to  present  and  support.  In  the 
first  part  of  this  memorial,  the  Assembly 
pointed  out  the  unequal  character  of  the 
toleration,  inasmuch  as,  while  it  gave  the 
utmost  possible  freedom  to  Episcopalian 
dissenters  in  Scotland,  notwithstanding 
their  avowed  Jacobitism,  and  their  refusal 
to  take  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  abju- 
ration, it  did  not  give  the  same  liberty  to 
Presbyterian  dissenters  in  England.  In 
truth,  the  Act  of  Toleration,  against  which 
the  Church  of  Scotland  complained  as  a 
grievance,  was  totally  different  from  what 
is  properly  meant  by  the  term  toleration. 
Its  nature  and  intention  was,  to  give  en- 
couragement to  Prelacy  and  discourage- 
ment to  Presbytery  ;  and  it  was  because 
of  its  unjust  partiality,  not  because  of  its 
toleration,  that  the  Church  of  Scotland 
regarded  it  as  a  grievance.  Yet,  because 
they  complained  of  an  act  of  a  persecut- 
ing character,  disguised  under  a  plausible 
name,  they  have  been,  and  still  are  accus- 
ed of  intolerance,  and  of  cherishing  a 
persecuting  spirit.  Surely  neither  State 
nor  Church  is  bound  to  countenance  and 
cherish  error,  though  they  may  tolerate, 
pity,  and  attempt  to  instruct  the  erring ; 
and  surely  it  is  not  intolerance  to  abstain 
from  elevating  to  places  of  public  trust 
and  influence  men  who  are  known  to  en- 
tertain principles  whose  native  tendency 
is  destructive  to  the  public  welfare. 

That  part  of  the  memorial  which  refers 
to  patronage  deserves  to  be  extracted,  in 
order  to  show  the  opinions  then  entertain- 
ed respecting  that  grievance.  "  By  the 
act  restoring  the  power  of  presentation  to 
patrons,  the  legally  established  constitu- 
tion of  this  Church  was  altered  in  a  very 
important  point;  and  while  it  appears 
equitable  in  itself,  and  agreeable  to  the 
liberty  of  Christians  and  a  free  people,  to 
have  interest  in  the  choice  of  those  to 
whom  they  entrust  the  care  of  their  souls, 
it  is  a  hardship  to  be  imposed  upon  in  so 
tender  a  point,  and  that  frequently  by  pa- 
trons who  have  no  property  or  residence 
in  the  parishes;  and  this,  besides  the 

*  Act  of  Assembly  1715. 


A.  D.  1717.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


snares  of  simonaical  factions,  and  the 
many  troubles  and  contests  arising  from 
the  power  of  patronages,  and  the  abuses 
thereof  by  disaffected  patrons  putting  their 
power  into  other  hands,  who  as  effectually 
serve  their  purposes, — by  patrons  com- 
peting for  the  right  of  presentation  in  the 
same  parish, — and  by  frequently  present- 
ing ministers,  settled  in  eminent  posts,  to 
mean  and  small  parishes,  to  elude  the 
planting  thereof, — by  all  which  parishes 
are  often  kept  long  vacant,  to  the  great 
hindrance  of  the  progress  of  the  gospel."* 
Such  were  the  bitter  fruits  which  patron- 
age was  beginning  to  bear  within  three 
years  after  its  unconstitutional  reimposi- 
tion  upon  the  Church  of  Scotland, — fruits 
which  might  gratify  infidels  and  enemies 
of  Christianity,  such  as  Bolingbroke  and 
the  Jacobites,  but  which  seems  strange 
that  any  man  professing  to  be  a  lover  of 
religious  purity  and  national  welfare  could 
contemplate,  without  immediately  and 
strenuously  exerting  himself  to  procure 
the  uprooting  of  that  tree  of  death. 

A  severe  act  was  passed  by  the  same  As- 
sembly against  some  ministers,  and  two 
probationers,  in  the  counties  of  Dumfries 
and  Galloway,  who  manifested  a  strong 
incl  ination  to  countenance  the  Covenanters, 
arid  to  join  Mr.  Macmillan,  who  was  as 
yet  their  only  regular  minister,  although 
these  ministers,  Messrs.  Taylor,  Hepburn, 
and  Gilchrist,  had  held  partial  com- 
munion with  them.  It  is  painful  to  have 
to  record,  that  the  Church  of  Scotland  had 
exhibited  a  more  intolerant  spirit  in  its 
treatment  of  its  own  better  children,  the 
remnant  of  the  Covenanters,  and  those 
who  were  disposed  to  favour  them,  than  it 
did  towards  the  persecuting  and  rebellious 
Prelatists.  It  suggests  too  strongly  the 
idea  of  severity  against  the  weak,  and  a 
mean  and  timid  compromise  with  the 
strong. 

[1716.]  Before  the  next  meeting  of  the 
General  Assembly,  the  kingdom  had 
been  shaken  by  the  storm  of  civil  war, 
raised  by  the  rebellion  of  the  Jacobites. 
In  this  dangerous  period  the  Church  of 
Scotland  manifested themostunshaken  loy- 
alty, notwithstanding  the  injurious  treat- 
ment which  it  had  receivedsince  the  Union. 
And  although  in  many  parts  of  the  coun- 
try the  people,  resenting  their  grevious 
wrongs,  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to 

*  Assembly  1715,  act  ix. 


rise  in  support  of  the  government,  they 
were  still  less  disposed  to  lend  direct  assis- 
tance to  a  Popish  Pretender  to  the  crown. 
They  had  been  injured  deeply  in  their 
dearest  interests  and  most  valued  rights 
and  privileges,  by  the  acts  of  Queen 
Anne's  latter  years,  and  had  obtained  no 
redress  from  the  new  sovereign  ;  there- 
fore they  stood  comparatively  aloof  from 
the  contest,  merely  acting  Upon  the  de- 
fensive against  the  rebels,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  an  unwise  though  not  an  unna- 
tural resentment.  But  the  very  fact  of 
this  stern  unmoving  attitude,  in  such  a 
time,  ought  to  have  taught  a  wise  and  pa- 
ternal government  to  grant  such  an  im- 
mediate and  complete  redress  as  woifld 
have  restored  the  alienated  affections  of  a 
brave,  high-minded,  intelligent,  and  reli- 
gious people,  whose  allegiance  to  their 
king  was  based  upon  and  regulated  by 
their  fear  and  love  of  God. 

Nothing  of  peculiar  importance  was 
done  by  the  Assembly.  The  case  of 
Professor  Simson  was  again  referred  to  a 
committee,  who  were  directed  to  proceed 
with  all  due  expedition  in  preparing  the 
matter  for  a  final  decision  by  next  As- 
sembly. One  act  was  passed,  of  no  great 
importance  in  itself,  but  throwing  con- 
siderable light  upon  the  subject  of  patron- 
age and  intrusion.  It  referred  to  that 
person  who  had  signalized  himself  by  be- 
ing the  first  to  accept  a  presentation  after 
the  passing  of  the  Patronage  Act, — 
namely,  William  Dugud.  Upon  being 
deprived  by  the  Assembly  of  his  license, 
he  joined  the  Scottish  Prelatists  ;  and  we 
find  him  busy  raising  a  mob,  and  at  its 
head  endeavouring  to  effect  a  forcible  in- 
trusion into  the  church  of  Burntisland.* 
So  strong  is  the  congenial  affinity  be- 
tween Prelacy,  patronage,  and  intrusion, 
that  the  potential  presence  of  any  one  of  the 
three  has  always  tended  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  others  ;  and,  when  in  full  and 
united  operation,  the  result  has  always 
been  a  fearful  amount  of  worldly-minded- 
ness  in  the  clerical  body,  spiritual  despot- 
ism in  church  courts,  and  spiritual  le- 
thargy throughout  the  community,  dis- 
turbed by  acts  of  tyranny  on  the  part  of 
the  ecclesiastical  rulers,  and  partially 
counteracted  by  dissent  or  secession. 

[1717.]  The    course  of  defection   on 

*  Acts  xiv.  and  xv.  of  Assembly  1716 ;  also  Unprinted 
Acts. 


340 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


which  the  Church  of  Scotland  had  en- 
tered became  more  and  more  apparent 
every  year,  and  the  Assembly  of  1717 
was  guilty  of  several  acts  more  glaringly 
evil  than  those  of  its  predecessors.  The 
case  of  Professor  Simson  was  finally  de- 
cided by  this  Assembly  ;  and  although  it 
was  clearly  proved  that  he  had  taught 
Arminian  and  Pelagian  tenets,  the  As- 
sembly merely  found,  that  he  had  vented 
some  opinions  not  necessary  to  be  taught 
in  divinity;  had  used  some  expressions 
which  are  capable  of  bearing  a  bad  sense, 
and  are  employed  in  that  sense  by  adver- 
saries ;  and  that  in  answering  the  objec- 
tions urged  by  the  antagonists  of  the  gos- 
pel, he  had  made  use  of  hypotheses  that 
tend  to  attribute  too  much  to  natural  rea- 
son and  the  power  of  corrupt  nature : 
which  expressions  and  hypotheses  they 
prohibited  him  from  using  for  the  future. 
This  culpable  lenity  appears  to  have 
arisen  in  a  great  measure  from  the  de- 
plorable fact,  that  a  large  proportion 
of  the  Assembly  were  themselves  tainted 
with  opinions  equally  unsound,  many  of 
the  members  having  been  the  pupils,  or 
being  the  relations  and  personal  friends 
of  the  heretical  professor.*  Great  alarm 
was  felt  by  the  more  sound  and  orthodox 
part  of  the  Church,  lest  this  unfaithful 
procedure  should  tend  to  encourage  that 
proneness  to  innovations  and  to  laxity  of 
doctrine  which  were  already  but  too  pre- 
valent, especially  among  the  young  and 
recently  admitted  ministers. 
—  This  alarm  was  instantaneously  in- 
creased by  another  act  passed  by  the  As- 
sembly on  the  very  same  day  on  which 
such  tenderness  was  shown  to  heresy. 
Aware  of  the  tendency  to  false  doctrine  ra- 
pidly springing  up  among  young  men,  the 
presbytery  of  Auchterarder,  with  a  view  to 
prevent  the  growth  of  the  evil  in  their 
bounds,  prepared  a  series  of  searching 
questions,  which  were  proposed  to  stu- 
dents, and  required  to  be  answered  before 
they  should  receive  license  to  preach.  A 
young  man,  named  William  Craig,  had  ap- 
peared before  the  presbytery  of  Auchterar- 
der ;  and  though  his  trials  were  sustained 
in  the  general  form,  yet,  because  he  did  not 
give  satisfaction  in  his  answers  to  their 
own  series  of  questions,  they  refused  to 
grant  him  an  extract  of  his  license.  He 
appealed  to  the  Assembly,  and  laid  before 

*  Acts  of  Assembly ;  Willison's  Testimony,  p.  45. 


that  court  the  particular  question  to  which 
his  answer  had  been  the  most  unsatisfac- 
tory. The  question,  or  rather  article, 
was  this  : — "  That  I  believe  that  it  is  not 
sound  and  orthodox  to  teach,  that  we\ 
must  forsake  sin  in  order  to  our  coming  \ 
to  Christ,  and  instating  us  in  covenant  \ 
with  God."  The  Assembly  not  only  i 
prohibited  the  presbytery  of  Auchterar- 
der, and  all  other  presbyteries,  from  re- 
quiring subscription  to  any  formula  but 
such  as  had  been  expressly  approved  of 
by  the  Assemblies  of  the  Church  ;  but 
further  declared  their  "  abhorrence  of  the 
foresaid  proposition,  as  unsound,  and  most 
detestable  as  it  stands  and  was  offered  to 
Mr.  Craig."  And  the  presbytery  of 
Auchterarder  was  commanded  to  answer 
to  the  Commission  what  they  could  de- 
sign by  such  a  proposition.*  Against 
this  hasty  sentence  of  the  Assembly 
several  of  the  best  ministers  of  the  Church 
remonstrated,  but  could  not  prevent  its 
passing. 

In  the  unprinted  acts  of  this  Assembly, 
there  are  two  acts  relating  to  the  case  of 
Mr.  John  Hay,  who  had  been  appointed 
to  the  parish  of  Peebles  ;  but,  although 
his  call  was  signed  by  several  heritors 
and  elders,  the  opposition  to  his  settlement 
by  the  people  was  so  strong,  that  the 
presbytery  refused  to  proceed  with  it. 
The  first  act  required  the  presbytery 
to  proceed  with  the  settlement,  and  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  confer  with  the 
presbytery  and  with  the  people  of  the 
parish,  in  order  to  remove,  if  practicable, 
the  opposition.  Not  finding  the  opposi- 
tion so  easily  removed,  and  the  majority 
of  the  Presbytery  being  still  reluctant  to 
proceed  contrary  to  the  feelings  of  the 
people,  another  act  was  passed,  "  appoint- 
ing certain  brethren  to  correspond  with 
the  presbytery  of  Peebles,  and  to  act  and 
vote  in  their  meetings  at  their  next  en- 
suing  diet,  and  thereafter  until  the  settle- 
ment  of  Mr.  John  Hay  in  the  parish  of 
Peebles  be  completed,  and  to  concur  with 
them  in  his  ordination. "f  By  this  device 
both  the  opposition  of  the  people  and  th 
conscientious  reluctance  of  the  presbyter 
were  surmounted,  and  an  unscrupulous 
hireling  intruded  upon  an  unwilling  con- 
gregation. And  it  is  of  importance  to 
mark,  that  this  was  the  first  instance  on 

*  Acts  of  Assembly  ;  Boston's  Memoirs,  p.  266. 
t  Unprinted  Acts  of  Assembly,  year  1717. 


I 


A.  D.  1718.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


841 


record  in  whicr^  the  superior  church 
courts  appointed  an  ambulatory  commis- 
sion, with  powers  to  outvote  and  overrule 
the  conscientious  reluctance  of  a  presby- 
tery to  inflict  a  grievous  wrong  upon  the 
people  ;  giving  thereby  a  precedent  to  a 
course  of  procedure  which  was  a  few 
years  afterwards  matured  into  a  system 
under  the  sway  of  Moderate  policy  during 
its  first  dynasty,  when  its  decrees  were 
regularly  carried  into  effect  by  these 
"  Riding  Committees,"  as  they  were 
;  termed,  from  their  dragoon-like  array, 
!  and  doughty  achievements  in  the  cause 
of  spiritual  despotism. 

A  few  sentences  may  be  necessary  for 
explaining  the  conduct  of  the  Assembly 
in  its  rash  condemnation  of  what  some  of 
/its  members  scornfully  termed  "  The 
[Auchterarder  Creed."  Those  who  are 
•conversant  with  modern  church  history 
are  aware,  that  Arminian  tenets  were 
adopted  by  a  large  proportion  of  the  Eng- 
lish clergymen,  very  soon  after  their  con- 
demnation by  the  Synod  of  Dort.  When 
Prelacy  was  forced  into  Scotland  by  the 
treachery  of  James  I.  and  the  violence  of 
his  sons,  Arminianism  came  along  with  it 
in  its  most  glaring  aspect ;  and  even  after 
the  overthrow  of  Scottish  Prelacy,  the 
evil  taint  was  found  to  have  diffused  itself 
beyond  the  direct  Prelatists,  and  to  have 
been  imbibed  by  many  of  the  indulged 
ministers.  By  them,  and  by  the  Prelatic 
incumbents,  whom  William's  pernicious 
policy  induced  the  Church  of  Scotland  to 
admit  at  and  after  the  Revolution,  these 
erroneous  notions  were  still  more  exten- 
sively spread  throughout  the  Scottish 
Church,  especially  among  the  young 
ministers.  Two  other  circumstances  com- 
bined partially  to  modify,  and  yet  aid  in 
the  diffusion  of  erroneous  doctrines.  For 
some  time  previous  to  the  Revolution, 
considerable  numbers  of  young  men  went 
from  Scotland  to  Holland  to  be  educated 
for  the  ministry,  the  distracted  and  op- 
pressed state  of  their  own  country  not  per- 
mitting them  to  obtain  the  necessary  in- 
struction at  home.  But  Holland  itself 
had  imbibed  many  of  the  tenets  of  Armi- 
nius.  notwithstanding  the  counteracting 
influence  of  such  men  as  Witsius ;  and 
several  of  the  young  Scottish  students 
adopted  these  sentiments,  and,  returning 
to  their  native  country,  attempted  to 
supersede  the  strong  Calvinistic  doctrines 


which  had  hitherto  prevailed  in  Scotland, 
by  the  introduction  of  this  refined  Armi- 
nianism.     A  similar  process  was  at  the 
same  time  going  on  in  England  among  ; 
the   Dissenters.     Baxter's   writings   had ! 
gained,  as  on  many  accounts  they  justly 
deserved,  great  celebrity  ;  and  many  fol- ; 
lowed  his  views  respecting  the  doctrine  of 
grace,   which    are  deeply  tinged    with 
Arminian  notions.     A  controversy  arose 
which  turned  chiefly  on   the   question, 
"  Whether  the  gospel  is  a  new  law,  or  ; 
constitution,  promising  salvation  upon  a< 
certain   condition  ?"   some   making  that 
condition  to  be  faith,  others  making  it 
faith   and  repentance,  to   which   others) 
added  sincere  though  imperfect  obedience. ; 
Those   who  maintained  the   affirmative 
were  termed   Neonomians,  or  new-law/ 
men ;  those  who  opposed  this  theory  were 
by  its  adherents  unjustly  termed  Antinjo-  i 
mians.     It  will  easily  be  seen  that  the  ' 
theory  of  the  Neonomians  was  essentially  . 
Arminian,  though  it  did  not  assume  an 
aspect  so  manifestly  unscriptural.    In  this 
less  offensive  form  it  made  great  progress 
in    Scotland,  where,    from    the   causes 
already  mentioned,  too  many  were  predis- 
posed to  receive  it,  in  preference  to  the 
sterner  tenets  of  the  genuine  Presbyterian 
Church,  whose  standards  they  had  sub- 
scribed, but  were  exceedingly  desirous  to 
modify  and  soften. 

The  older  and  sounder  ministers  strove 
to  stem  this  tide  of  innovation,  but  with 
little  success.  The  Neonomians  were 
soon  the  most  numerous,  as  they  were 
readily  joined  by  all  the  admitted  Prelat- 
ists,  and  by  the  greater  part  of  the  in- 
dulged ;  and,  as  it  may  be  easily  supposed, 
they  found  most  favour  from  men  of  the 
world,  who  are  always  delighted  to  hear 
the  gospel  characterized  as  a  "  milder 
dispensation,"  by  which  expression  they 
are  prone  to  understand,  one  that  may  be 
violated  with  comparative  impunity.  Nor 
was  it  strange  that  the  party  which  loved 
to  regard  the  gospel  as  a  new  and  miti- 
gated law,  should  be  found  the  most  com- 
pliant, when  statesmen  wished  to  mould 
into  greater  conformity  with  their  own 
inclinations  the  constitution  and  govern- 
ment of  the  Church.  And  for  this  rea- 
son also,  that  party  received  a  degree  of 
political  countenance  and  support,  which 
their  opponents,  the  more  orthodox  and 
truly  Presbyterian  party,  could  not  hope 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP   SCOTLAND. 


342 


to  obtain.  To  counteract  this  growing 
spirit  of  innovation  and  defection,  as  far 
as  might  be  in  their  po^wer,  the  evangeli- 
cal party  exerted  themselves  to  the  utmost 
both  in  composing'new  works,  calculated 
to  exhibit  and  diffuse  sound  doctrine,  and 
by  republishing  old  ones  of  a  similar 
character.  They  endeavoured  also  to 
make  their  examinations  of  young  men 
preparing  for  the  ministry,  such  as  should 
not  only  test  their  religious  opinions,  but 
should  likewise  tend  to  convey  sound  in- 
struction to  those  who  might  be  willing 
to  receive  it.  The  catechism  written  by 
Mr.  Hamilton  of  Airth,  to  which  refer- 
ence was  formerly  made,  was  one  of  the 
productions  to  which  this  scheme  of  the 
evangelical  party  gave  birth.  Hog  of 
Carnock  distinguished  himself  greatly  by 
his  labours  in  behalf  of  sound  doctrine  ; 
and  nearly  all  the  popular  works  of  Bos- 
ton were  written  for  the  same  purpose, 
and  were  of  incalculable  service  to  the 
cause  of  truth.  The  "  Auchterarder 
Creed,"  as  it  was  scoffingly  called,  pre- 
sents one  instance  of  the  various  attempts 
made  by  presbyteries  to  secure  the  ortho- 
doxy of  those  to  whom  they  gave  license 
to  preach,  that  they  might  preach  not 
"  another  gospel,"  but  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus.  The  strong  terms  in  which  the 
Assembly  condemned  the  proposition  al- 
ready quoted,  will  scarcely  excite  sur- 
prise, when  the  sentence  is  viewed  as 
pronpunced  by  polemical  disputants.  Yet 
the  full  amount  of  that  polemical  asperity 
which  dictated  a  censure  so  severe  against 
a  proposition  certainly  true,  though  some- 
what loosely  expressed,  could  not  be  en- 
tirely accounted  for  without  a  closer  view 
of  the  course  adopted  by  the  Neonomians. 
Instead  of  meeting  in  fair  argument  the 
accusations  urged  against  their  new  sys- 
tem, they  endeavoured  to  recriminate  upon 
their  antagonists,  and  accused  them  vehe- 
mently of  Antinomianism.  In  this  spirit 
they  evidently  regarded  the  Auchterarder 
proposition  as  containing  one  of  the 
darkest  of  the  Antinomian  tenets  ;  where- 
as a  little  more  discrimination  and  can- 
dour, and  a  little  less  party  prejudice, 
might  have  enabled  them  to  perceive  that 
it  was  intended  merely  to  guard  against 
/the  unsound  doctrine,  that  a  man  must  of 
/himself  first  abandon  sin,  and  cease  to  be 
I  a  sinner,  before  he  can  be  at  liberty  or 
1  entitled  to  come  to  Christ,  and  to  enter 
V 


[CHAP.  IX 


into  covenant  with  God.  What  they  con- 
demned in  such  strong  terms  was  their 
own  prejudiced  construction  of  a  really 
sound  proposition,  and  not  that  orthodox 
tenet  which  it  was  intended  to  express. 
It  will  be  found  that  these  remarks  apply 
to  much  of  the  contest  which  arose  at  this 
time,  and  so  deeply  agitated  the  Church 
for  several  dangerous  years. 

While  sitting  in  the  General  Assembly 
during  the  discussions  respecting  Pro- 
fessor Simson  and  the  Auchterarder  pro- 
position, the  Rev.  Thomas  Boston  hap- 
pened to  mention  to  Mr.  Drummond  of 
CriefF,  that  he  had  met  with  an  old  book 
called  the  Marrow  of  Modern  Divinity, 
with  which  he  had  been  much  pleased. 
Mr.  Drummond,  with  some  difficulty, 
procured  a  copy  of  the  work  thus  recom- 
mended. It  was  perused  and  approved 
of  by  Mr.  Webster  of  Edinburgh,  Mr. 
Hog  of  Carnock,  and  Bother  eminent  di- 
vines. Subsequently,  Mr.  Hog,  by  the 
advice  of  his  friends,  wrote  a  recommen- 
datory preface  to  it,  and  it  was  republished 
in  the  course  of  the  year  1718.*  The 
importance  of  this  apparently  slight  inci- 
dent, in  its  ultimate  bearing  upon  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  cannot  well  be  over- 
estimated, as  shall  shortly  appear. 

The  only  other  subject  of  importance 
which  occurred  this  year,  was  the  draw- 
ing up  of  a  memorial  by  Wodrow  the 
historian,  which  he  sent  to  Colonel  Er- 
skine  of  Cardross,  to  guide  that  gentle- 
man in  his  application  to  government  for 
redress  of  those  grievances  under  which 
the  Church  of  Scotland  groaned,  especi- 
ally that  of  patronage.  The  whole  of 
this  important  document  deserves  atten- 
tion, as  a  few  sentences  will  prove. 
"  Nothing  can  more  nearly  affect  the  pre- 
sent and  the  after  generation,  this  Na- 
tional Church,  and  even  his  majesty's 
government,  than  a  right,  regular,  and 
scriptural  establishment  as  to  the  settling 
of  ministers.  The  foundation  of  almost 
all  the  wrong  reasonings  upon  this  head, 
is  a  notion  got  into  the  heads  of  too  many 
persons  of  rank  and  figure,  that  gospel 
ministers  are  a  set  of  men  whom  custom 
hath  beat  in  to  talk  a  while  once  a-week 
to  them  upon  serious  subjects,  and  there- 
fore are  to  have  a  maintenance  and  sub- 
sistence allowed  them,  as  law  accords  j 
and  such  who  are  bound  by  law  to  give 

*  Boston's  Memoirs,  pp.  266,  267. 


A.  D.  1719.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


343 


them  their  small  stipends  are  to  call  and 
choose  them;  meanwhile  they  have  no 
notion  of  a  pastoral  charge,  or  the  merit 
in  all  duties  and  relations  betwixt  a  min- 
ister and  those  for  whom  he  must  account, 
as  well  as  that  his  hearers  must  give  ac- 
count of  this  great  gift  to  them.  Besides 
this  gross  notion  of  a  gospel  ministry  and 
their  maintenance,  it  is  lamentably  evi- 
dent that  statesmen  and  persons  of  rank 
and  quality  have  of  a  long  time  been 
essaying  to  involve  this  Church  and  the 
judicatory  thereof  in  their  parties  and 
designs,  and  to  make  tools  of  ministers  to 
carry  on  their  secular  purposes.  As  to 
ministry  brought  into  a  church  by  the 
power  of  patrons,  they  must  be  dependent 
and  servile,  and  so  corrupt  and  despised. 
We  have  this  to  encourage  us  in  this  ap- 
plication, that  the  king,  when  Elector  of 
Hanover,  did  express  his  dislike  of  the 
bill  for  bringing  in  patrons,  as  what 
would  break  his  best  friends  in  Scotland. 
I  do  not  see  that  any  smoothings  in  this 
affair  will  do.  Restricting  of  patrons,  if 
the  people  be  forfeited  of  their  just  right, 
or  obliging  them  to  take  the  consent  of 
presbyteries  before  they  present  a  min- 
ister already  fixed  to  a  congregation,  will 
but  line  the  yoke,  and  make  it  sit  closer 
to  our  necks,  and  perpetuate  it  upon  us 
and  posterity."*  Such  were  the  opin- 
ions of  the  sagacious  and  thoughtful 
Wodrow.  Had  he  been  filled  with  the 
spirit  of  prophecy,  he  could  not  more 
justly  have  characterised  patrons  and 
patronage,  or  more  accurately  have  fore- 
told the  evil  consequences  about  to  fol- 
low ;  and  it  were  well  if  men  in  the  pre- 
sent times  would  ponder  upon  the  danger 
of  all  attempts  to  devise  such  a  restriction 
of  that  intolerable  yoke  as  shall  merely 
give  it  a  firmer  clasp,  and  render  it  a  per- 
petual bondage.' 

[1718.]  The  only  act  of  the  Assembly 
of  1718  to  which  it  is  necessary  to  advert 
was  one  concerning  the  presbytery  of 
Auchterarder  ;  from  which  it  appears, 
that  the  presbytery  had  given  such  an  ex- 
planation of  their  meaning  in  the  cen- 
sured proposition  as  satisfied  the  Commis- 
sion. They  were  therefore  exonerated 
from  further  blame,  and  merely  warned 
to  abstain  from  using  such  questionable 
language  for  the  future. 

*  See  the  document  quoted  by  Dr.  M'Crie,  Patronage 
Report,  pp,  364,  365. 


[1719.]  In  the  year  1719,  an  act  of 
parliament  was  passed  in  consequence  of 
the  complaints  and  remonstrances  of  the 
Church,  calculated  to  put  an  end  to  some 
of  the  abuses  of  patronage,  and  by 
many  thought  to  be  available  for  a  great 
deal  more.  One  of  the  glaring  abuses 
of  patronage  consisted  in  patrons  present- 
ing to  vacant  charges  ministers  who 
were  already  in  more  important  situa- 
tions, or  who  were  known  to  be  so  hos- 
tile to  patronage  that  they  would  not  ac- 
cept presentations  at  all.  By  such  means 
the  parishes  were  kept  vacant  for  several 
years,  during  which  time  the  patrons  re- 
tained possession  of  the  stipend,  thereby 
defrauding  the  Church  of  it^patrimony,  \ 
and  the  people  of  a  minister.  By  this  ( 
act  it  was  declared,  that  if  any  patron 
should  present  to  a  vacant  charge  the 
minister  of  any  other  parish,  or  any  per- 
son who  should  not  accept  or  declare  his 
willingness  to  accept  of  the  presentation 
within  the  usual  time — six  months — such 
presentation  should  not  be  accounted  any 
interruption  of  the*  course  of  time  allowed 
to  the  patron  for  presenting,  but  the  jus 
devolutum  should  take  place  as  if  no  pre- 
sentation had  been  offered.  This  was 
certainly  calculated  to  put  an  end  to  that 
form  of  abuse ;  but  at  the  time  it  was 
generally  thought  to  be  equivalent  to  a 
repeal  of  the  Patronage  Act ;  "  and  that 
no  Presbyterian  would  ever  expressly  de- 
clare his  accepting  of  a  presentation  to  go 
so  far  to  approve  or  comply  with  patron- 
age, which  Presbyterians  had  always  de- 
clared to  be  a  heavy  yoke  and  burden  on 
the  Church  of  God."*  And  according- 
ly, says  Willison,  "there  was  no  man 
that  presumed  to  take,  accept,  or  make 
use  of  a  presentation  for  several  years 
after  this  act  was  passed."  It  was,  in- 
deed, proposed  by  some,  that  the  As- 
sembly should  follow  up  this  act  of  par- 
liament by  another  of  their  own,  prohib- 
iting all  probationers  and  ministers  from 
accepting  presentations,  on  pain  of  the 
highest  church  censures,  being  persuad- 
ed that  government  intended  to  give  to  the 
Church  this  opportunity  of  getting  quit 
of  patronage  without  the  formality  of  a 
legislative  enactment.  Others  thought 
that  all  that  was  intended  was  only  to  put 
an  end  to  the  abuse  of  evasive  presenta- 
tions. But  amid  this  diversity  of  opinion 

•  Willisou's  Testimony,  p.  48. 


344 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX 


respecting  the  real  intention  of  the  act, 
and  lulled  into  security  by  regarding  the 
dangers  arising  out  of  the  exercise  of 
patronage  as  now  removed,  and  with  a 
growing  Moderate  party  already  pre- 
dominant in  the  church  courts,  who  had 
little  predilection  for  the  original  princi- 
ples of  Presbytery,  the  Church  did  not 
avail  itself  of  this  opportunity  of  throw- 
ing off  the  yoke,  or  at  least  of  testing  the 
sincerity  of  the  friendly  professions  of 
government.  By  chis  restriction  the  yoke 
was  lined,  to  use  the  words  of  Wodrow, 
and  more  firmly  fixed  than  before. 
/  In  the  meantime  what  has  been  term- 

/ed  the  Marrow  Controversy  had  begun. 

V  The  repuUication  of  this  work  by  Mr. 
James  Hog  of  Carnock,  with  a  recom- 
mendatory preface  from  his  pen,  had  ex- 
cited great  displeasure  among  the  lead- 
ing men  of  the  Church,  who  were  near- 
ly all  Neonomians.  Mr.  Hog  found  it 
necessary  to  publish,  early  in  1719,  "  An 
Explanation  of  the  Passages  excepted 
against  in  the  Marrow  of  Modern  Di- 
vinity." Soon  after  this,  Principal  Had- 
dow  of  St.  Andrews,  in  a  sermon  preach- 
ed at  the  meeting  of  the  synod  of  Fife 
in  April,  directly  assailed  the  doctrinal 
views  contained  in  Marshall's  Treatise 
on  sanctification,  and  especially  in  the 
Marrow  of  Modern  Divinity.  This  ser- 
mon having  been  published  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  synod,  the  discussion  assumed 
the  form  of  a  regular  controversy  be- 
tween the  two  parties  in  the  Church, — 
the  Evangelical  arid  constitutional  party 
who  adhered  firmly  to  the  original  and 
fundamental  principles  held  by  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  its  purest  times,  and 
especially  at  the  periods  of  the  First  and 
Second  Reformations, — and  the  Neono- 
mian  and  innovating  Moderate  party,  who 
displayed  an  ominous  readiness  to  accom- 
modate the  gospel  to  the  inclinations  of 
fallen  man,  and  to  modify  the  principles 
of  Church  government  and  discipline  so 
as  to  meet  the  views  of  politicians  and 
men  of  the  world.  No  express  mention 
was  made  of  the  Marrow  in  the  assem- 
bly of  1719;  but  in  the  instructions 
given  to  the  commission,  they  were 
directed  to  "  inquire  into  the  publishing 
and  spreading  of  books  and  pamphlets 
tending  to  the  diffusing  of  the  condemned 
proposition  of  Auchterarder,  and  promo- 
ting a  system  of  opinions  relative  thereto 


which  are  inconsistent  with  our  Confes 
sions  of  Faith ;  and  that  the  recom- 
menders  of  such  books  and  pamphlets, 
or  the  errors  therein  contained,  be  called 
before  them,  to  answer  for  their  conduct 
in  such  recommendations."*  The  Com- 
mission entered  upon  the  discharge  of 
this  .  duty  with  keen  alacrity.  They 
chose  what  they  termed  a  "committee 
for  preserving  the  purity  of  doctrine,"  who 
nominated  a  sub-committee  to  sit  at  St. 
Andrews,  to  "  ripen  the  affair,"  by  fix- 
ing on  the  persons  to  be  called  before 
them,  and  drawing  up  a  list  of  questions 
for  their  examination.  In  a  short  time 
the  following  ministers  were  summoned 
to  attend  the  committee  at  Edinburgh, — 
the  Rev.  Messrs.  Warden  of  Gargunnock, 
Brisbane  of  Stirling,  Hamilton  of  Airth, 
aad  Hog  of  Carnock.  The  answers  of 
these  ministers  were  declared  by  the 
Edinburgh  committee  to  be  satisfactory; 
and  it  was  confidently  anticipated  that  a 
favourable  report  would  be  returned  to 
the  Assembly,  and  that  the  threatened  con- 
troversy would  speedily  terminate  in 
peace.  But  this  was  by  no  means  the 
intention  of  the  St.  Andrews  sub-com- 
mittee. Led  on  by  Principal  Haddow,f 
that  small  conclave  was  busily  engaged 
in  picljynj;  out  every  objectionable  expres-\ 
sion  that  could  be  found  in  the  Mar-j 
row  and  in  the  writings  of  its  defenders  •' 
separating  these  from  the  context,  and  so 
arranging  them  as  to  give  them  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  connected  series  of  hetero- 
dox propositions,  and  framing  the  whole 
into  a  report  calculated  to  impose  upon 
the  Assembly,  which  could  not  be  expect- 
ed to  enter  into  such  a  minute  examina- 
tion of  the  book  as  it  was  to  be  supposed 
had  been  done  by  a  committee  appointed 
expressly  for  that  purpose. 

[1720]  When  the  general  Assembly 
met  in  May  1720,  instead  of  the  favour- 
able report  of  the  Edinburgh  committee, 
which  had  been  expected,  that  of  the  St. 
Andrews  sub-committee,  drawn  up  by 
Principal  Haddow,  was  laid  before  the 
house.  This  report  had  been  framed 
with  such  art  as  to  convey  the  impression 
to  all  who  were  not  thoroughly  acquaint- 
ed with  the  Marrow  of  Modern  Divinity 

*  Acts  of  Assembly,  year  1719. 

t  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  Principal  Haddow 
acted  in  this  manner  under  the  influence  of  personal 
enmity  against  Mr  Hog.  arising  out  of  some  disagree- 
ment which  had  occurred  between  them  when  student* 
in  Holland.  (Gospel  Truth,  p.  483.) 


A,  D.  1721.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


345 


itself,  that  it  was  a  book  of  the  most  per- 
nicious tendency,  calculated  to  lead  its 
readers  into  the  most  dangerous  errors. 
In  vain  did  its  defenders  attempt  to  pro- 
cure a  fair  and  thorough  investigation  of 
the  work,  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
that  some  injudicious  and  unguarded  ex- 
pressions were  so  modified  by  others,  and 
by  the  general  spirit  of  the  book,  that, 
taken  collectively,  the  doctrine  of  the 
book  was  orthodox  and  scriptural.  This 
which  is  the  only  fair  and  candid  mode 
of  ascertaining  what  are  really  an 
author's  sentiments,  was  refused,  and  the 
attention  of  the  Assembly  was  rigidly 
confined  to  the  expressions  selected  by 
the  accusers.  It  is  perfectly  evident, 
that  by  a  careful  selection  of  incautious 
phrases,  employed  incidentally  by  an 
author  when  his  mind  is  mainly  occupied 
by  another  topic,  he  may  be  made  to 
seem  the  supporter  of  opinions  which  it 
is  his  very  object  to  repudiate  and  con- 
lemn.  By  such  a  sophistical  process 
Lnther  may  be  made  the  defender  of  Po- 
pery, and  Calvin  of  universal  redemption  ; 
by  such  a  process  Calvin,  and  Beza,  and 
Knox,  and  the  Standards  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  have  been  made  the  defen- 
ders of  patronage  and  intrusion  ;  and  by 
such  a  process  the  Bible  itself  has  been 
made  to  give  support  to  heresy.  Thus 
misled  by  the  sophistical  report  of  its  com- 
mittee, the  General  Assembly  was  in- 
fduced  to  pass  an  act  condemning  the 
Marrow  of  Modern  Divinity,  on  account 
of  the  false  doctrine  which  it  was  said  to 
Icon  tain. 

In  the  act  condemning  the  Marrow, 
the  passages  said  to  contain  false  doc- 
trine are  arranged  under  five  heads  : — 
1st,  Concerning  the  nature  of  faith,  the 
charge  being  that  assurance  is  made  to 
be  of  the  essence  of  faith  ;  2d,  Univer- 
sal atonement  and  pardon  ;  3d,  Holiness 
not  necessary  to  salvation  ;  4th,  Fear  of 
punishment  and  hope  of  reward  not  al- 
lowed to  be  motives  of  a  believer's  obe- 
dience ;  5th,  That  the  believer  is  not  un- 
der the  law  as  a  rule  of  life.  To  these 
are  added,  "  Six  Antinomian  paradoxes," 
which  are  said  to  be  "  sensed,"  or  ex- 
plained and  "defended  by  applying  to 
them  that  distinction  of  the  law  of  works 
and  the  law  of  Christ."  Assuming,  on 
the  authority  of  the  sub-committee's  re- 
port, that  these  heretical  tenets  ivere 
44 


really  contained  in  the  Marrow  of  Mo- 
dern Divinity,  the  General  Assembly 
passed  an  act,  on  the  20th  of  May  1720, 
by  which  they  "  strictly  prohibit  and  dis- 
charge all  the  ministers  of  this  Church, 
either  by  preaching,  writing,  or  printing, 
to  recommend  the  said  book,  or  in  dis- 
course to  say  any  thing  in  favour  of  it ; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  they  are  hereby  en- 
joined and  required  to  warn  and  exhort 
their  people  in  whose  hands  the  said 
book  is,  or  may  come,  not  to  read  or  use 
the  same."*  It  would  be  improper  here 
to  enter  into  religious  controversy  ;  but 
this  much  maybe  said,  that  the  five  heads 
condemned  by  the  Assembly  are  not 
taught  by  the  Marrow  of  Modern  Divi- 
nity, though  incidental  expressions,  taken 
apart  from  the  context,  may  seem  to  have 
some  such  tendency ;  and  that  there  are 
very  few  books  to  be  found  containing 
equally  clear  and  satisfactory  views  of 
the  gospel. 

This  act  of  Assembly,  together  with 
one  respecting  preaching  catechetical 
doctrine,  in  which  there  are  some  very 
questionable  expressions,  excited  great 
dissatisfaction  and  anxiety  in  the  minds 
of  all  the  sound  and  faithful  ministers 
throughout  the  country  ;  and  the  subject 
was  discussed  at  the  meetings  of  presby- 
teries and  synods,  in  various  quarters, 
particularly  in  the  presbytery  of  Selkirk 
and  the  synod  of  Merse  and  Teviotdale. 
A  correspondence  was  begun  between 
Messrs.  Boston  of  Etterick,  Gabriel  Wil- 
son of  Maxton,  and  Ebenezer  Erskine 
of  Portmoak,  Wilson  of  Perth,  and  Hog 
of  Carnock,  and  others,  respecting  the 
steps  which  ought  to  be  taken  for  the  vin- 
dication of  the  truth  in  this  day  of  trou- 
ble and  rebuke.  It  was  at  length  agreed 
that  a  representation  and  petition  should 
be  given  in  to  next  Assembly,  for  the 
purpose  of  endeavouring  to  procure  the 
repeal  of  the  act  condemning  the  Mar- 
row. After  several  interviews  had  taken 
place,  the  matter  was  matured,  and  the 
representation  prepared  and  signed,  pre- 
paratory to  its  being  laid  before  the  As- 
sembly.! 

[1721.]  Considerable  anxiety  was  felt 
throughout  the  Church  respecting  the 
possible  issue  of  the  controversy,  in  the 
aspect  which  it  had  now  assumed.  Many 


*  Acts  of  Assembly,  year  1720,  act 
Memoirs,  pp.  295-301. 


t  Boston'* 


346 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


who  disapproved  of  the  sentence  of  con- 
demnation into  which  the  Assembly  had 
been  betrayed  by  Principal  Had  do  w, 
were  yet  afraid  that  the  representation 
\vould  not  lead  the  Assembly  to  repeal 
an  act  once  passed,  and  might  end  in  the 
expulsion  of  the  eminent  divines  by 
whom  that  document  was  signed.  Great 
endeavours  were  accordingly  made  to 
induce  them  to  withhold  the  representa- 
tion ;  but  having  arrived  at  the  convic- 
tion that  it  was  an  act  of  imperative  duty, 
they  could  not  be  dissuaded.  The  re- 
presentation was  at  length  formally  laid 
before  the  committee  of  bills,  and  a  day 
was  appointed  on  which  the  subject  was 
to  be  discussed  in  the  Assembly.*  What 
the  result  might  have  been,  had  the  dis- 
cussion taken  place  while  the  minds  of 
the  members  were  in  a  state  of  irritation, 
it  is  impossible  to  say ;  but  as  the  com- 
missioner was  labouring  under  serious 
indisposition,  it  was  thought  proper  to 
shorten  the  sitting  of  the  Assembly,  in- 
trusting to  the  Commission  such  business 
as  it  could  not  overtake.  This  was  a 
propitious  circumstance,  as  it  gave  both 
time  and  occasion  to  further  investigation, 
besides  preventing  the  hazard  of  a  deci- 
sion by  the  Assembly  in  a  state  of  rash 
and  intemperate  warmth. 

The  most  important  matter  intrusted 
to  the  Commission  was  that  which  rela- 
ted to  the  Representers,  as  the  twelve 
ministers  who  had  signed  the  represen- 
tation were  called.  Several  conferences 
took  place  between  the  Representers  and 
the  Commission  immediately  after  the 
rising  of  the  Assembly ;  but  the  subject 
was  postponed  to  a  subsequent  meeting 
of  Commission  in  August.  At  this  meet- 
ing the  Commission  could  not  agree 
upon  their  own  course  of  procedure, 
some  being  disposed  to  act  with  severity, 
others  recommending  a  milder  method. 
In  November,  the  Representers  were  re- 
quired 'to  furnish  written  answers  to  a 
series  of  twelve  queries  which  had  been 
prepared.  They  perceived  clearly  the 
intention  of  this  proposal,  which  was  to 
bring  them  as  delinquents  before  the 

*  The  representation  was  signed  by  the  following 
welve  ministers  :— the  Rev.  Messrs.  James  Hog  of  Car- 
nock,  Thomas  Boston  of  Etterick.  John  Bonar  of  Tor- 
phichen,  John  Williamson  of  Inveresk,  James  Kid  of 
Queensferry,  Gabriel  Wilson  of  Maxton,  Ebenezer 
Erskine  of  Portmoak,  Ralph  Erskine  of  Dunfermline, 
James  Wardlaw  of  Dunfermline,  Henry  Davidson  of 
Galashiels,  James  Bathgate  of  Orwell,  William  Hunter 
of  Lilliesleaf. 


Assembly,  instead  of  being  virtually  the 
censurers  of  that  court,  as  they  were  by 
their  representation,  which  was  equiva- 
lent to  a  complaint  against  its  sentence 
condemning  the  Marrow.  The  Repre- 
senters regarded  this  as  so  unusual  and 
unfair  a  course  of  procedure,  that  they 
were  not  bound  to  comply  with  it ;  never- 
theless, for  the  sake  of  truth,  and  for  the 
vindication  of  their  own  characters,  they 
judged  it  expedient  to  take  these  queries 
into  consideration,  and  to  prepare  an- 
swers to  be  laid  before  the  Commission 
at  their  meeting  in  March.  One  effect, 
not  contemplated  by  the  assailants  of  the 
Marrow,  resulted  from  this  course  of 
procedure:  the  answers  returned  by  the 


re- 


Rep  resenters  were  very  carefully  p 
pared,  and  being  written  by  men  of  de- 
cided talents,  learning,  and  piety,  they 
formed  an  admirable  exposition  of  a  dif- 
ficult point  in  theology,  and  contributed 
greatly  to  stem  the  tide  of  defection  at 
that  time  so  rapidly  overflowing  the  I 
country.* 

[1722.]  The  answers  to  the  queries  of 
the  Commission  were  produced  at  the 
meeting  of  that  court  in  March  1722; 
and  the  committee  for  purity  of  doctrine 
immediately  engaged  in  writing  a  com- 
ment upon  these  queries,  and  framing  an 
overture  on  the  subject,  preparatory  to 
the  meeting  of  Assembly.  When  the 
Assembly  met,  it  soon  appeared  that  the 
opponents  of  the  Marrow  had  lost,  and 
its  defenders  gained,  by  the  delay  which 
had  taken  place.  The  attention  of  the 
Church  had  been  directed  to  that  work  in 
the  interval ;  and  many  ministers  had 
come  to  the  conclusion,  that  the  Assem- 
bly's sentence  was  not  warranted  by  any 
thing  which  it  contained,  if  fairly  and 
candidly  interpreted  as  a  whole.  The 
severe  censure  which  the  leading  men 
in  the  Church  had  intended  to  inflict 
upon  the  Representers  was  not  likely  to 
pass  without  strenuous  opposition  ;  and 
there  appeared  a  strong  probability  that 
many  might  join  the  twelve  brethren  in 
wishing  the  repeal  of  that  act  against 
which  the  representation  was  directed. 
After  a  period  of  protracted  and  anxious . 
discussion,  an  act  was  framed,  confirm- 
ing,  but  at  the  same  time  explaining,  the  ; 
former  act;  giving  a  cautious  but  not 


*  Appendix  to  modern  reprints  of  the  Marrow,  o 
Gospel  Truth,  pp.  176-238. 


A.  D.  1725.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


347 


very  orthodox  statement  of  the  doctrines 
/held  by  the  Church  on  the  points  under 
/discussion  ;  prohibiting  the  ministers  of 
/the  Church  from  teaching  the  positions 
I  condemned,  or  any  equivalent  to  them ; 
I  and  appointing  the  moderator  to  rebuke 
|  and  admonish  the  twelve  brethren  who 
'  signed  the  representation.*  They  were 
rebuked  and  admonished  accordingly, 
"  receiving  it  with  all  gravity,  and  as  an 
ornament  in  the  cause  of  truth ;"  and  im- 
mediately laying  upon  the  table  a  protest 
against  both  the  former  act  and  the  pre- 
sent sentence,  asserting  their  liberty  still 
to  profess,  teach,  and  bear  testimony  to 
the  truths  condemned.!  This  protest 
was  allowed  to  lie  on  the  table,  but  not 
read  ;  and  as  the  Assembly  did  not  at- 
tempt to  found  any  proceedings  against 
the  brethren  on  account  of  it,  while  on 
their  part  they  viewed  it  as  sufficient  to 
exonerate  their  conscience,  the  whole 
matter  was  allowed  to  rest,  and  the  im- 
minent danger  of  a  schism  averted  for 
the  time.  The  sudden  change  in  the 
conduct  of  the  leading  men  in  the  As- 
sembly from  overbearing  severity  to 
comparative  leniency,  was  caused  partly 
by  the  perception  that  a  much  larger 
proportion  of  the  Church  disapproved  of 
their  proceedings  than  they  had  expect- 
ed ;  but  chiefly  because,  both  in  his  ma- 
jesty's public  letter,  and  by  the  commis- 
sioner in  a  private  conference,  they  were 
warned  to  abstain  from  every  thing 
which  might  cause  division  in  the 
Church.^; 

Thus  terminated  so  far  as  the  discus- 
/sion  in  church  courts  was  concerned,  the 
j  Marrow  Controversy ;  but  its  consequen- 
Ces  did  not  soon  pass  away.  Irritated  by 
their  comparative  failure  in  the  General 
Assembly,  the  Neonomian  party  directed 
their  attention  to  the  subordinate  judica- 
tories,  and  did  their  utmost  to  prevent  or 
impede  the  settlement  in  parishes  of 
young  men  who  were  suspected  to  have 
imbibed  the  Marrow  doctrines. §  They 
even  framed  new  questions  relating  to 
these  doctrines,  to  be  put  to  probationers, 
in  direct  contravention  of  an  act  passed 
by  themselves  against  the  Auchterarder 


*  Acts  of  Assembly,  year  1722.  T  Boston's  Me- 

moirs, p.  306. 

t  Acts  of  Assembly  ;  Wodrow,  MS.  Letters. 

§  See  the  cases  of  Mr  Hepburn's  call  to  Edinbugh, 

and  Mr  Francis    Craig's   to  Kinross,  related  by  Dr        *  Boston's  Memoirs. 
M'Crie,— Christian  Instructor  for  Febuary  1832.  I  Assembly. 


proposition  ;  and  did  their  utmost  to  har- 
rass  and  annoy  the  twelve  Representers. 
They  assailed  Gabriel  Wilson  with  great 
bitterness  on  account  of  a  sermon  preach- 
ed before  the  synod,  prosecuting  him 
from  court  to  court,  till  he  was  rescued 
by  the  favourable  decision  of  the  Assem- 
bly itself;  and  they  prevented  Boston 
from  being  removed  to  a  more  salubrious 
situation,  although  aware  that  the  air  of 
Etterick,  too  keen  for  his  delicate  consti- 
tution, was  hastening  h'im  to  the  grave.* 
By  such  a  course  of  conduct  was  the 
first  period  of  rising  Moderatism  distin- 
guished ;  screening  teachers  of  direct 
error,  as  in  the  case  of  Simson  ;  conniv- 
ing at  evasive  perversions  of  the  truth, 
in  the  introduction  of  Neonomian  views  ; 
submitting  to  violations  of  the  constitu- 
tional rights  and  privileges  of  the  Na- 
tional Church,  as  in  the  Patronage  Act ; 
and  persecuting  with  relentless  malignity 
their  brethren  the  Representers,  and 
other  faithful  and  zealous  defenders  of 
the  doctrines  of  grace. 

[1723-4.]  The  records  of  the  Church 
during  the  year  1723  and  1724  present 
little  of  peculiar  importance.  In  the  for- 
mer of  these  the  prosecution  of  Mr.  Ga- 
briel Wilson  of  Maxton  was  terminated 
by  an  act  of  Assembly,  acquitting  him  of 
the  charges  urged  against  him  by  the  in- 
ferior courts.  In  the  latter  nothing  me- 
morable occurred. 

[1725.]  In  the  year  1725,  a  case  arose 
which  deserves  specific  mention.  A 
vacancy  having  taken  place  in  one  of  the 
churches  of  Aberdeen,  the  magistrates 
and  town-council,  who,  as  heritors,  had  a\ 
right  along  with  the  session  to  propose  aj 
person  to  the  congregation  for  their  ap- 
probation and  call,  thought  proper  to 
avail  themselves  of  the  Patronage  Act, 
and  claimed  the  power  of  appointing  ab- 
solutely, without  regard  to  the  wish  of 
the  congregation.  The  synod  disap- 
proved of  this  procedure,  and  the  magis- 
trates appealed  to  the  Assembly.  The 
Assembly  directed  a  new  call  to  be  mo- 
derated, and  "  appointed  the  inclinations 
of  the  heads  of  families  that  attended  or- 
dinances to  be  consulted."!  When  the 
new  call  took  place,  one  hundred  and 
thirty-nine  heads  of  families  voted  for  the 
person  proposed  by  the  town-council,  a 


t  Unprinted  Acts  o 


348 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX 


Mr.  Chalmers,  minister  of  Dyke,  and 
three  hundred  and  seven  against  him. 
The  Commission  of  Assembly,  to  whom 
the  new  call  was  reported,  sustained  it, 
several  members  expressing  their  dissent. 
[1726.]  The  conduct  of  the  Commis- 
sion in  thus  sustaining  the  call  of  Mr. 
Chalmers,  notwithstanding  the  dissent  of 
a  majority  of  the  people,  was  brought  be- 
fore the  Assembly  of  1726.  The  Assem- 
bly, by  a  vote,  "  disapproved  of  the  Com- 
mission's proceedings  in  the  settlement 
of  Mr.  Chalmers  at  Aberdeen,  upon  these 
grounds,  that  they  acted  disagreeably  to 
the  instructions  of  the  last  Assembly,  par- 
ticularly in  not  making  due  inquiry,  and 
not  having  due  regard  unto  the  inclina- 
tions of  the  people ;"  but,  by  another  vote, 
they  refused  to  rescind  the  Commission's 
sentence  settling  Mr.  Chalmers,  consider- 
ing it  not  desirable  to  tamper  with  the 
Commission's  powers,  by  recalling  their 
decision  in  matters  which  they  had  been 
empowered  to  determine.*  This  is  the 
first  instance  on  record  of  a  minister 
settled  against  the  dissent  of  the  people, 
subsequent  to  the  Revolution ;  and  even 
the  proceeding  was  condemned  by  a  vote 
of  the  General  Assembly,  and  permitted 
to  remain  unrescinded  only  in  conse- 
quence of  a  point  of  form  in  judicial  pro- 
cedure. And  it  may  be  regarded  as  a 
somewhat  curious  coincidence,  that  Aber- 
deen should  again,  as  in  former  times,  be 
the  spot  whence  wrong  and  outrage  to 
the  Church  and  people  of  Scotland  should 
begin. 

In  the  same  year  a  new  edition  of  the 
/Marrow  of  Modern   Divinity  was  pub- 
fished,  to  which  Boston   contributed   a 
/  number  of  copious  and  highly  valuable 
i  explanatory  notes. 

[1 727-28.]  A  new  accusation  was 
brought  against  Professor  Simson,  in  the 
year  1727,  charging  him  with  holding 
and  teaching  Arian  opinions.  The  cul- 
pable lenity  of  the  former  sentence  of  As- 
sembly seems  to  have  encouraged  the 
unhappy  man  to  persevere  in  his  course 
of  error,  sinking  deeper  and  deeper  as  he 
advanced.  The  subject  had  been  par- 
tially under  the  notice  of  the  preceding 
Assembly ;  but  it  was  now  formally  taken 
up,  a  committee  appointed  to  make  due 
inquiries,  and  to  ripen  the  affair  for  deci- 
sion. It  was  brought  before  the  Assem- 

*  Unprinted  Acts  of  Assembly. 


bly  of  1728,  and  sentence  of  suspension 
from  teaching  and  preaching  was  passed, 
till  the  investigation  should  be  completed, 
and  a  final  decision  given.  In  the  same 
year,  1728,  the  Commission  of  Assembly 
sustained  a  call  by  the  heritors,  elders, 
parishioners  of  the  parish  of  Alves,  to 
Mr.  Gordon,  minister  at  Boharm,  against 
a  presentation  by  the  patron,  the  Earl  of 
Moray,  to  another  person  ;*  indicating 
clearly  the  opinion  of  the  church  courts 
at  that  time,  that  a  call  by  the  people  was 
of  more  importance  than  a  presentation 
by  a  patron. 

[1729.]  The  Assembly  of  1729  gave 
final  decision  in  the  case  of  Professor 
Simson.  He  had  made,  upon  the  whole, 
a  skillful  defence,  though  one  which 
proved  that  his  own  mind  was  deeply 
tainted  with  sophistical  insincerity ;  partly 
attempting  to  explain  away  his  erroneous 
tenets  by  the  aid  of  metaphysical  subtle- 
ties, partly  by  strenuous  assertions  that 
he  really  held  the  very  doctrines  of  the 
Confession  of  Faith.  Great  reluctance 
was  manifested  by  the  Assembly  to  pass 
a  sentence  due  to  his  demerits  ;  and  the 
utmost  that  could  be  obtained  was  a  con- 
firmation of  the  previous  sentence  of  sus- 
pension, with  an  additional  declaration, 
that  it  was  not  fit  that  he  should  be  fur- 
ther employed  in  teaching  divinity  and 
instructing  youth  designed  for  the  minis- 
try. Against  this  sentence,  as  totally 
inadequate  to  mark  a  due  condemnation 
of  such  deadly  heresy  as  he  had  taught, 
Boston  rose  and  declared  his  dissent,  in 
his  own  name  and  that  of  all  who  should 
adhere  to  him ;  and  no  other  person  ex- 
pressing adherence,  he  continued,  "  and 
for  myself  alone,  if  nobody  shall  adhere."! 
A  deep  and  solemn  awe  filled  the  Assem- 
bly, to  see  this  great  and  good  man 
placing  himself  sublimely  in  uncom- 
panioned  opposition  to  the  weak  and 

Siilty    unfaithfulness,   of    a    declining 
hurch,  and  not  a  voice  was  raised  in 
condemnation  of  his  majestic  Christian 
fortitude.  The  heretical  professor  yielded 
to  the  letter  of  the  sentence ;  did  not  even 
attempt  to  defend   his  errors  from    the 
press,  as  had  been  apprehended  5  and,  so 
far  as  he  was  personally  concerned,  the 
matter  gradually  sunk  into  oblivion. 
But  the  secular  leaven  introduced  into 


*  Commission  Record,  p.  200. 
p.  354. 


\  Boston's  Memoirs 


A.  D.  1732.] 


HISTORT  OP  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


349 


the  Church  by  patronage  was  now  be- 
ginning- to  work  more  potently,  and  to 
show  its  true  nature  and  tendency.  Du- 
ring the  course  of  this  year  Principal 
Chalmers  of  King's  College,  Aberdeen, 
received  a  presentation  to  the  parish  of 
Old  Machar,  from  the  college  as  patron. 
A  partial  call  appears  also  to  have  been 
procured,  subsequent  to  the  presentation. 
In  the  meantime  a  call  was  given  by  the 
parishioners  to  a  Mr.  Howie,  and  the 
presbytery  sustained  the  call  in  his  favour. 
The  synod,  however,  reversed  their  sen- 
tence, sustained  the  call  to  the  principal, 
who  had  the  presentation,  and  actually 
inducted  him.  The  matter  was  brought 
by  appeal  to  the  Assembly,  who  rescinded 
and  made  void  the  settlement,  declared 
the  parish  vacant,  ana1  appointed  the 
moderation  of  a  new  call.  But  Aber- 
deen tactics  prevailed  ;  and  though  the 
sentence  of  the  Assembly  was  a  clear  af- 
firmation of  the  principle  that  the  oppo- 
sition of  the  people  was,  in  the  estimation 
of  the.  Church,  more  powerful  to  prevent 
than  a  presentation  could  be  to  secure  a 
settlement,  yet  the  wily  principal  con- 
trived to  procure  a  majority  on  the  mod- 
eration of  the  new  call :  and,  obtaining 
easily  from  his  college  a  new  presenta- 
tion, was  settled  in  the  charge.*  The 
second  instance  of  a  settlement  by  means 
of  a  "  riding  committee,"  took  place  this 
year  in  the  case  of  New  Machar,  and 
soon  afterwards  became  prevalent,  in 
order  to  avoid  the  hazard  of  direct  col- 
lision with  the  conscientious  unwilling- 
ness of  presbyteries  to  take  part  in  tran- 
sactions of  a  character  so  unconstitutional, 
unscriptural,  and  violent. 

[1730.]  A  case  of  a  somewhat  similar 
kind  was  determined  by  the  Assembly  of 
1730.  This  was  the  case  of  the  parish 
of  Hutton,  in  the  presbytery  of  Chirn- 
side.  The  matter  came  first  before  the 
Assembly  of  1728,  and  was  referred  to 
the  Commission,  who  were  empowered  to 
"  determine  in  the  affair  as  they  should 
find  just."  The  Commission  appointed 
the  presbytery  to  proceed  to  the  settle- 
ment of  Mr.  Waugh,  although  he  was 
opposed  by  a  majority  in  the  proportion 
of  twelve  to  one  of  the  congregation. 
The  revising  committee  of  next  Assembly 
recommended  that  the  directions  given 
by  the  Commission  should  not  be  ap- 

*  Acts  of  Assembly,  years  1729, 1730. 


proved  ;  and  this  part  of  the  transactions 
of  the  Commission  was  excepted  in  the 
Assembly's  attestation  of  the  record  of 
that  court.  But  in  March  1730,  the 
Commission  again  directed  the  presbytery 
to  proceed  to  the  settlement,  several  mem- 
bers dissenting  from  this  resolution,  be- 
cause the  settlement  of  Mr.  Waugh 
"  being  contrary  to  the  mind  of  the  con- 
gregation, was  contrary  to  the  laws  of 
the  Church."  When  the  subject  came 
before  the  Assembly  of  1730  for  final 
decision,  they  "  refused  to  reverse  the 
foresaid  sentence  [that  of  1728],  in  respect 
the  Commission  had  been  empowered  to 
determine  finally  in  that  affair  ;"  resting 
the  decision  not  upon  the  propriety  of  the 
Commission's  sentence,  but  upon  the  fact 
of  their  having  been  empowered  to  pass 
it,  thus  virtually  condemning  the  deed 
even  in  its  ratification.*  But  this  was 
almost  the  last  decision  of  this  half-faithful 
kind,  made  by  the  Assembly,  which, 
from  this  time  for  ward,  followed  generally 
the  example  of  artful  tyranny  set  by  the 
Commission,  appointing  deputations  of 
unscrupulous  members  to  visit  and  over- 
rule the  objections  of  conscientious  pres- 
byteries, and  to  execute  the  harsh  sen- 
tences of  superior  courts,  trampling 
scornfully  under  foot  the  feelings  of  the 
aggrieved  and  outraged  people. 

It  was  now  but  too  evident  that  the 
worldly  spirit  introduced  into  the  Church 
by  the  admission  of  the  prelatic  incum- 
bents, and  by  the  Patronage  act,  had 
done  its  deadly  work.  A  considerable 
number  of  men  of  decided  talents,  but 
utterly  destitute  of  true  Presbyterian  prin- 
ciples, and  guided  solely  by  regard  to 
secular  policy,  had  sprung  up  and  been 
elevated  to  the  most  influential  positions 
in  the  Church.  And  while  the  hostility 
of  the  people  against  the  exercise  of 
patronage,  which  had  been  comparatively 
slight  as  long  as  the  church  courts  ab- 
stained from  giving  direct  countenance  to 
it,  was  now  becoming  daily  more  decided, 
these  leading  men  were  preparing 
schemes  for  giving  to  that  unconstitu- 
tional mode  of  appointing  ministers  an 
absolute  and  uncontrollable  power.  An 
apparently  insignificant  act  passed  by  this 
Assembly  contained  the  germ  of  the 
policy  by  which  the  first  dynasty  of 
Moderatism  was  to  be  regulated.  By 

•Acts  of  Assembly,  1730, 


350 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


this  act  the  General  Assembly  appointed, 
"  that  the  reasons  of  dissent  against  the 
determinations  of  church  judicatures,  in 
causes  brought  before  them,  should  not 
be  entered  in  the  register,  but  be  kept 
in  retells,  to  be  laid  before  the  superior 
judicatures."*  This  act  contains  evi- 
dently the  essence  of  ecclesiastical  des- 
potism, and  is  contrary  to  the  very  spirit 
of  a  church  court,  which  being  essen- 
tially a  court  of  conscience,  and  its  power 
being  ministerial,  not  lordly,  it  never  can 
with  propriety  refuse  to  its  members  the 
right  of  exonerating  their  own  conscience 
from  the  moral  responsibility  of  any 
measure  of  which,  regarding  it  as  sinful, 
they  cannot  and  dare  not  approve.  And 
instead  of  tending  to  promote  schism,  this 
liberty  of  recording  dissent  actually  and 
strongly  tends  to  prevent  it,  by  leaving 
the  minds  of  such  members  at  peace, 
satisfied  with  having  expressed  their  dis- 
approbation, and  the  reasons  on  which  it 
is  grounded,  which  may  serve,  in  some 
happier  time,  to  bring  back  the  Church 
to  the  path  of  rectitude,  from  which,  in 
,_li)eir  opinion,  she  appears  to  be  swerving. 
"[1731.]  The  proceedings  of  the  As- 
sembly of  1731  did  not  tend  to  allay  the 
feelings  of  dissatisfaction  excited  by  the 
last  act  of  its  predecessor.  Actuated  by 
the  same  spirit,  the  Assembly  refused  to 
permit  a  remonstrance  against  violent  set- 
tlements to  be  read ;  and  prosecuting 
their  headlong  career,  they  passed  an 
li  act  and  overture  concerning  the  method 
of  planting  vacant  churches."  The  ob- 
ject of  this  overture  was  to  secure  a  uni- 
form method  of  supplying  vacant  charges, 
without  those  delays  and  that  irritation 
which  too  often  occurred.  The  method 
proposed  in  this  overture  bore  consider- 
able resemblance  to  that  of  the  act 
1690,  but  was  still  less  favourable  to  the 
privileges  of  the  people.  The  chief  dif- 
ference consisted  in  this,  that  by  the  act 
1690,  the  heritors  and  elders  were  "to 
name  and  propose  the  person  to  the  whole 
congregation,  to  be  either  approven  or 
disapproven  by  them  ;"  by  the  overture, 
the  heritors  and  elders  were  "  to  elect 
and  call  one  to  be  the  minister"  of  the 
parish.  It  is  evident  that  this  suggested 
method  amounted  to  a  virtual  annihila- 
tion of  the  call,  so  far  as  that  had  always 
previously  been  regarded  as  conveying 

*  Acts  of  Assembly. 


the  mind  of  the  congregation  ;  and  it  is 
as  evident  that  this  was  directly  opposed 
to  the  principles  and  practice  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church,  from  the  period  of  the 
Reformation.* 

The  case  of  Kinross  came  also  before 
this  Assembly,  and  was  referred  to  the 
Commission.  This  was  one  of  the  cases, 
formerly  alluded  to,  which  arose  out  ot 
the  Marrow  Controversy,  the  settlement 
of  Mr.  Francis  Craig  being  opposed  on 
account  of  his  refusing  to  condemn  the 
doctrines  contained  in  that  work.  But 
now  that  patronage  was  beginning  to  as- 
sume a  more  arbitrary  power,  and  the 
want  of  a  call  or  the  opposition  of  the 
people  might  be  disregarded,  the  patron 
found  a  youth  of  sentiments  similar  to  his 
own,  a  Mr.  Stark,  and  proceeded  to  force 
him  upon  the  parish,  in  spite  of  the  con- 
tinued resistance  of  the  people  and  re- 
luctance of  the  presbytery.  The  Com- 
mission, nothing  loath  to  undertake  the 
ungracious  task,  ordered  the  presbytery 
to  admit  Mr.  Stark  without  delay ;  and 
when  the  presbytery  refused,  and  ap- 
pealed to  the  next  Assembly,  the  settle- 
ment was  made  through  the  ready  in- 
strumentality of  a  "  riding  committee."! 

[1732.]  The  crisis  came  on  apace.  The 
tyrannical  conduct  of  the  leading  men  of 
the  Church,  who  directed  the  proceedings 
of  both  Assembly  and  Commission,  had  ex- 
cited a  wide-spread  and  strong  feeling  of 
discontent;  and  when  the  Assembly  met,  a 
representation  and  petition,  signed  by  forty 
ministers,  was  laid  on  the  table,  imploring 
that  venerable  court  to  redress  the  griev- 
ances and  check  the  innovations  which 
were  threatening  the  speedy  ruin  of  the 
Church.  This  important  paper  was  not 
even  allowed  to  be  read  ;  and,  as  if  to 
add  insult  to  injury,  the  complaint  against 
the  settlement  of  Kinross  was  dismissed, 
and  the  Presbytery  of  Dunfermline  were 
ordered  to  receive,  and  enrol  Mr.  Stark 
as  one  of  their  members,  and  to  do  every 
thing  towards  giving  him  countenance  in 
the  ministry.  Several  of  the  members 
protested  against  such  arbitrary  proce- 
dure, but  were  not  permitted  to  record 
their  dissent.  The  overture  transmitted 
to  the  presbyteries  last  year  was  enacted 

*  See  this  subject  ably  discussed  in  Willison's  Testi- 
mony, pp.  70-76. 

t  Another  case  occurred  this  year  of  the  simple  ac- 
ceptance of  a  presentation  without  a  call,  and  the 
presentee  was  suspended.  (Patronage  Report,  p  364.) 


A.  D.  1733.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


35. 


into  a  standing-  law  of  the  Church,  in 
direct  violation  of  the  Barrier  Act,  it  not 
having  received  the  sanction  of  a  majority 
of  the  presbyteries.  In  reality  it  had 
been  condemned;  eighteen  presbyteries  ap- 
proved of  it,  eighteen  returned  no  opinion, 
twelve  required  material  alterations,  and 
thirty-one  were  absolutely  against  it.* 
Yet  the  leading  men  of  the  Assembly 
contrived  to  procure  its  enactment,  though 
they  could  not  but  be  aware  of  its  uncon- 
stitutional character, — so  eager  were  they 
to  clutch  the  reins  and  wield  the  rod  of 
power. 

It  was  now  all  but  impossible  to  pic- 
vent  an  immediate  schism.     The  domi- 
nant party  might  yet  have  abated  in  their 
reckless   career  of  tyranny  and  oppres- 
sion,  and   the  aggrieved   ministers   and 
people  might  have  laid  aside  their  resent- 
ment, and,  while  they  defended  purity, 
still  have  been  ready  to  accept  of  peace. 
But  pacific  measures  appear  not  to  have 
been  contemplated  by  either.     Indignant 
at  the  treatment  he  had  received,  espe- 
cially in  being  prevented  from  recording 
his  dissent  from  the  injurious  conduct  of 
Ahe  Assembly,  the  Rev.  Ebenezer  Ers- 
/  kine,  from  his  own  pulpit  in  Stirling,  de- 
\  nounced  in  strong  terms  the  oppressive 
land  sinful  procedure  of  the  church  courts. 
This  was  but  adding  fuel  to  the  flame, 
and  his  next  step  fanned  it  into  a  blaze. 
/At  the  meeting  of  the  synod  of  Fife  in 
/October,  he  preached  a  sermon,  in  which 
/  he  boldly  and  keenly  censured  the  grow- 
I  ing   corruption   and   degeneracy   of  the 
\Church.     The   synod  were   deeply   of- 
lended,  condemned  his  conduct,  and  or- 
dered him  to  submit  to  a  sharp  rebuke. 
This  he  refused  to  do,  protested  against 
their  sentence,  and  appealed  to  the  next 
General  Assembly.! 

[1733.]  There  seemed  to  be  yet  time 
and  opportunity  to  prevent  the  threatened 
deplorable  division  in  the  Church,  had 
the  Moderate  leaders  been  willing  to 
''  change  their  hand  and  check  their 
•)ride."  But  they  appear  to  have  thought 
hat  one  act  more  of  "firmness"  would 
secure  them  a  complete  and  lasting 
(Hum ph.  They  passed  an  act  of  suffi- 
ciently ominous  title,  "  concerning  some 
of  the  ministers  of  the  presbytery  of  Dun- 
fermline,  and  for  preserving  the  subordi- 


*  Gib's  Display.vol.  i.  p.  26. 
Process. 


f  True  State  of  the 


nation  of  the  judicatures  of  the  Churchj 
and  good  order  therein."  By  this  act 
the  faithful  ministers  of  that  presbytery 
were  sharply  rebuked,  and  commanded 
to  support  and  encourage  Mr.  Stark,  and 
strictly  forbidden  to  admit  any  of  the 
parishioners  of  Kinross  to  sealing  ordi- 
nances, without  the  consent  of  their  in- 
truded minister,  on  pain  of  the  highest 
censure.  In  the  same  haughty  spirit 
they  proceeded  to  consider  the  contest  be- 
tween Erskine  and  the  synod.  They 
speedily  approved  the  proceedings  of  the 
synod,  and  appointed  Mr.  E.  Erskine  to 
be  rebuked  and  admonished  by  the  mode- 
rator at  the  bar  of  the  Assembly. — 
Against  this  sentence  Mr.  Erskine  pro- 
tested ;  and  to  this  protest  were  added  the 
names  of  William  Wilson,  minister  a* 
Perth,  Alexander  MoncriefF,  minister  at 
Abernethy,  and  James  Fisher,  minister 
at  Kinclaven.  This  protest  was  re- 
corded, and  the  case  of  the  four  brethren 
remitted  to  the  Commission,  with  full 
power  first  to  suspend  them,  and  then  to 
proceed  to  higher  censure,  unless  they 
should  submit,  express  their  sorrow  for 
their  conduct  and  misbehaviour,  and  re- 
tract their  protest.* 

The  dissevering  deed  might  be  regarded 
as  already  done,  when  intrusted  to  the 
Commission.  When  the  Commission 
met  in  August,  they  received  from  many 
quarters  strong  remonstrances  against  the 
imperious  course  so  keenly  pursued  by 
the  leaders  of  the  Church,  and  urgent 
entreaties  to  try  the  effect  of  milder  mea- 
sures. In  vain  :  the  course  of  Moderate 
policy  has  ever  been  immitigable,  when 
civil  power  was  on  its  side.  The  four 
brethren  gave  in  a  written  representation, 
defending  their  conduct ;  but  the  sentence 
of  suspension  was  pronounced,  and  they 
were  summoned  to  appear  again  before 
the  Commission  in  November.  By  this 
time  the  whole  kingdom  was  in  a  state  of 
the  most  intense  excitement,  and  many 
members  of  Commission  began  to  shrink, 
and  hesitate,  and  recoil  from  the  deed 
which  they  had  been  empowered  to  do. 
Not  so  the  Moderate  leaders  :  with  them 
the  thought  seems  to  have  been, — "  one 
bold  stroke  more,  and  the  victory  is  our 
The  sentence  of  suspension  had 


own. 


not  been  obeyed,  and  the  Commission  was 
empowered  to  proceed  to  a  higher  cen- 

*  Acts  of  Assembly. 


352 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


ACHAP.  DC 


sure.      This   course  was  opposed ;    the 
question  was  put,  "  delay"  or  "  proceed  ;" 
the   votes   were   equal ;    the   moderator, 
Mr.  John  Gowdie,  one  of  the  ministers 
of  Edinburgh,  rose  ;    a  death- like  still- 
ness reigned ;   the   cause  of  mercy  and 
truth,  and  the  peace  of  the  Church  and 
,    community,  or  the  paltry  triumph  of  a 
secularizing    policy    and    its   partizans, 
seemed  wavering  on  the  balanced  point 
of  that  passing  moment :    he  gave   his 
casting  vote,  "proceed"  and  the  fatal  deed 
was  done,   which  Scotland  to  this  hour 
deplores,  and  by  which  the  welfare  of 
the  National  Church,  and  the  cause  of 
Christianity  itself  in  the  land,  sustained  a 
grievous   and  almost  irreparable  injury, 
now  too  clearly  manifest  in  our  present 
sufferings  and  impending  dangers. 
/     The  sentence  actually  pronounced  was 
a    modified   form   of   deposition,    being 
merely  that  they  should  be  loosed  from 
their  respective  charges,  and  declared  no 
longer  ministers  of  this  Church,  all  min- 
isters being  prohibited  from  employing 
them  in  any  ministerial  function.  Against 
\jhis  sentence  several  ministers  protested  ; 
and  the  four  brethren  gave  in  a  protesta- 
tion  of  their    own,    which"  was    subse- 
uently  expanded  into  a  full  statement  of 
.e  reasons  of  their  "  secession  from  the 
prevailing  party  in  the  Church."*     The 
ublic  sympathized  in  general  with  men 
whom  they  regarded  as  persecuted  for 
the  cause  of  truth,  and  in  defence  of  the 
constitutional  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
Church  and  people  of  Scotland.     Even 
yet  there  might  have  been  a  healing  mea- 
re,  and  some  attempts  were  made  by 
the  better  part  of  the  Commission  to  pre- 
vent any  decisive  steps  from  being  taken 
by  which  all  hope  should  be  precluded. 
But  the  sense  of  wrong  appears  to  have 
stimulated   in    the    minds   of   the    four 
orethren  a  degree  of  jealousy  and  impa- 
tience, which  caused  them  to  regard  with 
.listrust    every  overture   of   a    peaceful 
character,  and  to  assume  an  attitude  of 
I  more  resolute  antagonism.     On  the  6th 
J  day  of  December  1733,  they  constituted 
Ithemselves  into  an  Associated  Presbytery, 
retaining  possession  of  their  charges,  but 

*  It  was  in  their  protest  against  this  sentence  of  the 
Ccmmission  that  the  four  brethren  used  the  memorable 
words,  "  We  hereby  appeal  unto  the  first  free,  faithful, 
and  reforming  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland."  See  their  "Testimony,"  page  28,  first  edi- 
ion,  1734 ;  Gib's  Display,  vol.  i.  p.  35 ;  Re-Exhibition, 
&c.,  p.  29. 


abstaining  for  a  time  from  any  acts  of  ju- 
risdiction on  their  own  authority.* 

It  is  unnecessary  to  trace  minutely  the 
subsequent  steps  of  this  deplorable  seces- 
sion. That  it  was  caused  by  the  corrupf 
and  tyrannical  procedure  of  the  church 
courts,  we  do  not  affect  to  deny  ;  that  thi? 
corruption  and  tyranny  flowed  directly 
from  the  admission  of  the  prelatic  incum 
bents  at  and  after  the  revolution,  from  the 
lax  and  heterodox  tenets  which  they  and 
others  like  to  them  introduced,  and  fron? 
the  pernicious  influence  of  patronage 
we  do  not  hesitate  most  strongly  to  assert  ; 
and  we  think  it  would  require  a  very  pe- 
culiar combination  of  sophistry  and  har- 
dihood in  any  man  who  should  venture 
to  attempt  a  historical  refutation  of  the 
assertion.  Let  it  never  be  forgotten,  that 
these  pious  and  eminent  ministers  seceded, 
not  from  the  Church  of  Scotland,  but 
from  that  "  prevailing  party,"  the  Mode- 
rates of  the  day,  by  whom  heresy  was 
screened,  sound  doctrine  condemned,  dis- 
cipline neglected,  the  rights  of  Christian 
congregations  violated,  and  their  feelings 
outraged,  and  the  scriptural  government 
of  the  Church  changed  into  a  system  of 
cruel  and  oppressive  secular  tyranny. 

[1734.J  The  heartless  and  destructive 
wrong  perpetrated  by  the  Commission  in 
their  treatment  of  Ebenezer  Erskine  and 
his  friends,  had  roused  the  feeling  of  the 
religious  part  of  the  community  to  the 
highest  pitch  of  regretful  solicitude ; 
and  great  exertions  were  made  that  the 
next  Assembly  might  contain  a  sufficient 
number  of  right-minded  men,  to  get,  if 
still  possible,  the  fatal  breach  repaired. 
Even  the  Moderates  were  willing  partial- 
ly to  retrace  their  steps,  not  having  an- 
ticipated that  their  guilty  deed  would  call 
forth  so  strong  an  expression  of  national  . 
indignation.  No  sooner  did  the  Assem- 
bly meet  than  the  work  of  attempted  con- 
ciliation began.  The  act  of  1730,  pro- 
hibiting protests,  and  the  act  of  1732,  for 
planting  vacant  churches,  which  had 
been  the  immediate  causes  of  dispute, 
were  both  rescinded ;  and  an  act  was 
passed  declaring  that  ministerial  freedom 
was  not  to  be  held  as  in  any  degree  im- 
paired by  the  late  decisions.  Another  j 
act  was  passed,  empowering  the  synod  of  1 
Perth  to  take  into  consideration  the  case  j 
of  the  seceding  brethren,  with  a  view  to  / 

*  Gib's  Display,  vol.  i.  p.  36. 


A.  D.  173G.] 


HISTORY    OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


353 


/neir  restoration  to  their  charges,  without 
./reference  to  former  proceedings ;  which 
/  was  accordingly  done  by  the  synod  in 
July.*     There  seemed  now  no  real  ob- 
stacle to  the  return  of  the  seceding  breth- 
ren into  the  communion  of  the  Church. 
/But  they  had  taken  their  ground,  and  felt 
/so  far  bound  in  honour  to  maintain  it; 
I  they  had   published  a  testimony  to  the 
I  doctrine,  discipline,  and    government  of 
I  the   Church  of  Scotland,  avowing  their 
l  unaltered  adherence  to  these,  and  stating 
\  the  reasons  of  their  secession,  not  from 
\he  constitution  of  the  Church,  but  from 
the  prevailing  party  in  her  judicatories. 
And   scrutinizing   narrowly   the   recent 
conciliatory  acts,  they  conceived  that  they 
still  saw  reason  to  continue  separate,  till 
the  Church  should  not  merely  rescind  the 
unconstitutional  acts  of  which  they  com- 
plained, but  make  an  explicit  acknowledg- 
ment  of  her   sinful   conduct  in  having 
ever  passed  them. 

As  the  seceding  ministers  had  appealed 
to  the  first  reforming  Assembly,  this  As- 
sembly took  one  step  more  for  proving  its 
right  to  such  an  honorable  designation. 
A  deputation  was  sent  to  London  from 
the  Commission,  to  solicit  a  repeal  of  the 
act  reimposing  patronages  ;  but  this  depu- 
tation was  unsuccessful.  The  uncomply- 
ing attitude  maintained  by  the  seceding 
ministers  discouraged  the  Evangelical ' 
party,  and  cast  an  early  blight  over  their 
fondly  cherished  hopes  of  a  reunion  with 
men  whom  they  highly  esteemed ;  and 
this  disappointment  tended  considerably 
to  paralyze  their  own  reforming  exer- 
tions. 

[1635.]  Still  a  reforming  spirit  seemed 
to  prevail  in  the  Church,  the  Moderates 
abating  their  high-handed  rule,  and  the 
Evangelical  party  endeavouring  to  restore 
to  the  light  the  buried  principles  of  ear- 
lier and  better  days.  A  deputation  was 
again  appointed  to  proceed  to  London, 
and  renew  the  application  of  the  church 
for  the  repeal  of  the  Patronage  Act.f 
This  was  so  far  attended  to,  that  leave 
was  given  to  bring  in  a  bill  for  this  pur- 
pose ;  the  bill  was  actually  drawn  up  by 
the  celebrated  Duncan  Forbes  of  Cullo- 
den,  but  meeting  little  support,  it  was 
abandoned.  Several  acute  and  able  pam- 
phlets were  written  on  the  subject,  by 

*  Acts  of  Assembly,  year  1734 ;  Willison's  Testimony, 
pp.  81-83.  1  Acts  of  Assembly. 

45 


men  of  high  eminence,  such  as  Professor 
Hutcheson,  Currie  of  Kinglassie,  and 
others,  besides  the  address  of  the  Assem- 
bly to  his  majesty,  which  was  written  by 
Lord  President  Dundas.* 

The  Commission  was  prohibited  from 
appointing  "  Riding  Committees,"  for  the 
purpose  of  executing  such  sentences  as 
presbyteries  and  synods  declined  to  exe- 
cute.    And  as  great  complaints  had  been 
made  against  the  style  of  preaching  which 
had  become  prevalent  among  young  min- 
isters, who  introduced  into  their  sermons 
"  little  that  might  not  have  been  found  in  I 
Seneca  and  Plato,"  an  overture  was  trans-l 
mitted  to  presbyteries  for  their  approba-1 
tion,  giving  directions  respecting  a  more 
full  and  faithful  exhibition  of  the  peculiar 
doctrines  of  the  gospel. f 

[1936.]  The  seceding  brethren  contin- 
ued to  stand  aloof,  watching  jealously  the 
proceedings  of  the  Church,  and  appa- 
rently more  disposed  to  censure  omissions 
than  to  applaud  the  honest  endeavours  of 
the  struggling  Evangelical  party.  That 
faithful  body  continued  to  strive  for  fur- 
ther reformation,  but  with  weakened  en- 
ergy and  diminished  prospects  of  success. 
The  address  for  the  repeal  of  the  Patron- 
age Act  was  engrossed  in  the  re'cords  of 
the  Assembly  of  1736,  at  least  to  testify 
the  views  and  wishes  of  the  Church. 
The  act  concerning  preaching  was  passed, 
having  received  the  approbation  of  the 
presbyteries.  It  is  equally  admirable  in 
spirit  and  in  substance  ;  and  deserves  the 
serious  regard  of  all  ministers  in  the 
Church  still,  as  a  clear  and  pregnant  di- 
rectory for  sound  and  evangelical  preach- 
ing. The  questionable  doctrines  of  Pro- 
fessor Campbell  of  St.  Andrews  were 
brought  under  discussion ;  but  he  suc- 
ceeded in  giving  to  them  such  an  evasive 
explanation  as  to  save  him  from  direct 
censure,  though  he  was  cautioned  to  avoid 
expressions  which  might  lead  the  hearers 
into  error.  The  last  act  of  this  Assembly 
deserves  peculiar  mention.  It  is  entitled, 
"An  Act  against  Intrusion  of  Ministers 
into  Vacant  Congregations,"  and  contains 
these  words  :• — "  The  General  Assembly 
considering  that  it  is,  and  has  been  since 
the  Reformation,  the  principle  of  this 
Church,  that  no  minister  shall  be  intruded, 
into  any  church  contrary  to  the  will  of 

*  Pamphlets  of  the  period  ;  Randall's  Tracts. 
t  Acts  of  Assembly. 


354 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX 


the  congregation,  do  therefore  seriously 
recommend  to  all  judicatories  of  this 
Church,  to  have  a  due  regard  to  this  prin- 
l  ciple  in  planting  vacant  congregations, 
so  as  none  be  intruded  into  such  parishes, 
as  they  regard  the  glory  of  God  and  edi- 
fication of  the  body  of  Christ."*  There 
seems  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  majori- 
ty of  the  Assembly  was  perfectly  sincere 
in  passing  this  act,  when  it  is  viewed  in 
connection  with  the  proceedings  of  the 
two  former  Assemblies  ;  but  there  is  as  lit- 
tle reason  to  suppose  that  it  had  the  ap- 
probation of  the  Moderate  party,  who, 
even  in  that  reforming  Assembly,  were 
sufficiently  strong  to  neutralize  and  per- 
vert the  operation  of  principles  which 
they  could  not  openly  oppose.  Some 
proceedings  of  the  Assembly,  the  Com- 
mission, and  the  subordinate  judicatories, 
supporting  intrusive  settlements  about  this 
time,  gave  to  the  seceding  ministers  the 
opportunity  of  declaring  their  distrust  of 
the  sincerity  of  the  Assembly,  and  their 
resolution  still  to  continue  in  a  state  of 
separation. 

[  \  737.]  The  year  1 737  is  not  remarka- 
ble for  any  event  of  importance  in  church 
matters,  the  foolish  irritation  of  the  gov- 
ernment, on  account  of  the  Porteous  mob, 
led  them  to  emit  an  order,  that  a  procla- 
mation against  the  leaders  of  that  strange 
riot  should  be  read  from  all  the  pulpits, 
"  on  pain  of  being  declared  incapable  of 
sitting  in  any  church  judicatory."  This 
was  resisted  by  a  large  proportion  of  the 
Church  ;  and  it  deserves  to  be  mentioned 
to  their  credit,  that  some  of  the  Moderate 
ministers  took  a  decided  part  in  resisting 
this  unconstitutioual  procedure  of  the  civil 
power.  The  seceding  brethren  receiv- 
ed this  year  the  accession  of  four  others, 
the  Rev.  Messrs.  Ralph  Erskine,  Dun- 
fermline ;  Thomas  Mair,  Orwell ;  Thom- 
as Nairn,  Abbots  hall ;  and  James  Thom- 
son, Burntisland  ;  and,  encouraged  by 
Ahis  accession,  they  published  their  first 
/Act  and  Testimony,  by  the  appearance 
i  of  which  document  the  prospect  of  re- 
vunion  was  very  considerably  diminished.! 
"  [1738.]  Deeply  as  the  evangelical  min- 
isters of  the  Church  deplored  the  conduct 
of  the  seceding  ministers  in  thus  increas- 
ing the  obstacles  to  their  re-admission  into 
their  former  communion,  they  continued 


*  Acts  of  Assembly,  year  1736. 
Re-Exhibition,  &c. 


f  Gib's  Display 


to  offer  peace.  An  act  was  passed  by  the 
Assembly,  in  which,  after  stating  what 
was  viewed  as  improper  in  the  conduct 
of  the  seceding  ministers,  it  was  added, — 
"  Yet  this  Assembly  choosing  rather  still 
to  treat  them  in  the  spirit  of  meekness, 
brotherly  love,  and  forbearance,  did,  and 
hereby  do,  enjoin  all  the  ministers  of  this 
Church,  as  they  shall  have  access,  and  es- 
pecially the  ministers  of  the  synods  and 
presbyteries  within  which  these  seceding 
brethren  reside,  to  be  at  all  pains,  by 
conferences,  and  other  gentle  means  of 
persuasion,  to  reclaim  and  reduce  them 
to  their  duty  and  the  communion  of  this 
Church."*  But  all  was  in  vain  ;  to  no 
proposals  of  "  conferences  arid  gentle 
means"  would  they  listen  ;  but  began  to 
take  steps  for  training  young  men  for 
the  ministry,  granting  license  to  proba- 
tioners, and  completing  their  organization 
as  a  distinct  and  separate  Church. 

[1739.]  All  endeavours  to  prevail  upon 
the  seceding  ministers  to  abandon  their 
antagonist  position  proving  ineffectual, 
the  Assembly  of  1739  called  them  before 
the  court,  to  answer  to  a  libel  which  the 
Commission  had  been  empowered  to 
frame,  should  all  lenient  measures  fail. 
They  came,  but  came  in  the  temper  of 
determined  combatants.  Aware  of  what 
was  in  progress  respecting  them,  they 
had  prepared  a  declinature  of  the  Assem- 
bly's jurisdiction  ;  and,  previous  to  their 
appearing  in  the  Assembly,  they  consti- 
tuted themselves  into  a  presbytery,  and 
entering  as  a  court,  gave  in  this  document 
by  their  moderator.  Its  very  title  was, 
conclusive  :  "Act  of  the  Associate  Pres- 
bytery, finding  and  declaring  that  the 
present  judicatories  of  this  Church  arel 
not  lawful  nor  right  constitute  courts  of  j 
Christ ;  and  declining  all  authority,  powJ 
er,  and  jurisdiction  that  the  said  judicatoj 
ries  may  claim  to  themselves  over  th$ 
said  presbytery."  f  Nothing  now  re- 
mained but  for  the  Assembly  to  pass  the 
sentence  of  deposition  ;  but  even  yet  they 
lingered,  reluctant  to  cut  of  all  hopes  of 
seeing  men,  who  were  by  many  of  them 
very  highly  esteemed,  restored  to  the  bo- 
som of  the  Church.  At  the  urgent  so- 
licitations of  Willison  of  Dundee,  and 
others,  the  Assembly  consented  to  delay 


*  Acts  of  Assembly,  year  1738. 
*  Act  and  Testimony,  &c. ;  Willison's  Testimony,  pp 
9/j  98. 


A.  D.  1741.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


355 


passing  the  sentence  of  deposition  for 
another  year,  if  even  yet  the  Secession 
might  be  averted. 

1740.  The  seceding  ministers  made 
no  attempt  to  avail  themselves  of  this 
pause,  expressed  no  regret  for  what  had 
taken  place,  and,  instead  of  giving  the 
slightest  indication  of  a  wish  for  peaceful 
reunion,  continued  to  pour  forth  sharp  in- 
vectives against  the  faithlessness  and  cor- 
ruption of  the  Church.  The  Assembly 
/passed  the  sentence  of  deposition  on  the 
/  15th  day  of  May  1740,  and  the  seceding 
I  brethren,  now  eight  in  number,  ceased  to 
\be  minis  ers  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.* 
"""It  is  impossible  to  trace  the  progress 
and  mark  the  conclusion  of  this  melan- 
choly event  without  feelings  of  the  deep- 
est regret.  A  calm  and  dispassionate 
view  may  now  be  taken  of  the  whole 
proceeding,  which  could  not  be  done  by 
those  who  were  personally  engaged  in 
them ;  and  such  a  view  may  well  lead 
us  to  deplore  the  errors  and  the  follies  of 
wise,  good,  and  pious  men.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  pernicious  and  sinful 
course  of  procedure,  so  perseveringly  fol- 
lowed by  the  church  courts,  was  the  di- 
rect occasion  of  the  Secession  ;  yet  it  is 
as  plain  that  it  might  have  been  averted, 
had  not  the  pride  of  the  contending  par- 
ties impelled  them  to  use  toward  each 
other  language  of  sinful  and  irritating 
asperity.  And  without  any  wish  to  stain 
he  memory  of  the  Erskines,  whom  we 
deeply  revere  as  eminently  evangelical 
divines,  it  must  be  said  that  they  indulged 
in  applying  terms  of  bitter  reproach  and 
angry  vituperation  against  the  Church, 
which  no  treatment  could  have  justified, 
much  less  that  forbearance  which  they 
experienced,  both  in  the  actions  and  in 
the  writings  of  their  opponents.  It  may 
also  now  be  seen,  that  they  committed  a 
great  error  in  not  returning  into  commu- 
nion with  the  Church,  when,  by  the 
strenuous  exertions  of  their  evangelical 
friends,  the  door  of  readmission  was 
opened  to  them  in  1734.  Their  return 
would  have  greatly  strengthened  and  en- 
couraged that  faithful  band  to  continue 
their  arduous  task  of  reformation,  and 
might  have  averted  the  long  reign  of 
secular  principles,  cold  legal  and  moral 
preaching,  and  uncensured  immorality, 
which,  shaken  and  dethroned  for  a  few 

*  Acts  of  Assembly. 


brief  years  during  that  anxious  struggle, 
too  soon  recovered  their  ascendency,  and 
maintained  their  dreary  and  fatal  sway 
for  almost  a  century.  And  it  cannot  be 
doubted,  that  if  the  fathers  of  the  Seces- 
sion could  have  foreseen  what  principles 
would  be  adopted  by  their  successors  in 
later  times, — could  have  anticipated  the 
deactly  warfare  that  would  be  waged 
against  the  very  existence  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  which  they  revered  and 
loved, — they  would  not  have  taken  a 
single  step  on  the  path  that  has  led  to 
such  a  strange  and  disastrous  issue. 

Both  the  Church  and  those  who  sece- 
ded from  her  communion  sinned,  when 
they  permitted  human  pride  and  wrath 
to  fill  their  hearts  and  overcloud  their 
better  judgment;  and  the  third  and  fourth 
generations  are  suffering,  and  may  yet 
more  deeply  suffer,  from  the  baneful  con- 
sequences of  their  guilty  conduct.  Surely 
a  time  will  come,  if  it  has  not  come  al- 
ready, when  those  who  hold  the  princi- 
ples for  the  assertion  of  which  the  Ers- 
kines and  their  friends  unwisely  seceded  | 
from  the  Church,  and  in  defence  of  which  [ 
Boston  and  Willison,  and  such  men,  ear- 1 
nestly  contended  within  it,  will  unite  in  \ 
the  one  great  cause,  the  reassertion  of  the  ' 
Redeemer's  sole  Sovereignty  and  Head- 
ship of  his  Church,  which  cannot  but  be 
held  inestimably  precious  equally  by  both, 
— by  all  who  know  the  import  and  have 
felt  the  power  of  that  sacred  and  glorious 
truth.  Yes,  that  time  must  come,  whether 
soon  or  late,  and  it  may  be  sooner  than 
many  think ;  for  the  hour  of  trial,  like 
the  fierce  heat  of  the  furnace,  may  melt 
and  blend  into  closest  union,  materials 
which,  in  the  frigid  temperature  of  sel- 
fishness, had  long  remained  in  hard  and 
sullen  separation,  contiguous  yet  un- 
combining. 

[1741.]  The  transactions  of  the  Assem- 
bly which  met  in  1741  present  nothing 
memorable.  The  elevation  of  Mr. 
James  Ramsay  of  Kelso  to  the  modera- 
tor's chair,  indicated  very  plainly  that  the 
Moderate  party  had  regained  the  power 
of  which  they  had  been  deprived  by  the 
vigorous  exertions  of  the  Evangelical 
party  in  1734.  Another  event  proved 
but  too  clearly  that  their  temporary  loss 
of  power  had  not  taught  them  to  use  it 
with  greater  gentleness.  A  complaint  of 
the  parishioners  of  Bowden  against  the 


356 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IX 


decision  of  the  Commission,  ordering  the 
presbytery  to  proceed  to  the  settlement  of 
an  unacceptable  presentee,  was  disre- 
garded, on  the  ground  that  the  Com- 
mission had  not  exceeded  their  powers  ; 
the  presbytery  were  ordered  to  proceed 
without  delay,  on  pain  of  being  censured 
as  contumacious  ;  and,  in  case  of  their  re- 
fusal, the  synod  was  empowered  to  take 
•the  necessary  measures  for  having  the 
sentence  of  the  Commission  executed.* 
This,  it  will  be  observed,  was  in  reality 
equivalent  to  a  resumption  of  the  scheme 
of  effective  intrusion  settlements  by  means 
of  "  riding  committees,"  which  had  been 
prohibited  by  the  Assembly  of  1735  ; 
and  though  the  language  of  the  prohibi- 
tion was  allowed  to  remain  for  a  little 
longer  in  the  instructions  given  to  the 
Commission,  yet  in  a  very  short  time  the 
tyrannical  practice  was  again  in  full 
operation, 

The  sudden  and  complete  reacquisition 
of  power  by  the  Moderate  party  had  arisen 
in  a  considerable  degree  from  the  com- 
parative paralysis  to  active  exertion  in 
church  courts,  which  seized  upon  their 
opponents  when  the  seceding  ministers 
not  only  refused  to  accede  to  the  overtures 
of  peace  which  were  offered  to  them,  but 
even  repelled  the  advances  of  their  former 
friends  with  reproaches,  invectives,  and 
expressions  of  distrust.  In  their  dejection 
they  retired  from  the  struggle,  in  which 
to  have  secured  complete  success,  would 
have  demanded  their  most  strenuous  and 
united  exertions  for  many  years,  especially 
as  the  moderate  party  enjoyed  more  of 
the 'countenance  of  politicians  than  can 
ever  be  expected  by  men  who  act  solely 
on  Christian  principles.  But  though  they 
in  a  great  measure  abandoned  the  contest 
in  church  courts,  they  did  not  sink  into 
the  lethargy  of  dejection  in  other  matters. 
They  saw  well  that  the  course  of  Moder- 
ate policy  was  both  introducing  into  the 
Church  ministers  who  cared  little  for  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  people,  provided 
they  could  secure  the  emoluments  of  the 
charge  ;t  and  at  the  same  time  expelling 
men  who  were  faithful  and  able  ministers 
of  the  gospel,  but  could  not  submit  to 

*  Acts  of  Assembly. 

"  What  must  they  think  of  a  man  that  tells  a  re- 
claiming parish  by  word  and  deed,  '  I'll  be  your  minister 
in  spite  of  your  teeth  ;  I'll  have  the  charge  of  your  souls, 
whether  ye  will  or  not ;  and  if  ye  refuse  ordinances  and 
means  of  salvation  from  me,  ye  shall  have  none."" 
(Willison's  Testimony,  p.  54.) 


Moderate  despotism.     The  only  remedy 
which  presented  itself  in  such  a  deplora- 
ble state  of  matters,  was  for  every  faithful 
minister  to  be  doubly  zealous  in  the  dis- 
charge  of  his  own   pastoral  duties,  by 
which  vital  religion  might  be  preserved  ; 
in   at    least  some  portions    of  the   land, 
during  this  period  of  general  defection. 
This  was  accordingly  done,  and  the  re-  \ 
suits  very  soon  began  to  appear. 

[1742.]   The   year    1742  will  be   for 
ever  memorable,  not  only  in  the  annals  of  ] 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  but  in  the  history  J 
of  Christianity,  on  account  of  the  remark- 
able revivals  of  genuine  religion  which 
took  place  at  that  time  in  various  parts  of 
the  country,  particularly  at  Cambuslang 
and  Kilsyth.     It  was  at  Cambuslang  that 
this  remarkable  manifestation  of  spiritual 
power  first  appeared.     The  minister  of  ] 
the  parish,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Macculioch,  had  i 
been  peculiarly  earnest  in  preaching  the  j 
characteristic  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  re-  ; 
generation  and  justification  by  faith,  dur-  [ 
ing   the  greater  part  of  the  year  1741  ;j 
and  a  greater  degree  of  quickened  atten- 1 
tion  than  usual  began  to  appear  in  the  I 
congregation  in  the  course  of  that  winter,  j 
and  early  in  the  year  of  1 742.     At  length,  j 
on  the  18th  of  February,  the  people  who  i 
attended  meetings  for  prayer,  which  had  J 
been  previously   established,   manifested 
such  a  degree  of  intense  anxiety  for  their 
spiritual  interests,  and  such  deep  convic- 
tions and  supplicating  earnestness  to  hear 
of  the  Saviour,  that  Mr.  Macculioch  was 
constrained   to    preach   to   them   almost 
daily,  and  to  request  the  assistance  of  his 
friends  in  the  ministry  from  other  quar-,v 
ters.     This  naturally  excited  the  attention 
of  the  kingdom ;  and  ministers  of  the  most 
undoubted  piety,  and  the  highest  character 
for  theological  attainments  and  soundness 
of  judgment,    hastened   to   the    spot,    to 
satisfy  their  minds  by  personal  investiga- , 
tion,  and    returned  not  only   convinced 
of  the  reality  of  what  they  had  seen,  but 
filled  with  gratitude  to  God  that  they  had 
enjoyed  the   privilege   of  beholding   so 
glorious  a  proof  of  the  convincing  and 
converting   power   of  the    Holy    Spirit. 
Among    these  may   be   mentioned    Dr.*i 
Webster  of  Edinburgh,    Dr.    Hamilton 
and   Messrs.    M'Laurin  and   Gillies   of 
Glasgow,  Willison  of  Dundee,  Bonar  of 
Torphichen,  and  Dr.  Erskine  of  Edin- 
burgh, at  that  time  a  young  man  pursuing 


A.  D.  1742.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


357 


his  theological  studies.  The  celebrated 
Whitefield,  hearing  of  this  remarkable 
event,  hastened  to  Cambuslang.  and 
preached  repeatedly  with  his  usual  elo- 
quence, and  more  than  usual  impressive- 


ness.  t 

In  the  beginning  of  May  a  similar 
scene  of  religious  awakening  took  place 
at  Kilsyth,  under  the  ministry  of  the  Rev. 
James  Robe,  a  man  of  considerable  abili- 
ties, who  had  been  for  some  time  an  active 
defender  of  the  constitutional  principles  of 
the  Church  against  the  corrupt  and  secular- 
innovations  of  the  Moderate  party.  The 
anxiety  manifested  by  the  people  of  Kilsyth 
was  not  inferior  to  that  of  the  people  of 
Cambuslang ;  and  several  adjacent  par- 
ishes experienced  a  portion  of  the  sacred 
influence  so  graciously  vouchsafed  by  the 
Divine  Visitant.  Mr.  Robe  appears  to 
have  acted  with  consummate  prudence, 
exercising  'the  most  vigilant  care  over 
those  who  came  to  him  in  deep  distress 
of  mind  under  conviction  of  sin,  giving  to 
them  the  most  judicious  instruction  in 
spiritual  truth,  and  keeping  a  private  re- 
cord of  all  cases  of  religious  awakening, 
that  he  might  deal  with  each  according  to 
its  own  peculiarities,  mark  the  progress 
of  the  feelings  and  the  knowledge  of  the 
people,  and  be  able  to  discriminate  be- 
tween what  was  mere  excitement,  and 
what  by  its  fruits  proved  itself  to  be  true 
conversion.  The  subsequent  publication 
of  his  Narrative  gave  to  the  religious 
community  the  means  of  judging  as  to 
the  nature  and  extent  of  the  remarkable 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  Scotland  at 
that  period  ;  and  it  may  be  safely  said, 
that  the  strength  of  prejudice  must  be 
very  great  in  any  man  who  knows  what 
vital  religion  is,  who  can  peruse  that  ju- 
dicious production,  without  being  con- 
strained to  glorify  God,  who  had  so  gra- 
ciously visited  his  people.* 

Yet  it  is  not  easy  to  estimate  the  force 
of  prejudice.  It  was  to  be  expected  that 
irreligious  men  would  calumniate  and 
deride  the  proceedings  at  Cambuslang 
and  Kilsyth,  and  that  the  Moderate  min- 
isters, the  greater  part  of  whom  regarded 
Christianity  as  merely  an  improved  sys- 
tem of  morality,  and  whose  sermons 
were  generally  little  more  than  carefully 

*  See  Robe's  Narrative  ;  and  the  testimonies  of  many 
eminent  ministers  of  the  period;  also  Sir  Henry  Mon- 
criefTs  Life  of  Ernkine,  pp.  112-123:  Gillies'  Collec- 
tions ;  and  Life  of  Whitefield. 


composed  and  coldly  plausible  moral  es- 
says, would  look  upon  the  whole  as  the 
delusion  of  heated  enthusiasts  and  fana- 
I  tics  ;  but  it  could  scarcely  have  been  ex- 
pected that  such  truly  pious  men  and  ex- 
perienced ministers  as  were  the  fathers 
of  the  Secession  should  not  merely  have 
viewed  these  religious  revivals  with  dis- 
trust, but  should  have  assailed  them  with 
excessive  bitterness.*  They  even  proceed- 
ed to  the  extreme  absurdity  of  appointing 
a  solemn  fast  to  be  held  on  account  "  of 
:*  the  awful  symptoms  of  the  Lord's  anger 
with  this  Church  and  land,  in  sending 
|  them  strong  delusion  that  they  should 
I  believe  a  lie,  particularly  when  a  judicial 
\  testimony  for  the  Reformation  principles 
of  this  Church  was  emitted,  after  all 
other  means  had  proved  ineffectual." 
These  good  but  narrow-minded  and  pre- 
judiced men  seem  to  have  come  to  the 
conclusion,  that  the  Church  of  Scotland 
was  so  thoroughly  corrupt  that  it  would  be 
derogatory  to  the  character  of  the  Holy 
God  to  suppose  that  he  could  deign  to 
visit  her  in  rnercy,  and  to  revive  his  own 
work  in  a  Church  so  fearfully  polluted. 
Their  deplorable  conduct  at  this  time 
oug-ht  to  be  a  warning  to  every  Christian 
Church,  and  to  every  body  of  professing 
Christians,  not  to  think  of  themselves 
more  highly  than  they  ought,  lest  they 
come  to  despise  those  whom  God  hath 
not  despised. 

Many  serious  Christians,  in  that  event- 
ful time,  were  led  into  speculations  of  a 
different  character,— as  to  what  might  be 
the  probable  object  to  be  effected  by  these 
remarkable  manifestations  of  convincing 
and  converting  grace;f — whether  they 
might  not  be  preparatory  for  some  great 
advancement  of  religion  throughout  the 
world,  such  as  sacred  prophecy  so  em- 
phatically foretells.  It  is  at  all  times 
hazardous  to  attempt  to  explain  the  mean- 
ing of  any  peculiar  dispensations  of  pro- 
vidence or  grace,  in  a  prospective  point 
of  view,  and  not  surprising  that  rnen 
should  err  when  they  make  the  attempt. 
Nor  is  it  easy  to  connect  peculiar  dispen- 
sations with  subsequent  events,  so  as  to 
perceive  what  has  been  produced  by 
them,  even  at  the  lapse  of  a  century.  Yet 
one  or  two  remarks  may  be  offered  of  a 

*  To  their  writings  on  this  subject  we  do  not  chops* 
to  refer  more  specifically,  wishing  them  rather  o  sink 


into  oblivion. 


t  Dr.  Erskine's  Signs  of  the  Times,  <fcc. 


358 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


(CHAP.  IX 


historical  character,  not  perhaps  unwor- 
thy of  consideration.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered, that  in  different  periods  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland's  history,  God  was 
pleased  to  send  her  a  time  of  refreshing 
from  His  presence ;  and  that  these  were 
invariably  before  a  time  of  searching 
trial,  as  if  to  give  her  a  principle  of  sa- 
cred life  sufficiently  strong  to  survive  the 
period  of  suffering.  Such  was  the  gene- 
ral revival  in  1596,  immediately  before 
her  protracted  struggle  with  Prelacy  un- 
der James.  Such  were  the  revivals  of 
Stewarton,  Shotts,  and  other  places,  a 
short  while  before  her  second  great  con- 
test with  Prelacy  in  the  time  of  Charles 
I.,  and  the  wasting  persecution  of  the 
two  following  reigns.  And  though  no 
direct  persecution  followed  the  revivals 
of  Carnbuslang  and  Kilsyth,  yet  the  long 
and  dreary  domination  of  Moderatism 
which  immediately  followed  was  more 
calculated  to  destroy  vital  religion  in  the 
land  than  could  have  been  the  most  re- 
lentless persecution ;  and  it  seems  no 
very  strained  conjecture,  that  these  gra- 
cious influences  were  vouchsafed  to  the 
Church  at  that  period,  to  sustain  her 
during  her  lengthened  sojourn  in  a  mo- 
ral and  religious  wilderness.  Certain  it 
is  that  the  deep  and  earnest  spirit  and 
feeling  of  vital  and  personal  religion 
passed  not  away  like  a  temporary  excite- 
ment. Not  only  did  many  hundreds  of 
the  converts  of  that  period  continue  to 
exhibit  the  beauty  of  holiness  throughout 
the  remainder  of  their  lives,  proving  the 
reality  of  the  great  change  which  they 
had  experienced,  but  also  the  very  know- 
ledge that  such  events  had  taken  place 
continued  to  operate,  silent  and  unseen, 
but  with  mighty  efficacy,  in  the  hearts 
of  thousands,  constraining  them  to  be- 
lieve that  there  was  more  in  true  spiritual 
Christianity  than  could  be  expressed  in 
a  cold  moral  harangue,  and  rendering 
them  quick  to  mark  and  eager  to  re- 
ceive instruction  of  a  more  evangelical 
and  living  character. 

And  here,  also,  it  may  be  fittingly 
stated,  that  although  the  First  Reforma- 
tion began,  as  it  necessarily  must  have 
done,  by  the  conversion  of  Romish 
priests,  who  thus  became  reformed  minis- 
ters, and  then  taught  the  people,  yet,  as 
the  Scottish  Reformers  gave  to  the  peo- 
ple school?  as  well  as  churches,  and 


communicated  to  than  the  highest  amount 
of  instruction  which  circumstances  woula 
permit,  it  repeatedly  happened  in  subse- 
quent times,  that  the  people  remained 
sound  and  faithful  in  the  possession  of 
true  religious  principles,  long  after  a 
large  proportion  of  the  ministers  had 
fallen  into  error.  This  was  strikingly 
the  case  during  the  time  of  the  persecu- 
tion, when  so  many  of  the  ministers  ac- 
cepted the  indulgence,  while  the  people 
maintained  their  integrity,  although  ex- 
posed to  at  least  equal  perils  from  the 
vengeance  of  prelatic  informers  and  the 
licentious  and  cruel  soldiery.  This  was 
the  case  after  the  Revolution,  when  the 
tortuous  expediencies  of  worldly  policy 
corrupted  the  church  courts,  and  a  false 
system  of  theology  became  prevalent 
among  the  ministers,  long  before  the 
people  were  tainted  by  such  low  secular 
views,  or  imbibed  such  erroneous  doctri- 
nal tenets.  And  it  may  be  added  that  it 
was  for  this  very  purpose  that  the  law  of 
patronage  was  brought  forward  by  the 
Jacobites,  who  saw  clearly  that  its  opera- 
tion would  prevent  the  church  courts  and 
the  people  from  acting  together ;  and  out 
of  the  alienation  which  it  so  soon  and 
so  fatally  caused,  arose  in  a  great  mea- 
sure the  baneful  policy  of  the  moderate 
party,  who  regarded  with  dislike  the 
warm  interest  taken  by  the  people  in  re- 
ligious matters,  and  the  decided  prefer- 
ence which  they  showed  to  evangelical 
doctrine.  It  was  perfectly  manifest,  that 
if  the  popular  mind  were  to  be  consulted 
in  any  other  way  than  as  a  mere  matter 
of  form,  few  except  evangelical  ministers 
would  ever  obtain  admission  to  the 
Church;  and,  as  has  been  already 
proved,  having  little  knowledge  of,  and 
no  love  for,  evangelical  doctrine,  they 
had  no  other  way  of  securing  their  own 
admission  to  the  Church  as  a  profession, 
than  by  exerting  themselves  to  the  ut- 
most in  weakening  popular  influence 
by  the  rigid  enforcement  of  patronage. 
Could  they  have  contrived  at  once  to 
have  reduced  the  people  to  such  a  state 
of  comparative  ignorance  of  sound  doc- 
trine as  to  have  felt  little  interest  in  one 
kind  of  preaching  more  than  in  another, 
there  would  have  been  no  necessity  for 
such  strenuous  exertions  for  the  repres- 
sion of  popular  rights  and  popular  feel- 
ing ;  but  as  this  could  not  be  accomplish- 


A.  D.  1750.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


359 


ed  with  the  intelligent  and  religious  peo- 
ple of  Scotland,  there  was  no  resource 
but  to  reduce  the  popular  consent  to  a 
mere  empty  form,  and  to  crush  the  popu- 
lar resistance  by  the  strong  arm  of 
an  unconstitutional  law,  surreptitiously 
thrust  into  the  statute-book  by  infidels 
and  traitors.  Taking  all  these  things 
into  consideration,  it  will  not  be  denied, 
that  true  Christianity  as  existing  among 
the  orthodox  ministers  and  people  of 
Scotland,  was  indeed  entering  into  a  long 
and  dreary  period  of  trial,  and  greatly 
needed  an  extraordinary  infusion  of 
spiritual  life,  that  it  might  not  become  ut- 
terly extinct  before  the  dawning  of  a 
brighter  and  a  happier  day. 

[1743-49.1  It  does  not  appear  neces- 
sary to  occupy  space  in  detailing  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Assemblies  year  by  year 
from  this  time  forward,  occupied,  as  they 
chiefly  were,  with  discussions  arising  out 
of  disputed  settlements,  and  terminating 
generally  in  the  same  manner,  the  oppo- 
sition of  the  people  being  disregarded, 
and  the  presentee  appointed  with  or  with- 
out the  assistance  of  a  military  force,  ac- 
cording to  the  amount  of  the  opposition 
which  had  to  be  overcome.  Some  of 
these  cases,  however,  involved  the  ques- 
tion respecting  the  jurisdiction  of  the  civil 
courts,  with  regard  to  the  settlement  of 
ministers.  In  the  case  of  Dunse,  for  in- 
stance, in  1749,  one  of  the  applications 
made  to  the  civil  court  was,  that  they 
would  arrest  the  proceedings  of  the 
church  court,  by  forbidding  them  to  mo- 
derate a  call  at  large,  or  settle  any  other 
man  than  the  presentee.  "  This  con- 
clusion the  Lords  would  not  meddle  with, 
because  that  was  interfering  with  the 
power  of  ordination,  or  internal  policy 
of  the  Church,  with  which  the  Lords 
had  nothing  to  do."*  Several  decisions 
of  a  precisely  similar  character  were 
made  by  the  Court  of  Session,  indicating 
clearly  the  opinion  of  that  court,  that 
while  it  fell  within  their  province  to  de- 
termine whether  a  settlement  should  carry 
with  it  the  civil  emoluments  attached  to 
the  ministerial  office,  they  were  not  en- 
titled to  interfere  with  the  spiritual  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Church,  either  in  confer- 
ring or  withholding  the  ministerial  char- 


*  Brown's  supplement,  vol.  v.  p.  768;  Annals  of  the 
Assembly,  vol.  i.  p.  147.  See  also  a  remarkable  paper 
by  Lord  Kames  in  his  Law  Tracts. 


acter.  Nor  is  there  a  single  instance  on 
record,  till  those  of  recent  occurrence,  in 
which  the  civil  courts  presumed  to  inter- 
fere with  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction 
of  the  Church,  to  the  extent  of  offering 
an  opinion  whether  ordination  should  be 
given  or  withheld,  even  when  patrons 
attempted  to  induce  them  to  overstep  their 
legitimate  boundaries.  When  the  Church 
ordained  a  person  who  was  found  not  to 
have  a  legal  claim  to  the  fruits  of  the 
benefice,  according  to  the  law  of  patron- 
age, the  civil  court  decided  that  he  could 
not  receive  it,  but  refused  to  order  the 
Church  to  annul  the  pastoral  tie  of  ordi- 
nation, or  to  ordain  the  person  to  whom 
the  legal  presentation  had  been  given. 
Of  this,  the  case  of  Lanark  is  a  remark- 
able instance,  in  which  Dr. '  Dick  re- 
mained minister  of  the  parish,  discharg- 
ing all  the  pastoral  duties  for  upwards 
of  four  years,  while  the  patron  was  found 
to  be  entitled  to  retain  the  stipend.* 

[1750]  In  the  year  1750,  a  subject 
came  before  the  Assembly  which  seems 
to  have  exercised  great  influence  upon  its 
spirit  and  the  whole  course  of  its  proceed- 
ings for  many  years.  This  was  an  over- 
ture respecting  the  small  livings  in  the 
Church,  many  of  which  were  not  suffi- 
cient to  yield  a  respectable  maintenance. 
It  was  decided  that  a  committee  should 
be  appointed  to  draw  up  a  report  to  be 
laid  before  next  Assembly.  The  Assem- 
bly of  1750  directed  Dr.  Cuming,  the 
moderator,  to  proceed  to  London  at  the 
head  of  a  deputation,  to  lay  the  report 
before  government,  and  to  apply  for  an 
augmentation.  The  nobility,  gentry,  and 
landed  proprietors  in  general,  took  the 
alarm,  and  made  preparations  for  the 
most  strenuous  opposition,  although  they 
were  in  possession  of  the  teinds,  which 
were  always  regarded  as  the  patri- 
mony of  the  Church,  and  subject  to  such 
augmentations  from  time  to  time  as  might 
be  required.  One  of  the  methods  em- 
ployed by  the  heritors  to  defeat  this  right- 
ful claim  of  the  Church,  was  a  threat 
that  the  law  of  patronage  should  be  more 
stringently  applied  than  it  had  hitherto 
been,  and  that  presbyteries  should  not  be 
allowed  to  evade  it,  by  showing  any  defer- 
ence to  the  people,  as  they  had  occasion- 
ally done.f  The  result  was,  that  the 

*  Annals  of  the  Assembly,  vol.  i.  pp.  169-180. 
*  Ibid.  pp.  19ft95, 197. 


360 


HISTORY  OF  TxiE  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


scheme  was  defeated,  and  the  Moderates 
were  made  to  feel  that  the  heritors  were 
well  contented  to  make  use  of  them  in 
taking  away  the  rights  of  the  people  by 
the  violation  of  the  Revolution  Settlement 
and  the  Treaty  of  Union,  but  were  not 
disposed  to  refund  any  portion  of  their 
illegal  pillage,  which  they  possessed  in 
consequence  of  that  violation.  This  dis- 
appointment seems  to  have  paralyzed  the 
energies  of  Dr.  Cuming,  who  had  been 
the  chief  leader  of  the  Moderate  party  for 
many  years,  and  to  have  been  the  cause 
of  a  new  developement  of  Moderate  policy, 
which  soon  afterwards  appeared,  under 
the  management  of  an  abler  and  a  bolder 
man. 

[1751.]  The  first  appearance  of  this 
new  aspect  of  Moderate  policy  was  in  the 
case  of  Torpichen,  which  was  decided  in 
the  year  1751.  It  had  arisen  three  years 
before,  when,  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Bonar, 
the  last  of  the  Marrow-men,  a  Mr.  Wat- 
son was  presented  to  the  parish  by  the 
patron,  to  whose  settlement  the  parish- 
ioners could  not  be  persuaded  to  consent. 
Twice  was  the  case  brought  before  the 
Assembly, — in  the  years  1749  and  1750, 
— and  the  presbytery  of  Linlithgow  were 
each  time  enjoined  to  admit  Mr.  Watson. 
But  as  the  opposition  continued,  they  de- 
clined to  obey  the  ungracious  injunction. 
They. were  rebuked  by  the  Assembly  of 
1751,  and  again  ordered  to  proceed  ;  but 
in  case  they  should  still  delay,  a  "  riding 
committee"  was  empowered  to  effect  the 
settlement,  which  \vas  done  on  the  30th 
of  May  1751,  by  the  aid  of  a  military 
force.*  This  was  the  last  instance  of  a 
settlement  effected  by  means  of  a  "  riding 
committee."  That  device,  it  will  be  re- 
membered, had  been  adopted  in  order  to 
accomplish  the  settlement  of  an  unaccept- 
able presentee,  without  doing  violence  to 
the  feelings  and  conscientious  scruples 
of  presbyteries.  But  in  this  case  a  very 
strenuous  attempt  was  made  by  William 
Robertson,  minister  of  Gladsrnuir,  better 
known  by  his  subsequent  designation, 
Principal  Robertson,  to  compel  the  pres- 
bytery to  proceed  to  the  settlement,  on 
pain  of  suspension  or  deposition.  In  this 
he  failed ;  but  a  new  opportunity  soon 
occurred  for  renewing  his  attempt  to 
establish  a  more  pure  despotism  than 

*  Ibid.  pp.  156, 181,  198-212 ;  Patron  ige  Report,  Ap- 
pendix. 


the  Church  of  Scotland  had  previously 
known, and  this  time  with  complete  success. 
[1752.]  This  opportunity  arose  out  of 
the  disputed  settlement  of  Inverkeithing. 
Mr.  Andrew  Richardson,  minister  at 
Broughton,  had  been  presented  to  the 
parish  of  Inverkeithing,  but  was  not  ac- 
ceptable to  the  parishioners.  The  pres- 
bytery of  Dunfermline  hesitated  to  pro- 
ceed with  his  settlement,  but  were  ordered 
to  admit  him,  with  certification,  that  the 
Commission  would  proceed  to  very  high 
'censure  in  case  of  their  disobedience. 
They  still  declined  compliance  ;  and  the 
Commission  which  met  in  March  1752 
issued  a  new  command  to  them  to  pro- 
ceed, the  sentence  of  censure  not  being 
carried,  though  lost  by  a  narrow  majority. 
When  the  case  came  before  the  Assem- 
bly, it  gave  occasion  to  a  full  develope- 
ment of  the  principles  of  the  new  Moderate 
policy,  which  Robertson  was  determined 
to  introduce.  The  form  which  the  dis- 
cussion assumed  turned  upon  the  proposi- 
tion, "  How  far  the  members  of  inferior 
judicatories  are  bound  to  give  effect  to 
the  sentences  of  superior  courts,  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  dictates  of  their  own  private 
judgment  and  conscience."  This  had 
been  evaded  by  the  device  of  the  "  riding 
committees  ;"  but  the  pregnant  hint  re- 
cently given  by  the  heritors,  that  the  law 
of  patronage  would  be  more  strictly  en- 
forced, and  presbyteries  not  permitted  to 
evade  it  as  formerly,  seems  to  have  led 
Principal  Robertson  to  the  idea,  that  it 
would  be  more  expedient  for  the  superior 
church  courts  to  govern  their  own  subor- 
dinate judicatories,  and  thereby  to  gratify 
the  heritors  and  regain  their  favour,  than 
to  leave  the  matter  to  the  civil  courts,  and 
lose  all  hope  of  propitiating  the  heritors, 
without  the  possibility  of  acquiring  popu- 
lar support.  The  result  may  be  briefly 
stated.  Robertson's  policy  prevailed. 
The  presbytery  were  commanded  to  pro- 
ceed to  the  ordination  of  Mr.  Richardson  ; 
and,  as  if  to  make  the  deed  more  glar- 
ingly despotic,  it  was  commanded  that 
not  less  than  five  members  should  be  re- 
garded as  a  quorum, — the  usual  number 
being  three.  Six  of  the  presbytery  de- 
clined even  then  to  comply  ;  and  one  of 
these,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Gillespie  of  Car- 
nock,  was  deposed  from  the  office  of  the 
ministry  for  contumacy.  The  venerable 
man,  when  the  sentence  was  pronounced, 


A.  D.  1753.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP   SCOTLAND. 


361 


meekly  answered,  "  I  rejoice  that  to  me 
it  is  given,  in  behalf  of  Christ,  not  only 
to  believe  on  Him,  but  also  to  suffer  for 
/His  sake."*     This  tyrannical  deed  gave 
I  rise  to  the  Secession  which  is  known  by 
I  the  name  of  the  Relief,  and  marks  the 
Commencement  of  the  new  Moderate  dy- 
nasty. 

Brfore  the  ultimate  decision  of  this  case 
had  been  pronounced,  the  two  contend- 
ing parties  had  publicly  emitted  what  may 
be  termed  the  manifesto  of  each,f  the 
manifesto  of  the  Moderate  party  being  the 
production  of  Dr.  Robertson.  As  this 
able  paper  contained  the  principles  of 
ecclesiastical  polity  which  guided  Robert- 
son's administration,  has  been  referred  to 
with  strong  approbation  by  his  successor 
in  church  power.  Principal  Hill,  and 
has  continued  ever  since  to  be  regarded, 
as  in  a  great  degree,  the  standard  of  Mo- 
derate church  policy,  it  deserves  some 
attention.  It  begins  by  a  clear  and 
/orcible  statement  of  what  Robertson  re- 
garded as  the  first  principle  of  society, 
regulated  subordination,  in  which  private 
judgment  is  so  far  superseded  by  the 
authority  of  the  ruling  power,  that  no 
member  of  society  can  avoid  executing 
the  orders  of  the  supreme  authority  in 
any  other  way  than  by  withdrawing  from 
Vt.  This  principle  he  immediately  ap- 
plies to  what  he  terms  "  ecclesiastical 
society,"  and  proceeds  to  reason  to  the 
same  conclusion,  asserting  boldly  that  the 
conscience  of  subordinate  members  is  so 
far  superseded  by  the  orders  of  their  su- 
periors, whom  they  are  bound  to  obey, 
that  they  are  either  not  entitled  to  plead 
it,  or  are  bound  to  withdraw ;  declaring 
strenuously,  that  "  if  the  decisions  of  the 
General  Assembly  may  be  disputed  and 
disobeyed  by  inferior  courts  with  im- 
punity, the  Presbyterian  constitution  is 
entirely  overturned."  This  forms  the  very 
essence  of  his  argument ;  and  every  intel- 
ligent person,  especially  every  thought- 
ful Christian,  will  at  once  perceive,  that 
the  analogy  on  which  his  argument  is 
founded  commences  with  a  false  principle, 
and  consequently  that  the  argument  is 
vicious  throughout,  and  the  conclusion 
false.  This  analogy  assumes,  that  there 

*  Annals  of  the  Assembly,  vol  i.  pp.  222-230,  262-271 ; 
Patronage  Report.  Appendix. 

*  See  these  two  Papers  in  Mor'.ien's  Annals  of  the 
Assembly,  vol.  i.  pp.  231-260. 

46 


is  in  the  Christian  Church  no  principle 
different  from  those  natural  principles 
which  form  and  regulate  society.  It 
contains  no  recognition  of  the  scriptural 
basis  of  ecclesiastical  authority.  It  even 
leads  inevitably  to  the  conclusion,  that 
superior  ecclesiastical  authority  ought  to 
supersede  the  conviction  of  conscience  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  warrant  the  com- 
mission of  what  an  individual  regarded 
as  positively  sinful.  But  every  truly  re- 
ligious man,  who  makes  the  Bible  his 
rule,  must  see  that  this  analogy  is  false, 
the  argument  founded  on  it  vicious,  and 
the  conclusion  inept  and  wrong.  Can 
men,  without  any  higher  aid,  make  a 
church  and  frame  laws  for  it  as  they 
can  make  a  monarchy  or  a  republic? 
Such  a  low  secular  view  of  the  na- 
ture of  a  true  Church  was  never  enter- 
tained by  the  great  men  of  the  First  and 
Second  Scottish  Reformations ;  such  con- 
clusions are  utterly  and  irreconcilably  at 
variance  with  the  principles  and  the  spi- 
rit of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  On  the 
contrary,  one  of  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  Presbyterian  polity  is,  "  That 
all  church  power  is  ministerial,  and  not 
magisterial  or  lordly"  Whence  it  fol- 
lows, that  the  duty  of  the  office-bearers 
in  a  Christian  Church,  met  together  in 
the  name  of  their  only  and  Divine  Head 
and  King,  to  deliberate  and  act  for  the 
edification  of  his  body  the  Church,  is  to 
endeavour,  by  prayer  and  by  searching 
the  Scriptures  with  earnest  faith  and 
singleness  of  heart,  to  ascertain  what  is 
the  mind  and  will  of  Christ  in  the  mat- 
ter, and  then  to  act  according  to  the  judg- 
ment of  conscience  thus  enlightened  by 
the  Word  of  God,  in  all  gentleness  and 
brotherly  love.  This  is  the  first  prin- 
ciple of  Presbyterian  Church  govern- 
ment, flowing  from  the  great  doctrine  of 
the  Headship  of  Christ ;  and  every  per- 
son capable  of  understanding  the  Bible, 
and  acquainted  with  the  Presbyterian 
constitution,  must  see  that  the  opposite 
view  is  equally  unscripturai  and  unpres- 
byterian.  And  it  may  be  very  safely 
affirmed,  that  no  church  ^ourt,  actuated 
by  this  principle,  and  proceeding  in  this 
manner,  could  ever  have  arrived  at  the 
conclusion,  that  their  obedience  to  the 
laws  of  the  gospel  required  of  them  to 
perpetrate  that  grievous  violence  to  the 


362 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


ICHAP.  x. 


conscience  of  the  Christian  people,  the 
members  of  Christ's  body,  which  is  in- 
volved in  "forcing-  them  to  listen  to  the 
instructions  of  a  false  teacher,  or  of  one 
who,  instead  of  feeding  and  protecting  the 
flock  as  a  shepherd,  acts  towards  them  as 
a  ravening  wolf,  regardless  of  their  spi- 
ritual welfare,  provided  he  can  secure  the 
fruits  of  the  benefice.  Yet  such  unpres- 
byterian,  unscriptural,  unchristian  prin- 
ciples, were  promulgated  by  Robertson 
as  the  manifesto  of  the  Moderate  party, 
formed  the  rule  of  his  long  and  vigorous 
administration,  were  lauded  and  followed 
by  Hill,  and  have  ever  been  regarded,  by 
subsequent  Moderate  leaders,  as  the  very 
standards  of  their  policy,  till  the  present 
time,  when,  finding  that  their  own  prin- 
ciples would  lead  to  the  direct  condem- 
nation of  some  of  their  own  party,  they 
have  discovered  that  supreme  ecclesiasti- 
cal authority  resides  in  the  Court  of  Ses- 
sion, and  that  they  are  bound  in  con- 
science to  render  implicit  obedience  to  its 
dictates  in  matters  of  ordination.  Even 
this  is  natural:  men  who  hold  a  false 
principle  are  inevitably  led  from  bad  to 
worse,  far,  very  far,  beyond  what  they  at 
first  would  have  conceived  possible.  It 
may  be  added,  as  pointing  out  the  ulti- 
mate bearing  of  these  brief  remarks,  that 
while  the  Moderate  party  would  readily 
depose  a  minister  for  mere  contumacy,  or 
disobedience  to  the  commands  of  his  su- 
periors, however  sinful  these  commands 
might  be  in  themselves,  although  they 
very  generally  screened  immorality  and 
heresy  ;  the  Evangelical  or  truly  con- 
stitutional party  could  not  depose  except 
for  some  deed  in  itself  sinful,  either  as 
immoral  or  heretical.  No  man  who 
can  estimate  aright  the  true  nature  of 
ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  will  hesitate  a 
moment  to  say  which  of  these  two  modes 
of  procedure  is  that  which  ought  to  be 
followed  by  a  true  Christian  Church. 

It  is  not  denied  that  the  constitution  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  requires  the 
submission  of  the  inferior  to  the  superior 
courts  ;  for  were  that  not  the  case,  the 
Church  of  Scotland  must  sink  into  the 
Independent  system;  and  in  some  of 
their  arguments  the  minority  of  that 
period  were  not  sufficiently  guarded 
against  that  extreme.  But  while  sound 
Presbyterian  polity  requires  this  due  sub- 
ordination of  courts,  it  leaves  the  con- 


science of  individuals  free  both  to  protest 
against,  and  to  abstain  from,  actively  as- 
sisting to  carry  into  effect  what  they  think 
sinful,  provided  they  "offer  no  actual  op- 
position, having  always  this  resource, 
that  it  can  appoint  others  to  execute  its 
orders  when  that  is  still  held  necessary. 


CHAPTER  X. 


FROM    THE    PERIOD    OF    THE     SECOND    SECES- 
SION   TILL    THE    ASSEMBLY  OF    1841. 

Struggle  against  the  new  Moderate  Policy — Defence  of 
Hume  and  Kames — Assessment  for  the  Poor — Cases 
of  Nigg  and  Jedburgh — Overtures  respecting  the  El- 
ders—Home  and  the  Theatre— Schools  in  the  High- 
lands— Simony — The  Relief  Secessian  formed — Char- 
acter of  the  Moderate  Party  in  Preaching,  Discipline, 
Secularity,  &.«.— The  Schism  Overtures— Intrusion 
Settlement  at  St  Ninians— Increase  of  the  Secession, 
and  the  Consequences  viewed  statiscally — Repeal  of 
Popish  Disabilities— Debate  on  Pluralities — Retire- 
ment of  Principal  Robertson  from  the  General  As- 
sembly Causes  of  his  Retirement — Proposal  of  the 
Moderates  to  abolish  Subscription  to  the  Coifiession 
of  Faith — Dr.  Hill— Proposal  to  abandon  the  Modera- 
tion of  a  Call— Dr.  Cook's  Theory  of  the  Settlement 
of  Ministers — Dr.  Hardy's  views  concerning  Patron- 
age—Discussion on  the  Subject  of  Patronage — Opin- 
ions of  Dr.  Hill  and  Dr.  Cook — Declining  State  of  Re- 
ligion in  Scotland— A  settlement  without  Subscribing 
the  Confession  of  Faith — The  New-Light  Controversy 
in  Ayrshire — Robert  Burns  the  Poet— Socinianism — 
Excitement  at  the  Period  of  the  French  Revolution — 
Revival  of  a  Religious  Spirit  generally— Christian 
Missions — Opposed  by  the  Moderate  Party— Chapels 
of  Ease— Rowland  Hill— Refusal  of  Ministerial  Com- 
munion with  all  other  Churches,  which  completes  the 
Moderate  System — Rapid  Growth  of  Evangelism — 
Contest  between  Dr.  Hill  and  the  Edinburgh  Doctors 
—Dr.  Andrew  Thomson— Dr.  M'Crie— Debates  on 
Pluralities — Dr  Chalmers — Decline  ofModeratism — 
Mission  to  India — Apocrypha  Controversy — The  Vol- 
untary Controversy — Ascendancy  of  the  Evangelical 
Party — Admission  of  Chapels  of  Ease — Subsequent 
Contentions  and  Struggles — Present  Position — Con- 
cluding Remarks  and  Reflections. 

THE  decision  of  the  Assembly  of  1752, 
in  the  case  of  Inverkeithing  and  the  pres- 
bytery of  Dunfermline,  followed  by  the 
severe  and  despotic  measure  of  Mr.  Gil- 
lespie's  deposition,  gave  rise  to  feelings 
of  strong  indignation  and  alarm  through- 
out the  kingdom.  A  general  apprehen- 
sion prevailed  among  the  friends  of  reli- 
gious liberty,  that  the  reign  of  absolute 
and  spiritual  despotism  was  now  indeed 
begun  in  Scotland,  since  the  General 
Assembly  had  committed  a  deed  distinctly 
subversive  of  the  first  principles  of  th& 
Presbyterian  constitution,  which  had  al- 
ways hitherto  been  the  very  citadel  of 
freedom,  civil  and  religious.  The  sub- 
ject was  discussed  with  great  anxiety  in 
many  of  the  synods  and  presbyteries ; 
overtures  were  framed  for  the  purpose  of 


A.  D.  1653.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


363 


obtaining  a  repeal  of  the  Assembly's  de- 
cision, and  the  restoration  of  Mr.  Gilles- 
pie  to  his  charge ;  and  numerous  pam- 
phlets were  written  both  against  and  in 
defence  of  the  new  deveiopement  of 
Moderate  ecclesiastical  polity.  Great 
exertions  were  also  made  by  the  orthodox 
party  to  procure  a  return  to  next  Assem- 
bly of  a  sufficient  number  of  true  Presby- 
terians to  reverse  the  recent  despotic  and 
unconstitutional  measure;  and  not  less 
strenuous  were  the  Moderates  on  their 
part  to  retain  their  ascendancy  and  con- 
firm their  new  position. 

[1753.]  When  the  Assembly  met  in 
1753,  it  speedily  appeared  that  the  strug- 
gle was  to  be  of  a  very  arduous  and 
doubtful  character.  A  comparative  trial 
of  strength  arose  on  the  question  respect- 
ing the  election  of  a  legal  agent  for  the 
Church,  and  in  this  Dr.  Curning,  the  re- 
cognised Moderate  leader,  was  defeated. 
But  this  defeat  seems  to  have  had  the 
effect  of  leading  to  a  greater  degree  of 
union  in  that  party,  and  a  more  deter- 
mined effort  to  secure  their  predominance. 
The  case  of  Mr.  Gillespie  came  next 
under  consideration ;  and  the  question 
proposed  for  the  vote  was,  whether  he 
should  be  restored  to  the  exercise  of  his 
office  as  a  minister  of  this  Church  or  not. 
It  was  decided  in  the  negative  by  a  ma- 
jority of  three.  Next  day  an  attempt  was 
made  to  procure  the  remission  of  the  sub- 
ject to  the  Commission,  with  power  to 
that  court  to  restore  Mr.  Gillespie,  if  he 
should  make  application  ;  but  this  also 
was  resisted,  and  again  lost  by  the  nar- 
row majority  of  three.*  A  considerable 
number  of  ministers  and  elders  dissented 
from  these  decisions  of  the  Assembly,  and 
gave  in  their  reasons  of  dissent,  which 
the  ruling  party  prudently  abstained  from 
attempting  to  answer.  By  these  reasons 
it  was  made  clearly  to  appear  that  the 
sentence  of  deposition  had  been  pro- 
nounced on  account  of  an  alleged  offence, 
against  which  there  existed  no  law  de- 
claring it  to  deserve  deposition ;  while 
the  whole  practice  of  the  Church,  in 
similar  cases,  had  not  gone  beyond  cen- 
sure, so  that  the  sentence  of  itself  was  un- 
constitutional if  tested  by  the  laws  of  the 
Church,  and  unchristian  by  those  of  the 
Scriptures.!  But  the  Moderate  pacty 


*  Annals  of  the  Assembly  vol.  i.  p.  278. 
vol.  ii.  p.  21. 


tlbid., 


had  the  possession  of  power,  and  they 
could  therefore  the  more  easily  set  aside 
right  and  disregard  reason.  Besides, 
since  the  laws  of  civil,  society  demand 
complete  subordination,  therefore,  accord- 
ing to  the  fundamental  maxim  of  the  new 
Moderate  dynasty,  "ecclesiastical  society" 
must  be  governed  in  the  same  manner. 
Had  the  supporters  of  this  principle  fol- 
lowed it  to  its  legitimate  conclusions,  they 
would  have  found  themselves  the  advo- 
vates  of  the  hideous  doctrines  of  entire 
slavish  obedience  to  tyranny  in  the  State 
and  Popery  in  the  Church, — that  is,  to 
absolute  despotism,  civil  and  religious. 
For  whatever  takes  away  the  right  of 
private  judgment,  commanding  implicit 
obedience,  especially  in  matters  of  reli- 
gion, to  use  the  language  of  the  Confes- 
sion of  Faith,  "  destroys  liberty  of  con- 
science, and  reason  also,"  reducing  men, 
as  far  as  it  is  possible,  to  the  condition  of 
irresponsible  and  unreasoning  slavery. 
"  But  you  are  not  compelled  to  obey,  if 
your  conscience  forbid  you :  it  is  in  your 
power  to  withdraw."  Such  was  the  lan- 
guage of  the  manifesto,  and  still  is  the 
language  of  those  who  hold  the  same 
principles.  To  that  the  ready  answer 
was  given :  "  Who  empowered  you  to 
frame  laws  contrary  to  the  constitution 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  which  you 
have  sworn  to  obey  and  maintain,  and 
contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  Christian 
Church,  given  by  Him  who  alone  is 
Lord  of  the  conscience,  and  then  to  punish 
men  because  they  adhere  to  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  Church  of  their  fathers,  and, 
when  charged  with  disobeying  your 
laws,  answered,  with  the  apostles,  *  whe- 
ther it  is  right  to  obey  God  or  man, 
judge  ye  ?'  "  Such  were  the  opinions 
entertained,  and  arguments  used,  by  the 
evangelical  ministers  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  in  that  time  of  struggle  against 
a  party  who  did  not  scruple  to  subject 
every  spiritual  consideration  to  the  arbi- 
trary rules  of  secular  policy.  ^It  was  not, 
perhaps,  to  be  expected  that  secular  poli- 
ticians would  percefve  the  fallacy  which 
lay  at  the  source  of  the  Moderate  system  ; 
but  it  might  surely  be  hoped  that  they 
would  be  able  to  mark  the  pernicious  re- 
sults that  have  followed,  and  to  arrive  at 
the  very  simple  and  obvious  conclusion, 
that  the  cause  must  be  essentially  bad 
which  has  produced  such  consequences, 


364 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


It  will  not  be  difficult  to  trace  the  main 
lines  of  the  historical  demonstration. 

Among  the  pamphlets  which  this  con- 
test between  the  two  parties  drew  forth, 
by  far  the  most  remarkable  was  "  Wither- 
spoon's  Ecclesiastical  Characteristics." 
This  was  published  in  September  1753, 
and  immediately  acquired  great  celebrity, 
both  in  Scotland  and  England.  The 
wrath  of  the  Moderate  party,  whose 
maxims  of  ecclesiastical  policy  is  so  keen- 
ly satirized,  was  excessive  ;  but  they  wise- 
ly abstained  from  attempting  to  answer  it. 
And  it  may  be  safely  said,  that  if  any 
impartial  person  would  take  Dr.  Robert- 
son's Manifesto,  and  Witherson's  Char- 
acteristics, and  peruse  them  both  candidly, 
looking  also  into  the  records  of  the 
Church  courts  under  Robertson's  admin- 
istration, he  would  find  himself  constrain- 
ed to  admit  that  the  Moderate  policy  had 
been  fairly  and  justly  characterised. 

[1754-55.]  The  transactions  of  the 
years  1754  and  1755  present  little  deserv- 
ing to  be  recorded.  In  the  former  the 
case  of  Biggar  was  terminated  by  a  com- 
promise. In  the  latter  there  arose  a  dis- 
cussion, respecting  the  infidel  writings  of 
David  Hume,  which  the  Assembly  con- 
demned, without  however,  naming  the 
author,  which  would  not  have  been  con- 
venient, as  he  was  living  in  terms  of 
friendly  intimacy  with  several  of  the 
Moderate  leaders.  A  short  time  after  the 
rising  of  the  Assembly,  Hume  was  de- 
fended by  Dr.  Blair,  in  a  pamphlet  pub- 
lished anonymously,  to  avoid  the  un- 
.  seemliness  of  a  teacher  of  religion  being 
the  avowed  defender  of  one  who  made  no 
\secret  of  his  infidelity.  The  speculations 
of  Lord  Kames  were  at  the  same  time 
brought  under  consideration,  and  were 
virtually  included  in  the  same  censure ; 
although  it  seems  to  have  been  felt  that 
they  might  be  regarded  as  little  more 
than  the  idle  mental  discussions  of  an  ec- 
centric man  of  genius,  and  not  likely  to 
be  productive  of  serious  injury  to  the 
cause  of  truth.*  One  apparently  slight 
circumstance  incidentally  stated  by  Sir 
Henry  MoncreifT,  deserves  to  be  men- 
tioned as  connected  with  this  year  ;  it  is, 
that  the  resources  of  the  kirk-sessions 
continued  to  be  sufficient  for  the  mainte- 

*  Annals  of  the  Assembly,  vol.  ii.  pp.  54-60.    See  also, 
Life  of  Kames,  by  Lord  Woodhouselee. 


nance  of  the  poor,  without  any  regular 
assessment,  till  the  year  1755,  when  the 
increase  of  the  Secession,  withdrawing 
numbers  of  people  from  the  pale  of  the 
Established  Church,  and  to  the  same  ex- 
tent diminishing  the  collections,  rendered 
it  necessary  to  resort,  in  some  instances, 
to  regular  assessments  to  supply  the 
growing  deficiency.*  This  was  one  of 
the  fruits  of  patronage  on  which  its  ad- 
mirers had  not  probably  calculated,  when 
they  planted  that  deadly  upas  tree  in  the 
vineyard  of  the  Scottish  Church.  By 
enforcing  patronage  they  first  caused  a 
Secession  ;  and  by  continuing  their  in- 
fatuated procedure  they  nourished  its 
growth,  till  the  effects  began  to  appear  in 
the  form  of  diminished  resources  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  poor,  which  they  were 
compelled  themselves  to  supply.  Still,  as 
if  smitten  with  judicial  blindness,  they 
continued,  and  till  this  day  continue,  to 
enforce  a  system  which,  if  persevered  in, 
can  end  in  nothing  but  the  overthrow  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  the  imposi- 
tion of  a  national  poor-rate,  vastly  more 
expensive  to  the  community,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  a  fertile  nursery  of  immorality 
and  crime. 

[1727.]  The  assembly  of  1756  sig- 
nalized itself  by  its  decision  of  the  case 
of  Nigg  in  Ross-shire.  That  parish  had 
enjoyed  the  blessing  of  a  faithful  evange- 
lical minister,  Mr.  John  Balfour ;  and 
upon  his  death  the  next  presentee  was  not 
only  of  a  totally  opposite  character  with 
regard  to  doctrine,  but  was  also  accused 
of  drunkenness,  which  accusation  was 
only  not  proved  against  him.  Great  op- 
position was  made  to  the  settlement  by 
the  pious  parishioners,  and  equal  reluc- 
tance was  manifested  by  the  majority  of 
the  presbytery  to  perpetuate  the  outrage 
commanded  by  the  superior  courts.  But 
the  fate  of  Gillespie  was  before  their  eyes  ; 
and  under  a  strong  feeling  of  sorrow  and 
regret,  four  of  the  presbytery  repaired  to 
the  church  of  Nigg,  to  discharge  the 
painful  duty.  The  church  was  empty  ; 
not  a  single  member  of  the  congregation 
was  to  be  seen.  While  in  a  state  of  per- 
plexity what  to  do  in  such  a  strange  con- 
el  ition,  one  man  appeared,  who  had  it  in 
charge  to  tell  them,  "  That  the  blood  of 
the  parish  of  Nigg  would  be  required  of 

*  Life  of  Erskine,  Appendix,  p.  409 


A.  D.  1757.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


365 


them,  if  they  should  settle,  a  man  to  the 
walls  of  the  kirk*  Having  delivered 
solemnly  this  appalling  message,  he  de- 
parted, leaving  the  presbytery  astonished 
and  paralyzed.  They  proceeded  no  fur- 
ther at  the  time,  but  reported  the  case  to 
the  Assembly  of  1756.  They  were  re- 
buked for  having  failed  in  that  implicit 
obedience  which  was  now  the  rule  of 
duty  under  the  Moderate  government  of 
the  Church  ;  and  the  minister  who  was 
most  opposed  to  the  settlement  was  the 
very  one  appointed  to  carry  it  into  effect. 
He  yielded.  Mr.  Patrick  Grant  was 
"  settled  to  the  walls  of  kirk  ;"  and  the 
outraged  people  of  Nigg  built  a  meeting- 
house for  themselves,  leaving  to  the 
wretched  intruder  his  benefice,  on  which 
to  batten,  without  a  flock  to  tend. 

The  case  of  Jedburg  came  before  this 
Assembly,  though  its  final  decision  did 
not  take  place  till  two  years  afterwards. 
The  parishioners  of  Jed  burgh  had  almost 
unanimously  petitioned  that  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Boston  of  Oxnam,  son  of  the  celebrated 
Boston  of  Etterick,  might  be  their  minis- 
ter, The  presentation,  however,  was 
given  to  Bonar,  grandson  of  Bonar  of 
Torphichen  ;  but  when  he  found  the  in- 
clinations of  the  people  so  decidedly  fixed 
on  Mr.  Boston,  he  resigned  the  presenta- 
tion. The  patron  might  now  have  con- 
sulted the  wishes  of  the  people  ;  but  that 
would  have  been  contrary  to  the  princi- 
ples of  the  mild  government  of  Modera- 
tism,  and  therefore  a  new  presentation 
was  given  to  another  person,  not  likely  to 
commit  the  fault  of  which  Mr.  Bonar  had 
been  guilty. 

[1757.]  The  first  subject  which  en- 
gaged the  attention  of  the  Assembly  in 
the  year  1757,  arose  out  of  objections 
against  the  commissions  of  the  elders 
from  six  or  seven  different  Presbyteries. 
The  defect  urged  against  these  commis- 
sions was,  that  they  did  not  bear  that  the 
elders  were  qualified  according  to  the  act 
1722,  in  which  specific  mention  is  made 
that  elders  should  be  "  strict  in  their  ob- 
servation of  the  Lord's  day,  and  in  regu- 
larly keeping  up  the  worship  of  God  in 
their  families."  The  orthodox  and  con- 
stitutional ministers  argued  that  these 
commissions  ought  to  be  rejected  as  in- 
valid, on  account  of  this  serious  defect, 

*  Annals  of  the  Assembly,  vol.  ii.  pp.77-80  ;  Patronage 
Report,  Appendix. 


justly  regarding  personal  religion  as  the 
first  qualification  for  an  office-bearer  in 
the  Church,  and  concluding  that  no  man 
could  be  personally  religious  who  neg- 
lected public  and  family  worship.  But 
it  would  not  have  suited  Moderate  policy 
to  have  held  the  possession  of  personal 
religfon  as  an  indispensable  qualification 
of  an  office-bearer  in  the  Church.  The 
only  qualifications  which  they  regarded 
as  absolutely  indispensable  were, — for  a 
minister,  that  he  had  received  a  presenta- 
tion from  a  patron, — and  for  an  elder,  that 
he  possessed  political  influence,  or  was 
connected  with  those  who  did.  And  the 
practice  was  about  that  time  introduced, 
which  soon  became  the  settled  custom,  of 
ordaining  young  lawyers  to  the  eldership, 
that  they  might  sit  in  Assemblies,  exercise 
their  oratorical  powers,  and  swell  the 
Moderate  majorities.  It  was  evident  that 
they  might  discharge  all  these  functions 
without  any  personal  religion ;  and  there- 
fore the  Moderate  party  strenuously  re- 
sisted the  attempt  to  have  an  attestation  of 
their  possessing  that  qualification  declared 
to  be  indispensable.  The  Moderates  were 
successful  by  a  considerable  majority; 
and  thus  another  glaring  violation  of  re- 
ligious principle  and  the  constitution  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  was  perpetrated. 
The  evil  consequences  of  this  irreligious 
decision  were  clearly  pointed  out  by 
Witherspoon,  in  a  dissent  which  he  laid  on 
the  table  of  the  Assembly  ;  and  they  have 
been  completely  realized,  as  the  sufferings 
of  the  Church  even  yet  too  clearly  prove.* 
The  next  matter  which  came  before 
the  Assembly,  after  having  occupied  the 
attention  of  a  number  of  the  subordinate 
church  courts  in  different  parts  of  the 
country,  was  one  which  had  its  origin  in 
the  elegant  studies  and  amusements  of  the 
Moderate  clergymen.  The  Rev.  John 
Home,  minister  of  Athelstanefore,  the 
eager  supporter  of  Robertson  in  procur- 
ing the  deposition  of  the  pious  and  con- 
scientious Gillespie,  had  composed  the 
tragedy  of  Douglas ;  and  when  it  was 
represented  in  the  Edinburgh  Theatre, 
both  the  author  and  many  of  his  clerical 
friends  weie  present  at  the  representation. 
This  gave  great  offence  to  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  Church,  both  ministers 
and  people,  who  very  justly  regarded 
such  conduct  as  giving  countenance  to 

*  Annals  of  the  Assembly,  vol.  ii.  pp.  102-IOa 


366 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


the  gross  profanity  and  licentiousness  of 
the  stage  itself,  and  the  still  grosser  im- 
moralities which  haunt  its  precincts. 
The  result  was,  that  Home  resigned  his 
charge ;  and  his  play-going  friends,  the 
most  distinguished  of  whom  was  Dr. 
Carlyle  of  Inveresk,  submitted  to  be  re- 
buked and  admonished.* 

[1758]  In  the  year  1758  Dr.  Robert- 
son was  translated  from  Gladsmuir  to 
Edinburgh ;  and  from  that  time  his  as- 
cendancy in  church  courts,  which  had 
already  nearly  superseded  that  of  Dr. 
Cuming.  became  altogether  paramount, 
md  remained  unshaken  till  he  voluntarily 
withdrew  upwards  of  twenty  years  after- 
wards. In  the  same  year  Boston  of  Ox- 
nam,  grieved  with  the  proceedings  of  the 
church  courts,  both  in  their  utter  disre- 
gard of  the  feelings,  wishes,  and  edifica- 
tion of  the  people,  and  in  the  culpable  leni- 
ency shown  to  clerical  delinquents,  gave 
in  to  the  presbytery  of  Jedburgh  his  de- 
mission of  the  charge  of  Oxnam,  and 
ceased  to  be  a  minister  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland.  The  people  of  Jedburgh,  find- 
ing all  their  endeavours  to  obtain  him  as 
minister  of  the  parish  ineffectual,  built  a 
church,  and  gave  him  a  call  to  be  their 
pastor.  This  call  was  signed  by  the  town 
council,  the  session,  and  all  the  heads  of 
families  except  five.  On  the  day  of  his 
admission  the  magistrates  attended  in  all 
their  official  dignity,  and  the  new  church 
was  crowded  by  at  least  two  thousand 
people.f  He  was  ordained  by  a  Mr. 
Mackenzie,  who  had  once  been  minister 
of  Lochbroom,  but  was  then  minister  of 
a  dissenting  congregation  in  England,  and 
afterwards  was  called  to  be  their  pastor 
by  the  injured  people  of  Nigg.  This 
loss  to  the  Church  of  a  faithful  minister 
and  a  warm-hearted  congregation,  was 
a  fitting  celebration  *of  Dr.  Robertson's 
translation  to  Edinburgh,  and  accession 
to  unlimited  ecclesiastical  power. 

A  representation  was  laid  before  this 
Assembly,  by  the  Society  for  Propagating 
Christian  Knowledge,  respecting  the  de- 
ficiency of  parish  schools  in  the  High- 
lands. From  this  document  it  appeared, 
that  there  were  in  the  Highlands  no  less 
than  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  par- 
ishes where  there  were  no  parochial 
schools,  and  where  the  heritors  neglected 

*  Annals  of  the  Assembly,  vol.  ii.  pp.  112-129. 
t  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  154-159. 


or  refused  to  provide  them,  notwithstand 
ing  the  urgent  entreaties  and  remon- 
strances of  the  society.  In  one  point  of 
view  this  was  not  strange.  The  greater 
part  of  the  Highland  heritors  were  both 
Papists  and  Jacobites,  and  consequently 
had  no  love  for  the  propagation  of  reli- 
gious knowledge,  and  as  little  for  the  ex- 
tension of  the  Presbyterian  system,  which 
paralyzed  their  rebellious  tendencies,  as 
they  themselves  had  formerly  owned  in 
their  complaints  against  new  churches 
and  schools.  But  it  might  have  been 
anticipated  that  under  a  Protestant  go- 
vernment, the  law  which  declared  that 
there  should  be  a  school  in  every  parish 
would  have  been  put  into  execution,  and 
that  the  supplementary  exertions  of  this 
truly  Christian  society  would  not  have 
been  pleaded  as  an  excuse  by  the  heritors 
for  their  own  neglect  of  duty.  The  dis- 
cussion of  this  subject  was  ultimately 
attended  with  the  most  beneficial  results, 
in  the  erection  of  about  forty  new  churches 
in  the  Highlands,  with  an  ordained  min- 
ister in  each,  though  the  admission  of 
these  ministers  into  church  courts  did  not 
take  place  till  a  very  recent  period,  when 
a  more  constitutional  spirit  had  begun  to 
prevail. 

[1759.]  The  only  thing  which  merits 
attention  in  the  year  1750  is  the  passing 
of  the  act  against  Simony,  which  had 
been  rendered  necessary  to  prevent  the 
disgraceful  pactions  entered  into  between 
patrons  and  presentees  in  many  instances, 
especially  since  the  law  of  patronage  had 
begun  to  be  so  steadily  enforced.  This 
kind  of  crime  had  been  distinctly  fore- 
seen, as  certain  to  arise  out  of  patronage  ; 
and  while  this  act  condemns  the  sinful 
consequences,  it  by  implication  condems 
also  the  sinful  cause. 

[1760-65.]  No  new  principles,  either 
of  evil  or  of  good,  obtained  developement 
during  the  years  between  1760  and  1765, 
and,  therefore,  they  may  be  passed  rapidly 
over,  merely  glancing  at  some  events 
which  illustrate  the  topics  already  stated. 
A  deputation  was  sent  to  the  Highlands, 
to  explore  the  state  of  religion  in  those 
remote  districts  ;  and  a  full  repoit  having 
been  laid  before  the  Assembly,  that  vener- 
able court  strongly  recommended  the 
erection  of  new  churches  and  parochial 
districts,  the  ministers  of  which  were  to 
be  supported  out  of  the  royal  bounty. 


A.  D.  1760.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


367 


The  violent  settlement  of  Kilconquhar, 
on  the  decision  of  the  Assembly  in  1 760,* 
caused  the  secession  of  a  large  body  of 
the  people  of  that  parish,  and  gave  occa- 
sion to  the  completed  form  which  the 
second  Secession  assumed  in  the  course 
of  the  following  year.  A  new  church 
was  built  by  the  aggrieved  people,  and 
on  the  22d  of  October  1761,  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Gillespie,  formerly  of  Carnock, 
and  the  Rev.  Thomas  Boston,  formerly 
of  Oxnam,  together  with  a  Mr.  Collier, 
met  at  Colinsburgh  in  Fife,  and  constituted 
themselves  into  the  Presbytery  of  Relief, 
the  reason  of  assuming  that  designation 
being,  that  they  took  this  method  of  ob- 
taining relief  horn  the  intolerable  despot- 
ism of  patronage.  The  course  of  defec- 
tion, meanwhile,  continued  to  proceed 
rapidly,  deepening,  expanding,  and  pour- 
ing on  like  an  inundation.  The  doctrines 
of  the  gospel  were  superseded  by  cold 
and  formal  harangues  respecting  the 
"  beauty  of  morality,"  and  the  "  good  of 
the  whole"  couched  in  as  much  elegance 
of  style  as  these  reverend  essayists  could 
achieve.  The  greater  part  of  the  pulpit 
productions  of  those  times  which  have 
been  preserved  from  oblivion  are  certainly 
not  such  as  to  do  much  honour  to  the  ta- 
lents, judgment,  or  even  taste  of  that  class 
of  men  by  whom  they  were  elaborated. 
Even  Blair's  Sermons,  which  reached  the 
highest  pitch  of  excellence  that  Moderate 
pulpit  ovaYry  could  aspire  to,  have  long 
since  lost  their  factitious  popularity,  and 
sunk  to  that  dead  level  of  monotonous 
lethargy  in  which  must  for  ever  slumber 
all  that  is  destitute  of  true  spiritual  life. 
But  while  the  vital 'principles  of  the  gos- 
pel were  in  general  very  carefully  ex- 
cluded from  the  sermons  of  the  Moderate 
clergy,  an  infusion  of  a  different  nature 
was  readily  admitted.  Heresy  of  various 
kinds  sprang  up,  chiefly  derived  from  the 
strong  taint  of  Arminianism  which  the 
Prelatic  incumbents  introduced  into  the 
Church.  Pelagianism  naturally  followed; 
and  the  downward  progress  continuing, 
many  began  to  entertain  views  very 
closely  bordering  upon  Socinianism.  To 
this  the  writings  of  Taylor  of  Norwich 
very  greatly  contributed,  which  about 
this  time  had  become  extremely  popular 
among  a  certain  class  of  the  Moderate 
ministers,  especially  in  the  west  of  Scot- 

*  Annals  of  the  Assembly,  vol.  ii.  p.  201. 


land  in  Galloway.  But  when  charges  of 
heresy  against  any  minister  were  brought 
before  the  Assembly,  they  were  invaria- 
bly discouraged,  and  the  charge  repelled  ; 
and  on  one  occasion,  the  faithful  minister 
who  had  brought  forward  the  charge  was 
actually  reproved  for  his  conduct,  and 
warned  "  not  to  be  over  ready  to  fish  out 
heresies."*  Several  very  glaring  cases 
of  violent  intrusion  occurred :  such  as 
that  of  Kilmarnock,  in  1764;  and  that 
of  Shotts,  in  1765,  where  the  presbytery 
had  rejected  Mr.  Wells  on  his  trials,  as 
being,  if  not  wholly  deficient,  yet  so  low 
and  mean  in  the  knowledge  of  divinity, 
that  he  did  not  come  up  to  the  character 
of  a  minister  of  the  gospel.  Yet  the 
Assembly  reversed  this  judgment,  and 
ordered  him  to  be  ordained ;  and  when 
the  opposition  of  the  people  was  so  great 
that  it  could  not  be  accomplished  in  the 
parish,  he  was  ordained  in  the  session- 
house  at  Hamilton.  Many  cases  occured, 
also,  of  such  atrocious  immorality,  that 
it  is  not  fitting  to  stain  these  pages  with 
their  recital  ;f  and  yet  all  these  cases 
were  defended,  and  the  delinquents 
screened,  by  the  Moderates,  till,  in  some 
of  them,  the  strong  indignation  of  in- 
sulted public  decency  compelled  the  sen- 
tence of  deposition  to  be  passed.  Such 
were  some  of  the  glories  of  Principal 
Robertson's  administration,  so  lauded  in 
his  own  day,  so  closely  followed  by  his 
immediate  successors,  and  held  in  such 
high  honour  still  by  many  who  warmly 
applaud  and  eagerly  emulate  what  they 
painfully  feel  and  deeply  deplore  that  they 
cannot  rival. 

It  may  seem  a  very  pertinent  question  to 
ask,  how  such  criminal  conduct  could  be 
permitted  to  pass  unpunished,  much  more, 
how  it  could  be  sheltered  by  church 
courts  under  the  management  of  Principal 
Robertson,  a  high-minded,  honorable 
man,  whose  own  moral  character  was  al- 
together unimpeachable.  Simply  because 
his  views  of  church  government  were 
directly  anti-scriptural,  founded  upon  a 
worldly  principle,  and  pervaded  through- 
out by  worldly  considerations.  In  his 
mind  the  idea  of  an  Established  Church 
was  exceedingly  simple,  and  exceedingly 

*  Annals  of  the  Assembly,  vol.  ii.  p.  182. 
t  See  annals  of  Assembly— cases  of  Professor  Brown, 
Dalrymple  of  Dallas,  Carson  of  Anwoth,  Park  of  Old 
Monkland,  Lyell  of  Lady  Parish,  and  Nisbet  of  Firth 
and  Stenness. 


368 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP    X. 


false.     He  regarded  it  as  merely  a  subor 
dinate  court,   created  by  the   State,  anc 
possessed  of  no  authority  but  what  was 
derived  from  human  laws.     Wherever 
therefore,  he  found  a  human  law,  there  he 
formed  an  imperative  rule  ;  and  all  argu 
merits  brought  from  the  direct  language 
of  Scripture,  the  principles  of  the  gospel 
or  the  recoiling  of  a  tender  and  enlight- 
ened conscience,   were  by  him  entirely 
disregarded.    His  administration  certainly 
deserves  the  praise  of  consistency,  but  as 
certainly  it  was  a  terrible  consistency  of 
direct  opposition  to  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  Christianity,  and  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  to  whose  standards  he  had 
subscribed  his  name,  with  all  the  grave 
deliberateness  required  in  him  who  in  the 
sight  of  heaven   takes   a   solemn   oath. 
How  he  reconciled  his  own  conscience  to 
such  awful  principles  and  conduct  cannot 
be  known  ;  and  it  is  not  for  man  to  judge 
his  fellow-man.     Yet  the  cold  and  scarce- 
approving  account  he  gave  of  the  Refor- 
mation,— his  more  than  ambiguous  views 
of  the  Mosaic  record, — the  scornful  terms 
in  which  Hume  dared  to  write  to  him  re- 
specting John    Knox  and    the   Scottish 
reformers, — and  his  own  published  letters 
to   Gibbon,  not  to  mention  other  letters 
similar,   but   worse,    which  have  never 
seen  the  light, — all  concur  in  rendering  it 
sadly  dubious  whether  he  did  himself  fully 
comprehend    and   believe   the    gospel.* 
Even  in  the  judgment  of  charity  such  a 
doubt   may  find   admission,  rather  than 
the   unutterably   more    fearful   surmise, 
that  he  and  his  party  knew  the  gospel, 
and  intentionally  trampled  on  its  holy  and 
merciful  laws, — felt  the  full  meaning  and 
power  of  the  apostle's  command,  "Be  not 
lords  over  Godls  heritage,"  yet  chastised 
the   Christian   congregation    with   scor- 
pions,— knew  what  the  true  bread  of  life 
was,  yet  gave  to  the  people  stones  and 
serpents. 

There  would  be  no  difficulty  in  giving 
a  still  more  appalling  exposure  of  the 
principles  and  the  practice  of  that  party, 
then  and  still  known  by  the  designation 
of  the  Moderate  party,  who,  after  a  long 
struggle,  had  succeeded  in  usurping  the 
government  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
and  under  whose  baleful  domination 
truth  was  stifled,  faithfulness  punished, 

*  See  the  opinion  of  Wilberforce  in  his  Practical 
View,  p.  304,  fifth  edition. 


piety  expelled,  conscience  outraged,  here- 
sy protected,  immorality  permitted  to  pre- 
vail almost  uncensured,  and  the  Christian 
community  injured  and  despised.*     But 
we  turn  from  the  ungracious  task,  and 
hasten  forward,  purposing  to  touch  only 
the  prominent  points,  that  arrest  the  atten- 
tion, and  demand  remark  and  explanation. 
[1766.]     The  Assembly  of  1766  was 
memorable  on  account  of  the  overtures 
respecting  schism  which  came  before  it, 
and  occasioned  a  long  and  animated  dis- 
cussion.    The  rapid  increase  of  the  Se- 
cession had  excited  alarm  in  the  minds 
of  many  who  saw  the  pernicious  conse- 
quences likely  to  ensue  from  the  aban- 
donment of  the.  National  Church  by  so 
large  a  proportion  of  the  people.     The 
overture  states,  that  there  were  already  no 
fewer  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  meet- 
ing-houses erected ;  and,  viewing  this  as 
a  just  cause  of  anxiety,  and  contrary  to 
the  very  nature  of  a  national  establish- 
ment, which  is  of  necessity  intended  for 
the  religious  instruction   of  the  whole 
community,  it  was  proposed  to  inquire 
into  the  truth  of  this*  fact ;  and  assuming 
"  that  the  abuse  of  the  right  of  patronage 
had  been  one  chief  occasion  of  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Secession,  it  was  overtured 
that  the   General  Assembly   would    be 
pleased  to  consider  what  methods  may  be 
employed  to   remedy  so  great  an  evil; 
and  it  was  submitted  whether  it  might 
not  be  expedient  to  appoint  a  committee 
to  correspond  with  Presbyteries,  and  with 
gentlemen  of  property  and  influence,  and 
and  to  report."!     After  a  very  long  de- 
bate, the   Assembly  agreed  to  abandon 
the  proposed  inquiry  into  the  number  of 
meeting-houses.     The  remaining  part  of 
the  overture  was  then  discussed  and  re- 
jected by  a  vote  of  ninety-nine  to  eighty- 
five.:!:      Thus  the   supreme  ascendancy 
of  the  Moderate  party  was  again  secured, 
after  having  encountered  a  more  severe 
assault  than  had  been  made  upon  it  since 
1752.     The   arguments   on   both    sides 
urned  chiefly  upon  the  subject  of  patron- 
age, and  were  almost  identical  with  those 
which  are  employed  for  and  against  it  in 
;he  present  day.     Indeed,  there  can  be 
ittle  difference  in  the  modes  by  which 
hat  violation  of  Christian  principle  anc" 

*  Should  this  view  be  disputed,  it  shall,  however  re- 
uctantly,  be  amply  proved. 
Annals  of  Assembly,  vol.  ii.  p.  311.         t  Ibid.,  p.  329. 


A.  D.  1772.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OP   SCOTLAND. 


of  the  constitution  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  is  assailed,  and  its  defence  at- 
tempted. "  Is  patronage  the  law  of  the 
gospel  ?"  "  It  is  at  least  the  law  of  the 
land."  "  Is  it  consistent  with  the  funda 
mental  principles  of  the  Reformed  Pres 
byterian  Church  of  Scotland  ?"  «  The 
civil  magistrate  has  at  least  always  at 
tempted  to  introduce  and  enforce  it,  in 
spite  of  the  opposition  made  by  the 
Church."  "  Was  it  the  law  of  the  Revo 
lution  Settlement  and  the  Union?"  "No 
matter ;  it  was  made  by  the  law  since, 
and  it  is  the  law  now."  "  Has  it  noi 
alienated  the  affections  of  the  people 
driven  them  to  a  large  and  increasing 
Secession,  and  thereby  frustrated  so  far 
the  very  object  of  an  Established  national 
Church  ?"  "  No  matter  how  many  leave 
it ;  they  are  perfectly  at  liberty  to  do  so  ; 
and  there  will  be  the  more  ease  and  peace 
for  those  that  remain."  These  were  the 
main  lines  of  argument  employed  by 
those  who  wished  to  remedy  the  evil, 
and  those  who  refused  to  admit  that  it 
was  an  evil,  and  wished  its  permanent 
continuation  ;  and  though  it  was  perfectly 
clear  that  Scripture,  reason,  constitutional 
law,  and  Christian  feeling,  all  alike  con- 
demned it,  yet  the  vote  of  a  Moderate 
majority  could  set  them  all  aside. 

The  same  year  witnessed  the  demission 
of  another  minister,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Baine 
of  Paisley,  who  joined  the  Relief  Seces- 
sion, and  became  minister  of  one  of  their 
churches  newly  erected  in  Edinburgh. 
It  may  be  mentioned,  that  the  9eceders 
were  by  no  means  pleased  with  what 
was  termed  the  schism  overture,  having 
no  desire  to  be  regarded  as  schismatics, 
and  still  retaining  the  principles  of  the 
fathers  of  the  Secession,  who  earnestly 
declared  that  they  did  not  withdraw  from 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  but  from  a  pre- 
vailing party,  by  whom  its  government 
was  usurped,  and  all  its  principles  vio- 
lated.* 

[1767-73.]  The  agitation  caused  by 
this  keen  contest  did  not  soon  pass  away. 
Numerous  pamphlets  appeared  on  the 
subject  from  time  to  time,  some  written  by 
ministers  of  the  Church,  some  by  Sece- 
ders,  and  some  by  laymen,  who  saw  and 
lamented  the  injurious  effects  which  the 
unmitigated  exercise  of  patronage,  under 
the  management  of  the  Moderate  party, 

*  Letter  by  Adam  Gib. 

47 


was   producing.      In  the  meantime  the 
Moderates  continued  their  reckless  career. 
One  instance  may  be  briefly  mentioned. 
Mr.  Thomson,  minister  of  Gargunnock, 
was  presented  to  the  parish  of  St.  Ni- 
nians  ;  but  the  whole  parish  was  opposed 
to   his   settlement,   some   Episcopalians, 
who  cared  nothing  about  the  matter,  and 
a  few  non-resident  heritors,  being  all  that 
could  be  prevailed  upon  to  concur  in  his 
call.     The  presbytery  remonstrated  with 
the  patron,  the  presentee,  and  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  but  all  in  vain.     Seven 
years  of  useless  and  evasive  litigation  in 
church  courts  passed  over  ;  and  at  length, 
in  1773,  the  Assembly  issued  a  peremp- 
tory order  to  the  presbytery  to  proceed  to 
the  ordination,  and  every  member  to  be 
present.     The  presbytery  met  at  St.  Ni- 
nians ;  an  immense  crowd  had  assembled ; 
and  Mr.  Findlay  of  Dollar  began  the  re- 
ligious duties  which  precede  ordination 
and   induction.      He   then   paused,  and 
called  upon  Mr.  Thomson,  who  stoo4  up 
to  listen  to  the  moderator's  address.     In- 
stead of  proceeding  to  put  the  usual  ques- 
tions, he  made  one  of  the  most  solemn 
and  pointed  appeals  to  the  unhappy  in- 
truder that  ever  was  addressed  to  a  hu- 
man being : — "  We  are  met  here  this  day 
to   admit   you   minister  of  St.  Ninians. 
There  has  been  a  formidable  opposition 
made  against  you  by  six  hundred  heads 
of  families,  sixty  heritors,  and  all  the  el- 
ders of  the  parish  except  one.     This  op- 
position has  continued  for  seven  years  by 
your  own  obstinacy ;  and  if  you  should 
this  day  be  admitted,  you  can  have  no 
pastoral  relation  to  the  souls  of  this  parish ; 
you  will  never  be  regarded  as  the  shep- 
herd to  go  before  the  sheep ;  they  know 
you  not,  and  they  will  never  follow  you. 
You   will   draw   misery  and   contempt 
upon  yourself — you  will  be  despised- — 
you  will  be  hated — you  will  be  insulted 
and   maltreated.     One  of  the  most  elo- 
quent   and    learned    ministers    of   this 
Church  told  me  lately  that  he  would  go 
twenty  miles  to  see  you  deposed  ;  and  I 
do  assure  you  that  I  and  twenty  thousand 
more  friends  to  our  Church  would  do 
he  same.     What  happiness  can  you  pro- 
pose to  yourself  in  this  mad,  this  despe- 
rate attempt  of  yours,  without  the  concur- 
rence of  the  people,  and  without  the  least 
Drospect  of   usefulness  in  this  parish  ? 
Your  admission  into  it  can  only  be  re* 


370 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


garded  as  a  sinecure,  and  you  yourself 
as  stipend-lifter  of  St.  Ninians,  for  you 
can  have  no  further  relation  to  this  pa- 
rish. Now,  Sir,  I  conjure  you  by  the 
mercies  of  God,  give  up  this  presentation ; 
I  conjure  you,  for  the  sake  of  the  great 
number  of  souls  of  St.  Ninians,  who  are 
like  sheep  going  astray  without  a  shep- 
herd to  lead  them,  and  who  will  never 
hear  you,  will  never  submit  to  you,  give 
it  up ;  I  conjure  you,  by  that  peace  of 
mind  which  you  would  wish  in  a  dying 
hour,  and  that  awful  and  impartial  ac- 
count which  in  a  little  you  must  give 
to  God,  of  your  own  soul,  and  of  the 
souls  of  this  parish,  at  the  tribunal  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Chrisf,  GIVE  IT  UP  !"  There 
was  silence,  breathless,  profound,  awe- 
struck silence,  for  a  space.  At  length 
the  heartless  man  made  answer,  "  I  for- 
give you,  Sir,  for  what  you  have  now 
said — may  God  forgive  you  ;  proceed  to 
obey  your  superiors."  Again  there  was 
silence ;  then  in  a  low  melancholy  tone 
of  voice,  Mr.  Findlay,  omitting  all  usual 
forms,  slowly  said, — "  I,  as  moderator  of 
the  presbytery  of  Stirling,  admit  you,  Mr. 
David  Thomson,  to  be  minister  of  the 
parish  of  St.  Ninians,  in  the  true  sense 
and  spirit  of  the  late  sentence  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  and  you  are  hereby  ad- 
mitted accordingly."*  And  thus  once 
more  absolute  patronage  triumphed  over 
the  principles  and  laws  of  Christianity, 
and  another  victory  increased  the  glories 
of  Principal  Robertson's  Moderate  ad- 
ministration. 

That  this  was  a  direct  and  legitimate 
consequence  of  the  law  of  patronage,  as 
administered  by  the  Moderate  party, 
headed  by  Principal  Robertson,  may  be 
very  easily  demonstrated  ;  but  he  would 
be  a  rash  and  daring  casuist  who  should 
attempt  to  prove,  that  it  was  a  direct  and 
.egitimate  consequence  of  the  laws  of 
Christ,  and  reconcilable  with  the  princi- 
ple of  his  sole  Headship  and  Sovereignty 
over  the  Church. 

[1774-78.]  In  the  year  1774  there 
appeared  a  republication  of  the  celebrated 
Professor  Hutcheson's  "  Considerations 
on  Patronage,  addressed  to  the  Gentle- 
men of  Scotland,"  which  had  been  first 
published  in  1736.  To  this  was  added 
a  curious  appendix,  containing  a  view  of 
the  state  of  the  Secession  in  Scotland  in 

•  Scots  Magazine,  vol.  xxxv.  pp.  614,  615. 


the  year  1773,  with  a  calculation  founded 
on  it,  showing  the  expense  which  such  an 
extensive  Secession  entailed  on  the  king- 
dom, falling  ultimately  upon  the  posses- 
sors of  fixed  property,  the  landholders, 
and  mercantile  and  commercial  capital- 
ists. The  author  of  this  paper  first  states, 
that  there  were  in  1773  at  least  one  hun- 
dred and  ninety  congregations  of  Sece- 
ders  ]  and  by  a  calculation  which  shows 
him  to  have  been  well  acquainted  with 
the  principles  of  political  economy,  he 
proves,  that  the  sum  of  money  expended 
in  the  maintenance  of  this  large  Secession 
could  not  amount  to  less  than  twelve  hun- 
dred thousand  pounds,  ultimately  falling 
upon  the  possessors  of  fixed  property,  and 
all  caused  by  the  destructive  patronage 
law,  and  the  tyrannical  conduct  of  the 
Moderate  party  in  the  Church.*  If  the 
correctness  of  that  calculation  be  admit- 
ted, and  the  numbers  of  seceding  congre- 
gations to  be  taken  now  at  five  hundred, 
which  appears  to  be  near  the  reality,  the 
amount  thereby  drained  from  the  capital 
of  the  country  cannot  be  less  than  three 
times  the  sum  already  stated.  And  this 
enormous  public  burden  is  borne  that 
patronage  may  be  maintained,  and  eccle- 
siastical power  secured  to  a  party  whose 
whole  history  is  one  wild  tissue  of  heresy, 
error,  or  suppression  of  the  truth  in  doc- 
trine, violation  of  the  Presbyterian  con- 
stitution, ministerial  unfaithfulness,  sinful 
conniving  at  immorality,  and  the  most 
wanton  and  cruel  exercise  of  spiritual 
despotism,  which  seemed  even  to  exult  in 
the  infliction  of  wrong  and  outrage  upon 
a  grave,  intelligent,  and  religious  people. 
Surely  the  nation  will  ere  long  awake, 
burst  the  yoke  of  patronage,  and  shake 
off  the  incubus  of  Moderatism,  beneath 
which  it  has  so  long  groaned. 

The  stream  of  corruption  rolled  on, 
widening  and  deepening  as  it  swept 
along,  for  several  successive  years.  Dur- 
ing ths.t  time  repeated  instances  occurred 
in  which  accusations  of  heresy  were 
quashed  or  explained  away,  and  charges 
of  immorality  mitigated,  smoothed  over, 
and  dismissed.  Some  cases,  however, 
occurred,  too  public  and  enormous  to  be 
thus  passed  by.  To  meet  such  painful 
cases  the  Moderate  leaders  resorted  to  a 
new  device.  They  entered  into  a  private 
arrangement  with  the  delinquent,  accord- 

*  Considerations  on  Patronage ;  reprinted  1774. 


A.  D.  1780.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


371 


ing  to  which  he  agreed  to  accept  a  pen- 
sion out  of  the  stipend,  to  withdraw  from 
the  parish,  and  to  permit  an  assistant  to 
be  appointed  to  discharge  those  duties 
which  public  decency  would  no  longer 
suffer  him  to  desecrate.  This  was  called 
"  mercy  to  a  weak  and  erring  brother ;" 
what  was  it  to  the  feelings  of  the  dis- 
gusted community  ? — what  to  the  pil- 
laged assistant  ? — what  to  the  purity  of 
the  Church  of  Christ  ?  Many  such  cases 
might  be  mentioned,  from  the  earliest  re- 
corded instance  during  the  domination 
of  Principal  Robertson,  down  till  the  loss 
of  power  by  that  party  from  whose  cor- 
rupt policy  they  originated  5  but  we  for- 
bear, under  a  strong  feeling  of  shame 
and  regret  that  such  things  could  be 
done  by  men  who  were  at  least  nominal- 
ly Christian  ministers. 

[1779.]  The  year  1779  is  chiefly  re- 
markable for  the  formidable  tumults, 
amounting  almost  to  civil  convulsions, 
which  agitated  the  country  in  conse- 
quence of  the  passing  of  an  act  of  parlia- 
ment, relaxing  the  civil  disabilities  and 
penalties  resting  upon  the  adherents  of 
Popery  in  England,  the  provisions  of 
which  were  proposed  to  be  extended  to 
Scotland.  The  subject  came  before  the 
General  Assembly  in  the  form  of  an 
overture  for  petitioning  parliament 
against  the  bill,  and  was  discussed  with 
great  ability,  the  Moderate  party  advocat- 
ing the  removal  of  these  disabilities,  and 
the  Evangelical  party  opposing  it.  The 
discussion  ended  as  was  to  be  expected ; 
for  when  the  arguments  of  such  men  as 
Dr.  Erskine  and  Mr.  Stevenson  of  St. 
Madoes  could  not  be  answered,  they 
could  be  overwhelmed  by  a  vote.  But 
though  the  overture  was  rejected  on  its 
first  appearance  in  1778,  the  tumultuary 
excitement  of  1779  induced  Robertson  to 
retrace  his  steps,  and  consent  to  its  being 
then  passed  as  an  act.  The  views  of 
the  orthodox  party,  by  whom  the  over- 
ture was  supported,  were  utterly  averse 
/rom  any  thing  like  giving  sanction  to 
persecution.  The  main  argument  was, 
that  while  Roman  Catholics  ought  not  to 
be  prohibited  from  worshipping  God  in 
their  own  way,  nor  subjected  to  severe 
penalties  because  they  did ;  yet  they 
ought  not  to  be  intrusted  with  political 
power,  because  their  own  corrupt  and 
erroneous  system  of  religion  rendered 


them  unfit  conservators  of  public  reli- 
gious truth  and  moral  purity,  and  because 
their  allegiance  to  a  foreign  and  necessa- 
rily hostile  power  at  Rome,  the  enemy 
of  religious  and  civil  liberty,  and  the  im- 
placable foe  of  the  British  constitution, 
rendered  it  impossible  for  them  to  be 
safely  intrusted  with  influence  in  a  Pro- 
testant government,  which  they  could  not 
but  regard  it  as  a  sacred  duty  to  subvert.* 
These  arguments  were  not  answered 
then  ;  they  have  not  since  ;  and  our  own 
times  have  furnished  the  most  appalling 
demonstrations  of  their  truth. 

[1780.]  Several  events  occurred  to 
mark  the  year  1780  as  memorable  in  the 
history  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  Of 
these,  the  first  that  demands  attention  is 
the  discussion  respecting  the  propriety  of 
a  minister  holding  a  plurality  of  offices, 
such  as  a  church  and  a  professorship. 
There  had  been  many  instances  of  a 
minister  being  professor  of  Theology  or 
Church  History,  and  at  the  same  time 
preaching  regularly  every  Sabbath  ;  but 
in  all  these  instances  there  was  either  no 
pastoral  charge,  or  its  duties  were  ful- 
filled by  a  colleague.  The  case  out  of 
which  the  discussion  rose  was  that  of  Dr. 
Hill  of  St.  Andrews,  who,  while  profes- 
sor of  Greek  in  that  university,  had  been 
appointed  to  a  parochial  charge  in  the 
city,  and  still  continued  to  hold  the  pro- 
fessorship. A  strong  endeavour  was 
made  by  the  Evangelical  party  to  pre- 
vent this  plurality  of  offices  from  obtain- 
ing the  sanction  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly, both  as  incompatible  with  the  consti- 
tution of  the  Church,  and  as  rendering  it 
absolutely  impossible  that  the  important 
duties  of  a  pastor  could  be  adequately  dis- 
charged in  that  parish.  But  Dr.  Hill 
was  already  regarded  as  the  second  hope 
of  the  Moderate  party,  and  they  defended 
the  appointment  strenuously,  and  with 
complete  success.  There  is,  besides, 
reason  to  believe,  that  there  was  more  in 
this  than  was  allowed  to  meet  the  eye,  — 
that  it  was  the  initiatory  step  in  a  scheme 
intended  to  introduce  the  system  of  plu- 
ralities and  non-residence,  resembling  as 
closely  as  might  be  possible  that  system 
as  it  exists  in  its  palmy  state  in  England.  t 
This,  it  will  be  admitted,  was  no  unna- 


•  Life  of  Erskine,  pp. 
t  Narrative  of  the  Proceedings  of  Assembly  1780,  by 
the  Rev.  James  Burn,  minister  at  Forgan,  pp.  29-31. 


372 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


tural  result  of  King  William's  "  compre- 
hension scheme,"  which,  after  the  struggle 
of  three  generations,  seemed  ripening  into 
an  assimilation  scheme. 

But  the  most  signal  event  by  which  that 
year  was  distinguished  was  the  retire- 
ment of  the  celebrated  Principal  Robert- 
son from  the  high  functions  which  he 
had  so  long  discharged,  as  leader  of  the 
dominant  party  in  the  General  Assembly. 
The  only  direct  account  of  the  reasons 
which  induced  Robertson  to  withdraw 
from  his  position  as  leader  of  the  Assem- 
bly while  his  constitution  was  still  unbro- 
ken, and  all  his  faculties  unimpaired,  is 
to  be  found  in  a  communication  from  the 
Rev.  Henry  Moncreiff to  Dugald  Stewart, 
given  in  the  appendix  to  his  life  of  Robert- 
son. "  I  do  not  know,"  says  Sir  Henry, 
"  whether  the  reasons  which  led  Dr.  Rob- 
ertson to  retire  from  the  Assembly  after 
1780  have  ever  been  thoroughly  under- 
stood. He  had  been  often  reproached 
by  the  more  violent  men  of  his  party,  for 
not  adopting  stronger  measures  than  he 
thought  either  right  or  wise.  But  there 
was  one  subject  which  had  become  par- 
ticularly uneasy  to  him,  and  on  which 
he  had  been  more  urged  and  fretted  than 
on  all  the  other  subjects  of  contention  in 
the  Church, — the  scheme,  into  which 
many  of  his  friends  entered  zealously,  for 
abolishing  subscription  to  the  Confession 
of  Faith  and  Formula.  This  he  ex- 
pressly declared  his  resolution  to  resist  in 
every  form.  But  he  was  so  much  teased 
with  remonstrances  on  that  subject,  that 
he  mentioned  them  as  having  at  least 
confirmed  his  resolution  to  retire.  He 
claimed  to  himself  the  merit  of  having 
prevented  this  controversy  from  being 
agitated  in  the  Assemblies  ;  but  warned 
me,  as  a  young  man,  that  it  would  be- 
come the  chief  controversy  of  my  time, 
and  stated  to  me  the  reasons  which  had 
determined  his  opinions  on  the  subject."* 
And  this  was  the  result  of  Principal 
Robertson's  "  wise  and  enlightened " 
policy  during  his  despotic  administration 
of  ecclesiastical  affairs, — the  growth  of 
a  party  directly  opposed  to  the  very  ex- 
isteriue.  of  the  Presbyterian  constitution, 
till  it  became  too  strong  for  even  his  firm 
hand  to  control,  and  too  importunately 
urgent  for  even  his  calm  temper  to  en- 
dure !  Could  there  be  a  more  conclusive 

*  Life  of  Robertson,  Appendix,  rp.  297,  298. 


demonstration,  that  Moderatism  is  essen- 
tially anti-presbyterian  and  anti- scrip- 
tural,— contrary  at  once  to  the  constitu- 
tional laws  of  both  Church  and  State, 
and  to  the  principles  and  regulations  of 
the  gospel  ?  And  the  mighty  magician 
whose  potent  words  had  raised  the  demon, 
had  not  the  courage  to  confront  and  queL 
it ; — the  magnanimous  man,  whose  touch 
of  power  had  drawn  from  the  infidel 
heart  of  unregenerate  humanity  this  wild 
response,  recoiled  in  terror,  "  scared  by 
the  sound  himself  had  made."  It  is 
deeply  instructive  to  trace  the  progress 
of  an  evil  principle,  though  it  is  startling 
to  see  it  when  it  appears  in  all  its  native 
hideousness. 

We  learn  from  other  sources,  that  the 
men  by  whom  the  proposal  of  abolishing 
subscription  to  the  Confession  of  Faith 
was  most  importunately  urged,  were 
Messrs.  M'Gill  and  Dalrymple  of  Ayr, 
Wodrow  of  Stevenston,  Oughterstan  of 
West  Kilbride,  Fergusson  of  Kil win- 
ning, Ross  of  Inch  in  Galloway,  and  a 
number  of  their  neighbours  and  acquaint- 
ances, who  held  similar  opinions,  but 
were  somewhat  less  open  in  asserting 
them.  Several  of  these  men  not  only  em- 
braced, but  publicly  taught  Socinian  doc- 
trines with  little  or  no  disguise  ;  and  the 
small  remains  of  conscience  which  they 
possessed  impelled  them  to  desire  to  get 
altogether  free  from  the  bond  of  subscrip- 
tion to  a  Confession  of  Faith  which  they 
did  not  believe,  and  of  which  their  whole 
life  and  public  teaching  was  a  continual 
denial  Principal  Robertson,  it  appears, 
opposed  this  reckless  proposal  on  a 
ground  which  very  naturally  suggested 
itself  to  his  habits  of  thought.  He  knew 
well  that  the  Church  established  by  law 
in  Scotland,  is  a  Church  publicly  avow- 
ing the  doctrines  stated  in  the  Confession 
of  Faith ;  and  he  saw  clearly  that  to  per- 
mit subscription  to  this  recognized  standard 
to  be  abolished,  would  involve  the  hazard 
of  severing  the  connection  between  Church 
and  State,  since  to  cease  subscription  to 
that  standard  was  virtually  to  cease  from 
being  the  Church  established  by  law. 
The  danger,  however,  was  not  so  immi- 
nent as  he  apprehended ;  and  the  heady 
spirit  of  innovation  in  his  mutinous  fol- 
lowers was  checked  by  the  encounter  of 
a  comparatively  slight  obstacle.  Some 
landed  proprietors,  of  better  spirit  and 


A.  D.  1782.] 


HISTORY    OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


373 


sounder  judgment  than  those  unconstitu- 
tional innovators,  hearing  of  their  design, 
declared  that  the  moment  the  signing  of 
Confession  of  Faith  was  abandoned,  they 
would  consider  the  connection  between 
Church  and  State  at  an  end,  and  would 
therefore  pay  no  more  stipend.  This  was 
a  consequence  which  these  men  were  not 
prepared  to  meet,  and  their  anxiety  to  ob- 
tain a  greater  liberty  of  conscience  sunk 
into  nothing  compared  with  their  dread 
of  incurring  the  loss  of  worldly  wealth. 
How  readily  do  worldly-minded  men  un- 
derstand, and  how  acutely  feel  a  worldly 
argument,  when  dead  to  every  thing  of  a 
higher  and  more  sacred  nature. 

[1781-82.]  When  Dr.  Robertson 
withdrew  from  the  active  management 
Df  ecclesiastial  affairs.  Dr.  Hill  of  St. 
4ndrews  was  immediately  regarded  as 
Viis  successor  in  the  high  office  of  Mode- 
rate leader  in  the  Assembly.  But  though 
a  man  of  great  abilities  and  eloquence,  he 
never  reached  the  pitch  of  absolute  su- 
premacy which  had  been  possessed  by 
Robertson.  He  cordially  adopted  the 
leading  principles  of  his  predecessor's 
reign,  as  is  clearly  proved  by  his  state- 
ment and  advocacy  of  them  in  the  com- 
munications which  he  furnished  to  Du- 
gaid  Stewart,  and  which  are  partly  em- 
bodied in  the  Life  of  Robertson,  partly 
added  in  the  appendix  to  that  work.  But 
he  never  acquired  that  unquestionable  as- 
cendancy over  the  minds  of  the  entire 
party  which  the  great  abilities  and  the 
high  literary  fame  of  Robertson  had  se- 
cured to  him.  His  absence  from  Edin- 
burgh contributed  also  not  a  little  to  pre- 
vent him  from  possessing  that  degree  of 
influence  which  he  might  otherwise  have 
obtained.  The  Edinburgh  ministers, 
several  of  them  men  of  high  talent,  and 
thoroughly  versant  in  ecclesiastical  polity, 
schemed,  deliberated,  and  arranged,  while 
Dr.  Hill  was  attending  upon  his  own 
duties  in  St.  Andrews ;  and  there  often 
remained  little  more  for  him  to  do  than  to 
state  and  defend  those  measures  which 
the  Edinburgh  Doctors  had  already  pre- 
pared. Occasionally,  too,  it  happened, 
that  his  opinion  and  theirs  did  not  tho- 
roughly coincide,  and  that  his  eloquence 
in  defence  of  his  own  view  was  over- 
borne by  their  superior  management. 
Of  this  a  memorable  instance  occurred  in 
fche  year  1782. 


From  the  time  of  the  Reformation  it 
had  been  the  invariable  principle  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  as  stated  in  the 
Books  of  Discipline  and  in  many  of  the 
acts  of  Assembly,  that  the  call  of  the 
people,  inviting  a  duly  qualified  person  to 
be  their  minister,  was  an  indispensable 
element  in  the  formation  of  the  pastoral 
tie.  Even  when  Prelacy  was  forced 
upon  the  Church,  the  call  continued  to  be 
used,  and  notwithstanding  the  imposition 
and  reimposition  of  patronage,  the  call 
was  never  abandoned.  This  was  a  clear 
proof  that  the  Presbyterian  Church  had 
at  all  times,  and  in  all  diversities  of  cir- 
cumstances, regarded  the  call  of  the 
people  as  an  absolutely  indispensable  ele- 
ment in  the  formation  of  the  pastoral  tie, 
whereas  patronage  never  was  declared  to 
be  either  a  prerequisite  for,  or  an  element 
in,  that  sacred  relation  between  ministers 
and  people.  It  was  clear,  nevertheless, 
that  there  was  an  inherent  incompatibility 
between  a  call  of  the  people  and  patron- 
age ;  and  that  to  whatever  extent  the  in- 
fluence of  the  one  availed,  to  the  same 
extent  was  the  other  impaired.  For  that 
reason  all  ministers  truly  Presbyterian  in 
principle  always  contended  earnestly 
against  patronage,  as  essentially  and  ne- 
cessarily a  violation  of  the  constitution  of 
the  Church.  But  when  there  arose  a 
worldly-minded  and  unpresbyterian  fac- 
tion, formed  out  of  the  admitted  curates 
and  the  surviving  indulged  ministers,  that 
faction  concurring  with  reimposed  patron- 
age, and  therefore  supported  by  patrons 
and  politicians,  gradually  gained  the  as- 
cendancy over  the  Church,  and  following 
their  natural  bent,  depressed  the  call  into 
a  mere  matter  of  form,  and  elevated  the 
presentation  of  a  patron  into  absolute 
supremacy.  This  was  not  fully  accom- 
plished till  the  despotic  reign  of  Principal 
Robertson  ;  for  even  Dr.  .Cuming  pub- 
licly termed  the  law  of  patronage  a  "  hard 
law,"  which  it  was  necessary  to  obey 
only  till  it  could  be  got  mitigated  or  re- 
moved. But  the  first  principle  of  Robert- 
son's administration,  as  stated  by  Dugald 
Stewart,  and  corroborated  by  Dr.  Hill, 
•'was  a  steady  and  uniform  support  of  the 
law  of  patronage."*  He  could,  however, 
both  understand  and  imitate  the  wary 
policy  of  an  Augustus,  and  knew  that  it 
was  more  safe  to  destroy  the  spirit  of 

*  Life  of  Robertson,  p.  173. 


374 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X, 


libeity  than  to  take  away  its  form.  He 
therefore  continued  to  require  the  form 
of  the  call  to  be  maintained,  while  he  re- 
duced it  to  an  empty  form,  an  unreal 
mockery.  After  his  resignation  of  the 
reins  of  ecclesiastical  government,  the 
constitutional  Presbyterians  seem  to  have 
cherished  a  hope  that  the  ancient  spirit  of 
the  Church  might  be  at  least  partially  re- 
vived, and  that  some  degree  of  life  might 
be  infused  into  her  paralyzed  and  pros- 
trate forms. 

The  subject  was  discussed  extensively 
throughout  the  Church  during  the  year 
1781,  and  in  1782  overtures  from  the 
synods  of  Lothian,  Glasgow,  Fife,  Perth, 
Angus,  and  Galloway,  were  laid  before 
the  Assembly,  having  for  their  object 
that  the  call  might  be  revived,  so  as  to  be 
more  than  a  mere  matter  of  form,  and  to 
operate  as  a  partial  limitation  to  patron- 
age. These  overtures  were,  of  course, 
resisted  by  the  Moderate  party  ;  but  Dr. 
Hill's  motion  against  them  was  not  suffi- 
ciently cautious  to  suit  the  wily  policy  of 
the  Edinburgh  conclave,  and  a  different 
motion  was  proposed  by  Dr.  Macknight, 
and  carried.  Dr.  Macknight's  motion 
was  as  follows : — "  That  the  moderation 
of  a  call,  in  settling  ministers,  is  agreeable 
to  the  immemorial  and  constitutional 
usage  of  this  Church,  and  that  it  ought 
to  be  continued."  Dr.  Hill's  motion  ad- 
mitted also  that  it  was  agreeable  to  the 
immemorial  practice  of  the  Church  ;  but 
neither  termed  it  "  constitutional,"  nor 
said  that  it  "  ought  to  be  continued,"  end- 
ing thus, — "  dismiss  these  overtures,  as  at 
this  time  unnecessary."  It  was  easily 
seen,  that  Dr.  Hill's  motion  contained  a 
virtual,  and,  had  it  been  carried,  it  would 
soon  have  produced  a  real,  abolition  of 
the  call  itself;  and  the  older  and  more 
wary  Moderate  leaders  were  not  prepared 
to  perpetrate  so  open  an  outrage  upon  the 
constitutional  forms  of  the  Church,  though 
fully  determined  that  nothing  which 
tended  to  thwart  patronage  and  Moderat- 
ism  should  ever  be  more  than  an  empty 
form. 

It  deserves  to  be  noted,  that  Dr.  Cook, 
giving,  in  his  Life  of  Dr.  Hill,  an  account 
of  this  debate  on  calls,  enters  into  a  long 
defence  of  Dr.  Hill's  motion,  resting  that 
defence  on  the  ground,  that  "  call  is  in- 
compatible with  patronage,  and  therefore 
nugatory."  The  plan  proposed  by  Dr. 


Cook,  the  call  having,  according  to  his 
hypothesis,  been  abolished,  is  the  follow 
ing  : — "  That  the  first  introduction  of  a 
presentee  to  those  whose  spiritual  state  he 
is  destined  to  superintend,  should  not  take 
place  till  he  was  actually  settled  amongst 
them :  That  after  all  these  matters  had 
been  arranged,  a  narration  of  the  pro- 
ceedings should  be  communicated  to  the 
people ;  and  they  should  be  invited  to 
subscribe  a  paper,  expressing  their  satis- 
faction with  the  presentee,  and  their  reso- 
lution to  contribute,  by  every  method  in 
their  power,  to  his  comfortable  residence 
amongst  them."*  It  is  not  necessary  to 
waste  words  in  proving  that  such  a  theory 
is  equally  unpresbyterian  and  absurd; 
but  it  does  seem  passing  strange  that  it 
could  ever  have  been  seriously  pro- 
pounded by  a  native  of  Scotland,  ac- 
quainted with  the  character  of  the  strong- 
minded  and  warm-hearted  Scottish  people. 
When  the  people  of  Scotland  have  for- 
gotten that  ever  a  Presbyterian  Church 
existed  in  their  country,  conferring  upon 
them  the  inestimable  blessings  of  civil 
liberty,  educated  intelligence,  moral 
worth,  and  high  spiritual  privileges,  and 
when  they  have  consented  to  become  the 
abject  slaves  of  civil  and  religious  despot- 
ism, then  may  such  a  scheme  be  tried, 
but  not  till  then.  The  futile  theory  is 
here  stated,  however,  for  this  important 
reason,  that  it  is  an  irresistible  demon- 
stration of  the  perfect  identity,  in  principle 
and  nature,  of  Moderatism  in  former 
times  with  Moderatism  now.  It  is  con- 
stantly said  by  Moderates,  in  attempting 
to  defend  their  system  and  themselves, 
that  it  is  unfair  to  charge  the  Moderatism 
of  the  present  day  with  all  the  enormities 
perpetrated  by  Moderatism  in  earlier  and 
less  civilized  times.  But  till  they  dis- 
claim the  principles,  as  well  as  repudiate 
the  practices,  of  their  predecessors,  they 
are  justly  liable  to  the  charge.  These 
principles  they  cannot  disclaim:  for  their 
present  leader  has  avowed  and  defended 
them,  even  in  their  most  aggravated 
character, — nay,  to  an  extent  far  beyond 
what  his  predecessors  in  successive 
Moderate  dynasties  ever  presumed  to  at- 
tempt. And  we  shall  have  occasion  to 
show,  that  in  practice,  equally  as  in  prin- 
ciple, Moderatism  remains  unchanged. 

*  See  the  whole  of  this  very  curious  argument  and 
theory  in  Dr.  Cook's  Life  of  Hill,  pp.  144-146 


A.  D.  1785.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND, 


375 


There  is  another  incident  connected 
with  this  year,  to  which  we  refer  with 
great  delight,  both  on  account  of  its  own 
pleasing  character,  and  because  it  tends 
to  explain  some  otherwise  inexplicable 
peculiarities  in  the  new  Moderate  dy- 
nasty. 

It  has  been  already  shown  that  the  in- 
subordination of  the  heretical  division  of 
his  forces  was  one  of  the  chief  motives 
that  induced  Robertson  to  retire  from  the 
management  of  ecclesiastical  affairs. 
But  there  was  another  reason,  which 
must  also  be  stated.  A  tendency  to  re- 
vive and  defend  evangelical  doctrines  be- 
gan to  appear  among  individuals  of  the 
Moderate  party ;  and  this  was  felt  to  be 
a  more  dangerous  matter  than  either 
heresy  or  immorality,  and  more  likely  to 
disturb  the  calm  and  steady  progress  of 
despotism,  inasmuch  as  men  who  possess 
religious  principles  cannot  be  governed 
by  mere  worldly  and  selfish  motives. 
The  most  conspicuous  of  the  half-evan- 
gelical moderates  was  Dr.  Thomas 
Hardy,  recently  appointed  one  of  the 
ministers  of  Edinburgh,  and  professor  of 
Church  History.  This  distinguished 
man  had  evidently  formed  the  plan  of 
uniting  the  best  men  of  the  two  parties  in 
the  Church  into  one  body,  able  to  con- 
trol the  extreme  sections  of  both.  It  is 
impossible  to  say  how  far  he  might  have 
succeeded  in  this  laudable  design  had  his 
life  been  prolonged  ;  but  what  is  of  im- 
portance to  notice  is,  that  in  1782,  during 
the  agitation  in  the  Church  connected 
with  the  overtures  on  calls,  he  published 
a  pamphlet,  entitled  "  The  Principles 
of  Moderation,  addressed  to  the  Clergy  of 
the  Popular  Cnterest  in  the  Church  of 
Scotland."  A  very  few  extracts  will 
suffice  to  show  the  spirit  of  this  produc- 
tion. "You  subjoin  that  this  trans- 
ference of  power  in  1712  was  wrong; 
that  it  was  unfriendly  in  its  intention,  and 
has  been  hurtful  in  its  effects  ;  and  that 
the  liberty  of  British  subjects  entitles  you 
to  say,  that  it  is  a  grievance,  in  the  sim- 
ple and  grammatical  sense  of  the  word, 
and  ought  to  be  redressed.  What  reply 
do  we  make  to  this  ?  None.  We  agree 
with  you  in  the  sentiments  of  the  law  it- 
self; we  allow  that  it  is  a  hardship,  or,  if 
you  will  contend  for  a  word,  we  say  with 
you,  it  is  a  grievance,  not  such  indeed  as 
to  justify  resistance,  but  such  as  will  war- 


rant application  for  redress."  "  That  a 
new  arrangement  must  take  p.ace  sooner 
or  latter,  I  conclude  from  the  state  of  the 
country.  The  desertion  of  great  bodies 
of  the  people  from  the  Establishment  is 
the  melancholy  evidence  of  the  necessity. 
Whatever  secondary  causes  may  be 
brought  to  account  for  it,  there  can  be  no 
manner  of  doubt  that  it  is  chiefly  to  be 
ascribed  to  the  law  of  patronage" 
Then,  after  stating  that  the  Secession  may 
be  estimated  at  two  hundred  congrega- 
tions, comprising  at  least  one  hundred 
thousand  people,  he  continues, — "Me- 
thinks  I  hear  some  reckless  youth,  in  de- 
livering his  maiden  speech,  exclaim  on 
this  point,  '  So  much  the  better, — they 
are  the  factious,  the  turbulent,  the  enthu- 
siastic ;  the  Church  is  happily  quit :  it  is 
only  her  ill  humours  that  are  purged  off.' 
Stay  my  young  friend;  you  are  very 
honest  but  you  want  experience ;  a  few 
more  years  will  convince  you,  that  the 
Church  is  not  enriched  by  her  losses, 
nor  strengthened  by  the  desertion  of  her 
sons."  Further,  speaking  of  the  neces- 
sity of  a  change,  he  adds, — "  The  ex- 
terior arrangement,  therefore,  ought  in 
sound  policy  to  correspond  with  the  es- 
sential nature  of  the  Establishment,  other- 
wise the  Church  will  never  be  at  peace  ; 
and  the  experienced  opposition  of  seventy 
years,  joined  to  the  revolt  of  one  hundred 
thousand  people,  are  the  proofs  that  abso- 
lute patronage  is  irreconcilable  with  the 
genius  of  Presbytery."* 

The  difference  between  this  able 
pamphlet  and  Dr.  Robertson's  manifesto 
is  very  marked  and  very  instructive. 
Dr.  Hardy,  though  not  decidedly  evan- 
gelical in  doctrine,  was  a  man  of  great 
candour  and  integrity  of  mind,  and  his 
enlarged  and  liberal  views,  together  with 
some  theoretical  knowledge  of  evangeli- 
cal truth,  enabled  him  to  apprehend  what 
really  is  "  the  essential  nature"  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  and  to  perceive 
that  "  absolute  patronage  is  irreconcilable 
with  it."  Dr.  Robertson's  peculiar  theory 
and  his  want  of  that  knowledge,  left  him 
to  view  it  as  a  man  of  the  world  would 
do,  and  to  regard  it  as  in  nothing 
essentially  different  from  a  mere  secular 
institution  having,  indeed,  some  distinc- 

*  Those  who  cannot  obtain  thia  valuable  pamphlet, 
will  find  extracts  from  it  in  Dr.  Welsh's  evidence  in  the 
Patvonasre  Report,  p.  260 ;  and  in  the  Dublin  University 
Magazine,  No.  xcviii.  pp.  255,  256. 


376 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X, 


tive  forms  which  it  was  proper  to  pre- 
seive  as  decent  and  characteristic,  but 
based  upon  secular  maxims,  governed 
by  secular  regulations,  and  pervaded 
throughout  by  a  secular  spirit.  The 
early  and  lamented  death  of  Dr.  Hardy 
prevented  the  developement  of  his 
scheme;  but  the  sacred  element  of  evan- 
gelism which  had  begun  to  spread  was 
destined  to  work  with  a  disruptive  might 
among  the  secular  principles  of  Modera- 
tism,  disturbing  repeatedly  the  cold  con- 
tinuity of  their  mortiferous  operation,  and 
betokening  the  approaching  dissolution 
of  the  whole  unconstitutional  and  un- 
scriptural  system.  Even  Dr.  •  Hill, 
thoroughly  as  he  had  imbibed  Principal 
Robertson's  views  of  ecclesiastical  polity, 
began  ere  long  to  exhibit  symptoms  of  a 
tendency  to  evangelical  doctrine ;  this  in- 
creased with  his  increasing  knowledge 
of  sound  theology,  in  the  course  of  his 
studies  as  professor  of  divinity  at  St.  An- 
drews :  and  before  the  close  of  his  career 
his  mind  had  acquired  so  full  a  percep- 
tion of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  that 
though  he  still  co-operated  with  the  Mo- 
derate party  generally,  he  had  in  a  great 
measure  lost  their  confidence  as  may  be 
learned  even  from  the  cautious  language 
of  Dr.  Cook,  in  his  life  of  that  dis- 
tinguished man. 

[1783-84.]  During  the  years  1783  and 
1784,  the  chief  subject  which  engaged 
the  attention  of  the  General  Assembly 
was  that  of  patronage.  Dr.  Hardy's 
pamphlet  seems  to  have  excited  afresh 
the  hopes  of  all  sound  Presbyterians,  that 
a  redress  of  that  great  grievance  might 
yet  be  obtained  ;  and  a  number  of  over- 
tures were  laid  before  the  Assembly  on 
the  subject.  A  regular  discussion  at 
length  took  place  respecting  these 
overtures  in  the  Assembly  of  1784. 
Dr.  Hill  moved  that  they  be  "  rejected 
as  inexpedient,  ill  founded,  and  danger- 
ous to  the  peace  and  welfare  of  the 
Church."  It  is  not  necessary  to  state 
even  an  outline  of  the  arguments  used  on 
both  sides,  in  the  debate  which  followed, 
after  the  remarks  which  have  been  made 
in  the  preceding  pages.  Suffice  it  to 
say,  that  Dr.  Hill's  motion  was  carried, 
and  that  following  up  the  victory,  he  pro- 
posed to  omit  the  clause  in  the  instruc- 
tions annually  given  to  the  Commission, 
which  required  them  to  apply  for  redress 


from  the  grievance  of  patronage,  and  in 
this  too  he  was  successful.  The  omis- 
sion of  this  clause  in  the  instructions  an- 
nually given  to  the  Commission  is  the 
nearest  approach  the  Church  of  Scotland 
has  ever  made  towards  even  a  recogni- 
tion of  the  patronage  law,  and  it  amounts 
to  nothing  more  than  ceasing  openly  to 
condemn  what  she  has  never  avowedly 
approved.  It  will  be  remembered,  that 
this  clause  was  first  inserted  in  the 
instructions  given  to  the  Commission 
by  the  Assembly  of  1712,  immediately 
after  the  passing  of  the  perfidious  and  un- 
constitutional patronage  act,  and  had  been 
repeated  annually  ever  since.  Many 
years  had  elapsed  since  it  had  been  at- 
tended to,  the  last  decided  public  effort  to 
procure  redress  having  been  that  of 
1735 — 36 ;  but  the  retaining  of  the 
clause  formed  a  standing  testimony  by 
the  Church  against  the  law  of  patron- 
age, and  so  far  served  to  exculpate  her 
from  participation  in  its  guilt.  Dr. 
Robertson,  with  his  usual  sagacious  to- 
leration of  dead  forms,  permitted  it  to  re- 
main ;  but  the  greater  rashness,  or  the 
higher  degree  of  conscientious  honesty 
of  mind,  in  Dr.  Hill,  which  had  formerly 
led  him  to  attempt  abolishing  the  call 
induced  him  nbw  to  strike  out  a  clause  to 
which  he  and  his  party  never  meant 
that  any  attention  should  be  paid.  This 
was  a  very  natural  step  for  the  Moderate 
party  to  take,  but,  thoroughly  irrational 
and  unconstitutional.  Before  rescinding 
a  clause  which  required  application  to  be 
made  for  the  redress  of  what  was  termed 
a  grievance,  Dr.  Hill  ought  to  have  per- 
suaded the  Church  to  declare  that  she 
had  ceased  to  regard  it  as  a  grievance, 
and  viewed  it  rather  as  a  matter  of  which 
she  now  approved,  and  was  desirous  of 
its  permanent  continuation.  This  how- 
ever, would  have  been  too  perilous  an 
attempt  even  for  Dr.  Robertson  in  all  his 
plentitude  of  power,  as  it  would  have 
caused  the  Secession  of  nearly  half  of 
the  ministers  and  at  least  three-fourths  of 
the  population  in  the  kingdom,  a  junc- 
tion with  the  already  existing  Seceders, 
and  the  formation  of  a  new  Church,  truly 
Presbyterian  and  national,  whether  estab- 
lished by  law  or  not.  Are  men  of  that 
party  prepared  to  brave  a  similar  peril  in 
the  present  day  ? — nay,  a  peril  incalcu- 
lably more  formidable  to  the  empire  at 


A.  D.  1790.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


377 


large,  and  fraught  with  certain  and  irre- 
coverable ruin  to  themselves  and  their 
unscriptural  cause,  which  would  and 
must  utterly  perish  in  the  hour  of  an  in- 
jured nation's  strong  consuming  ven- 
geance.* 

[1 785-89.]  The  effects  of  this  defeat 
were  most  disastrous.  The  true  Presby- 
terian ministers,  seeing  all  their  hopes 
again  blasted,  and  trampled  under  the 
feet  of  their  triumphant  antagonist,  sunk 
into  a  state  of  comparatively  torpid  dis- 
couragement, and  ceased  to  strive  against 
what  now  seemed  to  bear  the  aspect  of 
stern  invincible  necessity.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Moderate  party  assumed  once 
more  the  haughty  port  of  uncontrolled 
dominion,  enforcing  the  law  of  patronage 
with  steady  and  immitigable  rigor.  The 
oppressed  and  insulted  people  not  only 
ceased  to  expect  redress,  they  ceased  even 
to  ask  it.  They  felt  that  opposition  to 
patronage  was  of  no  avail.  Be  the  pre- 
sentee what  'he  might,  —  a  heretic,  a 
grossly  immoral  person,  miserably  defi- 
cient in  learning,  or  destitute  of  the  neces- 
sary menial  abilities  and  moral  qualifica- 
tions,— if  he  had  obtained  a  presentation, 
all  other  objections  were  disregarded,  and 
he  was  made  the  "stipend-lifter"  in  the 
parish.  But  he  could  not  be  made  the 
pastor  of  the  people.  They  looked  on 
indignantly  and  mournfully,  till  the  dese- 
crating deed  was  done  ;  then  withdrew, 
built  a  meeting-house,  and  chose  a  pastor 
for  themselves.  In  this  manner  the  most 
religious  part  of  the  community  was 
driven  out  of  the  Church,  and  those  that 
remained  sunk  into  a  state  of  careless- 
ness, till  they  ceased  to  feel  and  to  regret 
their  own  calamitous  condition.  The 
rising  generation  grew  up  accustomed  to 
such  a  state  of  matters,  regardless,  com- 
paratively, of  the  sacredness  of  that  day 
which  God  hallowed  to  himself,  neglect- 
ful of  public  worship,  and  utterly  destitute 
of  personal  religion,  which  too  often  the 
example,  and  even  the  language,  of  their 
half-infidel  ministers  taught  them  to  des- 
pise and  deride  as  hypocrisy  and  fana- 

*  It  may  be  noted,  as  provine  the  consistency  of  Mod- 
eratism in  its  unconstitutional  career,  that  Dr.  Cook 
goes  even  beyond  Dr.  Hill,  and  defends  absolute  and 
unlimited  patronage.  "The  idea  of  a  discretionary 
power  to  ?ei  aside  a  presentation,  in  particular  cases, 
is  decidedly  rejected  by  the  Moderate  party."  The 
"want  of  a  sufficient  call  is  no  ground  of  rejection." 
"  The  law  of  patronage  admits  of  no  limitation  but  the 
defined  qualifications  of  a  presentee  not  existing  in  a 
particular  individual."  (Cook's  Life  of  Hill,  pp.  161, 

48 


ticism.  The  Church  of  Scotland,  wher- 
ever thorough  Moderatism  prevailed, 
seemed  spiritually  dead,  and  all  living 
Christians  withdrew  from  its  polluting 
touch.  Yet  there  were  many  truly  pious 
ministers  sprinkled  over  the  land,  shining 
in  their  own  spheres  apart,  amid  the  pre- 
vailing moral  darkness,  like  the  few  scat- 
tered stars  that  faintly  break  the  gloom 
of  a  chill  and  misty  night.* 

Although  the  sagacious  opposition  of 
Dr.  Robertson,  and  the  intimated  danger 
to  their  pecuniary  interests,  had  deterred 
the  extreme  Moderates  from  openly  ex- 
pressing their  desire  to  be  released  from 
the  necessity  of  subscribing  the  Confes- 
sion of  Faith,  yet  the  intention  was  by  no 
means  abandoned  ;  only  it  was  judged 
expedient  to  bring  in  the  change  gra- 
dually, by  a  series  of  precedents.  In  the 
year  1789,  the  presbytery  of  Arbroath 
presumed  to  ordain  Mr.  George  Gleig  to 
be  minister  in  the  church  of  that  burgh, 
without  requiring  him  to  sign  either  the 
Confession  of  Faith  or  Formula.!  This 
strange  and  daring  conduct  was  brought 
before  the  Assembly ;  and  although  it 
deserved  a  very  high  censure,  the  Assem- 
bly deemed  it  expedient  to  exercise 
leniency  in  the  first  offence  of  the  kind. 
Mr.  Gleig  was  allowed  to  retain  the 
church,  upon  signing  the  Confession  of 
Faith  in  presence  of  the  Assembly ;  and 
the  presbytery  was  rebuked  at  the  bar, 
and  admonished  to  be  more  careful  for 
;he  future,  on  pain  of  a  higher  censure. 
This  decided  expression  of  the  mind  of 
;he  Church,  though  accompanying  a  very 
lenient  censure,  had  the  effect  of  prevent- 
ing that  or  any  other  presbytery  from  a 
repetition  of  the  offence. 

[1790.]  Mention  has  been  already  made 
of  the  strong  tendency  to  Socinianism 
prevalent  in  many  districts  of  the  country 
where  Moderatism  chiefly  reigned,  and 
particularly  in  the  west  of  Scotland. 
During  above  ten  years  the  west  country 
>vas  fiercely  agitated  with  polemical  con- 
roversy  between  these  Socinians  and 
heir  sounder  brethren.  The  Socinian 
Darty  were  termed  New  Light  men,  und 

*  Such  men  as  Dr.  Erskine.  Dr.  Hunter,  Dr.  Davidson, 
)r.  Kemp,  Dr.  Balfonr  of  Glasgow,  Mr.  Freebairn  of 
)unbarton.  Dr  Bryce  Johnson  of  Holy  wood,  his  nephew 
of  Crossmichael,  Nisbet  of  Montrose,  Mitchell  of  Kera- 
my.  and  many  others  who  might  be  named,  lemaining 
ivithin  the  pale  of  the  Church,  kept  her  alive,  during 
his  long  and  dreary  period ;  and  she  perished  not,  for 
a  blessing  was  in  her. 

t  Acts  of  Assembly,  year  1789;  Scots  Magazine 


378 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X 


their  opponents  were  called  the  defenders 
of  the  Old  Light.  In  this  controversy,  as 
was  to  be  expected,  every  person  of  irre- 
ligious and  immoral  character  espoused 
the  cause  of  the  New  Light  or  Socinian 
party ;  and  what  they  wanted  in  argu- 
ment they  endeavoured  to  supply  by  the 
employment  of  ridicule,  slander,  and  pro- 
fane mockery  of  their  antagonists.  In 
an  evil  hour  for  his  country  and  himself, 
the  New  Light  party  induced  Robert 
Burns  to  join  them,  and  to  prostitute  his 
high  poetical  genius  in  a  cause  so  worth- 
less as  the  defence  of  such  unprincipled 
and  depraved  men, — nay,  initiated  him 
in  depths  of  iniquity  to  which  till  then  he 
had  been  a  stranger, — nay,  still  more 
fearful, — destroyed  what  may  be  termed 
the  natural  devotional  tendency  of  the 
poetical  temperament,  and  impelled  him 
to  aim  the  shafts  of  his  satire  against  the 
most  sacred  rites  of  the  Church  and  the 
essential  truths  of  the  everlasting  gospel. 
The  future  dark  career  and  melancholy 
end  of  this  unhappy  son  of  genius  is 
mainly  to  be  ascribed  to  the  fatal  taint 
which  his  mind  received  from  his  inter- 
course with  the  Moderate,  Socinian,  New 
Light  ministers  of  Ayrshire  and  their 
adherents.  These  guilty  men  have  been 
already  named  ;  and  their  misled  victim's 
poems  will,  when  rightly  understood,  in- 
flict upon  them  the  retributive  justice  of 
branding  their  unhonoured  memory  with 
the  impress  of  perpetual  infamy.* 

At  length  Dr.  M'Gill  of  Ayr  had  the 
temerity  to  publish  a  work  entitled,  "  A 
Practical  Essay  on  the  Death  of  Jesus 
Christ,"  in  which  the  most  glaring  Soci- 
nianism  was  openly  taught  and  main- 
tained. This  could  not  be  overlooked. 
A  prosecution  was  instituted  against  the 
author  of  a  work  so  manifestly  heretical. 
His  friends,  cherishing,  many  of  them, 
the  same  sentiments,  but  not  exposed  to 
equal  danger,  because  they  had  not  given 
their  opinions  to  the  public  in  any  palpa- 
ble form,  made  every  exertion  in  their 
power  to  shelter  him  from  justice.  A 


*  It  can  be  proved  beyond  the  power  of  doubt,  by 
living  and  unimpeachable  testimony,  that  Burns  him- 
fielf,  within  the  last  fortnight  of  his  life,  expressed  the 
ueepest  remorse  for  what  these  men  had  led  him  to 
write,  and  an  anxious  wish  that  he  might  live  a  little 
longer,  to  make  some  attempt  to  repair  the  injury  he 
had  done.  And  Gilbert  Burns,  in  his  latter  years,  re- 
peatedly declared,  that  the  New  Light  ministers  were 
the  chief  subverters  of  all  regard  for  religion  in  his 
brother's  mind,  and  that  he  himself  had  not  escaped 
unwounded,  and  long  retained  Mie  aching  scar. 


protracted  litigation  before  the  subordinate 
church  judicatories  followed.  But  at  last 
the  matter  came  before  the  synod  of  Glas- 
gow and  Ayr,  and  assumed  an  aspect  so 
serious,  that  he  and  his  friends  considered 
it  expedient  for  him  to  evade  the  danger 
of  deposition,  by  offering  to  explain  his 
meaning,  acknowledge  his  error  in  what 
could  not  be  explained  away,  and  suppli- 
cate forgiveness.  There  were  too  many 
in  the  synod  scarcely  less  heretical  than 
he,  for  it  to  pursue  a  more  faithful  course. 
His  explanation  and  apology,  though 
very  lame  and  impotent  indeed,  were  sus- 
tained as  satisfactory.  The  Synod  pub- 
lished an  account  of  their  proceedings  in 
the  case;  the  condemned  book  sunk  into 
that  oblivion  which  was  its  natural 
destiny ;  and  the  worthless  man  was  per- 
mitted to  return  to  the  perishing  flock 
whom  he  could  not  lead  to  Christ,  as  he 
himself  knew  not  the  way.* 

[1791-96.]  It  is  not  necessary,  nor  even 
proper  in  a  work  devoted  to  ecclesiastical 
matters,  to  do  more  than  glance  at  those 
great  political  movements  which  agitate 
and  mould  the  structure  of  society, — espe- 
cially movements  so  vast  as  to  shake  the 
whole  of  Europe,  and  so  recent  that  their 
vibrations  have  not  yet  settled  into  repose. 
For  this  reason  we  shall  merely  allude  to 
that  terrific  event  the  French  Revolution, 
which  was  on  the  eve  of  bursting  forth  in 
1790,  and  which  for  several  successive 
years  startled  and  appalled  the  world,  by 
the  sudden  changes  of  aspect,  each  more 
hideous  and  wild  than  the  last,  which  it 
assumed,  the  fierce  infidelity  which  it 
avowed,  and  the  scenes  of  atrocious  car- 
nage which  marked  its  dreadful  progress. 
Even  the  most  unreflecting  were  com- 
pelled to  perceive  what  man  is  when  with- 
out religion, — how  fearful  a  thing  the  de- 
praved, deceitful,  and  desperately  wicked 
human  heart  can  be,  when  left  to  fol 
low  its  native  tendency,  without  God,  and 
without  hope  in  the  world.  The  moral  1st 
recoiled  in  horror;  the  tongue  of  the  phi 
losophical  divine  clave  to  the  roof  of  his 
mouth  ;  but  the  evangelical  preacher  of 
the  gospel  rushed  forward,  and  took  his 
stand  betwixt  the  living  and  the  dead.  A 
mighty  revival  of  genuine  spiritual 
Christianity  took  place  all  over  Britain, 
and  great  exertions  were  made  by  the 

*  Proceedings  of  the  Synod  of  Glasgow  and  Ayr, 
April,  1790. 


A.  D.  1796.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


379 


friends  of  religious  truth  to  communicate 
to  all  around  them  the  knowledge  of  the 
gospel  of  peace  and  holiness.  Numerous 
religious  societies  sprung  almost  simulta- 
neously into  being,  and  reviving  Chris- 
tianity began  to  put  forth  vital  and  expan- 
sive energies,  which  had  lain  dormant 
since  the  Reformation.  With  returning 
spiritual  life  returned  that  spiritual  intelli- 
gence which  enables  a  man  to  know  for 
what  object  spiritual  life  is  given.  The 
Christian  community  was  startled  and 
alarmed  at  perceiving,  that  for  centuries 
it  had  neglected  to  attempt  the  discharge 
of  that  very  duty,  the  accomplishment  of 
which  is  the  chief  end  of  the  Christian 
Church  Universal.  It  had  neglected  the 
risen  Redeemer's  imperative  command, 
"  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the 
gospel  to  every  creature  under  heaven." 
Immediately  the  idea  of  instituting  Chris- 
tian missions,  for  the  purpose  of  fulfilling 
the  Saviour's  injunction,  extending  his 
kingdom,  and  promoting  the  salvation  of 
perishing  souls,  became  a  leading  impulse 
in  the  heart  and  soul  of  every  truly  spiritual- 
ly-minded Christian,  whether  he  belonged 
to  a  Dissenting,  Seceding,  or  Established 
Christian  Church.  And  in  the  warm 
fervour  of  renewed  Christian  life  and  love, 
many  of  the  distinctions  which  had  kept 
men  asunder  like  brazen  walls,  melted 
like  wax  in  the  fire,  and  free  scope  was 
readily  given  to  an  amount  of  Christian 
intercourse  which  had  for  ages  been  un- 
known. 

In  Scotland  the  reviving  power  of  this 
truly  Christian  spirit  was  early  and 
strongly  felt.  A  missionary  society  was 
formed  in  Glasgow,  and  another  in  Edin- 
burgh, which  held  its  first  meeting  in 
March,  1796,  the  venerable  Dr.  Erskine 
acting  as  its  president.  Circular  letters 
Xvere  sent  to  every  part  of  the  country,  ex- 
plaining and  advocating  the  object  for  the 
promotion  of  which  this  central  mission- 
ary society  was  formed.  These  circulars 
gave  rise  to  much  discussion  throughout 
the  Church ;  and  the  synods  of  Fife  and 
Moray  transmitted  overtures  to  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  the  general  tenor  of 
which  was,  that  the  General  Assembly 
should  "  take  into  consideration  by  what 
means  the  Church  of  Scotland  might 
most  effectually  contribute  to  the  diffusion 
of  the  gospel  over  the  world ;"  and  that 
w  an  act  might  be  passed  recommending  a 


general  collection  throughout  the  Church, 
to  aid  the  several  societies  for  propagating 
the  gospel  among  the  heathen  nations." 
In  this  manner  the  great  object  of  the 
Church  general  of  Christ  was  brought 
before  the  notice  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, assembled  in  its  supreme  court; 
and  a  fair  and  complete  opportunity  was 
given  to  both  parties,  into  which  that 
court  is  divided,  to  emit  a  public  demon- 
stration and  testimony  how  much,  or  how 
little,  of  the  true  spirit  of  Christianity  they 
respectively  possessed. 

This  most  important  discussion  began 
with  a  piece  of  very  disingenuous  policy 
on  the  part  of  the  Moderates,  who  con- 
trived to  have  both  the  overtures  consi- 
dered in  one  discussion.  Dr.  Hill  had 
managed  to  exclude  from  the  Fife  over- 
ture the  specific  approbation  of  missionary 
exertions  which  it  at  first  contained,  leav- 
ing in  it  nothing  more  than  a  vague  ex- 
pression of  the  propriety  that  the  Church 
of  Scotland  should  in  some  way  or  other 
contribute  to  the  diffusion  of  the  gospel 
over  the  world,  which  any  Moderate 
could  complacently  affirm,  and  remain 
inactive,  as  pledged  to  no  specific  object. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Moray  overture 
recommended  a  general  collection,  against 
which  plausible  objections  might  be  urged, 
on  the  ground  of  this  having  a  tendency 
to  diminish  the  resources  of  the  session 
for  the  support  of  the  poor.  The  Evan- 
gelical party  wished  the  overtures  to  be 
considered  separately,  in  the  hope  of  car- 
rying the  general  proposition  in  behalf 
of  the  missionary  enterprise,  even  though 
the  proposed  method  of  promoting  it 
might  be  rejected.  Moderate  tactics  pre- 
vailed, and  the  discussion  was  made  to  in- 
clude both  overtures.  The  debate  which 
ensued  exhibited  the  character  of  Mo- 
deratism  in  a  manner  which  cannot  be 
misunderstood.  One  of  the  leading  speak- 
ers on  the  Moderate  side,  Mr.  George 
Hamilton,  minister  of  Gladsmuir,  began 
by  some  general  admissions  of  the  pro- 
priety of  diffusing  the  gospel.  "  To  dif- 
fuse," said  he,  "among  mankind  the 
knowledge  of  a  religion  which  we  profess 
to  believe  and  to  revere,  is  doubtless  a 
good  and  important  work ;  as  to  pray  for 
its  diffusion,  and  to  expect  it,  is  taught  us 
in  the  sacred  volume  of  Scripture." — "  To 
spread  abroad  the  knowledge  of  the  gos- 
pel among  barbarous  and  heathen  nations, 


380 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X 


seems  to  be  highly  preposterous,  in  as  far 
as  it  anticipates,  nay  it  even  reverses,  the 
order  of  nature.  Men  must  be  polished 
and  refined  in  their  manners  before  they 
can  be  properly  enlightened  in  religious 
truths.  Philosophy  and  learning  must, 
in  the  nature  of  things  take  the  prece- 
dence." Then  followed  a  glowing  eulo- 
gium  upon  the  "  simple  virtues  "  of  the 
"  untutored  Indian."  "  But  go,— engraft 
on  his  simple  manners  the  customs,  re- 
finements, and,  may  I  not  add,  some  of 
the  vices,  of  civilized  society,  and  the 
influence  of  that  religion  which  you  give 
as  a  compensation  for  the  disadvantages 
attending  such  a  communication  will  not 
refine  his  morals  nor  ensure  his  happi- 
ness."— "When  they  shall  be  told  that 
man  is  saved  not  by  good  works,  but  by 
faith,  what  will  be  the  consequence  ?  We 
have  too  much  experience  of  the  difficulty 
of  guarding  our  own  people  against  the 
most  deplorable  misapplication  of  this 
principle,  to  entertain  a  rational  doubt, 
that  the  wild  inhabitants  of  uncivilized  re- 
gions would  use  it  as  a  handle  for  the 
most  flagrant  violation  of  justice  and 
morality." — "  But  even  suppose  such  a 
nation  [one  already  civilized,]  could  be 
found,  I  should  still  have  weighty  objec- 
tions against  sending  missionaries  thither 
Why  should  we  scatter  our  forces  and 
spend  our  strength  in  foreign  service, 
when  our  utmost  vigilance,  our  unbroken 
strength  is  required  at  home?  While 
there  remains  at  home  a  single  individual 
without  the  means  of  religious  knowledge, 
to  propagate  it  abroad  would  be  improper 
and  absurd."  And  at  length  directing 
his  attention  to  the  idea  of  collections  for 
the  aid  of  missions,  he  exclaimed — "  For 
such  improper  conduct  censure  is  too 
small  a  mark  of  disapprobation  ;  it  would, 
I  doubt  not,  be  a  legal  subject  of  penal 
prosecution." — "  Upon  the  whole,  while 
we  pray  for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel, 
and  patiently  await  its  period,  let  us  unite 
in  resolutely  rejecting  these  overtures." 
Dr.  Garlyle  of  Inveresk,  who  had  been 
quite  ready  to  spend  time  and  money  in 
theatrical  amusements,  rose  and  said — 
"  I  have,  on  various  occasions,  during  a 
period  of  almost  half  a  century,  had  the 
honor  of  being  a  member  of  the  General 
Assembly,  yet  this  is  the  first  time  I  re- 
member to  have  ever  heard  such  a  propo- 
sal made,  and  I  cannot  help  also  thinking 


it  the  worst  time."  HI  therefore  se- 
conded Mr.  Hamilton's  motion,  "  that  the 
overtures  be  immediately  dismissed." 

Dr.  Hill  made  a  cautious,  plausible 
speech,  evading  the  main  topic,  animad- 
verting sharply  on  the  peculiarities  of 
missionary  societies,  and  concluding  with 
a  more  guarded  motion,  admitting  ge- 
nerally the  propriety  of  aiding  in  the  pro- 
pagation of  the  gospel — disapproving  of 
collections — recommending  the  promo- 
tion of  Christianity  at  home — p-raying  for 
the  fulfilment  of  prophecy,  and  resolving 
to  embrace  any  future  opportunity  of  con- 
tributing to  the  propagation  of  the  gospel. 
David  Boyle,  Esq.,  advocate,  indulged  in 
a  furious  philippic  against  missionary  so- 
cieties, as  all  of  a  political  character,  and 
dangerous  to  the  peace  of  the  community. 
Finally,  the  motions  of  Mr.  Hamilton  and 
Dr.  Hill  were  combined,  and  carried  by 
a  majority  of  fourteen,  the  vote  being 
fifty-eight  to  forty-four.*  So  well  satisfied 
were  the  Moderates  with  the  conduct  of 
Mr.  Hamilton,  and  with  his  brilliant  ora- 
tory, that  they  soon  afterwards  honoured 
him  with  the  title  of  doctor  in  divinity, 
and  elevated  him  to  the  moderator's  chair, 
as  a  reward  for  his  anti-missionary  exer- 
tions. 

Such  was  the  obedience  rendered  by 
Moderatism  to  the  risen  Redeemer's 
direct  command,  "  Go  ye  and  make  disci- 
ples of  all  nations, — preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature  under  heaven  ;"  and  thus 
did  it  prove  itself  to  be,  as  a  system,  essen- 
tially anti-christian.  This  may  seem  a 
harsh  saying,  and  it  is  with  pain  and  sor- 
row that  it  is  said.  But  attachment  to 
genuine  and  vital  Christianity  requires  its 
dead  counterfeit  to  be  detected  and  de- 
nounced ;  the  love  of  country  and  of  man- 
kind demands,  that  whatever  obstructs 
the  true  welfare  of  Britian  and  the  world 
should  be  pointed  out  and  removed  ;  and 
true  compassion  for  erring  fellow-crea- 
tures, especially  for  erring  Christian 
brethren,  forbids  the  use  of  injudicious 
and  criminal  tenderness  of  language  in 
the  statement  of  their  grievous  errors, 
which  might  soothe  an  uneradicated  evil, 
and  leave  a  deadly  hurt  unprobed,  un- 
healed,  deeply  and  silently  festering  to 
death. 

[1797.]  While  religious  and  moral 
desolation  overspread  the  districts  of  the 

*  See  an  account  of  the  Debate  published  in  1796.     • 


A.  D.  1797.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


381 


country  where  Moderatism  chiefly  pre- 
vailed, and  an  alarming  increase  of  vice, 
immorality,  crime,  and  political  discon- 
tent, exhibited  the  pernicious  results  of 
that  dead  form  of  worldly  religion,  there 
were  other  parts  of  the  kingdom  which 
still  enjoyed  the  priceless  blessing  of  an 
evangelical  ministry,  and  where  living 
Christianity  bore  its  natural  fruits,  both 
in  the  earnestness  with  which  the  people 
attended  upon  the  ministrations  of  their 
faithful  pastors,  and  in  the  anxiety  which 
ule  increasing  population  of  such  districts 
showed  to  obtain  additional  means  of  re- 
ligious instruction,  adequate  to  the  wants 
of  their  increasing  numbers.  Overtures 
were  sent  to  the  General  Assembly,  from 
several  presbyteries,  for  permission  to 
erect  what  were  termed  chapels  of  ease 
in  populous  parishes,  where  additional 
accommodation  was  wanted  beyond  what 
he  parish  church  could  afford,  and  where 
also  the  need  of  an  additional  pastor  was 
equally  manifest.  It  may  be  easily  sup- 
posed that  no  such  requests  came  from 
the  parishes  where  there  had  been  violent 
and  intrusive  settlements  ;  for  in  such 
cases,  the  people  seceded  from  the  Na- 
tional Church,  and  built  churches  of  their 
own.  But  wherever  there  were  faithful 
and  evangelical  ministers,  the  people 
manifested  no  desire  to  quit  the  Church 
of  their  fathers ;  but  when  the  provided 
means  were  not  sufficient,  they  were 
willing  to  build  a  new  church  in  the  ne- 
cessitous locality,  and  remain  within  the 
pale  of  the  national  establishment,  pro- 
vided they  could  obtain  the  sanction  of 
the  General  Assembly  to  such  a  mea- 
sure. It  might  be  thought  that  there 
could  be  no  possible  objection  to  this. 
Not  so  thought  the  sagacious  Moderates. 
They  perceived  clearly,  that  in  general 
these  chapels  of  ease  would  be  the  resorts 
and  the  nurseries  of  evangelism  ;  and  as 
they  wished  the  whole  kingdom  to  be 
brought  as  speedily  as  possible  into  the 
same  state  of  lethargic  indifference  as 
that  in  which  they  were  themselves  con- 
tentedly slumbering,they  discountenanced 
all  such  proposals.  After  the  Assembly 
had  been  repeatedly  addressed  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  it  had  become  no  longer  possible 
to  evade  it,  a  committee  was  appointed  in 
1795  to  inquire  into  the  matter,  and  re- 
port to  next  Assembly.  The  report  was 


received  in  1796,  approved  of,  and  trans- 
mitted to  the  presbyteries,  according  to 
the  Barrier  Act,  previous  to  its  being 
made  a  standing  law  of  the  Church.  In 
1797,  it  came  before  the  Assembly,  when 
it  appeared  that  thirty-four  presbyteries 
disapproved  of  the  overture,  and  only 
thirty  approved ;  consequently,  according 
to  the  constitutional  laws  of  the  Church, 
it  was  rejected.*  Yet  the  Moderates, 
making  a  desperate  effort  in  the  Assem- 
bly, passed  the  actually  rejected  overture 
into  an  interim  act,  and  re-transmitted  it 
again  to  the  presbyteries,  in  which,  by 
dexterous  management,  they  succeeded 
in  procuring  a  majority  to  approve,  so 
that  the  Moderate  overture  finally  pas&ed 
into  a  law  in  the  year  1798. 

The  chief  point  in  this  act  of  Assembly, 
on  account  of  which  the  Evangelical  par- 
ty opposed  it,  is  the  clause  which  proposes, 
that  when  a  petition  for  a  chapel  of  ease 
is  laid  before  any  presbytery,  they  "  shall 
not  pronounce  any  final  judgment  on  the 
petition,  till  they  shall  have  received  the 
special  directions  of  the  Assembly  there- 
on." The  object  of  this  was  to  put  it  in 
the  power  of  the  General  Assembly, 
where  the  Moderates  could  secure  a  ma- 
jority, to  prevent  the  erection  of  a  chapel 
in  any  dangerous  place,  where  Evangel- 
ism was  already  strong,  and  in  general  to 
discourage  the  erection  of  chapels.  And 
in  order  to  accomplish  this  so  desirable 
an  object,  as  they  viewed  it,  they  did  not 
hesitate  to  deprive  presbyteries  of  their 
constitutional  right  to  judge  in  the  first 
instance  of  every  ecclesiastical  matter 
within  their  bounds,  subject  only  to  the 
review  of  the  superior  church  courts  by- 
appeal.  Against  this  glaringly  unconsti- 
tutional procedure,  as  well  as  against  the 
object  which  it  was  intended  to  effect,  the 
Evangelical  and  constitutional  party 
strove  earnestly  but  unsuccessfully.  Dr. 
Hunter,  professor  of  theology  in  Edin- 
burgh, Dr.  Bryce  Johnston  of  Holywood, 
and  Sir  Henry  Moncreiff,  distinguished 
themselves  in  this  controversy  on  the 
Evangelical  side.f  This  conduct  of  the 
Moderate  party  furnishes  another  clear 
proof  of  the  equally  unchristian  and  un- 
constitutional character  of  their  princi- 

*  Reasons  of  Dissent. 

*  Remarks  on  u  paper  entitled  "  Heads  of  an  Areu- 
ment,"  &,c.  by  Sir  Henry  Moncrieff ;  Reasons  of  Dis- 


382 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


pies  and  their  whole  system.  So  recent 
ly  as  the  preceding  year  they  had  declared 
it  "  improper  and  absurd  to  propagate  the 
gospel  abroad,  while  there  remained  a 
single  individual  at  home  without  the 
means  of  religious  knowledge."  And 
now  they  did  their  utmost  to  prevent  the 
people  from  procuring  the  means  of  reli- 
gious instruction  to  themselves,  and  at 
their  own  expense,  thereby,  so  far  as  they 
were  able,  inflicting  a  deadly  paralysis 
upon  the  progress  of  Christianity  both  at 
home  and  abroad ;  violating,  too,  the 
constitution  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
that  they  might  accomplish  their  purpose. 
[1798-99.]  Little  was  now  wanting  to 
complete  the  full  developement  of  Mode- 
ratism,  and  that  little  was  not  long  in  be- 
ing supplied.  It  had  already  done  its  ut- 
most in  driving  the  gospel  out  of  its  own 
circle,  denying  it  equally  to  the  heathen 
abroad  and  to  the  people  at  home  :  it  had 
now  nothing  to  do  but  to  put  an  end  to 
the  Christian  communion  of  all  true  be- 
lievers, so  far  as  its  power  could  do  so. 
The  occasion  of  proceeding  to  this  last 
act  of  degeneracy  was  furnished  by  the 
late  celebrated  Rowland  Hill.  This 
somewhat  eccentric  man,  but  most  faith- 
ful and  indefatigable  servant  of  the  Lord, 
came  to  Scotland  about  the  end  of  July 
1798,  and  immediately  began  to  preach, 
in  churches  when  permitted,  and  in  the 
open  air  when  he  could  not  obtain  admis- 

iion  to  a  place  of  worship.     Edinburgh 
too  strongly  garrisoned  by  Moderate 

ivines  for  him  to  obtain  access  to  the  pul- 
pits in  that  city ;  but  he  preached  on  the 
Calton  Hill  to  great  multitudes  of  atten- 
tive hearers.  At  Glasgow,  Paisley,  and 
other  places  in  the  west  of  Scotland,  he 
was  freely  admitted  to  preach  in  the 
churches  of  the  Establishment.  In  seve- 
ral other  parts  of  Scotland  he  met  with 
similar  Christian  brotherhood  ;  and  some 
of  the  Seceders  allowed  him  to  preach 
in  their  meeting-houses,  while  others  re- 
fused. After  his  return  to  England,  he 
published  an  account  of  his  Scottish  tour, 
in  which  he  indulged  freely  in  remarks 
and  animadversions  upon  the  state  of  re- 
ligion in  Scotland.  There  were  several 
mistakes,  much  strong  sense,  great 
warmth  and  liberality  of  Christian  feel- 
ing, and  a  considerable  degree  of  pun- 
gent seventy  in  his  remarks,  especially 


when  expressing  his  opinion  of  the  Mod- 
erate party  and  their  adherents.* 

The  Moderate  party  were  extremely 
displeased  that  Rowland  Hill  had  been 
permitted  to  preach  in  several  churches 
of  the  Establishment,  and  felt  keenly 
galled  by  his  pointed  and  severe  animad- 
versions upon  their  principles  and  con- 
duct. And  as  it  was  known  that  he  con- 
templated an  early  repetition  of  this  visit, 
they  determined  to  prevent  the  possibility 
that  either  he  or  any  other  evangelical 
minister  of  any  other  Church  should  be 
again  permitted  to  preach  within  the  pale 
of  the  Establishment.  An  act  was  ac- 
cordingly passed  by  the  General  Assem- 
bly in  1799,  declaring  that  all  licences 
granted  to  probationers,  "  without  the 
bounds  of  this  Church,"  are  invalid,  and 
that  presentations  given  to  such  persons 
must  be  refused.  The  ostensible  reason 
for  this  part  of  the  enactment  was,  to  pre- 
vent incompetent  persons  from  resorting 
to  England  or  Ireland  to  obtain  a  license, 
by  means  of  which  they  might  be  intro- 
duced to  churches  without  due  qualifica- 
tion. It  had  the  effect,  however,  of  pre- 
venting any  man  from  being  appointed 
to  a  church  in  Scotland  if  he  had  not 
been  licensed  by  a  Scottish  presbytery, 


*  "  The  dispensation  of  mercy  to  fallen  man  entirely 
by  Jesus  Christ  is  not  the  subject  preached  by  the  ma- 
jority ;  but  with  some,  a  mangled  gospel,  law  and  gos- 
pel wretchedly  spliced  together;  with  others,  a  mere 
hungry  system  of  bare-weight  morality;  and  with  a 
third,  what  is  worse  still,  a  deliberate  attack  on  all  the 
truths  they  have  engaged  to  uphold.  The  few,  in 
comparison,  orthodox  among  them  are  stigmatized  by 
the  nickname  of  the  wild, while  the  fashionable  divines 
on  the  other  side  of  the  question  compliment  tliern- 
selves  with  the  appellation  of  the  Moderate.  This  epi- 
thet naturally  reminds  us  of  another,  'lukewarm, 
neither  cold  nor  hot.'  In  short,  it  is  as  with  all  who 
adopt  the  present  half-way  infidel  system  of  the  day, 
so,  report  says,  it  is  with  them  ;  the  cause  of  morality 
declines  with  the  cause  of  the  gospel ;  and  I  fear  the 
Scots,  by  far  the  best  educated  and  best  behaved  people 
in  the  British  dominions,  will  soon  be  no  better  th;m 
their  neighbours.  Like  their  ministers,  they  will  all 
become  Moderates  ;  first,  they  will  be  Moderates  in  re- 
ligion; they  will  have  Moderate  notions  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  the  gospel  of  salvation,  for  we  cannot  expect  they 
will  be  better  than  their  teachers;  they  will  next  be 
contented  with  a  Moderate  share  of  love  to  God,  of 
prayer,  and  of  repentance  ;  they  will  be  more  Moderate 
in  regard  to  the  use  of  their  Bibles,  and  be  more  Mod- 
erate in  their  zeal  in  teaching  their  children  the  Assem- 
bly's Catechism;  and  this  will  lead  them  to  be  Mode- 
rates in  morality.  In  point  of  chastity,  sobriety,  hon- 
esty, &c.,  they  will  soon  become  Moderate,  and  be  very 
anxious  to  grow  in  this  famous  fashionable  moderation, 
till  they  become  immoderately  wicked ;  unless,  through 
Divine  mercy,  they  hear  a  little  more  of  the  '  grace  of 
God  that  bringeth  salvation,'  the  only  doctrine  that 
teacheth  us  to  deny  ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts,  and 
o  live  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly,  in  this  present 
world.'  " — (Journal  through  the  North  of  England,  and  ] 
parts  of  Scotland,  with  Remarks  on  the  Present  State 
of  the  Established  Church  of  Scotland,  &c.  By  Row- 
and  Hill.  Pp.  Ill,  112.) 


A.  D.  1799.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


383 


whatever  might  be  his  qualifications  ; 
and  it  was  certainly  indicative  of  a  nar- 
row and  illiberal  spirit.  But  the  conclud- 
ing part  of  the  act  is  that  which  most  de- 
serves attention.  It  prohibited  ministers 
of  the  Establishment  "  from  employing 
to  preach,  upon  any  occasion,  or  to  dis- 
pense any  of  the  ordinances  of  the  gos- 
pel," persons  not  qualified  to  accept  a  pre- 
sentation ;  and  also,  "from  holding  minis- 
terial communion  in  any  other  manner 
with  such  persons."*  By  this  act  such 
men  as  Rowland  Hill  and  Simeon  of 
Cambridge  were  expressly  aimed  at,  and 
excluded  from  every  pulpit  in  the  Estab- 
lished Church  of  Scotland,  not  because 
they  were  Episcopalians,  but  because  their 
doctrine  was  evangelical ;  for  this  act  was 
moved,  carried,  and  enforced  by  the 
Moderate  party,  contrary  to  the  feelings 
and  the  wishes  of  their  Evangelical  op- 
ponents. It  may  be  mentioned  also,  that 
by  the  same  Moderate  party  in  the  As- 
sembly, a  pastoral  admonition  was  pre- 
;  pared  and  sent  through  the  Church, 
;  warning  against  giving  countenance  to 
•!  religious  societies,  missionary  associa- 
tions, itinerant  preachers,  and  Sabbath 
schools,  on  the  assumption  that  these  were 
conducted  by  "  ignorant  persons,  altogeth- 
er unfit  for  such  an  important  charge," — 
and  "  persons  notoriously  disaffected  to 
the  civil  constitution  of  the  country,  and 
who  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  other 
societies  in  the  neighborhood."  It  need 
scarcely  be  said  now  that  these  accusa- 
tions were  altogether  groundless  ;  and  it 
can  hardly  be  supposed  that  those  who 
uttered  such  charges  did  themselves  be- 
lieve them.  But  it  was  a  convenient 
mode  of  fixing  the  brand  of  "  sedition" 
upon  preachers  and  teachers  of  Chris- 
tianity, as  was  done  in  the  days  of  the 
apostles,  and  has  often  since  been  repeated, 
when  the  enemies  of  the  gospel  wished 
to  obtain  a  plausible  pretext  for  persecut- 
ing its  defenders. 

The  acts  of  this  Assembly  may  be  re- 
garded as  having  completed  the  develope- 
nient  of  the  system  of  Moderatism.  It 
had  its  origin,  as  a  system,  in  the  combi- 
nation which  early  took  place  between  the 
indulged  ministers  and  the  Prelatic  in- 
cumbents, who  were  introduced  into  the 
Church  by  the  pernicious  "  comprehen- 

*  Acts  of  Assembly,  year  .1799 ;  Cook's  Life  of  Hill 
p.  175. 


sion  scheme"  of  King  William.  The 
perfidious  act  of  1712,  reimposing  pa 
tronage,  gave  it  growth  and  fostered  it  in- 
to strength.  Early  in  its  progress  it 
showed  itself  favourable  to  unsoundness 
of  doctrine  and  laxity  of  discipline,  and 
strongly  opposed  to  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges of  the  Christian  people.  Heresy 
was  more  than  tolerated  ;  the  doctrines  of 
grace  and  evangelical  truth  were  con- 
demned ;  legal  preaching  was  encour- 
aged ;  and  a  cold  and  spiritless  morality 
was  substituted  instead  of  the  warm  life 
of  the  gospel.  Increasing  in  power,  it 
gave  more  open  and  vigorous  exercise  to 
its  malignant  nature,  by  violating  the  con- 
stitutional principles  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  perpetrating  intrusive  and  violent 
settlements,  repressing  the  remonstrances 
of  faithful  ministers,  driving  them  out  of 
the  Church,  protecting  its  own  heterodox 
and  immoral  adherents,  courting  patrons 
and  politicians,  insulting  and  deeply 
grieving  the  religious  part  of  the  commu- 
nity, and  causing  them,  even  more  in 
sorrow  than  in  anger,  to  abandon  the  be- 
loved National  Church  of  their  martyred 
fathers.  Arrived  at  maturity,  it  boldly 
declared  its  principles  to  be  entirely 
worldly,  and  its  whole  policy  to  be  founded 
on  the  maxims  of  secular  society,  directly 
contrary  to  the  distinct  declarations  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  His  inspired  apos- 
tles. With  difficulty  was  it  restrained 
from  abandoning  the  subscription  of  the 
Confession  of  Faith,  though  even  world- 
ly policy  could  perceive  the  danger  of  a 
deed  so  glaringly  unconstitutional.  Ad- 
vancing towards  the  stage  of  rigidity 
which  is  symptomatic  of  decline,  it  pro- 
hibited the  missionary  enterprise,  and 
thereby  declared  to  the  world  that  it  had 
so  little  of  a  Christian  spirit  as  not  to  feel 
itself  bound  to  discharge  the  great  com- 
mission given  by  the  risen  and  ascending 
Saviour  to  His  disciples.  Having  refused 
to  aid  in  propagating  the  gospel  abroad,  it 
next  exerted  itself  in  checking  the  exten- 
sion of  Christian  instruction  at  home,  by 
the  obstructions  and  difficulties  with 
which  it  opposed  the  erection  of  new 
churches  ;  and  by  the  act  1799,  it  declared 
against  Christian  communion  with  other 
Churches,  however  sound  in  their  doc- 
trine and  faithful  in  their  ministry.  As  a 
worldly  system  it  was  now  complete. 
Vital  religion  had  been  driven  out  of  its 


384 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


pale,  or  paralyzed  within  it.  By  declar- 
ing against  the  propagation  of  the  gospel, 
it  had  almost  avowedly  thrown  oft'  its  al- 
legiance to  Christ.  By  prohibiting  all 
ministerial  communion  with  other  ortho- 
dox Protestant  Christian  Churches,  it 
virtually  denied  the  doctrine  of  a  "  Church 
Universal,"  rejected  the  "  Communion  of 
Saints,"  and  disclaimed  the  all-pervading, 
heart-uniting,  and  love-breathing  brother- 
ly affection,  infused  into  all  true  members 
of  the  household  of  faith,  by  the  presence 
and  energy  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Such 
did  Moderatism  prove  itself  to  be,  when 
it  reached  its  full  developement,  as  a  sys- 
tem, worldly,  despotic,  unconstitutional, 
unpresbyterian,  unchristian  and  spiritual- 
ly dead, — the  utter  negation  of  every 
thing  free,  pure,  lofty,  and  hallowed, — if 
indeed,  it  ought  not  rather  to  be  said,  that 
its  essence  was  antipathy  to  every  thing 
scriptural,  holy  and  divine.* 

But  while  Moderatism  was  thus  swath- 
ing itself  up  in  thick  cerements,  as  if  to 
indulge  in  a  long  and  dignified  repose, 
like  a  lifeless  yet  life-like  embalmed 
Egyptian  monarch  in  his  hieroglyph-en- 
crusted sarcophagus,  there  was  an  active 
life  around  it,  and  even  a  disturbed  vital- 
ity, within  the  oppressed  heart  of  its  own 
torpid  frame.  It  has  been  already  stated, 
that  several  of  the  ordinary  supporters  of 
the  Moderate  policy  held  and  taught  the 
doctrines  of  the  gospel.  Not  only  was  it 
necessary  to  retain  these,  because  without 
them  it  would  not  have  been  possible  to 
secure  majorities  in  church  courts,  but  it 
was  also  necessary  to  conciliate  them,  by 
occasionally  passing  measures  contrary 
to  the  true  nature  of  the  Moderate  sys- 
tem. Thus  it  was,  that  at  the  very  time 
when  that  system  had  acquired  its  com- 
plete developement,  it  began  to  exhibit 
symptoms  of  disorganization,  the  sure 
harbingers  of  decay.  But  thus  it  is  in 
all  things  essentially  worldly ;  the  point 
of  full  maturity  is  that  where  decline 
and  fall  begins"  The  decline  of  Mode- 
ratism was  hastened  also  by  the  quick- 
ened life  and  energetic  movements  of  so- 
ciety at  large,  which  could  no  longer 
tolerate  the  sluggish  inertness  and  rigid 

*  It  will  be  perceived  that  Moderatism  is  here  viewed 
as  a  system  without  specific  reference  to  those  who 
embraced  it,  and  without  meaning  to  deny  that  there 
were  amone:  the  Moderates  many  men,  who  were  bet- 
ter than  their  system  ;  in  the  same  manner  as  the  sys- 
tem of  Popery  is  condemned,  without  denying  the  vital 
Christianity  of  many  of  its  members. 


encrustation  of  a  system  unsuited  to  the 
spirit  of  the  times.  This  became  appa- 
rent early  in  the  century  which  was  on 
the  point  of  commencing,  and  in  which 
the  contest  between  the  worldly  policy  of 
Moderatism  and  the  spirit  of  evangelical 
Christianity  became  warm,  incessant,  and 
intensely  determined;  every  year  in- 
creasing the  strength  and  brightening 
the  hopes  of  those  true  friends  of  con- 
stitutional, Presbyterian,  and  Christian 
principles,  who  "were  the  genuine  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Church  of  Scotland  ; 
and  weakening  both  the  power  and  the 
courage  of  their  opponents,  who  soon  be- 
gan to  display,  not  the  calm  and  haughty 
confidence  of  superior  might,  but  the 
restless  and  angry  energy  of  danger  and 
despair. 

[1800-5.]  It  is  at  all  times  hazardous 
to  write  what  may  be  termed  contempo- 
raneous history  ;  both  because  the  histo- 
rian is  himself  exposed  to  the  bias  arising 
from  personal  predilections,  and  because 
the  minds  and  feelings  of  the  living 
generation  are  too  much  occupied  by 
their  own  share  of  the  transactions,  to 
permit  them  to  exercise  an  impartial 
judgment  either  on  the  events  themselves, 
or  on  the  narrative  of  the  historian.  Yet 
in  matters  of  great  and  sacred  principle 
it  may  be  possible  to  state  the  truth  both 
fairly  and  fearlessly,  leaving  it  to  future 
times  to  repel  any  charge  of  partiality 
which  may  be  made.  It  will  not  be  ne- 
cessary, however,  to  do  more  than  trace 
the  outlines  of  the  leading  facts  and  prin- 
ciples of  a  period  which  lies  within  the 
memory  of  men  but  little  past  the  prime 
and  vigour  of  their  life. 

The  first  subject  which  occurred  in 
the  new  century,  of  sufficient  importance 
to  demand  attention,  was  that  of  a  plural- 
ity of  offices  in  the  Church,  held  by  the 
same  individual.  In  the  year  1800,  Dr. 
Arnot,  professor  of  divinity  in  St.  An- 
drews, was  presented  to  the  parish  of 
Kingsbarns,  which  is  six  or  seven  miles 
distant  from  the  town.  This  union  of 
offices  was  opposed  in  the  presbytery  by 
Mr.  Bell,  minister  of  Crail,  but  unsuc- 
cessfully. It  was  also  opposed  in  the 
synod,  and  came  before  the  Assembly, 
where  it  gave  rise  to  one  of  the  most 
animated  debates  that  ever  occurred  in 
that  venerable  court.  In  that  celebrated 
discussion,  Principal  Brown  of  Aber- 


A.  D.  1805.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE   CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


385 


deen  opposed  pluralities  in  a  speech  of. 
surpassing  eloquence  and  power,  before 
the  constitutional  principles,  high  moral 
tone,  clear  strength  of  argument,  and 
elevated  Christian  faithfulness  of  which, 
the  firmest  Moderate  quailed  and  shrunk 
in  conscious  feebleness.  But  though  ma- 
nifestly defeated  in  argument,  the  "  pre- 
vailing party"  could  still  procure  the 
sanction  of  a  majority  of  votes;  and  Dr. 
Arnot  was  allowed  to  retain  both  the  pa- 
rish and  the  chair,  contrary  to  the  whole 
spirit  of  the  Presbyterian  constitution, 
and  with  the  certainty  that  in  such  a 
combination  of  offices  the  duties  of  nei- 
ther could  be  adequately  discharged.* 
Although  the  Evangelical  party  failed  in 
this  constitutional  struggle,  a  deep  and 
lasting  impression  was  made  on  the  mind 
of  the  community,  and  public  intelligence 
began  to  mark  on  which  side  of  the 
Church  integrity  and  faithfulness  was 
chiefly  to  be  found.  The  Moderate 
triumph  was  equivalent  to  a  defeat ;  for 
all  the  sophistry  which  they  employed 
could  not  allay  the  strong  feeling  of  re- 
pugnance to  such  unions  which  had 
been  excited,  and  the  country  rang  with 
the  clear  and  loud  sentence  of  condemna- 
tion uttered  indignantly  against  such  self- 
interested  conduct. 

The  celebrated  Leslie  case,  as  it  has 
been  termed,  came  next,  and  deepened 
the  impression  which  that  of  Dr.  Arnot 
had  produced.  Upon  the  death  of  Mr. 
John  Robison,  professor  of  natural  phi- 
losophy in  Edinburgh,  and  the  promo- 
tion of  Mr.  Playfair  from  the  mathemat- 
ical chair  to  that  which  had  become 
vacant,  the  Edinburgh  ministers  deemed 
it  a  convenient  opportunity  for  securing 
another  plurality,  and  immediately  en- 
deavoured to  procure  the  appointment  of 
Dr.  Maeknight  to  the  chair  of  mathemat- 
This,  however,  soon  appeared  to  be 


ics. 


a  matter  of  more  difficult  accomplishment. 
Two  of  the  most  distinguished  professors 
in  the  university,  Dugald  Stewart  and 
Playfair,  wrote  letters  upon  the  subject  to 
the  lord  provost ;  in  which  they  proved 
that  the  duties  of  a  professor  gave  full 
employment  for  the  talents  and  industry 
of  any  man,  and  that  a  faithful,  discharge 
of  them  was  incompatible  with  those  im- 
portant functions  of  a  different  kind 
which  belong  to  a  clergyman  holding 

*  Scots  Magazine,  year  1801. 

49 


the  pastoral  office.  The  town-council,  in 
whom  the  nomination  to  that  chair  is 
vested,  were  convinced  by  these  argu- 
ments, and  declared  their  intention  of 
giving  the  appointment  to  him  by  whom 
the  highest  testimonials  of  qualification 
should  be  produced.  This  determination 
rendered  it  no  longer  doubtful  who 
should  be  the  successful  candidate,  as 
none  of  them  could  at  all  stand  a  com- 
parison with  Mr.  John  Leslie  in  point  of 
scientific  genius  and  acquirements.  But 
in  a  Treatise  on  Heat,  which  that  gen- 
tleman had  published  a  short  while  be- 
fore, he  had  thought  proper  to  diverge 
into  some  metaphysical  speculations  on 
the  idea  of  necessary  connection  between 
cause  and  effect.  This  was  immediately 
laid  hold  of  by  the  Edinburgh  doctors, 
and  an  attempt  was  made  to  convict  Les- 
lie of  advocating  principles  of  an  atheis- 
tical tendency.  A  controversy  of  a 
metaphysico-theological  kind  arose,  in 
which  the  Moderates  assailed  Mr.  Les- 
lie's view,  and  the  Evangelicals  defend- 
ed it,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  literary 
public,  who  saw  in  the  party  which  they 
had  been  accustomed  to  regard  as  con- 
sisting of  narrow-minded  fanatics,  the 
most  enlightened  defenders  of  true  sci- 
ence. The  subject  came  at  length  be- 
fore the  Assembly ;  and  after  a  long  and 
able  debate,  this  attempt  of  Moderate  in- 
tolerance was  defeated  by  a  majority  of 
twelve.* 

This  discussion  was  of  considerable 
general  importance,  especially  in  direct- 
ing the  public  mind  towards  the  tendency 
of  the  Moderate  system.  So  long  as  that 
was  confined  to  Church  politics,  compa- 
ratively little  interest  was  felt  respecting 
it ;  and  although  by  one  part  of  that 
system  plurality  of  offices  had  been  in- 
troduced, so  long  as  that  was  restricted  to 
the  theological  professorships,  it  did  not 
attract  much  notice.  But  when  it  was 
perceived  that  the  dominant  party  were 
endeavouring  to  acquire  the  possession 
of  the  chairs  devoted  to  literature,  sci- 
ence, and  philosophy,  it  was  felt  that  this 
encroaching  spirit  must  be  repelled,,  lest 
the  interests  of  literature  and  science 
should  suffer.  The  argument  against 
pluralities  was  not  indeed  placed  on  the 
strongest  ground  by  the  literary  part  of 

*  Pamphlets  on  the  Leslie  Controversy ;  Assembly 
Debate  ;  Edinburgh  Review,  No.  xiiL 


386 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


the  community.  They  looked  to  the  in- 
jury likely  to  be  sustained  by  science,  if 
its  teachers  should  be  men  whose  atten- 
tion was  distracted  by  another  class  of 
duties  ;  but  Christian  men  deplored  the 
evil  which  must  be  done  to  religion,  if  its 
teachers  should  devote  themselves  to 
secular  employments,  and  neglect  the 
eternal  welfare  of  those  over  whose  spi- 
ritual interests  they  had  been  appointed 
to  watch.  And  the  idea  very  readily 
suggested  itself  to  the  minds  of  reflecting 
people,  "  Surely  these  men  must  enter- 
tain a  very  low  notion  of  the  ministerial 
office  and  its  unspeakably  important  du- 
ties, who  can  so  eagerly  grasp  at  another 
office,  totally  different  in  its  nature,  to 
which  if  they  attend,  they  must  inevita- 
bly neglect  their  pastoral  charge."  Such 
opinions  becoming  prevalent,  tended 
greatly  to  weaken  Moderatism,  by  lead- 
ing men  to  inquire  into  its  real  character, 
and  to  contrast  it  with  Evangelism,  so 
long  calumniated  or  despised. 

[1805-10.]  Nothing  of  peculiar  public 
moment  marked  the  years  between  1805 
and  1810.  Perhaps  the  only  thing  which 
deserves  to  be  noticed  is  the  internal  dis- 
organization which  began  to  appear 
among  the  Moderate  party  during  that 
period.  The  most  remarkable  instance 
of  it  occurred  in  the  different  views  taken 
by  Dr.  Hill  of  St.  Andrews,  and  Drs. 
Grieve,  Finlayson,  and  others  of  the 
Edinburgh  ministers,  in  the  case  of  the 
Duke  of  Hamilton  against  Mr.  Scott, 
.minister  of  Strathaven,  respecting  the 
claims  of  the  latter  for  an  augmentation. 
Dr.  Hill  disapproved  of  the  strong  meas- 
ures advocated  by  the  Edinburgh  minis- 
ters, and  stated  his  views  to  Lord  Mel- 
ville, who  entirely  agreed  with  him  j  but 
as  the  Edinburgh  clergy  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  acting  like  a  permanent  commit- 
tee for  the  management  of  ecclesiastical 
affairs,  they  were  indignant  that  even 
Dr.  Hill  should  have  offered  an  opinion 
till  he  had  consulted  them.*  The  high- 
minded  and  honourable  conduct  of  Dr. 
Hill  prevented  this  disagreement  from 
widening  to  an  actual  breach ;  but  it  put 
an  end  to  that  unanimity  by  which  the 
course  of  Moderate  policy  had  been 
hitherto  characterised.  It  was  indeed 
itself  a  consequence  of  causes  previously 
in  operation.  Of  these,  the  chief  were, 

•  Dr.  Cook's  of  Life  Hill,  pp.  189-307. 


as  already  stated,  the  residence  of  Dr. 
Hill,  the  avowed  leader  of  the  Moderates, 
in  St.  Andrews,  which  prevented  him 
from  being  generally  present  in  the  pri- 
vate consultations  of  the  Edinburgh 
clergy ;  and  the  deeper  and  sounder 
theology  of  Dr.  Hill  himself,  which  ren- 
dered it  impossible  for  him  to  be  a  tho- 
rough Moderate  on  all  points,  although 
he  followed  the  principles  of  Robertson 
with  regard  to  Church  government. 

In  the  year  1810,  Dr.  Andrew  Thom- 
son was  appointed  to  one  of  the  Edin- 
burgh churches,  and  four  years  after- 
wards to  St.  George's,  as  minister  of 
which,  this  distinguished  and  remarkable 
man  became  fully  known  to  the  public. 
He  was  one  of  those  men  who  stamp  the 
impress  of  their  own  character  upon  that 
of  the  age  in  which  they  live ;  and  hi? 
appearance  in  the  Scottish  metropolis 
must  be  marked  as  the  commencement 
of  an  era  in  the  ecclesiastical  history  of 
his  country.  Soon  after  his  arrival  in 
Edinburgh,  the  "  Christian  Instructor" 
was  commenced  under  his  management 
as  editor  ;  and  by  its  means  the  thoughts 
and  reasonings  of  his  powerful  mind 
were  communicated  to  the  public  like 
successive  shocks  of  electricity,  stirring 
the  heart  of  the  kingdom  from  its  torpid 
lethargy,  and  spreading  dismay  among 
his  discomfited  antagonists.  The  public 
mind  had  indeed  been  already  partially 
aroused ;  and  instead  of  being  allowed 
to  sink  back  into  dull  and  listless  repose, 
the  favourable  moment  was  seized,  and 
it  was  urged  forward  with  a  steady  and 
persevering  might,  which  could  not  long 
be  successfully  resisted.  Every  year  it 
became  more  and  more  a  matter  of  gene- 
ral conviction  that  some  measure  of  ec- 
clesiastical reform  was  become  impera- 
tively necessary  ;  and  as  the  true  princi- 
ples of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scot- 
land were  rescued  from  the  oblivion  into 
which  they  had  been  cast,  this  conviction 
assumed  the  form  of  a  full  belief,  that 
nothing  more  was  necessary  than  to  re- 
store those  principles  to  their  native  and 
vital  operation. 

[1811.]  By  a  remarkable  coincidence, 
at  the  very  time  when  Dr.  Thomson  had 
resolved  to  employ  the  mighty  power  of 
the  press  for  the  purpose  of  reawakening 
the  slumbering  energies  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church,  a  potent  auxiliary  was  on 


A.  D.  1817.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


387 


the  point  of  appearing  in  the  field,  and 
engaging  in  the  maintenance  of  the  same 
great  cause.  In  November  1811  was 
published  "  The  Life  of  John  Knox," 
by  the  Rev.  Thomas  M'Crie.  A  huge 
host  of  prejudices  were  at  once  scattered 
to  the  winds,  or  compelled  to  retreat  to 
the  dark  lurking-places  of  ignorance,  on 
the  appearance  of  this  magnificent  biog- 
raphy. The  enemies  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland  found  that  it  was  no  longer  pos- 
sible to  accuse  the  great  Scottish  Re- 
former of  morose  and  gloomy  bigotry, 
or  wild  and  stern  fanaticism,  without 
periling  their  own  characters,  and  ex- 
posing themselves  to  the  charge  of  igno- 
rance too  dark  to  be  enlightened,  and 
prejudices  too  dense  to  be  dispelled ; 
while  the  friends  of  scriptural  truth 
found  themselves  at  once  admitted  to  the 
armoury  of  the  invincible  chiefs  of  old, 
from  which  they  might  obtain  weapons 
wherewith  to  resist  and  quell  the  adver- 
sary. Nothing  could  more  have  borne 
the  aspect  of  an  express  arrangement  of 
Providence  than  did  the  propitious  ap- 
pearance of  this  noble  work.  Even  the 
leading  authorities  in  the  literary  world 
were  prompt  and  loud  in  their  applause  ; 
and  the  great  principles  which  it  con- 
tained and  enforced  wrought  their  way 
into  the  public  mind,  convincing,  enlight- 
ening, and  invigorating  thousands,  pre- 
paratory to  their  coming  forward  to  dis- 
charge their  duty  in  the  sacred  contest 
which  the  true  Church  of  Scotland  has 
ever  waged  in  defence  of  civil  and  reli- 
gious liberty. 

[1813-17.]  Another  plurality  case  oc- 
curred in  the  year  1813.  Mr.  Ferrie, 
professor  of  civil  history  in  St.  Andrews, 
was  presented  to  the  parish  of  Kilcon- 
quhar,  distant  twelve  miles  from  the  uni- 
versity seat.  The  presbytery  refused  to 
sustain  the  presentation,  unless  Mr.  Fer- 
would  assure  them  that  he  would  resign 
his  professorship  immediately  on  being 
settled  in  the  parish.  To  this  he  would 
not  consent,  and  the  matter  was  carried 
by  appeal  to  the  Assembly.  After  a  very 
long  and  animated  debate,  the  sentence 
of  the  presbytery  was  reversed  by  a  ma- 
jority of  five,  in  a  very  full  house.  Al- 
though the  union  of  offices  involving 
non-residence  was  thus  once  more  sanc- 
tioned by  the  strenuous  exertions  of  the 
Moderates,  yet  the  smallness  of  the  ma- 


jority indicated  that  such  abuses  could 
not  much  longer  be  endured.  Next  year 
the  subject  was  brought  before  the  As- 
sembly by  an  overture  from  the  synod  of 
Angus  and  Mearns ;  and  afte*  a  long 
and  full  discussion,  what  is  termed  a 
declaratory  act  was  passed,  declaring  it 
to  be  inconsistent  with  the  constitution 
and  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland  for  any  minister  to  hold  ano- 
ther office  which  necessarily  required 
his  absence  from  his  parish,  and  subject- 
ed him  to  an  authority  that  the  presbytery 
to  which  he  was  a  member  could  not  con- 
trol.* In  the  Assembly  of  1815,  an  ac- 
tempt  was  made  to  alter  the  judgment  of 
the  preceding  year,  on  the  ground  that  it 
was  really  a  new  law:  and  ought  to  have 
been  subject  to  the  regulations  of  the 
Barrier  Act.  This  was  successfully  re- 
sisted ;  but  a  great  outcry  was  raised  by 
the  moderate  party,  who  asserted  that  the 
Assembly  was  violating  the  intrinsic 
rights  of  presbyteries,  and  insisted  that 
the  recent  act  should  be  rescinded,  and 
an  overture  on  the  subject  should  be 
transmitted  to  presbyteries  in  the  usual 
manner.  An  overture  was  accordingly 
framed  by  Dr.  Hill  in  1816,  similar  to 
the  recent  declaratory  act,  which,  after 
passing  the  usual  course,  was  confirmed 
by  the  Assembly  of  1817,  and  became 
a  permanent  law  on  the  subject  of  the 
pluralities,  to  the  extent  of  putting  an 
end  to  every  such  union  of  offices  as  was 
incompatible  with  residence  in  the  parish. 
This  was  so  far  a  reforming  act,  extorted 
from  the  Moderate  party  by  the  growing 
strength  of  evangelism,  and  the  increas- 
ing intelligence  and  enlightenment  of 
the  age. 

But  that  Moderatism  itself  was  not 
improved,  may  be  very  easily  shown  by 
one  or  two  illustrations.  Several  instan- 
ces occurred  about  this  time  of  ministers 
accused  of  drunkenness  and  immorality  ; 
and  although  these  accusations  were  cor- 
roborated by  evidence  sufficient  to  satisfy 
almost  every  impartial  man,  they  were 
explained  away  into  "  alleged  breaches 
of  decorum,"  and  the  culprits  allowed  to 
pass  unpunished.  In  another  case  a 
minister  was  accused  of  criminal  inti- 
macy with  a  female  servant ;  the  ecclesi 
astical  courts  managed  to  find  the  charge 
not  proven,  but  the  civil  court  found  the 

•  Acts  of  Assembly,  year  1814 ;  Scots  Magazine 


388 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


evidence  sufficient  to  entitle  the  woman 
to  legal  support  for  herself  and  her  in- 
fant, which  the  minister  was  obliged  to 
give,  and  still  was  allowed  to  remain  in 
the  spiritual  office,  which  he  held  but  to 
desecrate. 

The  year  1815  is  marked  by  one  in- 
cident, apparently  slight  in  itself,  but 
fraught  with  consequences  the  impor- 
tance of  which  cannot  easily  be  over- 
estimated. In  that  year  was  published 
the  address  of  Dr.  Chalmers  to  the  pa- 
rishioners of  Kilmany,  when  he  left  that 
parish  on  being  translated  to  the  Tron 
Church,  Glasgow.  There  are  circum- 
stances connected  with  that  event,  the 
history  of  which  cannot  yet  be  written. 
But  every  one  who  peruses  needfully 
that  address,  will  mark  the  deep  tone  of 
fervent  evangelical  piety  by  which  it  is 
pervaded ;  and  some  of  clearer  vision 
may  perceive  in  it  traces  of  that  solemn 
and  profound  emotion  which  fills  the 
soul  that  has  recently  been  called  out  of 
darkness  into  God's  marvellous  light, 
and  is  still  tremulous  with  the  fresh  fer- 
vour of  its  new-born  spiritual  life.  From 
that  time  forward  the  world  was  again  to 
see,  as  in  earlier  and  better  days,  how 
great  and  lovely  a  thing  is  genius  of  the 
loftiest  order,  hallowed  by  the  love  of 
God,  and  consecrated  to  His  glory. 

[1820-25.]  In  the  year  1820,  there  oc- 
curred an  instance  of  the  fierce  malignity, 
defeating  its  own  purpose  in  its  blind 
vindictiveness,  which  often  characterizes 
the  conduct  of  a  falling  party.  An  over- 
ture was  introduced  by  Dr.  Bryce,  regard- 
ing the  sharp  and  severe  animadversions 
on  the  conduct  of  the  Moderate  party, 
which  frequently  appeared  in  the  "  Chris- 
tian Instructor."  A  very  animated  dis- 
cussion took  place,  the  galled  party  rising 
into  unusual  eloquence  under  the  stimu- 
lating influence  of  the  castigation  which 
they  had  often  received.  The  motion 
was  carried  by  a  majority  of  one,  but  it 
gave  rise  to  no  ulterior  proceedings.* 
The  voice  of  an  indignant  public  was 
heard,  too  loud  to  be  disregarded  by  even 
that  party  whose  characteristic  it  was  to 
disregard  the  public  voice.  It  might 
have  been  very  convenient  to  hide  in  im- 
penetrable darkness  those  deeds  which 
could  not  bear  the  light ;  but  the  nation 
was  not  prepared  to  suffer  the  liberty  of 
'  Christian  Instructor. 


the  press  to  be  abridged  for  the  accom 
modation  of  those  who  crouched  in  its 
free  presence,  and  shrunk  from  its  indig- 
nant rebuke.  The  Moderate  triumph 
was  a  severe  defeat.  It  showed  at  once 
vindictiveness  and  impotence,  and  caused 
the  loss  of  both  respect  and  dread. 

The  great  question  of  pluralities  came 
again  before  the  General  Assembly  in 
the  year  1824.  It  was  caused  by  the 
appointment  of  Dr.  Macfarlan  to  be  Prin- 
cipal of  the  University  in  Glasgow,  and 
also  minister  of  St.  Mungo's  in  the  same 
city.  This  was  the  first  instance  in  which 
the  propriety  of  a  union  of  offices  in  the 
same  city  or  parish  was  made  the  subject 
of  a  debate  in  the  Assembly.  It  had 
been  strenuously  opposed  in  the  presby- 
tery by  Dr.  Macgill ;  but  a  large  major- 
ity decided  in  favour  of  the  union  when 
the  subject  came  before  the  supreme 
ecclesiastical  court.  It  was,  however, 
generally  believed  that  a  different  result 
might  be  expected,  if  the  question  were 
tried  on  its  general  merits,  apart  from  all 
personal  considerations,  such  as  arise 
when  the  interests  of  individuals  are  con- 
cerned. Eighteen  overtures  on  the  sub- 
ject were  laid  on  the  table  of  the  General 
Assembly  in  1825,  proving  the  deep  in- 
terest with  which  it  was  regarded  by  the 
community  at  large.  A  debate  ensued, 
remarkable  for  the  accurate  research  into 
the  constitutional  history  of  the  Church 
displayed  by  some,  the  grave  and  lofty 
views  of  the  sacredness  and  importance 
of  ministerial  duties  exhibited  by  others, 
and  the  powerful  and  thrilling  eloquence 
of  Chalmers  and  Thomson.*  But  again 
the  power  of  numbers  prevailed  over  the 
power  of  learning,  reason,  genius,  and 
Christian  principle ;  and  a  majority  of 
twenty-six  was  found  to  defend  the  union 
of  professorships  with  parochial  charges 
in  the  seat  of  a  university.  It  deserves 
to  be  remarked,  although  the  observation 
may  seem  to  be  minute,  that  the  Moderate 
party  obtained  their  general  majority  by 
means  of  the  elders,  there  being  a  positive 
majority  of  four  ministers  against  plurali- 
ties. This  fact  was  not  unnoticed  by  the 
public,  who  did  not  fail  to  mark  on  which 
side  of  the  Church  they  were  to  look  for 
persona]  disinterestedness  and  a  high 
sense  of  duty  in  the  discharge  of  their 

*  Debates  on  the  Plurality  Question,  years  1825  and 
1826. 


A.  D.  1830.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


389 


sacred  functions.  Nor  will  it  be  thought 
strange,  that  the  elders  should  have  so 
generally  voted  on  the  Moderate  side, 
when  it  is  remembered  how,  and  for  what 
purpose,  that  party  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  making  Assembly  elders.  The  spirit 
of  the  evangelical  and  reforming  party 
was  not,  however,  broken  by  this  defeat. 
Sixteen  overtures  on  the  subject  brought 
it  again  before  the  Assembly  of  1826, 
and  another  able  and  brilliant  debate  took 
place.  But  a  strong  exertion  had  been 
made  by  the  Moderate  party,  their  full 
strength  was  mustered,  and  they  obtained 
a  majority  of  fifty-four.  This  was  the 
last  debate  on  the  subject.  A  royal  com- 
mission for  visiting  the  universities  of 
Scotland  having  been  appointed,  the  two 
parties  in  the  Church  agreed  to  suspend 
the  desperate  struggle,  and  to  await  the 
decision  of  the  commission.  To  this  the 
Evangelical  party  might  well  consent ; 
for  public  opinion  had  already  expressed 
itself  decisively  against  such  a  union  of 
offices  as  rendered  it  absolutely  impossi- 
ble for  the  person  who  held  them  to  dis- 
charge adequately  the  important  duties  of 
both.  The  opinion  of  the  royal  commis- 
sion was  at  length  given,  and  almost  in 
the  very  terms  of  the  motions  which  the 
Evangelical  party  had  so  long  and  strenu- 
ously advocated  in  the  Assembly.*  Thus 
one  fundamental  principle  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland  was  again  revived  and  en- 
forced, greatly  to  the  discomfiture  and 
dismay  of  that  unconstitutional  party 
which  had  so  long  held  a  usurped  do- 
mimon  over  the  Church,  and  with  the 
usual  policy  of  usurpers,  had  striven  to 
misinterpret  those  laws  which  could  not 
be  concealed,  and  to  conceal  those  that 
could  not  be  misinterpreted.  And  as 
each  successive  great  principle  was 
brought  anew  to  light  by  the  true  and 
fearless  defenders  of  Scotland's  ancient 
Church,  a  fresh  vitality  was  poured  into 
the  nation's  heart,  a  new  intelligence 
enlightened  the  public  mind,  and  like  an 
iceberg  pierced  by  the  sunbeams  and 
wasted  by  the  rush  of  living  waters,  the 
cold  fabric  of  Moderatism  swayed  heavily, 
and  tottered  to  its  fall. 

[1826-30.]  It  has  been  already  stated, 
that  the  infusion  of  evangelical  principles 
into  even  the  Moderate  party  tended 
greatly  to  cause  the  overthrow  of  Mode- 

*  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission. 


ratism  as  a  system  ;  and  Dr.  Hardy  and 
Dr.  Hill  have  been  mentioned  as  having 
been  greatly  instrumental  in  promoting 
this  better  spirit  among  their  party.  To 
their  respected  names  must  be  added  those 
of  Dr.  William  Ritchie,  Dr.  Nicoll,  and 
especially  Dr.  Inglis,  all  of  whom  taught 
evangelical  doctrine,  although  they  sup- 
ported the  general  course  of  Moderate 
church  policy.  To  Dr.  Inglis  is  especial 
honour  due,  as  the  man  by  whom  was 
first  proposed,  matured,  and  carried  into 
effect,  that  measure  on  which  so  much  of 
the  Divine  blessing  has  conspicuously 
rested,  the  Church  of  Scotland's  Mission 
to  India.  And  it  is  with  peculiar  delight 
that  this  brief  tribute  of  respect  and  gra- 
titude is  paid  to  the  memory  of  one  who 
was  distinguished  by  remarkable  clear- 
ness and  soundness  of  judgment,  candour, 
sincerity,  and  frankness  of  mind,  and  a 
calm  personal  piety,  deepening  as  he 
grew  near  the  close  of  his  life,  and  ren- 
dering his  last  years  both  the  loveliest  and 
the  best.*  So  early  as  the  year  1818, 
the  attention  of  Dr.  Inglis  had  been  di- 
rected to  the  subject  of  missions,  and  his 
enlightened  mind  speedily  detected  the 
unchristian  character  of  the  opinions 
promulgated  respecting  it  by  the  Moder- 
ate leaders  of  1 796.  In  1 824  he  brought 
the  matter  publicly  before  the  Assembly, 
and  the  weight  of  his  character,  and  the 
position  which  he  occupied,  at  once 
secured  for  it  a  degree  of  attention  from 
both  sides  of  the  Church,  which  it  could 
not  otherwise  have  easily  obtained.  There 
is  no  reason  to  doubt,  that  if  it  had  been 
brought  forward  by  one  of  the  Evangeli- 
cal side,  it  would  have  met  immediate  and 
strong  opposition ;  but  the  wisdom  of 
Providence  was  clearly  shown  in  prepar- 
ing a  leader  of  the  Moderate  party  to  be 
the  first  advocate  of  a  measure  of  such  a 
Christian  character,  and  respecting  which 
it  was  so  exceedingly  desirable  that  there 
should  be  no  dissentions  in  a  Christian 
Church.  In  1825,  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  consider  and  report  on  the  sub- 
ject; and  in  1826,  a  "  Pastoral  Address 
to  the  People  of  Scotland,"  from  the  pen 
of  Dr.  Inglis,  appeared,  and  tended  pow. 

*  It  deserves  to  be  stated  to  the  honour  of  Dr.  Inglis, 
that  in  the  rase  of  North  Leith  he  declared,  that,  ac- 
cording to  the  Constitution  of  the  Church,  ordination 
to  the  pastoral  office  proceeded  upon  the  Call  alone, 
and  that  the  presentation  of  a  patron  had  no  further  ef- 
fect than  securing  a  legal  right  to  the  fruits  of  the  bene- 
fice. 


390 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


erfully  to  direct  the  attention  of  the  king- 
dom to  the  sacred  duty  of  propagating  the 
gospel  among  the  heathen,  and  especially 
in  India.  Collections  were  made  and 
subscriptions  obtained,  till  a  sufficient  fund 
was  raised  to  enable  the  committee  to  pro- 
ceed with  their  holy  enterprise ;  and  at 
length,  in  1829,  Dr.  Duff,  the  first  mis- 
sionary ever  sent  forth  by  any  national 
Protestant  Church,  in  its  corporate  char- 
acter, left  his  native  land,  commissioned 
by  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland 
to  convey  to  India  the  light  of  gospel 
truth,  and  to  offer  for  her  acceptance  the 
simple,  pure,  efficient,  and  most  truly 
apostolic  form  of  Christianity,  which  is 
the  glory  and  the  strength  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church.*  It  is  but  an  act  of 
justice  to  the  memory  of  a  great  and  far- 
seeing  man  to  state,  that  to  a  suggestion 
made  by  Dr.  M'Crie,  at  a  public  meeting 
held  in  Edinburgh  in  the  year  1813,  and 
taken  up  and  prosecuted  with  character- 
istic energy  by  Sir  Henry  MoncreifF,  was 
the  Church  of  Scotland  indebted  for  a 
share  of  legal  countenance  and  support 
in  India,  without  which  she  could  not 
have  sent  forth  her  celebrated  India  Mis- 
sion, in  her  corporate  character  as  a  Na- 
tional Church.f 

Several  events  of  great  importance, 
partly  in  a  religious  and  partly  in  a  na- 
tional point  of  view,  occurred  during  this 
period,  and  would  deserve  to  be  fully 
stated,  were  they  not  so  recent  that  they 
must  still  be  fresh  in  the  recollection  of 
the  public.  Of  these,  the  first  in  point 
of  time  was  the  Apocrypha  Controversy, 
which  arose  in  consequence  of  the  Bri- 
tish and  Foreign  Bible  Society  having 
been  led  to  violate  one  of  its  fundamental 
conditions,  the  circulation  of  the  pure 
Bible,  without  note  or  comment.  The 
directors,  induced  by  considerations  of 
expediency,  consented  to  permit  the  Apo- 
crypha to  be  inserted  in  the  Bible,  pre- 
faces to  be  prefixed,  and  other  violations 
of  the  fundamental  condition  to  be  com- 
mitted, in  the  hope  that  Romanists  and 
others  might  accept  the  Bible  in  that 
vitiated  state,  who  would  have  rejected  it 
in  its  purity.:):  Against  this  sinful  com- 
promise the  Edinburgh  committee  remon- 

*  Acts  of  Assembly ;  Dr.  Duff  on  India  and  India  mis- 
sions, pp.  476-491. 

t  Life  of  Dr.  M'Crie,  pp.  201-204. 

t  See  pamphlets  on  the  Apocrypha  Controversy ;  and 
Christian  Instructor. 


strated,  but  without  effect.  A  controversy 
arose  on  the  subject,  which  soon  became 
in  reality  a  contest  between  expediency 
and  principle.  In  this  controversy  Dr. 
Andrew  Thomson  stood  forth  the  fearless 
and  mighty  champion  of  sacred  truth,  not 
quite  alone,  but  first  without  a  second, 
discomfiting  every  antagonist  that  dared 
the  encounter.  His  exertions  were  per- 
fectly marvellous  for  several  successive 
years  ;  and  were  a  fair  estimate  made, 
they  would  prove  to  be  equal,  if  not  su- 
perior, to  those  made  by  any  man  in  any 
department  of  mental  labour  within  as 
short  a  time.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that 
his  excessive  labours  in  that  great  cause 
hastened  him,  prematurely  for  his  country 
and  the  Church,  in  the  fifty-second  year 
of  his  age,  to  the  abodes  of  everlasting  rest 
and  peace.  The  public  mind  was  during 
the  same  period  powerfully  directed  to- 
wards the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  West 
India  Islands  ;  and  in  this  truly  Christian 
object  Dr.  Thompson  earned  peculiar  dis- 
tinction, especially  by  one  speech  in  which 
his  eloquence  rose  to  a  pitch  of  grandeur 
and  sublimity  such  as  has  been  rarely 
equalled.  Another  event  of  this  singu- 
larly energetic  time,  fertile  in  producing 
the  elements  both  of  evil  and  of  good, 
must  also  be  mentioned.  In  the  year 
1829,  a  bill  passed  the  British  legisla- 
ture, and  received  the  ratification  of  the 
sovereign,  removing  all  the  civil  disabili* 
ties  to  which  the  adherents  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  had  been  subjected,  and  render- 
ing them  eligible  to  any  office  of  the 
State,  with  the  exceptions  only  of  the 
Lord  Chancellorship  and  the  Crown  it- 
self Into  any  discussion  respecting  the 
merits  or  demerits  of  this  measure  it  is 
scarcely  our  province,  and  not  our  pre- 
sent intention,  to  enter,  both  because  it 
was  the  act  of  the  State,  not  of  the  Church, 
and  because  its  full  effects  upon  the  char- 
acter and  prospects  of  the  nation  have  not 
yet  been  developed,  although  they  have 
assumed  an  ominous  aspect. 

[1831.]  The  year  183l'  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  commencement  of  a  great 
era,  both  in  the  ecclesiastical  and  in  the 
civil  history  of  the  empire.  To  the  civil 
history,  we  make  no  further  allusion  than 
merely  to  state,  that  the  passing  of  the 
Reform  Bill  gave  an  impulse  to  the  pub- 
lic mind,  which  sent  it  rushing  with  irre- 
sistible force  into  every  channel  of  thought 


A.  D.  1831.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND, 


391 


and  mental  enterprise.  From  that  time 
it  was  manifest,  that  no  public  institution, 
civil  or  sacred,  could  be  long  in  a  state  of 
safety,  which  could  not  stand  the  most 
searching  scrutiny,  and  which  did  not 
possess  in  itself  a  vital  principle,  that 
could  give  it  spontaneous  movement  and 
ready  adaptation  to  the  spirit  of  the  age. 
In  what  manner  this  was  shown  in  poli- 
tical matters,  let  the  civil  historian  record: 
our  own  province  demands  our  undivided 
attention. 

On  the  9th  of  February  1831,  Dr. 
Andrew  Thompson  was  suddenly  called 
to  rest  from  his  mighty  toils  ;  and  the 
heart  of  Scotland  was  stunned  with  her 
great  and  unexpected  loss.  The  universal 
sorrow  of  the  nation  bore  testimony  to 
his  great  and  varied  excellencies :  the 
impress  of  his  character  and  opinions 
stamped  on  society  is  his  memorial. 

The  Assembly  of  that  year  had  to  dis- 
charge the  painful  duty  of  deposing  Mr. 
Campbell,  minister  of  the  parish  of  Row, 
on  account  of  his  holding  and  teaching 
the  heretical  doctrine  of  universal  redemp- 
tion, together  with  several  other  erro- 
neous tenets.  The  same  Assembly  de- 
prived Mr.  M'Lean  of  his  license  as  a 
probationer,  because  he  publicly  avowed 
and  preached  doctrines  respecting  the 
human  nature  of  the  Divine  Redeemer, 
similar  to  those  held  by  the  lamented 
Edward  Irving.  As  these  heretical  opin- 
ions did  not.  long  continue  to  spread  in 
the  Church,  and^  have  since  sunk  into 
comparative  oblivion,  it  does  not  seem 
either  necessary  or  desirable  to  offer  any 
further  remarks  concerning  them,  except 
to  state,  that  while  these  men  diverged 
unhappily  into  deplorable  errors,  in  con- 
sequence of  their  fervent  but  ill-regulated 
zeal,  their  personal  characters  were  un- 
impeachable, their  piety  was  warm  and 
earnest,  and  they  were  generally  regarded 
with  equal  pity  and  esteem. 

The  attention  of  the  public  mind  began 
about  this  time  to  be  strongly  directed  to 
what  has  been  termed  the  Voluntary  con- 
troversy. The  subject  had  indeed  been 
so  far  silently  working  its  way  into  the 
minds  of  many  iuring  a  period  of  more 
ihan  thirty  years  ;  but  it  had  hitherto 
attracted  little  attention,  and  it  was  only 
now  that,  under  the  strong  impulse  given 
to  every  topic  of  real  or  speculative  in- 


terest, its  demands  became  too  loud  and 
urgent  to  be  any  longer  unheard  or  dis- 
regarded. A  few  preliminary  remarks 
are  necessary  to  render  this  subject  of 
controversy  at  once  simple  and  intel- 
ligible. 

It  has  not  been  considered  necessary  to 
advert  particularly  to  the  history  of  the 
Secession  Church  of  Scotland  subsequent 
to  the  formation  of  that  new  body  which 
assumed  the  name  of  the  Relief.  A  very 
brief  statement  of  a  few  leading  topics 
must  now  be  given,  as  necessary  to  a  clear 
view  of  the  subject.  In  1747,  the  Seces- 
sion was  divided  into  two  parties,  by  a 
controversy  about  the  oath  taken  by  bur- 
gesses ;  which  two  parties  were  generally 
known  by  the  names  of  Burghers  and 
Antiburghers.*  Both  parties  continued 
to  adhere  to  the  Act  and  Testimony  of  the 
first  Seceders,  though  divided  into  two 
distinct  synods ;  and  as  the  dominant 
Moderate  party  in  the  National  Church 
persevered  in  that  course  of  defection  in 
doctrine,  government,  and  discipline, 
which  had  caused  the  Secession,  this 
division,  instead  of  weakening  the  Sece- 
ders, actually  contributed  to  weaken  the 
Church,  in  consequence  of  the  new  op- 
portunities afforded  and  inducements  held 
forth  to  draw  men  of  all  shades  of  opinion 
from  the  communion  of  a  Church,  whose 
leaders  seemed  to  take  a  peculiar  pleasure 
in  despising  and  insulting  the  people. 
This  conduct  of  the  Moderate  party 
caused  both  synods  of  the  already  es- 
tranged and  alienated  Secession  to  begin 
to  question  whether  the  tyranny  and  cor- 
ruption of  the  Church  might  not  be 
directly  ascribed  to  her  connection  with 
the  State,  which  seemed  to  lead  to  the 
infusion  of  a  baneful  secularizing  in- 
fluence, and  might  be  thought  to  give 
undue  power  to  the  civil  magistrate  in 
religious  matters.  But  as  the  constitution 
of  the  Church,  to  which  by  their  Act  and 
Testimony  they  still  adhered,  maintained 
not  only  the  lawfulness  of  religious  es- 
tablishments, but  also  the  duty  of  the  civil 
magistrate  to  establish  a  national  religious 
institution,  they  began,  almost  at  the 
same  time  in  each  synod,  to  give  a  quali- 
fied assent  to  their  own  standards,  and  to 
subscribe  them  with  evasive  explanations, 
which  was  soon  felt  to  be  equally  din- 

•  Gib's  Display,  vol.  ii. 


392 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X 


gerous  and  irksome,  not  to  say  inconsis- 
tent with  honest  integrity  of  heart  and 
mind. 

This  change  of  sentiment  made  its 
first  appearance  in  a  pamphlet,  published 
by  a  member  of  the  Burgher  Synod  about 
the  year  1780;  and  ha ving"  gradually 
gained  ground  in  that  body,  it  was 
brought  before  them  publicly  at  their 
synodical  meeting  in  May  1795,  in  a 
petition  that  acknowledged  the  change, 
and  requested  that  the  language  of  the 
Confession  of  Faith  and  Formula  might 
be  so  far  altered  as  to  be  rendered  more 
consistent  with  the  opinions  entertained 
by  a  large  proportion  of  the  members. 
A  strong  opposition  was  made  to  this 
proposal  by  several  of  the  most  respecta- 
ble ministers,  among  whom  Mr.  Willis 
of  Greenock  distinguished  himself  by  the 
prominent  and  decided  part  which  he 
took  in  defence  of  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples which  all  had  subscribed.  The 
innovation,  however,  went  on ;  a  modified 
formula  was  proposed,  and,  after  some 
delay,  ratified  by  the  Synod,  in  accor- 
dance with  the  new  views  of  the  majority. 
A  small  minority  dissented,  withdrew 
from  the  innovating  party,  formed  them- 
selves into  a  presbytery  in  1799,  and  be- 
came known  by  the  designation  of  the 
Old  Light  Burghers.* 

A  similar  innovating  process  was  about 
the  same  time  going  on  in  the  Anti- 
burgher  synod,  though  it  does  not  appear 
either  to  have  begun  or  to  have  been  op- 
posed so  early ;  and  as  it  produced  cor- 
responding results,  and  has  attracted  more 
attention  in  consequence  of  the  subsequent 
celebrity  of  one  distinguished  man,  to 
whose  great  mental  power  it  was  the 
means  of  first  directing  public  notice,  it 
must  be  somewhat  more  fully  stated.  In 
order  to  escape  from  the  unpleasant  and 
scarcely  honourable  state  of  matters  in 
which  subscription  of  their  standards,  ac- 
companied with  evasive  explanations,  in- 
volved them,  it  was  proposed  in  the  Anti- 
burgher  Synod,  that  the  Testimony  should 
be  enlarged,  and  so  far  modified  as  to 
adapt  it  to  the  altered  circumstances 
which  a  series  of  years  had  produced.! 
The  enlarging  and  modifying  process 
thus  begun,  led  to  results  which  could 

*  Little  Naphtali,  by  the  Rev.  W.  Willis,  Greenock. 
See  also  Appendix  to  the  Judicial  Testimony,  published 
by  the  Old  Light  Burghers,  1800. 

tLifeofDr  fo'Crie,  pp.  45,  46. 


scarcely  have  been  contemplated  by  those 
who  proposed  it.  The  minds  of  those 
who  were  engaged  in  this  attempt 
diverged  further  and  further  from  their 
original  position,  as  they  proceeded  in 
their  task ;  and  the  result  was,  the  pro- 
duction of  a  new  work,  which  was  desig- 
nated, "  The  Narrative  and  Testimony." 
This  was,  however,  the  work  of  years, 
and  was  not  finally  adopted,  so  as  to  su- 
persede the  original  Testimony,  till  the 
year  1804,  although  the  outline  of  the 
work  received  the  sanction  of  the  Synod,  in 
the  form  of  an  overture,  in  the  year  1793. 
An  act  of  Synod  was  passed  in  1796,  the 
tenor  of  which  indicated  darkly  that  the 
Secession  Church  was  on  the  point  of 
abandoning  the  principles  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  and  consequently  of  their 
own  founders,  who  seceded  expressly  for 
the  purpose  of  the  more  strenuously  as- 
serting those  principles.  Some  of  the 
ablest  and  best  ministers  of  the  Secession 
perceived  the  danger  of  these  proceed- 
ings, and  strove  earnestly  to  stem  the  tide 
of  defection  which  was  rapidly  drifting 
the  great  body  of  their  Church  into  a 
contradiction  of  their  own  acts  and  stand- 
ards. But  all  their  remonstrances  and 
protests  were  ineffectual.  In  May  1804, 
the  Synod  enacted  their  Narrative  and 
Testimony  into  a  term  of  communion. 
In  August  1 806,  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Bruce, 
Aitken,  Hog,  and  M'Crie,  formally  aban- 
doned their  connection  with  the  Synod, 
and  constituted  themselves  into  a  presby- 
tery, assuming  the  name  of  the  Constitu- 
tional Associate  Presbytery.  The  Synod 
deposed  their  more  honest  and  conscien- 
tious brethren  without  delay,  and  even 
passed  sentence  of  excommunication  upon 
Dr.  M'Crie,  probably  as  being  the  most 
distinguished  and  forminable  opponent 
of  their  defections.  In  1807,  that  gifted 
and  high-principled  man  published  a 
"  Statement  of  the  Difference"  between 
the  original  Testimony  of  the  first  Sece- 
ders  and  the  new  production  of  their 
descendants,  proving  beyond  all  doubt 
that  they  had  abandoned  their  principles, 
and  adopted  others  pregnant  with  danger 
to  the  civil  and  religious  peace  and  wel- 
fare of  the  kingdom.  This  very  valuable 
production  made  comparatively  little  im- 
pression on  the  public  mind  when  it  first 
appeared,  as  the  deep  importance  of  the 
subject  was  scarcely  perceived  beyond 


A.  D.  1831.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


393 


the  limits  of  the  Secession  ;  but  no  work 
which  has  since  been  published  on  the 
Voluntary  controversy  will  more  amply 
repay  a  studious  perusal.*  To  close 
these  preliminary  remarks :  In  1820,  the 
two  parties  of  Seceders,  the  Burghers  and 
Antiburghers,  again  commenced  the  work 
of  enlargement  and  compromise,  aban- 
doned some  more  of  their  original  princi- 
ples, opened  their  views  more  fully  on 
the  subject  of  hostility  to  all  national  es- 
tablishments of  religion,  and  combining 
on  this  basis,  formed  themselves  into  one 
body,  under  the  name  of  the  United  Se- 
cession. Such  was  the  condition  of  the 
Scottish  Seceders,  who  had  gradually 
abandoned  their  principles  and  become 
Dissenters,  when  the  popular  movements 
which  were  taking  place  throughout  the 
kingdom  encouraged  them  to  bring 
prominently  before  the  public  those  senti- 
ments which  had  been  long  maturing  in 
secret,  and  for  which  they  now  began  to 
expect  an  early  and  complete  triumph. 
Indications  of  this  intention  were  given 
from  time  to  time  for  several  years ;  but 
it  was  not  till  1830,  or  rather  1 831,  that 
the  discussion  respecting  the  lawfulness 
of  a  civil  establishment  of  religion,  in  the 
form  of  a  National  Churcb,  assumed  the 
grave  aspect  of  a  public  controversy ;  and 
it  was  not  till  1832  that  it  became  suffi- 
ciently important  to  draw  into  the  contest 
the  leading  men  both  of  the  Secession 
and  of  the  Church.  Speedily,  however, 
it  reached  such  a  degree  of  intensity  as 
to  engage  the  attention  of  the  whole 
kingdom,  and  to  make  it  evident,  that 
upon  the  decision  of  this  great  question 
would  depend  the  peace  and  stability  of 
the  British  empire. 

It  will  not  be  expected  that  any  thing 
more  than  a  very  brief  summary  of  the 
chief  points  discussed  in  this  great  con- 
troversy should  be  given  here.  And  in 
attempting  such  a  summary  it  shall  be 
our  endeavour  to  state  nothing  but  what 
belongs  to  the  very  essence  of  the  contro- 
versy. The  subject  matter  of  the  contro- 
versy, when  divested  of  every  thing  ex- 
traneous, was  simply  this,  "  Whether  or 
not  it  be  the  duty  of  the  State  to  give 
support  and  countenance  to  Christianity, 
by  establishing  and  endowing  a  national 
institution  for  the  purpose  of  imparting 

*  The  whole  of  this  subject  is  very  clearly  stated  in 
(he  Life  of  Dr.  M'Crie,  by  his  Son. 

50 


to  the  whole  body  of  the  community  in- 
struction in  the  faith  and  practice  of  the 
gospel  ?"  Those  who  were  opposed  to 
all  religious  establishments,  were  of 
course  bound  to  take  the  negative  side  of 
this  proposition,  and  to  attempt  to  prove, 
that  it  was  not  the  duty  of  the  State  to  iu» 
terfere  in  religious  matters,  even  in  the 
slightest  degree,  either  by  supporting 
truth  or  repressing  falsehood.  Very  few 
of  them,  however,  were  willing  to  occupy 
the  position  of  maintaining  a  theory  which 
clearly  involved  national  infidelity  and 
atheism,  by  the  total  exclusion  of  religion 
from  the  civil  and  legislative  character 
of  the  nation.  Those  who  did  approach 
most  closely  to  the  central  principle  of 
the  controversy,  endeavoured  to  evade 
that  conclusion,  by  giving  such  definitions 
of  Church  and  State  as  might  seem  to 
show  the  impossibility  of  any  connection 
between  them  which  did  not  involve  the 
most  pernicious  consequences.  They 
were  careful  to  maintain,  that  the  power 
competent  to  states  is  "  wholly  temporal, 
respecting  only  the  secular  interests  of 
society ;  and  they  seemed  to  think,  that 
any  possible  connection  which  the  civil 
magistrate  could  have  with  religion  could 
only  lead  to  its  persecution  or  its  corrup- 
tion. Their  opponents  both  denied  the 
correctness  of  this  definition  of  civil  ma- 
gistracy, and  rejected  the  conclusion 
which  was  attempted  to  be  deduced  from 
it. 

The  defenders  of  national  establish- 
ments' of  religion  assumed  far  higher 
grounds  than  their  opponents.  They 
held  civil  magistracy  to  be  an  ordinance 
of  God,  whether  viewed  in  the  light  of 
natural,  or  in  that  of  revealed  religion ; 
rendering  it  the  imperative  duty  of  kings 
and  states  to  maintain  and  promote,  in 
their  public  and  official  character,  the 
true  and  pure  worship  of  Him  to  whom 
all  power  belongs,  from  whom  they  de- 
rive their  station  and  authority,  to  whom 
they  must  render  an  account  of  all  their 
conduct,  public  as  well  as  private,  and 
whom  they  are  bound  to  recognise  and 
revere  as  the  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of 
lords.  This  they  held  to  be  the  first  and 
highest  duty  of  the  civil  magistrate,  even 
antecedent  to  any  express  revelation. 
But  God,  the  ruler  and  judge  of  the  uni- 
verse, having  revealed  his  will  to  man, 
the  next  point  of  inquiry  necessarily  was, 


394 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


whether  in  that  revealed  will  there  could 
be  found  any  statements  calculated  to 
modify  or  set  aside  this  primary  law  or 
civil  magistracy.  There  it  was  found, 
that,  under  the  Mosaic  dispensation,  the 
duty  of  kings  and  states  to  maintain  and 
promote  the  worship  of  God  was  most 
strongly  and  explicitly  declared ;  and 
when  their  opponents  endeavoured  to  set 
aside  the  arguments  deduced  from  the 
Old  Testament  dispensation,  on  the 
ground  that  its  regulations  were  no  longer 
binding  under  Christianity,  this  was  an- 
swered, first,  by  the  universally  admitted 
principle,  that  what  God  had  enacted  no 
inferior  authority  could  repeal ;  and  that, 
therefore,  all  the  enactments  of  the  Mosaic 
dispensation  must  be  still  binding,  unless 
it  could  be  shown  that  the.y  were  either 
so  manifestly  typical  as  to  have  terminated 
by  fulfilment,  or  had  been  expressly  re- 
vealed in  the  gospel;  secondly,  by  pro- 
ducing from  the  gospel  dispensation  itself 
such  statements  respecting  the  duties  of 
the  civil  magistrate  as  it  was  manifestly 
impossible  for  him  to  discharge,  without 
giving  his  direct  sanction  and  authorita- 
tive support  to  Christianity. 

They  further  argued,  that  it  was  im- 
possible for  the  civil  magistrate  to  per- 
form his  own  peculiar  duties  without  the 
support  of  true  religion  ;  that  the  true 
welfare  of  the  nation,  which  it  was  his 
duty  to  promote,  depended  upon  its  moral 
purity,  and  the  rectitude,  impartiality,  and 
humanity  of  its  laws  ;  and  that  the  only 
effectual  method  of  promoting  moral 
purity  was  to  be  found  in  the  propagation 
of  the  gospel,  and  the  only  sure  guide  in 
framing  just,  equal,  and  humane  laws, 
was  the  Word  of  God.  Hence  it  followed, 
that  the  first  and  most  imperative  duty 
of  the  civil  magistrate,  even  when  seeking 
to  promote  the  physical,  mental  and 
moral  welfare  of  the  communiiy,  was  to 
provide  for  and  offer  to  the  whole  body 
of  the  nation,  the  means  of  instruction  in 
the  knowledge  of  the  only  living  and  true 
God,  and  of  Christ  Jesus,  whom  he  hath 
sent  to  redeem,  regenerate,  and  save  man- 
kind from  sin  and  misery.  It  was  not 
difficult  to  show  that,  in  discharging  this 
duty,  the  civil  magistrate  was  not  entitled 
to  use  his  power  in  any  manner  that 
might  amount  to  persecution,  both  be- 
cause his  duty  was  fulfilled  by  providing 
and  offering  the  means  of  national  reli- 


gious instruction,  and  because  in  support- 
ing Christianity,  he  supports  a  religion 
which  pleads,  entreats,  persuades,  but 
cannot  and  will  not  persecute, — whose 
power  resides  not  in  the  sword,  but  in  the 
gentle  and  gracious  influence  of  heavenly 
love. 

But  the  main  arguments  used  by  the 
assailants  of  religious  establishments  were 
of  a  secondary  character,  not  reaching 
the  essence  of  the  controversy,  fallacious 
in  their  own  nature,  and  inconclusive, 
even  if  they  could  have  been  proved  to  be 
true  so  far  as  they  reached.  They  de- 
claimed loudly,  that  it  was  the  duty  of  all 
Christians  to  give  voluntary  support  to 
Christianity ;  and  from  this  undisputed 
proposition  they  deduced  two  very  strange 
and  illogical  conclusions, — that  no  other 
method  of  providing  support  for  the  pub- 
lic teachers  of  religion  was  permissible, 
— and  that  this  was  perfectly  adequate  to 
the  necessities  of  the  nation.  They  con- 
founded the  right  of  the  pastor  to  be  sup- 
ported, with  the  duty  of  the  people  to  sup- 
port him  ;  and  they  virtually  maintained 
the  manifest  absurdity,  that  what  was  the 
duty  of  each  Christian  in  the  nation  in- 
dividually, was  not  the  duty  of  the  whole 
as  a  Christian  nation  collectively.  Their 
other  conclusion  was  resolvable  into  a 
mere  question  of  facts.  No  one  denied 
that  it  was  the  duty  of  all  Christians  to 
aid  in  propagating  the  gospel;  but  the 
defenders  of  national  endowments  as- 
serted, that  without  a  national  fund  ap- 
plied for  the  support  of  ministers  in  poor 
and  immoral  localities,  there  would  be  a 
large  proportion  of  the  population  left 
destitute  of  religious  instruction,  partly 
because  too  poor  to  provide  it  for  them- 
selves, and  partly  because  too  immoral 
and  irreligious  to  have  any  regard  for  it. 
The  correctness  of  this  view  was  easily 
tried  by  the  test  of  statistical  investigation : 
and  from  the  inquiries  made  by  a  royal 
commission  appointed  for  that  purpose, 
it  appeared,  that  there  were  at  least 
five  hundred  thousand  souls  in  Scotland 
totally  destitute  of  the  means  of  religious 
instruction,  notwithstanding  the  exertions 
of  the  Established  Church,  and  the  sup- 
plemental aid  of  all  who  held  the  Volun- 
tary principle,  and  were  at  liberty  to  em- 
ploy all  the  energies  which  they  declared 
it  to  possess.  Churchmen  always  said 
"  We  are  eager  to  accept  all  the  voluntary 


A.  D.  1831.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


395 


aid  from  private  Christian  liberality 
which  we  can  obtain  j  and  where  that 
falls  short,  we  call  upon  a  patriotic  and 
enlightened  Christian  legislature  to  sup- 
ply the  deficiency,  by  contributing  to  send 
the  bread  of  life  to  thousands  who  are 
perishing  for  lack  of  spiritual  know- 
ledge." 

As  the  advocates  of  the  Voluntary 
principle  could  not  deny  the  proved 
spiritual  destitution,  they  attempted  to 
evade  the  obvious  inference,  namely,  that 
their  favourite  principle  was  not  so 
powerful  as  they  affirmed,  by  boldly  de- 
claring, that  the  very  existence  of  reli- 
gious establishments  was  the  cause  of 
that  inefficiency  in  the  Voluntary  princi- 
ple which  could  not  be  denied  ;  hazard- 
ing the  paradoxical  assertion,  that  civil 
establishments  of  Christianity  had  been 
the  direct  source  of  all  the  errors  which 
had  corrupted  the  Church,  paralyzed  its 
exertions,  and  impeded  its  propagation 
throughout  the  world.  In  this  respect 
the  controversy  assumed  a  historical 
character  ;  and  it  was  soon  triumphantly 
proved,  that  almost  every  one  of  the  most 
deadly  errors  that  have  crept  into  the 
Church  had  its  origin  in  a  period  long 
before  Christianity  was  established, — 
nay,  that  many  of  them  sprang  directly 
out  of  the  felt  defects  of  the  Voluntary 
system  itself,  and  might  never  have  exist- 
ed had  there  been  an  adequate  establish- 
ment in  an  earlier  age.  A  minor  de- 
partment of  the  same  question  furnished 
much  scope  for  violent  declamation 
against  the  abuses  of  all  establishments. 
This  was  likely  to  be  a  popular  theme, 
and  was  therefore  much  employed  by  the 
subordinate  controversialists ;  for  all 
those  of  a  higher  -order  of  mind  were 
aware  that  no  argument,  founded  mere- 
ly on  the  abuse  of  any  thing,  can  be  con- 
clusively against  its  proper  use. 

But  by  the  more  intelligent  opponents 
of  the  Church  an  attempt  was  made  to 
bring  essentially  the  same  argument  for- 
ward in  another  aspect,  in  which  they 
asserted,  "  That  in  every  Established 
Church,  the  very  fact  of  entering  into  an 
alliance  with  the  State  involved  such 
sacrifice  of  the  spiritual  independence  of 
the  Church,  as  to  render  it  incapable  of 
exercising  that  freedom  of  governmen 
and  purity  of  discipline  which  are  abso 
lutely  essential  to  any  Church  of  Chris 


vhich  deserves  the  name."  If  it  had 
>een  actually  proved  that  there  did  not 
xist  any  Established  Church  which  had 
lot  incurred  the  loss  of  due  spiritual  in 
lependence,  that  would  not  have  proved 
hat  there  could  not  be  an  Establishment 
vithout  the  sacrifice  of  spiritual  indepen- 
dence. For  it  was  not  difficult  to  show, 
)y  analyzing  the  nature  of  Church  and 
State  till  their  simplest  elements  were 
reached,  and  pointing  out  the  respective 
provinces  and  duties  of  each,  that  they 
might  be  of  great  mutual  support  and 
aid  to  each  other,  without  either  of  them 
n  the  slightest  degree  yielding  up  that 
which  was  peculiar  to  itself,  or  encroach- 
ng  on  what  belonged  rightfully  to  the 
other  ;  and  even,  that  any  encroachment 
of  the  one  upon  the  other's  province 
would  inevitably  not  only  inflict  injury 
upon  the  aggrieved,  but  would  also  recoil 
upon  the  aggressor  in  some  form  at  least 
equally  calamitous.  If  the  Church  in- 
vade the  functions  of  the  State,  that  leads 
to  Popery  ;  if  the  State  invade  those  of 
the  Church,  that  is  Erastianism ;  and  in 
either  case,  both  Church  and  State  in- 
flict and  sustain  mutual  and  heavy  injury. 
And  appealing  to  facts,  it  was  shown, 
that  the  Church  of  Scotland  occupied  the 
medium  between  these  two  extremes,  in 
her  connection  with  the  State,  neither  en- 
croaching upon  its  functions,  nor  sur- 
rendering her  own  spiritual  independence 
as  a  Church  of  Christ.  This  reference 
to  the  condition  and  character  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  was  somewhat  less 
conclusive  than  it  would  otherwise  have 
been  in  consequence  of  the  secular  policy 
so  long  pursued  by  the  unconstitutional 
Moderate  party,  which  was  undeniably 
Erastian ;  but  the  course  of  reformation 
which  had  been  in  progress  for  several 
years,  the  rapid  increase  of  Evangelism, 
and  the  resuscitations  of  the  true  constitu- 
tional principles  of  the  Presbyterian 
church  government  and  discipline  which 
had  taken  place,  were  more  than  suffi- 
cient to  neutralize  any  objection  drawn 
from  the  long  domination  of  Modera- 
tism  ;  and  it  was  felt  by  the  public,  and 
even  by  the  ablest  Voluntaries  themselves 
that  equally  in  principle,  argument  and 
fact,  the  Church  had  gained  the  victory.* 

*  It  does  not  seem  necessary  to  specify  the  numerous 
books  and  pamphlets  written  in  the  Voluntary  contro- 
versy, as  these  are  still  in  the  hands  of  the  public,  and 
have  as  yet  lost  none  of  their  interest. 


395 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X, 


Every  person  capable  of  fully  under- 
standing this  important  controversy  will 
readily  perceive,  that  it  could  not  have 
been  gained  by  any  Church  but  one  hold- 
ing firmly  the  great  Presbyterian  prin- 
ciple of  the  sole  Sovereignty  and  Head- 
ship of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  over  His 
spiritual  kingdom,  the  Church.  Eng- 
lish Episcopacy  could  not  have  with- 
stood the  shock  which  the  Church  of 
Scotland  encountered  and  repelled  un- 
shaken. This  was  clearly  perceived  by 
the  greatest  warrior  and  statesman  of  the 
age,  when,  with  that  intuitive  penetration 
and  sagacity  by  which  he  is  distinguish- 
ed, he  remarked,  that  "  the  battle  of  Es- 
tablishments must  be  fought  in  Scotland." 
But  it  must  also  be  remarked,  that  the 
battle  could  not  have  been  gained,  had 
the  struggle  taken  place  during  the  domi- 
nation of  Moderatism.  Indeed,  the 
Moderate  party  seem  to  have  been  aware 
of  their  own  inability  to  dare  the  encoun- 
ter, as  very  few  of  them  ventured  to 
grapple  with  the  subject,  and  of  these 
few,  none  but  Evangelical  Moderates, 
and  even  they  not  with  very  distinguished 
success. 

It  might  have  been  expected,  that  the 
merit  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  this 
perilous  conflict  of  principles,  when  she 
had  proved  herself  to  be  the  firmest  bul- 
wark of  the  British  constitution,  would 
have  gained  her  some  favour  in  the  eyes 
not  only  of  Christians,  but  of  prudent 
politicians  and  enlightened  statesmen.  It 
was  not  the  first  time  in  her  history  in 
which  the  Presbyterian  Church  had  tri- 
umphantly defended  the  cause  of  reli- 
gious purity  and  truth,  and  thereby  at  the 
same  time  had  protected  civil  liberty- 
To  her  it  mattered  not  whether  her  as- 
sailant might  be  a  cunning  or  an  arbi- 
trary monarch,  an  avaricious  and  domi- 
neering aristocracy,  or  a  degenerate  Se- 
cession, aided  by  a  revolutionary  popu- 
lace. Her  duty  was  to  maintain  her  al- 
legiance to  her  own  divine  Head  and 
King,  by  whomsoever  that  sacred  prin- 
ciple might  be  assailed.  In  all  her  for- 
mer conflicts  she  had  often  realized  the 
applicability  to  her  history  of  her  own 
singularly  appropriate  emblem  and  motto, 
the  bush  burning  but  not  consumed,  be- 
cause the  Lord  was  in  it.  And  before 
the  Voluntary  controversy  had  fairly 
ceased,  she  was  violently  exposed  to  ano- 


ther fiery  trial,  by  the  instrumentality  of 
those  who  should  have  hailed  her  as 
their  protectress,  had  they  possessed  wis- 
dom enough  to  comprehend  the  nature  of 
the  danger  which  had  been  warded  off, 
or  sufficient  generosity  to  be  grateful  for 
their  deliverance. 

[1832.]  The  quickening  progress  of 
the  Voluntary  controversy  directed  the 
attention  of  both  the  assailants  and  the 
defenders  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  to 
every  thing,  either  in  her  constitutional 
principles  or  in  her  practice,  which  could 
furnish  material  for  assault  or  defence. 
This  inevitably  led  the  friends  of  the 
Church  to  mark  writh  sharpened  intelli- 
gence those  abuses  which  rendered  her 
peculiarly  vulnerable  in  any  part,  and 
stimulated  them  to  inquire  carefully, 
whether  there  did  not  exist  in  her  consti- 
tution principles  which  needed  but  to  be 
recalled  into  sanative  action,  in  order  to 
restore  to  her  a  life  which  all  her  foes 
could  not  destroy.  The  wisest  and  ablest 
of  the  Evangelical  ministers  had  always 
felt  that  the  mode  in  which  patronage 
was  exercised  in  the  Church  was  her 
most  assailable  point ;  that  it  had  alien- 
ated the  people,  corrupted  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  ministers,  diminished  her  use- 
fulness, and  weakened  her  moral  influ- 
ence over  the  public  mind.  But  the  law 
of  patronage  had  now  existed  so  long, 
that  many  who  felt  its  arbitrary  exercise 
to  be  a  grievance,  were  nevertheless  so 
far  reconciled  to  the  abstract  idea  of  pa- 
tronage, that  they  did  not  at  all  contem- 
plate, nor  even  desire,  its  total  abolition. 
The  subject  of  the  total  abolition  of  pa- 
tronage had  indeed  been  brought  before 
the  public,  and  an  anti-patronage  society 
formed,  in  the  year  1825,  the  most  active 
member  of  which  was  Dr.  Andrew 
Thomson.  Although  little  effectual  pro- 
gress was  made  by  this  society,  it  di- 
rected the  attention  of  the  public  mind  to 
the  subject,  and  in  that  manner  probably 
accomplished  all  that  its  members  ever 
expected.  By  such  concurrent  causes  a 
very  general  feeling  was  produced,  that 
some  modification  of  patronage  should 
take  place,  such  as  might  render  the 
method  of  appointing  ministers  to  vacant 
charges  less  arbitrary  and  capricious 
than  it  had  long  been  ;  and  also  that  the 
argument  against  Establishments,  based 
on  such  manifest  abuses,  might  be  weak- 


A.  D.  1833.J 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


397 


ened,  if  it  could  not  be  wholly  removed. 
The  chief  direction,  however,  which  the 
public  mind  took  in  the  first  instance 
was,  to  attempt  such  a  definition  of  what 
a  call  really  ought  to  be,  and  such  an  en- 
forcement of  it  in  a  legitimate  manner,  as 
might  restore  it  to  a  proper  degree  of 
efficiency,  as  a  constitutional  limitation 
of  patronage. 

When  the  General  Assembly  met  in 
1832,  there  were  laid  on  the  table  over- 
tures from  three  synods  and  eight  pres- 
byteries. The  general  tenor  of  these 
overtures  was  to  this  effect : — "  That 
whereas  the  practice  of  church  courts  for 
many  years  had  reduced  the  call  to  a 
mere  formality  ;  and  whereas  this  prac- 
tice has  a  direct  tendency  to  alienate  the 
affections  of  the  people  of  Scotland  from 
the  Established  Church  ;  it  is  overtured, 
that  such  measures  as  may  be  deemed 
necessary  be  adopted,  in  order  to  restore 
the  call  to  its  constitutional  and  salutary 
efficiency."  In  the  debate  which  fol- 
lowed. Professor  Brown  of  Aberdeen 
moved,  "  that  the  overtures  be  remitted  to 
a  committee,  with  instructions  to  consider 
the  subject,  and  to  report  to  next  Assem- 
bly." Principal  Macfarlan  of  Glasgow 
moved,  "that  the  Assembly  judge  it  un- 
necessary and  inexpedient  to  adopt  the 
measures  recommended  in  the  overtures 
now  before  them."  The  latter  motion 
was  carried  by  a  majority  of  forty-two  ; 
and  thus  the  Moderate  party  refused  even 
to  have  the  subject  considered,  that  a  de- 
liberate opinion  might  be  formed  whether 
the  loud  and  general  complaints  of  the 
kingdom  were  well-founded,  and  whether 
any  method  could  be  devised  to  remedy 
the  evil  and  restore  public  tranquillity. 
A  little  more  sagacity  might  have  enabled 
them  to  perceive,  that  the  matter  could 
not  be  thus  set  aside  and  consigned  to 
oblivion  ;  and  that  a  comparatively  slight 
amendment  might  put  an  end  to  an  agi- 
tation which  was  rapidly  increasing  in 
both  intensity  and  extent,  and  which 
would  soon  not  be  satisfied  without  a 
much  greater  change  than  had  yet  been 
contemplated. 

[1833.]     A  very  short  period  of  time 

after   the  rising  of  the  Assembly  was 

sufficient  to  prove,  that  the  refusal  of  the 

Moderate  party  even  to  institute  an  in- 

uiry  into  the  important  subject  which 

d  been  before  them,  had  greatly  in- 


creased the  excitement  of  the  public 
mind,  and  directed  it  more  forcibly  than 
ever  towards  the  conflicting  topics  of  pa- 
tronage and  calls.  This  was  sufficiently 
proved  by  the  fact,  that  when  the  Assem- 
bly met  in  1833,  it  appeared  that  the  at- 
tention of  the  court  was  again  to  be  di- 
rected to  the  subject  by  not  less  than 
forty-five  overtures  on  calls.  The  gen- 
eral tenor  of  these  overtures  was  closely 
similar  to  that  of  the  eleven  brought  for- 
ward in  the  preceding  year.  Two  dif- 
ferent motions  were  laid  before  the  As- 
sembly,— one  by  Dr.  Chalmers,  the 
other  by  Dr.  Cook  ;  and  a  very  long  and 
able  debate  ensued,  in  which  the  main 
elements  of  the  question  were  very  amply 
developed  and  discussed.  It  was  clearly 
proved  by  the  whole  history  of  the 
Church,  that  ever  since  the  Reformation, 
it  had  been  a  fixed  principle  in  her  con- 
stitution and  laws,  that  no  minister  shall 
be  intruded  into  any  pastoral  charge  con- 
trary to  the  will  of  the  congregation  ; 
that  this  had  been  verbally  admitted  even 
by  the  Moderate  party,  though  too  gen- 
erally disregarded  in  their  procedure ;  v 
that  this  principle  had  been  subjected  to 
various  fluctuations  in  modes  of  form  and 
application,  but  had  never  been  aban- 
doned or  disclaimed  ;  and  that  its  most 
natural  position  and  method  of  operation 
was  to  be  found  in  the  call  given  by  the 
people,  inviting  a  qualified  person  to  be 
their  pastor,  without  which  the  settlement 
of  a  minister  could  not  be  legally  and* 
constitutionally  effected.  Dr.  Chalmers 
proposed,  that  efficiency  should  be  given 
to  the  call  by  declaring,  that  the  dissent 
of  a  majority  of  the  male  heads  of  fami- 
lies, resident  in  the  parish  and  communi- 
cants, expressed  with  or  without  the  as- 
signment of  reasons,  ought  to  be  of  con- 
clusive effect  in  setting  aside  the  presen- 
tee, save  and  except  where  it  is  clearly 
established,  that  the  said  dissent  is 
founded  in  corrupt  and  malicious  combi- 
nation, or  not  truly  founded  in  any  ob- 
jection personal  to  the  presentee  in  re- 
gard to  his  ministerial  gifts  and  qualifi- 
cations, either  in  general,  or  with  refer- 
ence to  that  particular  parish.  Dr. 
Cook's  motion  declared,  that  it  is  compe- 
tent for  the  heads  of  families  to  give  in  to 
the  presbytery  objections,  of  whatever 
nature,  against  the  presentee  ;  that  the 
presbytery  shall  consider  these  objections, 


398 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


and  if  they  find  them  unfounded,  or 
originating  from  causeless  prejudices, 
they  shall  proceed  to  the  settlement ;  but 
if  they  judge  that  they  are  well-founded, 
they  shall  reject  the  presentation,  the  pre- 
sentee being  unqualified.  This  latter 
motion  was  manifestly  an  evasion  of  the 
subject,  as  it  gave  no  greater  powers  to  a 
majority,  or  the  whole  of  a  congregation, 
than  had  always  been  possessed  by  any 
individual ;  but  in  the  course  of  his 
speech,  Dr.  Cook  distinctly  admitted  an 
important  principle,  which  the  Moderate 
party,  ever  since  the  days  of  Principal 
Robertson,  had  strenuously  denied, 
namely,  "  That  the  Church  regarded 
qualification  as  including  much  more 
than  learning,  moral  character, and  sound 
doctrine, — as  extending,  in  fact,  to  the  fit- 
ness of  presentees  in  all  respects  for  the 
particular  situation  to  which  they  were 
appointed."*  The  peculiar  point  of  Dr. 
Chalmers'  motion  was,  that  by  declaring 
the  dissent  of  a  majority,  with  or  without 
reasons,  conclusive,  it  rendered  intrusion 
impossible,  while  it  still  reserved  suffi- 
cient power  in  the  church  courts  to  pre- 
vent that  dissent  from  being  founded  on 
malice  or  mere  caprice  on  the  part  of  the 
people.  Dr.  Cook's  motion  was,  how- 
ever, carried  by  a  majority  of  twelve,  the 
numbers  being  one  hundred  and  forty- 
nine  to  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven. 
And  it  is  worthy  of  notice,  that  in  this  in- 
stance again  the  Moderate  majority  was 
"obtained  by  means  of  the  elders,  there 
being  a  positive  majority  of  twenty  min- 
isters in  behalf  of  Dr.  Chalmers'  motion,  f 
The  discussion  of  this  important  ques- 
tion was  both  much  more  comprehensive 
and  minute  in  this  Assembly  than  in  that 
of  the  preceding  year,  stripping  off  the 
thin  disguise  in  which  a  specious  sophis- 
try had  sought  to  involve  it,  clearing 
away  many  prejudices  and  erroneous 
notions  that  had  long  been  prevalent,  and 
bringing  prominently  to  the  light  those 
great  constitutional  principles  which  had 
been  so  long  kept  in  obscurity  and  abey- 
ance. The  public  began  now  clearly  to 
perceive,  that  the  charge  of  innovation, 
so  vehemently  urged  against  the  Evan- 
gelical party  by  their  opponents,  was  al- 

*  This  view  must  have  been  since  abandoned  by  the 
Moderate  party ;  otherwise  they  too  must  have  opposed 
the  recent  encroachments  of  the  Court  of  Session. 

t  See  the  published  debate  of  that  year ;  and  the 
Presbyterian  Reviews,  vol.  iv. 


together  devoid  of  truth;  that  the  insinua- 
tion of  their  being  actuated  by  political 
motives  rested  on  no  better  foundation; 
but  that,  in  reality,  the  principles  for 
which  they  were  contending,  were  pre- 
cisely those  which  had  been  held  by  the 
Scottish  reformers,  had  been  by  them 
made  the  very  essence  and  basis  of  the 
Church,  and  had  been  maintained  by  her 
in  every  period  of  her  history  ;  that  her 
purity  and  efficiency  as  a  Christian  Church 
had  been  exactly  proportionate  to  the  sin- 
cerity with  which  they  had  been  held, 
and  the  efficiency  which  had  been  given 
to  their  operation  ;  and  that,  though  these 
principles  had  been  overborne  and  disre- 
garded during  the  long  and  dreary  reign 
of  Moderatism,  they  had  still  been  held 
by  a  faithful  few  within  the  Church,  ren- 
dering it  a  moral  certainty,  that  if  ever 
that  constitutional  party  should  obtain  the 
ascendancy,  they  would  of  necessity  bring 
into  immediate  operation  those  principles 
which  they  had  never  ceased  to  hold,  and 
would  restore  to  the  nation,  in  all  its 
original  purity  and  excellence,  the  true 
Evangelical  and  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Scotland. 

But  though  still  successful  on  thi's 
question,  the  Moderates  sustained  in  this 
Assembly  their  first  defeat  as  a  party, 
and  that,  too,  with  reference  to  a  very  im- 
portant measure.  The  ministers  of  cha- 
pels of  ease  had  petitioned  to  be  admitted 
to  their  constitutional  rights,  as  members 
of  church  courts,  and  to  have  sessions 
allowed  them,  that  they  might  exercise 
discipline  in  their  congregations.  They 
craved  to  be  heard  by  counsel  in  support 
of  their  petitions.  This  was  opposed  by 
Dr.  Cook  ;  but,  on  a  division,  it  was  car- 
ried by  a  majority  of  a  hundred  and 
twenty-one  to  a  hundred  and  one.  The 
petitions  were  remitted  to  a  committee, 
who  .were  to  report  to  next  Assembly. 
A  further  result  of  this  favourable  deli- 
verance, was  the  passing  of  an  act  by  the 
Moderates  themselves,  a  few  days  after- 
wards, similar  to  that  which  had  been 
sought  for  by  the  chapel  ministers,  in 
favour  of  the  ministers  of  the  parliamen- 
tary churches.  This  act  deserves  unqual 
ified  approbation.  By  it,  the  parliamen- 
tary churches,  as  they  were  termed,  which 
had  been  built  and  partially  endowed  in 
the  most  necessitous  parts  of  the  country, 
chiefly  in  the  Highlands  had  districts 


A.  D.  1834.J 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


399 


assigned  to  them,  which  were  erected 
into  separate  parishes  quoad  sacra ;  and 
the  ministers  of  these  new  parishes  were 
authorised  to  exercise  all  the  functions 
competent  to  any  ministers,  both  in  their 
own  parishes,  and  as  members  of  church 
courts.  This  act  was  founded  on  a  re- 
port laid  before  the  Assembly  by  a  com- 
mittee, of  which  Dr.  Cook  was  convener; 
and  however  difficult  it  may  be  to  recon- 
cile it  with  the  ordinary  policy  of  the 
Moderate  party,  it  was  in  itself  a  just, 
prudent,  and  constitutional  measure.* 

[1834.]  The  Assembly  of  1834  must 
ever  be  held  as  one  of  the  most  memor- 
able whose  proceedings  have  been  re- 
corded in  the  annals  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland.  When  the  Erskines  and  other 
fathers  of  the  Secession  appealed  to  the 
"first  free  and  reforming  Assembly,"  they 
•little  thought  that  exactly  an  hundred 
years  would  elapse  before  that  despotic 
party  which  had  expelled  them  would 
lose  its  ascendency,  and  a  free  and  reform- 
ing Assembly  would  actually  be  held. 
Such,  however,  was  the  case,  as  the 
shortest  possible  record  of  its  proceedings 
will  sufficiently  prove.  A  great  number 
of  overtures  on  calls  again  brought  that 
subject  under  discussion  ;  and,  from  the 
crowded  state  of  the  house,  it  was  mani- 
fest that  the  full  strength  of  both  parties 
was  to  be  put  forth,  and  that  all  Scotland 
was  watching  the  issue  with  the  most  in- 
tense anxiety.  A  motion  was  made  by 
Lord  MoncreifT  to  the  same  purport  as 
that  made  by  Dr.  Chalmers  in  the  pre- 
ceding Assembly,  declaring  that  the  dis- 
approval of  a  majority  of  male  heads  of 
families,  being  communicants,  should  be 
deemed  sufficient  ground  for  the  pres- 
bytery rejecting  the  person  so  disap- 
proved of;  and  declaring  further,  that 
no  person  should  be  entitled  to  express 
his  disapproval,  who  should  refuse,  if 
required,  solemnly  to  declare,  in  pre- 
sence of  the  pres*bytery,  that  he  is  actu- 
ated by  no  factious  or  malicious  motive, 
but  solely  by  a  conscientious  regard  to 
the  spiritual  interests  of  himself  or  the 
congregation.  After  a  long  and  able 
debate,  this  motion  was  carried  by  a  ma- 
jority of  forty-six,  the  numbers  being  one 
hundred  and  eighty-four  to  one  hundred 
and  thirty-eight.  This  most  important 
decision  took  place  on  Tuesday  the  27th 

•  Acts  of  Assembly,  year  1833. 


day  of  May  1834  ;  and  with  it  terminated 
the  reign  of  Moderatism  in  the  Church 
of  Scotland. 

On  Thursday  the  29th  of  May,  the  case 
of  the  chapels  of  ease  was  again  brought 
before  the  Assembly,  by  several  overtures 
on  the  subject,  and  the  report  of  the  com- 
mittee appointed  in  the  preceding  Assem- 
bly. Although  the  admission  of  the 
chapel  ministers  seemed  necessarily  to 
follow  from  that  of  the  parliamentary 
church  ministers,  it  was  strenuously  re- 
sisted by  the  Moderate  party,  chiefly  on 
the  ostensible  ground  of  a  doubt  respect- 
ing the  power  of  the  Church  to  admit  the 
ministers  of  chapels  of  ease  to  a  partici-. 
pation  in  church  government,  without 
previously  asking  and  obtaining  the  con- 
sent of  the  legislature.  As  this  supposed 
want  of  power  equally  affected  the  case 
of  the  parliamentary  church  ministers, 
with  this  sole  difference,  that  the  latter 
were  not,  like  the  chapel  ministers,  popu- 
larly elected,  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  the  unavowed  objection  was  of  a 
totally  different  nature.  The  vehement 
complaints  subsequently  poured  forth  by 
the  leaders  of  that  party  against  the  ad- 
mission of  the  chapel  ministers,  as  hav- 
ing been  the  direct  cause  of  Evangelical 
ascendency,  although  quite  erroneous  in 
point  of  fact,  give  a  strong  indication  of 
the  secret  apprehensions  of  the  Moderates, 
and  may  not  unfairly  be  regarded  as  fur- 
nishing the  true  explanation  of  their  con- 
duct in  this  matter,  both  then  and  subse- 
quently.* In  the  course  of  the  discussion 
it  appeared,  that  within  the  space  of  a 
century,  nearly  six  hundred  dissenting 
congregations  had  risen  up  in  Scotland, 
while  there  had  been  only  sixty-three 
chapels  of  ease  erected  during  the  same 
period.  It  was  proved  also,  that  this 
paucity  of  chapels  had  been  caused,  in  a 
great  measure,  by  the  anomalous  and 
unconstitutional  position  in  which  their 
ministers  were  placed,  which  rendered 
them  comparatively  inefficient,  and  dis- 
couraged the  people  from  the  exertions 
which  they  would  otherwise  have  gladly 
made.  This  argument  was  mightily  en- 
forced by  the  consideration  that,  while 
the  Church  was  thus  remaining  almost 
stationary,  the  population  was  increasing 

The  exact  dates  are  given  above,  because  it  has 
been  asserted  that  the  Act  on  Calls  was  passed  by  the 
support  of  the  chapel  ministers. 


4-00 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


with  great  rapidity  ;  so  that  vast  numbers 
must  either  sink  into  practical  heathenism 
and  immorality,  thereby  becoming  the 
enemies  of  all  law  and  order,  human  and 
divine,  or  must  join  the  Secession,  which 
having  now  avowed  the  Voluntary  prin- 
ciple, was  the  deadly  foe  of  all  ecclesiasti- 
cal establishments.  Unless,  therefore, 
some  measure  were  speedily  taken  for 
encouraging  the  erection  of  new  churches, 
giving  to  their  ministers  all  due  and  re- 
quisite powers,  and  making  a  great  effort 
to  meet  the  necessities  of  the  "  outfield 
population,"  it  was  evident  that  the  Church 
of  Scotland  must  perish  in  the  course  of 
a  few  generations,  as  no  longer  capable 
of  accomplishing  the  purpose  for  which 
a  National  Church  exists, — the  instruc- 
tion of  the  whole  body  of  the  people  in 
the  knowledge  of  what  pertains  to  their 
mental,  moral,  and  religious  welfare. 
These  arguments  triumphed  in  this  re- 
forming Assembly  ;  and  the  ministers  of 
chapels  of  ease  were,  by  a  declaratory  act, 
rescued  from  their  curate-like  position, 
empowered  to  perform  all  the  functions, 
and  authorised  to  enjoy  all  the  privileges, 
of  ministers  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in 
discipline  and  government,  as  constituent 
members  of  church  courts. 

The  only  other  topics  of  general  im- 
portance connected  with  this  Assembly 
were,  the  appointment  of  that  committee 
for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the  erection 
of  new  churches,  since  so  well  known  as 
the  Church  Extension  Committee,  insep- 
arably connected  with  the  name  of  Dr. 
Chalmers,  its  great  founder ;  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  committee  on  the  subject  of  the 
eldership,  two  of  the  reforms  suggested 
by  which  have  since  been  carried  ;  and 
the  sending  of  a  deputation  to  London,  to 
petition  the  legislature  for  endowments 
to  the  chapels  of  ease,  and  to  the  new 
churches  which  were  already  in  contem- 
plation, that  the  great  destitution  of  the 
means  of  religious  instruction  in  Scotland 
might  be  effectually  remedied.* 

It  is  impossible  to  pass  the  important 
acts  of  this  Assembly  without  offering 
one  or  two  remarks  respecting  them. 
The  act  on  calls,  since  generally  known 
by  the  name  of  the  Veto  Act,  was  cer- 
tainly a  measure  of  an  ambiguous  char- 


*  For  the  whole  proceedings  of  this  Assembly,  see 
the  iiiblished  debate,  or  the  Presbyterian  Review 

TOl.  *  . 


acter.  In  its  preamble,  it  contained  a 
clear  statement  of  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  that  no 
pastor  shall  be  intruded  on  any  congre- 
gation contrary  to  the  will  of  the  people  ; 
and  so  far,  it  was  a  highly  meritorious 
and  constitutional  act.  But  it  may  well 
be  questioned  whether  the  best  mode  of 
giving  due  effect  to  that  principle  was 
adopted  by  rendering  the  dissent  of  the 
people  conclusive  against  a  presentee,  in- 
stead of  giving  direct  efficiency  to  the 
positive  call  of  a  majority.  The  latter 
mode  would  certainly  have  been  more  in 
harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  principle, 
as  well  as  more  consistent  with  the  pro- 
cedure of  the  Church  in  her  earlier  and 
purer  days.  But  it  would  have  been  a 
more  direct  and  powerful  check  upon  the 
law  of  patronage  ;  and  unfortunately  the 
learned  judge,  by  whom  the  motion  was 
introduced,  had  no  wish  to  see  patronage 
abolished,  or  even  very  greatly  shorn  of 
its  strength.  The  very  nature  of  the  act, 
therefore,  was  a  compromise,  containing 
two  hostile  elements  in  its  heart ;  and 
many  foresaw  that  it  could  not  possibly 
accomplish  all  the  good  which  its  san- 
guine supporters  anticipated.  Doubts 
were  also  entertained  whether  it  might 
not  be  held  that  it  was  beyond  the  powers 
of  the  Church  to  pass  such  an  act ;  but 
the  opinions  of  the  legal  advisers  of  the 
crown  removed  these  doubts,  assuring 
supporters  of  the  Veto  Act,  that  it  was 
perfectly  competent  for  the  Church  to 
pass  an  act  so  manifestly  consistent  with 
her  legally  recognised  constitution.  Lord 
Chancellor  Brougham  also  gave  it  his 
decided  approbation,  as  "  in  every  respect 
more  desirable  than  any  other  course  that 
could  have  been  taken."*  The  Church 
of  Scotland  may  be  accused  of  too  great 
caution  and  timidity  in  framing  a  law 
which  did  not  give  full  developement  to 
her  own  principles  ;  h^ut  to  charge  her 
with  rashness,  disregard  of  law,  and  in- 
novation, is  to  set  matter  of  fact,  truth, 
and  reason,  at  defiance. 

[1835-39.]  The  Assembly  of  1 835  was 
not  equal  to  its  predecessor  in  prosecuting 
the  work  of  reformation.  Great  exer- 
tions had  been  made  by  the  Moderates  to 
recover  their  lost  dominion,  by  sending 
their,  adherents  to  the  Assembly  from 

*  See  his  Lordship's  speech,  quoted  in  Mr  Hamilton's 
Remonstrance. 


A.  D.  1835.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


401 


every  quarter  where  they  still  retained 
supremacy.  The  Veto  Act  and  the 
Chapel  Act  were,  however,  both  ratified  ; 
though  some  decisions  were  given  incon- 
sistent with  the  spirit  of  the  former.  By 
dexterous  management,  they  contrived  to 
evade  the  discussion  of  the  committee's 
report  respecting  the  reformation  of  the 
eldership,  and  also  the  subject  of  patron- 
age. But  the  Christian  eloquence  of  Dr. 
Duff,  on  the  subject  of  missions  to  the 
heathen,  gave  an  elevation  to  the  char- 
acter of  that  Assembly  which  can  never 
be  forgotten.  And  the  first  report  of  the 
Church  Extension  Committee  displayed 
to  an  astonished  and  admiring  public  the 
mighty  energies  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, when  set  free  from  the  leaden  en- 
thralment  of  Moderate  domination.  In 
one  short  year,  from  the  passing  of  the 
Chapel  Act  in  1834,  till  the  Assembly 
of  1835,  no  less  than  sixty-four  new 
churches  had  either  been  built  or  were 
in  the  process  of  erection, — exactly  one 
more  than  had  been  erected  during  the 
whole  preceding  century.  Another  cheer- 
ing event  took  place  during  this  Assembly. 
The  Original  Burgher  Synod,  which  had 
not  adopted  the  Voluntary  principle,  re- 
quested the  appointment  of  a  committee 
to  confer  with  them,  with  a  view  to  the 
arrangement  of  preliminaries  for  effecting 
a  union  between  that  body  and  the  Esta- 
blished Church  of  Scotland.  This  most 
desirable  event  took  place,  after  due  deli- 
beration, conducted  in  a  generous  and 
Christian  spirit  on  both  sides,  in  the 
month  of  August  1839. 

One  decision  of  the  Assembly  of  1835 
must  be  stated,  not  on  account  of  its  in- 
trinsic claims  to  attention,  but  because  of 
the  melancholy  celebrity  which  subse- 
quent events  have  given  to  it.  On  the 
14th  of  October  1834,  a  presentation  by 
the  Earl  of  Kinnoull  was  laid  before  the 
presbytery  of  AUCHTERARDER,  in  favour 
of  Mr.  Robert  Young,  preacher  of  the 
gospel,  appointing  him  to  the  vacant 
church  and  parish  of  Auchterarder.  The 
roll  of  communicants  had  not  been  made 
up  by  the  late  minister,  owing  to  his  fail- 
ing health,  but  was  prepared  under  the 
authority  of  the  presbytery  previous  to 
the  time  for  moderating  in  the  call. 
When  that  day  came  the  call  was  signed 
by  his  lordship's  factor,  not  a  resident  in 
the  parish,  and  by  two  heads  of  families. 
51 


On  the  other  hand,  two  hundred  and 
eighty-seven  heads  of  families,  communi- 
cants, subscribed  a  dissent  or  disapproval 
of  the  presentee  ;  and  as  there  were  only 
three  hundred  and  thirty  on  the  roll,  this 
amounted  to  an  overwhelming  majority 
of  dissentients.  The  presbytery  refusal 
to  sustain  the  call ;  the  presentee  appealed 
to  the  synod,  which  affirmed  the  sentence 
of  the  presbytery ;  the  presentee  again 
appealed  to  the  Assembly,  and  in  this 
manner  the  subject  came  before  the  su- 
preme ecclesiastical  court.  The  argu- 
ments in  behalf  of  the  presentee  were 
based  entirely  on  the  alleged  informality 
of  the  proceedings :  the  legality  of  tht 
Veto  Act  itself  was  never  called  in  ques 
tion.  The  Assembly,  on  the  motion  of 
Lord  Moncreiff,  affirmed  the  sentence  of 
the  presbytery  by  a  large  majority.  Such 
were  the  first  stage  of  the  proceedings  in 
this  ill-omened  case. 

As  various  important  cases  arose  about 
the  same  time,  involving  a  long  course  of 
litigation,  during  which  they  simulta- 
neously occupied  the  attention  of  the  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  courts,  it  seems  expe- 
dient to  trace  each  separately,  so  far  as  it 
has  actually  proceeded,  in  order  to  avoid 
the  confusion  which  might  be  produced 
by  interwisting  them  with  each  other,  as 
they  evolved  in  the  succession  of  years. 
We  shall  therefore  continue  to  follow  the 
case  of  Auchterarder,  so  far  as  it  has  ye. 
proceeded,  before  directing  our  attention 
to  the  other  cases. 

On  the  7th  of  July  1835,  the  presbytery 
of  Auchterarder  again  met,  and  resumed 
consideration  of  the  case  of  Mr.  Young, 
as  presentee  to  the  parish  of  Auchterar- 
der; and,  in  conformity  with  the  sen- 
tence of  the  General  Assembly,  rejected 
him,  and  intimated  this  decision  to  the  pa- 
tron, the  presentee,  and  the  elders  of  the 
parish.  Against  this  sentence  the  presen- 
tee's agent  appealed  to  the  synod  of  Perth 
and  Stirling.  This  appeal,  however,  was 
subsequently  abandoned,  and  an  action 
raised  in  the  Court  of  Session  against  the 
presbytery,  at  the  instance  of  Lord  Kin- 
noull, the  patron,  and  Mr.  Young,  the 
presentee.  When  the  case  was  first 
brought  into  court,  the  summons  con- 
cluded alternatively  to  have  it  found  that 
the  presentee,  or,  failing  him,  the  patron, 
had  right  to  the  stipend  on  the  ground  of 
the  presentation  alone,  notwithstanding 


402 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


the  refusal  of  the  church  courts  to  induct 
him.  The  defence  of  the  presbytery  was 
simple  and  effectual,  pleading,  that  as  they 
pretended  no  right  to  the  stipend,  they  had 
been  improperly  called  as  parties  in  such 
a  cause.  The  validity  of  this  defence 
was  felt  by  the  pursuers,  who  sought  and 
obtained  leave  to  amend  their  summons, 
by  the  insertion  of  a  new  and  totally  dif- 
ferent conclusion.  The  tenor  of  this  new 
conclusion  was,  that  the  rejection  of  the 
presentee  solely  in  respect  of  a  veto  of  the 
parishioners,  was  illegal,  and  injurious  to 
the  patrimonial  rights  of  the  pursuer,  and 
contrary  to  the  provisions  of  the  statutes 
and  laws  regarding  the  collation  or  settle- 
ment of  ministers ;  and  that  in  conse- 
quence of  the  presentation,  the  presbytery 
were  still  bound  to  make  trial  of  the  qua- 
lifications of  the  presentee,  and,  if  found 
duly  qualified,  to  receive  and  admit  rfim. 
The  conclusions  respecting  the  stipend 
were  intentionally  left  out  of  view,  till 
the  question  respecting  the  legality  of  the 
veto  should  be  determined. 

The  question  now  acquired  a  character 
of  the  deepest  importance.  The  conclu- 
sion of  the  summons  apparently  assumed, 
that  the  presentee's  right  to  be  taken  on 
trials  without  reference  to  the  proceedings 
of  the  congregation  at  the  moderating  in 
the  call,  and  if  found  qualified,  to  be  ad- 
mitted, was  of  the  nature  of  a  civil  right  ;* 
and  that  the  obligation  on  the  part  of  the 
presbytery  to  take  him  on  trial,  and,  if 
found  qualified,  to  admit,  and  of  necessity 
to  ordain  him,  was  a  civil  obligation.  It 
also  apparently  assumed,  that,  if  the  pres- 
bytery should  be  held  to  have  acted  ille- 
gally, the  Court  of  Session  was  the  com- 
petent tribunal  to  review  their  proceed- 
ings, to  direct  them  authoritatively  in 
their  duty  with  regard  to  admission  to  the 
pastoral  office,  and  even,  if  necessary,  to 
enforce  the  discharge  of  what  should 
have  been  thus  declared  to  be  their  duty. 
Such  a  conclusion  was  beyond  all  ques- 
tion directly  subversive  of  both  the  consti- 
tution and  the  spiritual  independence  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  consequently 
of  the  British  constitution  itself,  on  which 
the  well-ascertained  rights  and  privileges 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland  form  not  only 

It  may  be  remarked,  that  it  had  always  formerly 
been  held  as  a  Presbyterian  principle,  that  a  presentee, 
or  one  who  had  received  a  call,  had  still  no  right  what- 
ever entitling  him  to  oc£,  but  that  he  must  remain 
purely  passive  till  after  his  induction. 


an  integral  part,  but  its  very  basis,  as  an 
essential  and  fundamental  condition  of  the 
Treaty  of  Union.  The  Church,  when 
entering  into  this  action,  was  careful  to 
guard  against  being  thought  to  have 
yielded  up  her  own  spiritual  jurisdiction, 
by  strenuously  maintaining,  that  the  Court 
of  Session  had  no  jurisdiction  whatever  in 
regard  to  the  matter  of  conferring  the 
pastoral  office,  in  which,  and  in  every 
other  manifestly  ecclesiastical  matter,  the 
church  courts  were  supreme  and  inde- 
pendent of  control  by  any  civil  tribunal. 
The  only  point  in  which  the  Church  ad- 
mitted the  power  of  the  Court  of  Session, 
or  any  other  civil  court,  to  adjudicate, 
was  with  regard  to  the  disposal  of  the 
fruits  of  the  benefice,  in  case  the  Church 
should  be  found  to  have  acted  illegally; 
but  even  then  it  was  denied  that  the  Court 
of  Session  had  any  jurisdiction  in  a  matter 
so  clearly  spiritual  as  the  qualifications  of 
a  preseentee  for  the  pastoral  office,  or  was 
entitled  to  declare  substantively  against 
the  presbytery,  that  their  proceedings  in 
such  a  matter  were  illegal.  The  Court 
of  Session  might  determine  whether  a 
presentation  were  valid  or  not,  and  conse- 
quently whether  the  presentee  possessed 
any  legal  claim  to  the  fruits  of  the  bene- 
fice in  consequence  of  such  a  presentation; 
but  when  the  presentation  was  sustained, 
every  other  step  in  the  process  of  ad- 
mission was  exclusively  within  the  sole 
jurisdiction  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts, 
and  not  subject  to  the  review  of  any  civil 
court.  Be  the  decision  what  it  might, 
the  Church  expressly  guarded  against 
being  supposed  to  have  consented  to  any 
abridgment  of  her  independent  spiritual 
jurisdiction,  distinctly  declaring,  that  she 
would  not  obey  the  mandate  of  any  civil 
court,  nor  could  it  enforce  obedience,  in 
such  matters.* 

After  a  discussion  of  unprecedented 
length,  seventeen  days  in  all,  the  Court  of 
Session,  on  the  8th  of  March  1838,  by  a 
majority  of  three,  the  numbers  being  eight 
and  five,  gave  judgment  in  the  case,  but 
not  to  the  full  extent  of  the  conclusion  of 
the  summons.  From  that  the  court 
seems  to  have  shrunk,  notwithstanding 
the  very  new  and  strange  opinion  uttered 
by  some  of  the  judges ;  and  instead  of 
finding  that  the  presbytery  were  stil 

*  See  the  Procurator's  Speech  in  the  Auchterarde 
Report,  vol.  i.  p.  101. 


A.  D.  1837.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


403 


bound  to  take  the  presentee  on  trial,  and, 
if  found  qualified,  to  admit  him,  which 
duty  they  might  be  compelled  to  perform, 
they  first  repelled  the  objection  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  court,  found  that  the 
presbytery,  in  rejecting  the  presentee 
on  the  sole  ground  of  the  dissent  by  the 
people,  had  acted  to  the  hurt  and  preju- 
dice of  the  pursuers,  illegally,  and  in  vio- 
lation of  their  duty,  and  contrary  to  cer- 
tain statutes,  and,  in  particular,  contrary 
to  the  act  of  Queen  Anne  (the  unconstitu- 
tional Patronage  Act) ;  and  in  so  far  re- 
pelled the  defences  of  the  presbytery,  and 
decerned  and  declared  accordingly.  How- 
ever erroneous  in  point  of  constitutional 
law  this  decision  may  have  been,  it  was 
essentially  powerless,  except  in  so  far  as 
regarded  the  temporalities  of  the  benefice ; 
and  by  its  evasion  of  the  main  point  in 
the  conclusion  of  the  summons,  it  afforded 
a  sufficiently  intelligible  inference,  that 
the  Court  of  Session,  whatever  might  be 
its  inclination,  entertained  grave  doubts 
respecting  its  own  right  to  interfere  with 
the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland.  , 

At  the  next  meeting  of  the  presbytery 
of  Auchterarder  after  the  decision  of  the 
Court  of  Session,  they  received  a  me- 
morial from  the  pursuers,  requiring  them 
to  comply  with  a  decision  which  actually 
enjoined  nothing.  They  resolved  to  refer 
the  matter  to  the  synod,  on  which  a 
notarial  protest  was  taken  by  Mr.  Young's 
agent,  holding  the  members  of  the  pres- 
bytery jointly  and  severally  liable  to 
damages  for  refusing  to  take  him  on  trials. 
In  this  state  the  case  carne  again  before  the 
Assembly  of  1838.  The  decision  of  the 
Court  of  Session  had  in  the  meantime 
produced  intense  excitement  throughout 
the  Church.  A  great  number  of  over- 
tures were  laid  on  the  table,  calling  upon 
the  Assembly  to  pass  a  declaratory  act, 
asserting  the  independence  of  the  Church 
upon  any  civil  power  in  regard  to  her 
spiritual  jurisdiction,  and  her  determina- 
tion to  maintain  and  enforce  it.  A  mo- 
tion was  made  by  Dr.  Buchanan  of  Glas- 
gow, and  carried  by  a  majority  of  forty- 
one,  to  this  effect : — "  That  the  General 
Assembly,  while  they  unqualifiedly  ac- 
knowledge the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of 
the  civil  courts  'in  regard  to  the  civil 
rights  and  emoluments  secured  by  law  to 
the  Church,  and  will  ever  give  and  incul- 


cate implicit  obedience  to  their  decision 
in  such  matters,  do  resolve,  that,  as  is  de- 
clared in  the  Confession  of  Faith  of  this 
National  Established  Church,—'  The 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  King  and  Head  of 
the  Church,  hath  therein  appointed  a 
government  in  the  hand  of  church  officers, 
distinct  from  the  civil  magistrate,'  and 
that,  in  all  matters  touching  the  doctrine, 
government,  and  discipline  of  the  Church, 
her  judicatories  possess  an  exclusive  juris- 
diction, founded  on  the  Word  of  God, 
*  which  power  ecclesiastical  flows  imme- 
diately from  God  and  the  Mediator,  and  is 
spiritual,  not  having  a  temporal  head  on 
the  earth,  but  only  Christ,  the  only  spirit- 
ual King  and  Governor  of  his  Church :' 
And  they  do  farther  resolve,  that  this 
spiritual  jurisdiction,  and  the  sole  Head- 
ship of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  on  which 
it  depends,  they  will  assert,  and  at  all 
hazards  defend,  by  the  help  and  blessing 
of  that  great  God,  who,  in  the  days  of 
old,  enabled  their  fathers,  amidst  mani- 
fold persecutions,  to  maintain  a  testimony 
even  to  the  death,  for  Christ's  kingdom 
and  crown :  And  finally,  that  they  will 
firmly  enforce  obedience  to  the  same  upon 
the  office-bearers  and  members  of  the 
Church,  by  the  execution  of  her  laws  in 
the  exercise  of  the  ecclesiastical  authority 
wherewith  they  are  invested." 

By  this  noble  and  truly  Presbyterian 
motion,  it  was  made  evident  that  the 
Church  of  Scotland  had  once  more  taken 
her  position  upon  the  ground  so  invinci- 
bly held  by  the  reformers  and  martyrs  of 
other  days,  and  that  the  contest  was  for 
no  trivial  matter,  but  in  maintenance  of 
her  allegiance  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  in  defence  of  his  sole  right  to  reign 
over  his  spiritual  kingdom.  The  attempt 
to  fix  upon  the  Church  the  charge  of  a 
Popish  usurpation  of  civil  power  was 
refuted  by  the  first  clause  of  the  motion  ; 
and  by  the  remainder  it  was  rendered 
clear  to  every  intelligent  and  unpreju- 
diced person,  that  her  appeal  to  the 
House  of  Lords  could  not  imply  any  ad- 
mission  of  the  right  of  even  that  high 
court  to  interfere  with  her  well-guarded 
spiritual  jurisdiction,  but  merely  her  wish 
to  obtain,  from  that  supreme  judicatory, 
protection  against  the  illegal  and  uncon 
stitutional  encroachments  of  the  Court  of 
Session,  which  also  necessarily  affected 
the  temporalities  of  the  benefice,  severing 


404 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X, 


them  during  Mr.  Young's  life  from  the 
cure  of  souls. 

The  General  Assembly  authorised  the 
presbytery  of  Auchterarder  to  appeal  to 
the  House  of  Lords  against  the  decision 
of  the  Court  of  Session ;  and  sanguine 
hopes  were  for  a  time  entertained,  that 
the  sentence  of  that  supreme  tribunal 
would  be  a  reversal  of  the  decision  of  the 
inferior  court.  After  long  and  able  plead- 
ing, judgment  was  given  on  the  3d  day 
of  May  1839,  in  the  following  terms  : — 
"  It  is  ordered  and  adjudged  by  the  lords 
spiritual  and  temporal  in  parliament  as- 
sembled, that  the  said  petition  and  appeal 
be,  and  is  hereby,  dismissed  this  House ; 
and  that  the  said  interlocutor  therein  com- 
plained of  be,  and  the  same  is  hereby,  af- 
firmed." Such  was  the  judgment  of  the 
House  of  Lords,  guided  by  the  opinions 
of  ex-chancellor  Brougham,  and  the  lord 
chancellor  Cottenham.  From  the  pub- 
lished speeches  of  these  noble  and  learned 
lords  it  appears,  that  their  judgment  was 
founded  on  a  principle  repudiated  even  by 
the  Moderate  party  in  the  Church,  as 
shown  by  Dr.  Cook's  motion  in  1833, 
viz.,  that  the  only  grounds  on  which 
church  courts  could  reject  a  presentee 
(even  though  not  an  ordained  person,) 
was  disqualification  in  one  or  other  of  the 
three  particulars  of  life,  literature,  or  doc- 
trine ;  and  that,  as  the  dissent  of  the  peo- 
ple was  something  different  from  the  re- 
jection of  a  presentee  on  these  grounds, 
it  was  illegal.  It  was  even  stated  by 
Lord  Brougham,  that  a  call  was  "not 
much  more  than  a  mere  ceremony" — 
"  immaterial  as  a  part  of  a  valid  settle- 
ment ;"  and  his  lordship  declared  that,  if 
requested,  he  "  would  at  once  make  an 
order  upon  the  presbytery  to  admit,  if 
duly  qualified,  and  to  disregard  the 
dissent  of  the  congregation."*  These 
views  were  not,  indeed,  contained  in  the 
judgment  pronounced  by  the  House  of 
Lords ;  but  they  served  to  show  to  the 
Church  of  Scotland  that  nothing  less 
than  the  utter  overthrow  of  her  spiritual 
independence  and  the  entire  subversion 
of  her  constitution  would  be  the  inevitable 
result,  if  she  swerved  but  a  hair's-breadth 
from  the  position  which  she  had  taken, 
or  failed  but  a  moment  in  maintaining  the 
sacred  principles  which  she  had  avowed. 
On  the  eause  coming  back  to  the  Court 

*  Report  of  Speeches,  &c. 


of  Session,  no  further  appearance  was 
made  far  the  presbytery,  all  matters 
of  civil  right  involved  being  substantially 
settled  by  the  decision  now  affirmed  in 
the  House  of  Lords.  The  pursuers  ac 
cordingly  obtained  from  the  Lord  Ordi- 
nary, in  absence  of  the  defenders,  a 
decree  in  terms  of  the  remaining- 
conclusions  of  the  summons,  which  pre- 
viously they  could  not  obtain  from  the 
court. 

Fully  aware  of  the  nature  of  the  crisis 
which  had  arrived,  the  General  Assembly 
of  1839  prepared  to  deliberate  on  the 
steps  now  to  be  taken,  in  reference  to  the 
decision  of  the  House  of  Lords  in  the 
Auchterarder  case.  An  able  and  elo- 
quent debate  ensued  on  the  conflicting 
motions  of  Dr.  Chalmers  and  Dr.  Cook, 
which  ended  in  the  former  being  carried 
by  a  majority  of  forty-nine,  the  numbers 
being  two  hundred  and  four  to  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty-five.  The  motion  thus  car- 
ried was  to  the  following  effect : — "  Hav- 
ing heard  the  report  of  the  procurator  re- 
specting the  decision  of  the  House  of 
Lords,  ajid  being  desirous  to  give  and  in- 
culcate obedience  to  the  civil  courts  in  all 
civil  matters,  instruct  the  presbytery 
of  Auchterarder  to  offer  no  further  resis- 
tance to  the  claims  of  Mr.  Young,  or 
the  patron,  to  the  emoluments  of  the  bene- 
fice :  And  whereas  the  principle  of  Non- 
Intrusion  is  one  coeval  to  the  Reformed 
Church  of  Scotland,  and  forms  an  integral 
part  of  its  constitution,  embodied  in  its 
standards,  and  declared  in  various  acts  of 
Assembly,  resolve  that  this  principle  can- 
not be  abandoned,  and  that  no  presentee 
shall  be  forced  upon  any  parish  contrary 
to  the  will  of  the  congregation :  And 
whereas,  by  the  decision  referred  to,  it 
appears,  that  when  this  principle  is  carried 
into  effect,  the  legal  sustentation  of  the 
ministry  may  be  thereby  suspended,  and 
being  deeply  impressed  with  the  unhappy 
consequences  which  must  arise  from  any 
collision  between  the  civil  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal authorities,  and  holding  it  to  be  their 
duty  to  use  every  means  in  their  power, 
not  involving  any  dereliction  of  the  prin- 
ciples and  fundamental  laws  of  their  con- 
stitution, to  prevent  such  unfortunate  re- 
sults, do  therefore  appoint  a  committee, 
for  the  purpose  of  considering  in  what 
way  the  privileges  of  the  National  Esta- 
blishment, and  the  harmony  between 


A.  D.  1839.] 


HISTORY   OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


405 


Church  and  State,  may  remain  unim- 
paired, with  instructions  to  confer  with 
the  Government  of  the  country,  if  they 
shall  see  cause." 

The  purport  and  amount  of  this  mo- 
tion is  manifest.  It  was  the  duty  of  the 
Church  to  obey  the  civil  court  in  civil 
matters,  when  the  decision  of  the  highest 
tribunal  had  been  given ;  and  this  was 
done  by  abandoning  all  claim  to  the 
temporalities  of  Auchterarder.  It  was 
equally  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  main- 
tain inviolate  her  own  great  principle, 
that  no  pastor  be  intruded  upon  an  un- 
willing congregation,  because  it  is  found- 
ed on  the  Word  of  God,  and  embodied 
in  her  own  standards,  and  because  no 
sentence  of  a  civil  court,  and  no  combi- 
nation of  external  circumstances,  could 
ever  release  her  from  the  necessity  of 
maintaining  inviolate  her  allegiance  to 
Christ,  and  her  own  constitutional  prin- 
ciples. It  was  also  the  duty  of  the 
Church  to  adopt,  the  best  means  in  her 
power  for  obtaining  the  adjustment  of 
the  differences  that  had  taken  place,  that 
harmony  might  be  restored  between  the 
civil  and  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  ; 
and  for  securing  this  important  object,  a 
committee  was  appointed  to  make  due 
application  to  the  legislature.  To  term 
the  conduct  of  the  Assembly  rebellion, 
as  has  been  done,  betrays  either  the  mar- 
vellous strength  of  prejudices,  or  a  not 
less  marvellous  obliquity  of  judgment,  if, 
indeed,  in  many  cases  it  may  not  rather 
arise  from  the  vindictive  wrath  of  defeat- 
ed foes  and  baffled  antagonists.  It  should 
ever  be  remembered,  that  the  State  gave 
its  sanction  to  the  Church,  with  the  full 
knowledge  that  she  held  the  very  princi- 
ples which  she  is  now  maintaining ;  and 
that,  by  embodying  the  Confession  of 
Faith  in  the  Revolution  Settlement,  the 
State  actually  became  bound  to  protect 
the  Church  of  Scotland  in  asserting  the 
sole  Headship  of  Christ,  and  her  own 
spiritual  independence,  which  flows  from 
that  divine  source  ;  so  that,  in  defend- 
ing these  principles,  instead  of  rebel- 
ling against  the  law  of  the  land,  she 
is  defending  it  against  lawless  aggres- 
sion. 

Thus  terminated  for  a  time  the  Auch- 
terarder case  in  its  more  public  aspect ; 
but  not  thus  terminated  the  collision  be- 


tween the  Church  and  the  subordinate 
civil  courts.  The  case  of  the  parish  of 
LETHENDY  was  the  next  in  which  these 
co-ordinate  judicatories  came  into  hostile 
contact,  and  in  which  the  conduct  of  the 
Court  of  Session  was  still  more  glaringly 
unconstitutional  than  it  had  been  in  the 
case  of  Auchterarder,  though  evidently 
arising  out  of  the  erroneous  decision 
therein  given.  The  minister  of  Lethendy 
had  become  aged  and  infirm,  and  a  peti- 
tion was  presented  in  1835  to  the  patron, 
the  Crown,  that  Mr.  Clark  might  be  ap- 
pointed assistant  and  successor.  No  pre- 
sentation was  issued,  as  in  the  case  of  a 
vacancy,  but  a  consent  to  the  induction 
of  Mr.  Clark  by  the  presbytery  was 
given  by  a  sign  manual.  The  presby- 
tery of  Dunkeld  took  the  ordinary  steps 
towards  the  ordination ;  but  a  majority 
of  the  male  heads  of  families,  communi- 
cants, expressed  their  disapproval  of  Mr. 
Clark,  and  he  was  accordingly  rejected. 
The  case  came  before  the  Assembly  of 
1836,  and  the  sentence  of  the  presbytery 
was  affirmed.  In  March,  1837,  abou 
two  months  after  the  death  of  the  aged 
minister,  Mr.  Clark  raised  a  civil  action 
against  the  presbytery,  but  did  not  bring 
it  into  Court  till  November  of  that  year. 
When  the  actual  vacancy  occurred,  the 
crown,  admitting  the  validity  of  the  pre- 
vious veto,  issued  a  presentation  in  fa- 
vour of  Mr.  Kessen  ;  the  presbytery  fol- 
lowed the  usual  course,  and  a  call  being 
signed  by  the  people,  both  presentation 
and  call  were  regularly  sustained,  and 
nothing  remained  but  the  ordination  and 
induction  according  to  the  laws  of  the 
Church.  By  this  time  the  Court  of  Ses- 
sion had  given  its  decision  in  the  Auch- 
terarder case ;  and  Mr.  Clark,  availing 
himself  of  the  manifest  encroachment 
thereby  made  on  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Church,  applied  to  the  court  for  an  inter- 
dict prohibiting  the  presbytery  from  pro- 
ceeding to  ordain  Mr.  Kessen.  This  was 
readily  granted ;  and  the  presbytery  refer- 
red the  matter  to  the  Assembly  of  1838. 
The  case  was  referred  by  the  Assembly  to 
the  Commission  with  full  powers,  and  the 
Commission,  on  the  30th  of  May,  pro- 
nounced this  deliverance  : — "  Find  that 
admission  to  the  pastoral  charge  is  entirely 
an  ecclesiastical  act,  subject  to  the  exclu- 
sive jurisdiction  of  the  ecclesiastical 
courts ;  and  ordain  the  presbytery  to  pro- 


406 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


ceed  without  delay  to  the  induction  of 
Mr.  Kessen,  upon  the  call  in  his  favour, 
according  to  the  rules  of  the  Church." 
After  the  Commission  rose,  Mr.  Clark 
applied  for  a  new  interdict,  in  a  more 
ample  form,  forbidding-  the  presbytery  of 
Dunkeld  to  settle  Mr.  Kessen  in  respect 
of  the  call,  or  on  any  ground  whatever, 
and  this  also  was  immediately  granted. 
The  subject  was  again  referred  to  the 
Commission,  which  met  in  August  the 
same  year ;  and  the  Commission  prompt- 
ly and  almost  unanimously  renewed  their 
directions  to  the  presbytery  to  disregard 
the  interdict  as  illegal,  being  in  a  matter 
purely  spiritual,  and  to  proceed  to  settle 
Mr.  Kessen,  naming  the  day  of  ordina- 
tion. On  the  13th  of  September,  ac- 
cordingly, Mr.  Kessen  was  ordained, 
upon  the  call  of  the  people,  to  the  pasto- 
ral charge  of  the  parish  of  Lethendy, 
without  reference  to  the  civil  emoluments 
of  the  benefice,  and  leaving  these  at  the 
disposal  of  the  civil  courts.  Mr.  Clark 
immediately  presented  a  petition  and 
complaint  to  the  Court  of  Session,  calling 
ortf  them  to  punish  the  members  of  pres- 
bytery for  acting  in  obedience  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  church  judicatories,  whom 
by  their  ordination  vows  they  were 
bound  to  obey,  but  in  disregard  of  the 
mandate  of  a  civil  court,  to  which  they 
were  not  subordinate.  The  court  de- 
cided in  favour  of  the  applicant,  found 
the  presbytery  guilty  of  the  breach  of 
an  interdict  which  their  lordships  had  no 
power  to  grant,  and  ordered  those  minis- 
ters whom  they  chose  to  regard  as  de- 
linquents, to  be  summoned  to  their  tri- 
bunal. 

The  members  of  presbytery  obeyed 
the  summons.  On  the  14th  of  June, 
1839,  a  transaction  took  place  such  as 
had  not  been  beheld  in  Scotland  for 
nearly  two  centuries.  A  civil  court,  in 
the  exercise  of  merely  secular  power, 
called  to  its  bar  a  court  of  Christ,  be- 
cause of  its  having  exercised  a  purely 
spiritual  power,  the  right  to  do  which  no 
civil  court  could  either  give  or  take  away. 
A  few  of  the  most  distinguished  minis- 
ters of  the  Church  accompanied  their 
brethren  to  the  bar  of  the  civil  court,  not 
to  brave  the  civil  authority,  but  to  give 
the  comfort  of  their  presence  to  those 
who  were  called  to  endure  the  persecu- 
tion of  censure  and  reproach  in  the 


cause  of  the  Redeemer's  Headship.  The 
Lord  President,  as  the  organ  of  the 
Court,  "  in  the  most  earnest  and  emphatic 
terms,"  pronounced  upon  the  servants  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  "  the  solemn  censure  of 
the  Court,"  assuring  them  that  it  was 
with  considerable  difficulty  that  so  leni- 
ent a  measure  had  been  adopted ;  that 
should  any  similar  case  again  occur,  the 
punishment  of  imprisonment  would  be 
inflicted,  and  its  duration  would  depend 
entirely  upon  the  "  heinousness  of  the 
offence  committed."  This  was  unques- 
tionably persecution  begun  in  the  "  leni- 
ent" form  of  censure,  rebuke,  and  threat- 
ening, increased  by  the  heavy  expenses, 
tantamount  to  the  infliction  of  fines,  which 
the  presbytery  were  compelled  to  pay,  and 
aggravated  by  the  prospect  of  heavier 
punishment,  should  the  Church  retain  its 
integrity,  and  abide  by  its  sacred  princi- 
ples, which  it  could  not  abandon  without 
violating  its  allegiance  to  its  Divine 
King. 

There  was  in  this  conduct  of  the 
Court  of  Session  a  very  marked  increase 
of  its  aggressions  upon  the  spiritual  ju- 
risdiction of  the  Church.  The  decision 
in  the  Auchterarder  case  merely  repelled 
the  objection  urged  by  the  Church  against 
the  jurisdiction  of  civil  courts  in  spiritual 
matters,  and  found  that  the  courch  courts 
had  acted  illegally  in  rejecting  a  presen- 
tee on  the  ground  of  the  disapproval  of 
the  congregation,  but  issued  no  order  foi 
the  presbytery  to  proceed  ;  and  the  affir- 
mation of  this  sentence  by  the  House  of 
Lords  gave  no  additional  efficacy  to  that 
decision.  The  whole  amount  of  this 
ratified  civil  sentence  was  simply  this: 
that  by  giving  effect  to  the  dissent  of  the 
people,  the  Church  had  forfeited  her  le- 
gal claims  to  the  fruits  of  the  benefice  of 
Auchterarder,  and  in  every  similar  case 
might  incur  a  similar  loss.  But  in  the 
case  of  Lethendy  the  civil  court  not  only 
sustained  the  claim  of  the  rejected  pre- 
sentee, from  whom  the  crown  had  with- 
drawn the  presentation  by  giving  it  to 
another,  but  also  proceeded  to  interdict 
the  spiritual  court  from  the  discharge  of 
a  purely  spiritual  function,  ordination,  in 
which,  owing  to  the  peculiar  directions 
of  the  Commission,  no  civil  interests 
were  involved;  and  inflicted  censures 
and  threatenings  upon  that  sp:  ritual 
court,  because  it  disregarded  such  inter- 


A.  D.  1838.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


407 


diets  as  no  civil  court  had  ever  before 
presumed  to  grant,  and  which  it  was  in 
no  respect  warranted  to  do  by  the  judg- 
ment which  the  House  of  Lords  had  pro- 
nounced. 

The  combined  cases  of  the  parish  of 
MARNOCH  and  the  presbytery  of  STRATH- 
BOGIE  next  rise  to  view,  exhibiting  the 
full  nature  and  extent  of  the  contest  into 
which  the  Church  of  Scotland  has  been 
forced,  the  danger  to  which  she  is  ex- 
posed, and  the  disastrous  consequences 
which  may  ensue  to  the  best  interests,  mo- 
ral and  religious,  of  the  entire  com- 
munity. 

The  minister  of  the  parish  of  Mar- 
noch  had  become  so  enfeebled  by  the  in- 
firmities of  age  as  to  be  unable  to  preach, 
and  employed  Mr.  John  Edwards,  a 
preacher,  to  be  his  assistant.  This  per- 
son continued  to  act  in  that  capacity  for 
three  years,  during  which  time  he  ren- 
dered himself  so  much  an  object  of  dis- 
like among  the  people,  that  the  aged 
minister  was  obliged  to  remove  him  from 
being  assistant,  in  compliance  with  the 
general  feeling  of  the  parish.  When 
the  incumbent  died,  a  presentation  was 
issued  by  the  trustees  of  the  Earl  of  Fife, 
the  patron,  in  favour  of  the  same  Mr. 
John  Edwards,  and  laid  before  the  pres- 
bytery of  Strathbogie,  on  the  27th  of 
September  1837.  Mr.  Edwards  was  ap- 
pointed to  preach,  as  usual,  in  the  parish 
of  Marnoch,  and  a  day  was  appointed 
for  moderating  in  the  call.  On  that  day 
the  call  was  signed  by  proxies  for  the  pa- 
tron and  for  three  non-resident  heritors, 
but  by  one  only  of  the  heads  of  families 
on  the  roll  of  communicants,  namely, 
Peter  Taylor,  innkeeper,  Aberchirder. 
At  the  same  time  dissents  were  recorded 
by  one  resident  heritor,  the  six  elders 
composing  the  kirk-session,  and  by  two 
hundred  and  fifty-four  heads  of  families, 
in  all  two  hundred  and  sixty-one,  out  of 
a  roll  of  three  hundred.  It  must  have 
been  manifest  to  every  person,  that  the 
settlement  of  Mr.  Edwards  in  a  parish 
where  he  had  previously  officiated  for 
three  years,  and  yet  could  get  but  one 
man,  an  innkeeper,  to  sign  his  call,  could 
not  possibly  be  for  edification ;  that 
though  there  had  been  no  Presbyterian 
principle  forbidding  the  intrusion  of  a 
pastor  unon  an  un'villing  congregation, 


the  dictates  of  reason  and  natural  feeling 
would  have  called  for  his  rejection  ;  and 
that  if  he  had  possessed  the  very  slight- 
est regard  for  the  peace  and  welfare  of 
the  parish,  he  would  himself  have  given 
back  the  presentation.  But  he  was  tho- 
roughly imbued  with  the  principles  of 
Moderatism,  and  that  explains  his  con- 
duct. The  agent  of  the  patrons  protest- 
d  against  the  dissent  of  the  people  being 
received,  alleging  the  illegality  of  the 
Veto  Act ;  and  the  presbytery  appointed 
a  day  on  which  charges  of  canvassing 
and  caballing  might  be  brought  forward 
against  the  people.  The  people,  con- 
scious of  their  integrity,  came  prepared 
to  repel  these  charges.  The  patrons  now 
abandoned  the  cause,  and  would  willing- 
ly have  recalled  the  presentation,  but  the 
presentee  was  determined  to  establish  the 
civil  right,  of  which  he  now  held  himself 
to  be  in  possession,  regardless  alike  of 
the  feelings  of  both  patron  and  people. 
Another  attempt  was  made  by  the  pres- 
bytery and  the  presentee  to  browbeat  the 
people,  and  when  this  failed,  the  whole 
matter  was  referred  to  the  synod  of 
Moray. 

The  synod  met  on  the  24th  of  April 
1838,  and  almost  unanimously  decided, 
that  the  conduct  of  the  presbytery  of 
Strathbogie  had  "  been  inconipetent  and 
illegal,"  and  directed  them  to  meet  and 
find  the  presentee  disqualified,  according 
to  the  laws  of  the  Church,  and  to  inti- 
mate this  sentence  to  all  parties  concerned. 
The  presbytery  met,  but  refused  to  obey 
this  sentence ;  and  the  parishioners  ap- 
pealed to  the  General  Assembly.  The 
case  then  came  to  the  Assembly  of  May 
1838,  where  the  proceedings  of  the  pres- 
bytery were  reversed  without  a  vote,  and 
they  were  directed  to  reject  the  presentee, 
and  to  give  intimation  td  the  parties  con- 
cerned, in  terms  of  the  regulations  of  the 
Assembly  relative  to  the  calling  of  minis- 
ters. The  advocate  of  the  presbytery 
defended  them  by  pleading,  that  they 
merely  wished  to  have  the  authority  of 
the  Assembly  for  rejecting  Mr.  Edwards, 
that  if  they  should  be  dragged  into  a  civil 
court,  they  might  have  its  powerful  sup- 
port. Their  subsequent  actions  fully 
proved  the  insincerity  of  this  plea.  But 
the  majority  of  the  presbytery  of  Strath- 
bogie held  the  principles  of  Moderatism 
and  this  explains  their  conduct. 


408 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP. 


Another  presentation  was  issued  by  the 
patrons  in  favour  of  Mr.  David  Henry, 
the  presbytery  having  so  far  obeyed  the 
instructions  of  the  supreme  ecclesiastical 
judicatoryas  now  to  reject  Mr.  Edwards. 
Upon  this  Mr.  Edwards  applied  to  the 
Court  of  Sessions,  encouraged  by  the  re- 
cent encroachments  of  that  court,  praying 
that  Mr.  Henry  should  be  interdicted  from 
presenting  himself  to  the  presbytery,  and 
that  the  presbytery  should  be  interdicted 
from  taking  any  steps  towards  his  induc- 
tion, as  injurious  to  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges which  Mr.  Edwards  had  acquired 
by  the  pre^ous  presentation.  This  was 
granted  on  the  30th  June  1838  ;  and  on 
the  same  day  Mr.  Edwards  raised  in  the 
same  court  an  action  of  declarator  against 
the  presbytery  of  Strathbogie,  the  heritors 
of  the  parish,  &c.,  craving  that  it  should 
be  found  and  declared  to  the  same  effect 
with  regard  to  this  case  as  had  been  done 
by  the  court  in  the  analogous  case  of 
Auchterarder.  This  also  was  granted, 
and  these  documents  were  laid  before  the 
presbytery  of  Strathbogie  at  their  meeting 
in  July.  Mr.  Henry's  presentation  was 
lodged  at  the  same  time ;  and  the^  whole 
matter  was  delayed  till  next  meeting. 
The  presbytery  met  again  on  the  17th  of 
July,  when  it  was  moved,  "  That  the 
Court  of  Session  having  authority  in 
matters  relating  to  the  induction  of  minis- 
ters, and  having  interdicted  all  proceed- 
ings on  the  part  of  the  presbytery  in  this 
case ;  and  it  being  the  duty  of  the  pres- 
bytery to  submit  to  their  authority  regu- 
larly interposed,  the  presbytery  do  delay 
procedure  until  the  matters  in  dispute  be 
legally  determined."  This  vote  was  op- 
posed, but  carried  by  a  majority  of  six  to 
four,  the  actual  state  of  the  presbytery 
being  seven  of  the  Moderate  and  four  of 
the  Evangelical  party.  This  decision 
was  carried  by  appeal  to  the  Synod,  which 
condemned  the  procedure  of  the  presby- 
tery, but  referred  the  case  to  the  next 
General  Assembly. 

The  Assembly  of  1839  was  so  much 
occupied  in  the  important  discussions 
which  arose  out  of  the  recent  adverse 
decision  of  the  House  of  Lords  in  the 
Auchterarder  case,  that  they  could  not 
enter  upon  the  consideration  of  that  of 
Marnoch,  but  remitted  it  to  the  Commis- 
sion. "  with  power  to  determine  in  the 
present  reference,  and  any  other  reference, 


or  any  appeal  or  complaint,  in  regard  to 
future  proceedings  in  the  settlement  of  the 
parish  of  Marnoch ;  enjoining  the  pres- 
bytery of  Strathbogie,  in  the  event  of  any 
change  of  circumstance,  to  report  the 
matter  to  the  Commission,  who  shall  have 
power  to  determine  thereon."  The  Com- 
mission accordingly  took  up  the  case, 
immediately  after  the  rising  of  the  As- 
sembly, and  "  highly  disapproved  of  the 
conduct  of  the  presbytery  of  Strathbogie, 
in  resolving,  contrary  to  the  principles  of 
the  Church,  and  the  resolution  of  the 
General  Assembly  1838,  'that  the  Court 
of  Session  have  authority  in  matters  relat- 
ing to  the  induction  of  ministers,  and  that 
it  was  the  duty  of  the  presbytery  to  sub- 
mit to  their  authority ;'  and  in  respect  to 
their  having  come  to  such  resolution,  the 
Commission  deemed  it  necessary  to  pro- 
hibit the  said  presbytery  from  taking  any 
steps  towards  the  admission  of  Mr.  Ed- 
wards before  the  next  General  Assembly, 
in  any  event,  as  they  shall  be  answerable." 
Elated,  apparently,  by  the  decision  of 
the  House  of  Lords,  in  the  Auchterarder 
case,  Mr.  Edwards  applied  again  to  the 
Court  of  Session  for  another  declarator, 
containing  the  very  conclusion  from 
which  that  court  had  at  first  shrunk  in 
the  case  referred  to.  That  conclusion 
was  granted  on  the  13th  of  June  1839, 
finding,  "  That  the  presbytery  of  Strath- 
bogie are  still  bound  and  astricted  to  make 
trial  of  the  qualifications  of  the  pursuer, 
Mr.  Edwards,  and,  if  found  qualified,  to 
receive  and  admit  him  as  minister  of  the 
parish  of  Marnoch."  This  decision  was 
made  known  to  the  presbytery,  and  its 
Moderate  majority  immediately  resolved 
to  disregard  the  injunctions  of  the  superior 
church  courts,  to  which  they  had  sworn 
obedience,  and  to  obey  the  mere  opinion 
of  the  Court  of  Session,  to  which  they 
owed  no  obedience,  nor  even  deference, 
in  spiritual  matters.  They  requested  a 
pro  re  nata  or  special  meeting  to  be  called, 
for  the  purpose  of  taking  this  decree  into 
consideration.  The  meeting  was  called, 
but  so  close  upon  the  meeting  of  the  Com- 
mission, that  they  could  not  have  it  in 
their  power  to  execute  any  adverse  de- 
cision before  that  court  could  intercept 
their  procedure.  Enraged  at  this  cautious 
conduct  of  their  moderator,  who  most 
providentially  was  on  the  Evangelical 
side,  they  broke  up  the  meeting,  and 


A.  D.  1839.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


409 


would  not  look  at  the  deliverance  of  the 
Commission,  which  the  moderator,  Mr. 
Dewar,  had  procured  and  laid  on  the 
table.  This  very  disgraceful  conduct  of 
the  majority  was  brought  before  the  Com- 
mission at  its  meeting  in  November,  when 
the  deliverances  of  the  Assembly  and  of 
the  Commission  were  ordered  to  be  trans- 
mitted to  the  presbytery,  that  they  might 
not  be  able  to  plead  ignorance  of  their 
duty ;  and  they  were  ordered  to  take 
them  into  consideration  at  their  ordinary 
meeting  on  the  4th  of  December,  and  to 
appear,  personally  or  by  a  legal  agent,  at 
a  meeting  of  the  Commission  to  be  held 
on  the  1 1th  of  the  same  month. 

The  presbytery  of  Strathbogie  met  on 
the  4th  of  December,  the  above  mentioned 
documents  were  laid  before  them,  the  pa- 
rishioners of  Marnoch  appeared  by  their 
agent,  and  requested  to  be  heard  in  a 
statement  of  their  objections  to  the  settle- 
ment of  Mr.  Edwards.  The  seven  Mo- 
derate ministers  of  Strathbogie  refused  to 
hear  the  parishioners,  or  to  record  their 
refusal,  so  as  to  admit  of  an  appeal  being 
taken,  refusing  also  to  receive  the  appeal 
then  offered, — overbore  their  better  bre- 
thren in  the  most  violent  and  outrageous 
manner, — and  resolved  "  to  act  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  prohibition  served  upon  them 
by  order  of  the  Commission,  and  in  obe- 
dience to  the  decree  of  the  Court  of  Ses- 
sion ;  and  further,  resolved  to  sustain  the 
call  [of  one]  in  favour  of  the  Rev.  John 
Edwards,  and  to  proceed  in  the  settlement 
of  the  said  Mr.  Edwards,  as  presentee  to 
the  church  and  parish  of  Marnoch,  and 
appointed  his  trials  in  common  form."* 
This  motion  was  proposed  by  Mr.  Allar- 
dyce,  and  being  carried  by  the  majority 
of  seven,  they  next  resolved,  as  if  in 
mockery,  to  report  the  whole  matter  to 
the  Commission. 

The  Commission  met  on  the  llth  of 
December,  and  the  startling  nature  of  the 
case  brought  together  a  greater  number 
of  ministers  from  all  parts  of  the  country 
than  had  ever  been  known  to  meet  in 
Commission  before.  A  long  and  anxious 
deliberation  ensued;  the  parties  were 
heard  by  their  counsel ;  and  before  pro- 
ceeding to  determine  on  the  course  to  be 
pursued,  the  counsel  for  the  seven  Strath- 
bogie brethren  was  repeatedly  asked, 

*  This  is  copied  from  their  own  statement  in  one  of 
their  interdicts.  • 

52 


whether  his  clients  would  abstain  from 
further  disobedience  to  the  commands  of 
their  superior  church  judicatories,  or 
whether  they  were  determined  to  persist 
in  the  settlement  of  Mr.  Edwards.  He 
answered  that  he  was  not  empowered  to 
alter  or  modify  the  statements  made  in  the 
report ;  whence  it  was  evident  that  they 
were  determined  to  proceed,  and  intrude 
Edwards  into  the  parish  of  Marnoch, 
contrary  to  the  direct  injunctions  of  the 
Assembly  and  Commission, — contrary  to 
the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Church, 
— and  contrary  to  the  great  doctrine  of 
the  sole  Sovereignty  and  Headship  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  To  avert  the  perpe- 
tration of  this  complicated  tissue  of  des- 
potism and  sin,  the  Commission  was  com- 
pelled to  suspend  the  seven  delinquents 
from  the  office  of  the  ministry  till  the 
meeting  of  Assembly,  unless  reponed  on 
declaring  that  they  would  abstain  from 
intruding  Mr.  Edwards  upon  the  people 
of  Marnoch,  Mr.  Edwards  being  also 
prohibited  from  making  further  applica- 
tion till  next  meeting  of  Assembly.  This 
motion  was  proposed  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Candlish,  in  a  speech  of  extraordinary 
eloquence,  and  carried  by  a  majority  of 
one  hundred  and  seven,  the  numbers  be- 
ing one  hundred  and  twenty-one  to  four- 
teen. In  consequence  of  this  sentence  of 
the  Commission,  the  seven  Moderate  and 
Intrusionist  ministers  of  Strathbogie  ceas- 
ed to  be  capable  of  sitting  in  church 
courts,  or  performing  validly  any  judicial 
or  ministerial  function ;  the  four  Evan- 
gelical ministers  became  the  only  legal 
presbytery  ;  and  directions  were  given  to 
them,  and  to  a  committee,  to  provide  a 
supply  of  stated  ministerial  services  in  the 
parishes  of  the  suspended  ministers.  The 
suspended  ministers  immediately  applied 
to  the  Court  of  Session  for  a  suspension 
of  this  spiritual  censure,  and  for  an  inter- 
dict, to  prevent  the  sentence  from  being 
intimated  in  their  respective  parishes,  and 
also  to  prevent  any  other  minister  from 
preaching  in  these  parishes.  This  wa 
asking  rather  more  than  the  court  was  ye 
prepared  to  grant;  but  on  the  18th  of 
December  an  interdict  was  granted,  pro- 
hibiting the  sentence  from  being  intimated 
in  the  churches,  churchyards,  or  school 
houses  of  the  respective  parishes,  and 
also  prohibiting  all  ministers  from  preach- 
ing in  the  above  specified  places.  To  this 


410 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


interdict  obedience  was  given,  so  far  as 
regarded  the  prohibition  of  using  the 
churches,  churchyards,  or  school-houses, 
these  being  civil  matters,  over  which  the 
Court  of  Session  has  control ;  but  the 
sentence  was  intimated  in  the  open  air,  or 
in  other  convenient  places,  and  ministers 
preached  in  these  parishes  wherever  the 
people  could  assemble  to  hear  the  gospel. 
Such  was  the  state  of  matters  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  year  1839  ;  and  it  was 
now  becoming  apparent  to  the  public,  that 
such  a  state  of  matters  could  not  long  con- 
tinue, without  endangering  the  very  ex- 
istence of  the  Church,  and  the  peace  and 
welfare  of  the  nation.  Great  exertions 
had  been  made  to  blind,  prejudice,  and 
mislead  the  public  respecting  th.e  cause 
and  nature  of  the  contest.  The  cry  of 
"  rebellion"  was  loudly  raised  against  the 
Church,  by  some  who  ought  to  have 
known  that,  instead  of  rebelling,  she  was 
opposing  a  revolutionary  violation  of  the 
constitution ;  and  by  many  who  knew 
nothing  of  the  matter,  but  who  hated  the 
Church,  and  were  glad  of  any  opportunity 
to  calumniate  and  assail  her.  The  Vo- 
luntaries, who  had  been  defeated  in  argu- 
ment, gazed  on  with  eager  delight,  seeing 
the  Court  of  Session  so  energetically  en- 
gaged in  attempting  to  give  a  practical 
confirmation  of  their  main  assertion, 
"  that  an  Established  Church  forfeited  its 
spiritual  independence."  Political  anta- 
gonists swelled  the  crowd  of  false  wit- 
nesses, and  re-echoed  the  insensate  charge 
of  rebellion  ;  but  never  one  of  them  spe- 
cified the  law  which  had  been  broken,'or 
the  act  of  rebellion  which  had  been  com- 
mitted, and  the  penalty  which  had  been 
incurred.  In  this  time  of  peril  and  re- 
proach God  did  not  desert  the  Church, 
nor  withdraw  his  presence  from  her.  On 
the  23d  of  July  1839,  a  very  remarkable 
manifestation  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  agency 
took  place  at  Kilsyth,  causing  a  revival 
of  vital  religion  such  as  had  not  been 
witnessed  in  Scotland  for  nearly  a  century. 
Nor  was  it  confined  to  Kilsyth.  At  Dun- 
dee, Perth,  Blairgowrie,  Ancrum,  Jed- 
burgh,  Kelso,  throughout  the  presbytery 
of  Tain  in  Ross-shire,  in  Sutherlandshire, 
and  in  various  other  parts  of  Scotland,  a 
similar  awakening  took  place  ;  many 
sinners  were  converted  and  reclaimed 
from  their  evil  ways,  and  cold  and  back- 
sliding believers  were  quickened  and 


urged  forward  in  their  Christian  course, 
with  renewed  zeal  and  faithfulness.  The 
Church  was  refreshed  and  re-invigorated. 
Many  whose  hearts  had  begun  to  droop, 
were  encouraged,  and  constrained  to  de- 
clare their  belief,  that  God  had  visited  his 
people  ;  and  that  though  cast  into  the  fur- 
nace, the  Church  of  Scotland  could  not 
be  destroyed,  for  God  was  with  her  there  ; 
and  the  shout  of  her  Divine  King  was 
again  heard  in  the  heart  of  the  Scottish 
Zion.  The  bush  was  burning,  but  un- 
consumed,  for  the  Lord  was  in  it. 

[1840.]  The  year  1840  opened  in  the 
midst  of  these  scenes  of  trouble  and  of 
encouragement.  In  a  spirit  of  calm  re- 
solution, the  Church  went  forward  in  her 
sacred  course ;  and  in  a  spirit  of  furious 
hostility,  her  enemies  rushed  onwards  to 
the  assault.  The  Court  of  Session  pro 
nounced  a  judgment  professing  to  suspend 
the  sentence  of  suspension,  and  conse- 
quently to  restore  the  seven  ministers  to 
the  exercise  of  their  spiritual  functions  ; 
the  partial  interdict  which  they  had 
granted  was  rendered  perpetual ;  and  the 
prohibition  was  extended  to  entire  par- 
ishes of  the  suspended  seven,  so  that  no 
minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  was 
permitted  to  molest  the  seven  by  preach- 
ing the  gospel,  even  in  the  open  air,  in 
these  parishes.  This  interdict  could  not 
be  obeyed  without  direct  disobedience  to 
the  commands  of  Christ,  to  preach  the 
gospel  to  every  creature  under  heaven ; 
and  the  Church  therefore  acted  on  the 
Divine  principle,  that  it  was  right  to  obey 
God  rather  than  man.  And  it  must  be 
gratefully  recorded,  that  the  Divine  Head 
of  the  Church  honoured  the  preaching 
of  those  ministers  who  were  sent  to  dis- 
charge the  duties  of  the  ministry  in  the 
parishes  of  the  suspended  ministers,  with 
a  very  remarkable  degree  of  spiritual 
influence.  The  attention  of  the  crowded 
audiences  who  waited  on  their  ministry 
in  barns,  or  temporary  erections,  or  the 
open  air,  was  deep,  solemn,  and  often  ac- 
companied with  profound  emotion,  and 
with  gushing  tears.  The  light  of  the 
gospel  broke  in  upon  a  district  which  had 
long  been  overshadowed  with  the  mid- 
night darkness  of  extreme  Moderatism  ; 
and  the  people  rejoiced  in  the  holy  and 
heavenly  radiance  which  shone  around 
them.  Many  ministers  returned  from 
Strathbogie,  praising  God  for  the  manifest 


A.  D.  1842.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


411 


spiritual  influence  which  they  had  both 
marked  and  felt,  accompanying  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  in  that  district, 
and  counting  all  the  perils  of  the  Church, 
and  all  their  own  perils  from  broken  in- 
terdicts, more  than  compensated  by  what 
they  had  witnessed  and  enjoyed.  They 
felt  that  the  cause  was  unquestionably  the 
cause  of  Christ,  for  they  felt  that  His 
presence  had  been  with  them. 

At  the  same  time  it  deserves  to  be  pe- 
culiarly remarked,  that  the  seven  'sus- 
pended ministers  did  not  venture  to  com- 
plain to  the  Court  of  Session  of  the 
breach  of  interdict  which  had  been  ob- 
tained in  absence.  Had  they  done  so,  its 
validity  would  have  been  regularly  tried  ; 
when  there  are  strong  reasons  for  believ- 
ing that  it  would  have  been  found  incom- 
petent for  any  civil  court  to  grant  such  an 
interdict.  But  it  was  a  safer  policy  for 
them  to  leave  the  point  untried,  raising, 
meanwhile,  the  clamorous  outcry,  "  Obey 
the  law,"  which  they  dared  not  thus  test 
if  it  were  a  law. 

In  the  meantime  the  committee  which 
had  been  appointed  to  confer  with  the 
legislature,  were  exerting  themselves  to 
the  utmost  in  the  discharge  of  their  im- 
portant duty.  Negociations  were  opened 
and  carried  on  with  government  and  with 
the  most  influential  statesmen  in  both  of 
the  political  parties  in  parliament.  These 
exertions  were  supported  by  petitions  from 
the  people  of  Scotland,  signed  by  no  less 
than  two  hundred  and  sixty  thousand 
names  of  Scotland's  best  and  most  religious 
sons,  praying  for  protection  to  the  Church 
of  their  fathers,  and  to  their  own  sacred 
rights  and  privileges.  The  government 
at  length  declined  to  interfere,  being  ap- 
prehensive, probably,  that  to  help  the 
Church  of  Scotland  might  offend  those 
of  their  supporters  who  were  adherents 
of  the  Voluntary  principle.  The  subject 
was  then  taken  up  by  the  Earl  of  Aber- 
deen, who  had  previously  held  intercourse 
with  the  Assembly's  committee,  both  in 
interviews  and  by  letters.  Sanguine 
hopes  were  entertained  by  many  that  a 
bill  would  be  introduced  by  that  noble- 
man, if  not  such  as  could  be  wished,  at 
least  such  as  would  secure  the  spiritual 
independence  of  the  Church  against  the 
invasion  of  the  Court  of  Session,  and 
protect  the  people  from  the  intrusion  of 
unacceptable  ministers.  His  lordship 


terminated  his  diplomatic  labours,  during 
which  he  had  succeeded  in  deceiving 
many,  with  the  production  of  a  bill  which 
would  have  ratified  every  aggression  made 
by  the  civil  courts,  set  aside  the  principle 
that  no  pastor  may  be  intruded  into  a  par- 
ish contrary  to  the  will  of  the  congrega- 
tion, and  left  all  the  proceedings  of  the 
church  courts  subject  to  the  review  of  the 
Court  of  Session.* 

The  Assembly  of  1840  had  very  im- 
portant duties  to  discharge,  and  it,  under 
the  guidance  of  its  Divine  Head,  dis- 
charged them  well.  The  proceedings  of 
the  Commission  in  the  case  of  the  sus- 
pended seven  Strathbogie  ministers  were 
affirmed  by  a  majority  of  eighty- four. 
Those  men  were  next  declared  liable  to 
high  censure  for  their  conduct ;  but  a 
committee  was  appointed  to  confer  with 
them  before  proceeding  to  express  censure, 
with  a  view  to  recall  them  to  some  sense 
of  their  duty,  if  that  might  yet  be  possible. 
They  justified  their  conduct,  and  refused 
to  make  any  submission.  It  was  then 
moved,  that  the  sentence  of  suspension 
should  be  continued  ;  that  they  should 
be  cited  to  appear  before  the  Commission 
in  August;  and  that  if  then  they  still 
continued  to  refuse  submission  to  the  su- 
perior church  courts,  a  libel,  or  legal  in- 
dictment, should  be  served  upon  them, 
and  the  Commission  should  proceed  till 
the  case  was  ripe  for  the  judgment  of  the 
next  Assembly.  This  motion  was  car- 
ried by  a  majority  of  sixty  four, — the  num- 
bers being  one  hundred  and  sixty-six  to 
one  hundred  and  two.  The  great  lenien- 
cy and  forbearance  of  this  procedure  will 
be  at  once  manifest,  when  it  is  contrasted 
with  the  conduct  of  the  Moderate  party 
during  the  administration  of  Principal 
Robertson,  when  ministers  were  instantly 
deposed  upon  declining  to  intrude  unwor- 
thy and  unacceptable  presentees  upon 
reluctant  congregations.  Lord  Aber- 
deen's bill  came  next  under  consideration, 
and  was  rejected  by  a  majority  of  eighty- 
seven, — the  numbers  being  two  hundred 
and  twenty-one  to  one  hundred  and  thir- 
ty-four. This  large  majority  rendered  it 
abundantly  evident  that  the  Church  of 


*  In  April  1840,  the  Assembly's  Committee  published 
statement  of  two  different  methods  by  which  a  pa- 
cific adjustment  might  be  effected, — the  one  founded 


on  the  veto,  the  other  on  the  direct  call ;  and  in  a  very 
short  time  three  hundred  and  eighty  ministers,  and 
two  thousand  two  hundred  and  thirty-three  elders 
publicly  declared  their  satisfaction  with  either. 


412 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


Scotland  would  not  consent  to  become 
again  subject  to  Erastian  domination, 
either  through  Moderate  management,  or 
in  dread  of  civil  pains  and  penalties,  or 
misled  by  the  delusions  of  diplomatic 
craft.  At  the  same  time  the  peril  to  the 
existence  of  the  Establishment  was  in- 
creasing. The  speeches  of  Dr.  Cook 
and  other  Moderate  leaders,  their  reasons 
of  dissent  against  the  decision  of  the  As- 
sembly, and  the  countenance  given  to  the 
suspended  seven,  all  tended  to  render  ap- 
parent the  strong  probability  that,  ere 
long,  the  entire  Moderate  party  would 
throw  aside  the  mask  they  had  so  long 
worn,  and  declare  themselves  the  avowed 
supporters  of  Court  of  Session  sove- 
reignty, however  incompatible  with  the 
sovereignty  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
An  attempt  was  made  by  them  to  encour- 
age Lord  Aberdeen  to  press  his  bill 
through  the  legislature,  by  procuring  as 
many  signatures  as  possible  to  a  decla- 
ration of  satisfaction  with  its  principles 
and  its  provisions.  Only  two  hundred 
and  sixty  names  of  ministers  were  ob- 
tained ;  and,  with  the  exception  of  about 
a  dozen,  these  names  were  not  such  as  to 
shed  lustre  or  confer  strength  upon  any 
cause.  His  Lordship  withdrew  his  bill. 
Another  attempt  was  made  by  the  defeat- 
ed Moderates  to  unite  their  party  by  a 
bond  of  fraternal  co-operation,  in  the 
great  endeavour  to  recover  their  power  to 
perpetrate  intrusions,  and  to  stifle  the 
voice  of  Evangelism.  But  it,  too,  failed, 
for  success  was  uncertain  ;  and  many 
Moderates  who  would  have  rejoiced  in  the 
recovered  ascendency  of  their  party,  were 
not  prepared  to  unite  in  a  scheme  which 
might  involve  personal  and  pecuniary 
considerations.  It  gave  occasion,  how- 
ever, to  an  Engagement  among  the  faith- 
ful defenders  of  religious  liberty  and 
evangelical  truth,  signed  on  the  1 1th  of 
August  1840,  by  which  a  close  approach 
was  made  to  the  sacred  National  Cove- 
nant of  earlier,  purer,  and  more  devoted 
times,  and  which  may  yet  lead  to  the  re- 
newal of  that  but  half-forgotten,  and,  as 
many  think,  still  binding  Covenant  be- 
tween the^  deathless  moral  and  religious 
being  of  the  nation  and  the  King  Eternal. 
When  the  Commission  met  in  August, 
it  appeared  that,  instead  of  submitting, 
the  suspended  Strathbogie  ministers  had 
continued  to  preach,  baptize,  and  dispense 


the  sacraments,  in  defiance  of  the  sentence 
of  the  General  Assembly ;  that  on  the 
8th  of  June  they  had  applied  to  the  Court 
of  Session  for  an  interdict  against  this  re- 
newed suspension,  and  against  the  preach- 
ing of  any  minister  sent  to  officiate  in 
their  parishes  j  and  that  they  had  caused 
copies  of  that  interdict  to  be  served  on 
ministers  on  the  Sabbath-day,  and  on  el- 
ders while  assisting  at  the  communion, 
and  bearing  the  vessels  of  the  sanctuary. 
All  these  fearful  acts  of  desecration  were 
notorious,  and  nothing  remained  but  to 
prepare  a  libel,  or  formal  accusation, 
against  them.  The  motion  to  that  effect 
was  carried  by  a  majority  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five, — the  numbers  being  one 
hundred  and  ninety-one  to  sixty-six.  The 
accusation  was  framed  with  great  judg- 
ment and  propriety,  resting  the  main 
charge,  not  upon  contumacy  and  insub- 
ordination,— though  in  the  minds  of 
many  that  would  have  been  enough, — 
but  upon  their  asking  and  receiving  from 
a  civil  court  power  to  discharge  the  most 
•sacred  offices,  when  that  power  had  been 
taken  away  by  a  spiritual  court,  by  which 
alone  it  can  be  either  given  or  taken 
away.  This  was  evidently  receiving 
from  the  civil  magistrate  the  keys  of  doc- 
trine and  discipline,  which  these  men  had 
sworn  that  the  Church  alone  possesses, 
when  they  subscribed  the  Confession  of 
Faith;  consequently  it  involved  the  so- 
lemn and  awful  charge  of  denying  the 
great  doctrine  of  the  Redeemer's  sole 
Sovereignty,  and  desecrating  the  ordinan- 
ces of  His  Church  by  administering  them 
on  the  authority  of  the  civil  magistrate 
alone.  It  was  evident,  that  if  the  civil 
court  could  remove  the  sentence  of  a  spir- 
itual court,  and  give  authority  to  dispense 
spiritual  ordinances,  then  it  must  itself 
possess  all  possible  spiritual  power,  or 
rather,  then  spiritual  power  had  no  exis- 
tence, and  the  Christian  Church  was  but 
an  empty  name. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Commission  in 
November,  the  Strathbogie  case  was  re- 
sumed, and  the  relevancy  of  the  libel 
against  the  seven  suspended  ministers  was 
sustained  by  a  vote  of  ninety-one  to  fif- 
teen ;  that  against  Mr.  Edwards  by  a 
vote  of  seventy-five  to  two.  Unmoved  by 
this  almost  unanimous  expression  of  con- 
demnation, these  men  held  on  their  course. 
Mr.  Edwards  had  been  taken  on  trials 


A.  D.  1841.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


413 


by  the  suspended  seven,  on  the  19th  day 
of  February,  and  found  qualified.  He 
then  applied  to  them  to  proceed  with  his 
settlement.  They  hesitated  and  delayed, 
as  rather  reluctant  to  take  the  final  step. 
It  may  be  that  they  had  misunderstood  the 
law  all  along,  even  in  that  particular 
point  on  which  they  rested  their  cause. 
They  had  argued  often  that  they  were 
"  bound  and  astricted  to  take  the  presen- 
tee on  trials  ;  but  the  clause  in  the  act 
1592  says,  "  bound  and  astricted  to  re- 
ceive and  admit  whatsoever  qualified 
minister," — leaving  the  whole  matter  of 
taking  on  trials,  and  determining  as*to 
qualifications,  completely  within  the  pow- 
er of  the  Church,  and  not  touching  the 
spiritual  act  of  ordination  at  all,  which 
in  another  part  of  the  same  enactment  is 
expressly  said  to  "  belong  to  the  privilege 
that  God  has  given  to  the  spiritual  office- 
bearers in  the  Kirk."  They  had,  how- 
ever, pronounced  Mr.  Edwards  qualified, 
and  they  were  now  by  their  own  act 
bound  to  proceed  to  his  settlement.  On 
the  2d  of  September  he  again  applied  to 
his  seven  friends ;  and  when  they  still 
hesitated,  he  caused  a  'notorial  protest 
to  be  served  on  them,  holding  them  liable 
for  damages.  He  then  raised  in  the 
Court  of  Session  an  action  against  the 
entire  presbytery  of  Strathbogie,  both  the 
suspended  and  the  remaining  members, 
concluding  to  have  them  decerned  to  ad- 
mit him,  and  failing  to  do  so,  to  have 
them  found  liable  for  damages  to  the 
amount  of  £10,000,  and  £1000  additional 
for  expenses.  When  the  case  was  heard 
in  the  court,  the  suspended  seven  declared 
their  willingness  to  admit  Mr.  Edwards, 
if  required ; — thus  consenting  to  that 
court's  pronouncing  the  order  for  admis- 
sion sought  by  Mr.  Edwards.  The  mi- 
nority, the  true  presbytery,  gave  in  defen- 
ces, disputing  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court. 
But  the  court,  while  the  question  of  their 
own  power  to  grant  such  an  order  at  all 
was  still  under  discussion  in  the  defences 
offered  by  the  presbytery,  actually  gave, 
on  the  18th  of  December  1840,  to  those 
men  who  had  been  suspended  from  their 
spiritual  office,  an  order  to  perform  a  spi- 
ritual function,  and  that  simply  on  the 
ground  of  the  consent  of  the  seven,  which 
could  never  confer  on  the  Court  of  Ses- 
sion a  jurisdiction  which  did  not  belong 
to  it  by  the  constitution  of  the  empire. 


And  certain  of  their  Lordships  of  Session 
did  not  hesitate  to  declare,  that  they  held 
it  competent  for  that  court  to  issue  an  or- 
der compelling  a  minister  to  grant  admis- 
sion to  the  Lord's  Table.  In  this  man- 
ner did  the  Court  of  Session  advance, 
step  by  step,  from  their  false  position  in 
the  Auchterarder  case,  when  they  repelled 
the  objection  urged  by  the  ecclesiastical 
courts  against  their  assumption  of  juris- 
diction in  ecclesiastical  matters  till  now ; 
that  they  asserted  jurisdiction  in  every  ec- 
clesiastical matter,  however  sacred,  virtual- 
ly putting  an  end  to  all  distinction  between 
things  civil  and  things  sacred  ;  annihila- 
ting, so  far  as  they  were  able,  all  spirit- 
ual jurisdiction;  assuming  the  "power 
of  the  keys,"  contrary  to  the  express  lan- 
guage of  the  Confession  of  Faith,  and 
the  act  of  parliament  by  which  it  was 
made  the  law  of  the  land.  No  parallel 
violation  of  law  is  to  be  found  in  the 
history  of  the  Scottish  Church  and  nation, 
except  the  oath  of  supremacy  in  1661, 
when  Charles  II.  caused  himself  to  be 
acknowledged  supreme  governor  in  all 
causes,  civil  and  ecclesiastical. 

[1841.]  The  seventh  year  of  Evan- 
gelical ascendency  was  about  to  com- 
mence its  round,  every  thing  indicating 
that  the  struggle  between  the  Church 
and  the  world  was  rapidly  approaching 
to  a  crisis.  With  fierce  eagerness  the 
supporters  of  secular  power  strove  to 
throw  in  fresh  elements  of  discord  and 
of  danger,  while  the  faithful  defenders 
of  religious  liberty  and  truth  went  calm- 
ly and  steadily  forward  in  the  discharge 
of  the  sacred  duties  which  they  owed  to 
the  Divine  Head  of  the  Church,  regard- 
ing neither  the  threats  nor  the  reproaches 
which  they  were  called  to  encounter  in 
His  cause. 

On  the  4th  of  January  1841,  the  sus- 
pended ministers  of  Strathbogie  met,  re- 
ceived a  report  of  the  proceedings  in  the 
case  of  Mr.  Edwards,  resolved  to  pro- 
ceed with  his  induction,  and  appointed 
the  21st  of  the  same  month  to  be  the  day 
on  which  that  deed  should  be  committed. 
A  heavy  fall  of  snow  on  the  20th  had 
rendered  the  roads  almost  impassable ; 
but  the  intense  interest  felt  by  the  whole 
adjacent  country  induced  great  numbers 
to  crowd  to  the  Church  of  Marnoch,  to 
the  amount  of  probably  not  less  than  two 
thousand.  The  suspended  ministers  also 


414 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X, 


reached  the  spot,  accompanied  by  Mr. 
Edwards.  One  of  the  elders  of  Mar- 
noch  asked  them  for  what  purpose,  and 
by  what  authority,  they  had  come.  Their 
moderator,  with  hesitation,  answered, 
that  they  appeared  as  the  presbytery  of 
Strathbogie,  a  part  of  the  National 
Church,  assembled  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  vast  audience 
shuddered  to  hear  a  statement  so  directly 
contrary  to  truth,  asserted  in  connection 
with  the  Redeemer's  name.  Mr.  Dun- 
can, the  legal  agent  for  the  parishioners, 
produced  his  mandate,  and  being  refused 
the  right  of  protest  in  the  usual  form, 
protested  in  the  hands  of  a  notary  public. 
The  protest  was  read  aloud,  narrating 
the  tyrannical  treatment  which  the  pa- 
rishioners of  Marnoch  had  endured,  de- 
claring their  readiness  to  prove  objections 
against  the  life  and  doctrine  of  Mr.  Ed- 
wards before  any  lawful  presbytery,  dis- 
claiming the  jurisdiction  of  the  suspended 
seven,  and  protesting  against  the  right 
of  Edwards  to  intrude  himself  upon 
them.  This  being  done,  the  parishioners 
arose,  took  their  Bibles  in  their  hands, 
and  left  the  temple  of  their  fathers,  dese- 
crated by  the  presence  of  these  traffick- 
ers in  religious  matters  ;  aged  men  and 
women,  vigorous  manhood,  and  opening 
youth,  all,  all  alike  arose,  and  slowly, 
silently,  and  mournfully,  many  of  them 
in  tears,  passed  outwards  into  the  open 
snowy  waste,  banished,  certainly  by  no 
court  of  Christ,  from  His  Father's  house 
of  prayer.  Only  one  parishioner  of 
Marnoch  remained,  being  unable  to  ex- 
tricate himself  from  the  agitated  crowd 
of  people  from  neighbouring  parishes, 
who  had  come  to  witness  the  appalling 
scene.  Some  confusion  then  followed, 
these  strangers  not  being  able  to  repress 
their  indignation  at  the  outrage  which 
they  beheld  their  countrymen  enduring1. 
This  was  soon  restrained  by  the  presence 
of  a  magistrate  ;  the  confined  parishioner 
of  Marnoch  obtained  release  and  joined 
his  fellow-sufferers,  and  the  dread  scene 
went  on.  The  usual  questions  were  put 
to  Edwards  which  are  put  to  probation- 
ers at  the  time  of  their  ordination,  such 
as  the  vow  of  obedience  to  superior 
church  courts, — which  at  that  moment 
both  they  who  imposed  and  he  who  took 
were  violating  ;  the  declaration  that  he 
had  used  no  undue  methods,  either  by 


himself  or  others,  in  procuring  that 
call, — he  having  no  call  but  that  signed 
by  Peter  Taylor,  and  having  used  meth- 
ods subversive  of  the  constitution  of  the 
National  Church  ; — and  to  this  most  so- 
lemn question,  "  Are  not  zeal  for  the  ho- 
nour of  God,  love  to  Jesus  Christ,  and 
desire  of  saving  souls,  yoi<r  great  mo- 
tives  and  chief  inducements  to  enter  into 
the  office  of  the  holy  ministry,  and  not 
worldly  designs  and  interests  ? — he  an- 
swered audibly,  Yes  ;  while  at  the  same 
moments  the  decreets  of  the  Court  of  Ses- 
sion, all  obtained  on  the  sole  ground  of 
"  worldly  designs  and  interests,"  were 
lying  high-piled  before  them  !  At  the 
fearful  response  the  vast  crowd  heaved 
one  long-drawn  and  deep  gasp  of  awe 
and  horror — what  crime  they  regarded 
that  answer  as  involving,  need  not  be 
named.  The  dreadful  vows  were  ut- 
tered ;  the  act  of  ordination  was  profane- 
ly imitated  by  the  authority,  not  of  the 
Head  of  the  Church,  but  of  a  subordi- 
nate civil  court;  and  the  perpetrators 
walked  away  from  the  scene  amidst  the 
hisses  of  the  people, — Edwards  in  fear, 
though  not  in  danger,  crouching  between 
policemen,  without  one  to  welcome  him, 
even  as  stipend-lifter, — "  a  minister  with- 
out a  parishioner,  a  man  without  a 
friend." 

Such  was  the  atrocious  deed  done  at 
Marnoch  on  the  21st  of  January  1841, 
— a  deed  to  which  the  annals  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  can  furnish  no  paral- 
lel. For  in  all  the  violent  settlements 
effected  by  the  Moderates  of  former  times 
there  was  still  the  authority  of  the  Church, 
a  competent  authority  and  the  rightful 
one,  though  in  all  such  cases  wrongfully 
employed,  involving  the  abuse,  but  not 
the  denial  of  Christ's  sole  sovereignty ; 
but  the  Marnoch  crime  was  committed 
by  men  suspended  from  their  spiritual 
functions,  and  by  the  authority  of  the 
civil  court  alone,  as  if  in  scorn,  certainly 
in  violation,  of  every  feeling  of  humanity, 
every  admitted  principle  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  Church  and  State,  every  recorded 
example  in  the  sacred  Scriptures,  and 
every  kjea  that  can  be  conceived  respect 
ing  the  nature  of  the  sole  Sovereignty  and 
Headship  of  the  Divine  Redeemer  over 
his  spiritual  kingdom. 

The  sensation  caused  throughout  Scot- 
land by  this  renewal  of  the  Moderate  poli- 


A.  D.  1841.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


415 


cy  of  other  days,  cannot  be  described. 
Many  even  of  the  Church's  opponents 
began  to  be  convinced  that  Moderate  and 
Erastian  policy  must  be  essentially 
wrong1,  when  they  saw  the  hideous  re- 
sults to  which  it  so  directly  led.  Some 
even  of  the  Moderates,  recoiled  with 
alarm  from  the  thought  of  lending  their 
sanction  to  such  a  deed.  But  the  recoil 
was  temporary,  and  they  soon  returned 
to  the  prosecution  of  their  destructive 
course.  The  presentees  to  Lethendy  and 
Auchterarder  seemed  to  regret  that  they 
had  been  so  far  outdone  by  the  intruder 
of  Marnoch.  New  actions  were  raised 
in  the  Court  of  Session  ;  and  on  the  4th 
of  March,  that  court  found  that  the  pres- 
bytery of  Dunkeld  were  still  bound  to 
take  Mr.  Clark  on  trials,  this  conclusion 
being  urged  expressly  with  a  view  to- 
wards ulterior  proceedings  to  u  reduce 
the  admission  of  Mr.  Kessen,"  who  had 
already  been  ordained.  And  on  the  fol- 
lowing day,  5th  March,  an  action  of 
damages  was  granted  against  the  presby- 
tery of  Auchterarder,  at  the  instance  of 
the  Earl  of  Kinnoull  and  Mr.  Young, 
for  £5000  to  his  lordship,  £10,000  to  the 
presentee,  and  £1000  for  expenses.  The 
court  has  sustained  the  relevancy  of  this 
action  for  imposing  damages  on  the  mem- 
bers of  a  spiritual  court,  which,  even  by 
the  Statute  Law  of  the  land,  is  so  consti- 
tuted, that  every  one  of  its  members,  in 
the  very  act  of  being  admitted  to  his 
office  in  it,  is  imperatively  required,  as  a 
condition  of  holding  office,  to  vow  to  sub- 
mit himself  to  his  superior  judicatories, 
and  that  for  no  offence  but  that  of  obe- 
dience to  the  injunctions  of  these  very 
judicatories.  This  judgment  of  the 
Court  of  Session  is  under  appeal. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Commission  in 
March,  the  indictments  against  the  sus- 
pended seven  of  Strathbogie  and  Mr.  Ed- 
wards were  found  proven,  and  the  cases 
were  referred  to  the  General  Assembly 
for  judgment.  A  motion  was  made  by 
Dr.  Candlish,  expressive  of  sympathy 
with  the  parishioners  of  Marnoch,  and  ad- 
miration of  their  behaviour  in  such  try- 
ing circumstances.  This  was  carried 
by  a  vote  of  seventy-two  to  one,  the  one 
being  Dr.  Bryce,  even  the  person  who 
seconded  the  motion  not  having  sufficient 
effrontery  to  vote  for  it. 

On  the  6th  of  May,  the  Duke  of  Ar- 


gyle  laid  before  the  House  of  Lords,  "  a 
bill  entitled  an  Act  to  regulate  the  exer- 
cise of  Church  Patronage  in  Scotland." 
The  peculiar  point  of  this  bill  was,  that 
it  secured  the  great  principle,  "  that  no 
pastor  be  intruded  into  a  parish  contrary 
to  the  will  of  the  congregation,"  not  per- 
haps in  the  best  possible  way,  but  so  that 
under  its  provisions  no  Marnoch  atrocity 
could  again  be  perpetrated.  It  is  not  ne- 
cessary to  do  more  than  allude  to  the  lan- 
guage of  misrepresentation  and  virulence 
which  certain  noble  lords  disgrace  them- 
selves by  uttering  against  the  Church  of 
Scotland ;  but  it  deserves  to  be  stated, 
that  Lord  Chancellor  Cottenham,  on  a 
subsequent  day,  declared,  that  the  sole 
subject  of  appeal  in  the  Auchterarder 
case  was  whether  the  presbytery  were 
bound  to  take  the  presentee  on  trials,  not- 
withstanding the  veto  of  the  communi- 
cants ;  that  this  was  the  whole  extent  of 
the  decision  ;  and  declined  to  give  an 
opinion  as  to  what  had  since  taken  place, 
thereby  certainly  giving  no  countenance 
to  the  unprecedented  proceedings  of  the 
Court  of  Session. 

The  General  Assembly  of  1841  will 
ever  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  me- 
morable among  those  to  which  the  reader 
of  Church  history  directs  his  special  at- 
tention. The  time  to  record  its  trans- 
actions fully  has  not  yet  come  ;  but  when 
it  comes,  the  historian  will  delight  to 
dwell  upon  the  fearless  and  faithful  bear- 
ing, the  calm  and  Christian  fortitude,  the 
lofty  and  commanding  eloquence,  and  the 
clear  majestic  energy  of  sacred  principle 
which  characterised  the  gifted  men  who 
met  and  bore  back  the  sacrilegious  ag- 
gressions of  civil  power  upon  the  spirit- 
ual kingdom  of  the  Divine  Redeemer. 
Nor  will  the  names  of  Chalmers,  and 
Gordon,  and  Cunningham,  and  Cand- 
lish, and  Dunlop,  be  then  held  unmeet  to 
rank  with  those  of  Knox,  and  Melville, 
and  Henderson,  and  Gillespie,  and  War- 
riston.  But  let  it  even  now  be  recorded, 
that  amidst  all  the  efforts  that  were  made 
to  intimidate,  or  rouse  to  unseemly 
warmth,  the  defenders  of  the  Church, — 
amidst  all  the  fierce  threatenings  and 
malignant  reproaches  by  which  they 
were  incessantly  assailed, — they  remained 
unmoved,  calm,  solemn,  resolved,  like 
men  who  knew  the  might  of  their  adver- 
saries, but  feared  it  not,  knowing  that  the 


416 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


Lord  God  Almighty  reign  eth,  and  put- 
ting their  trust  in  Him, — contending 
earnestly  for  the  faith  once  delivered  to 
the  saints,  but  wielding  the  weapons  of 
no  carnal  warfare, — conscious  of  the 
perils  they  had  to  encounter,  yet  careful 
for  nothing,  but  in  every  thing  by  prayer 
and  supplication  making  their  requests 
known  to  God, — and  going  forward  in 
their  Master's  service,  strong  in  the  Lord 
and  in  the  power  of  his  might.  "  Sure- 
ly," was  the  solemn  thought  of  many  an 
awe-struck  spectator,  "  surely  the  pre- 
sence of  God  is  here." 

The  main  acts  of  this  Assembly  may 
be  very  briefly  stated.  Mr.  Wright, 
minister  of  Bothwick,  was  deposed  for 
heresy,  by  a  majority  of  one  hundred 
and  ten.  A  motion  declaring  patronage 
to  be  a  grievance,  injurious  to  the  in- 
terests of  religion,  the  main  source  of  the 
difficulties  in  which  the  Church  is  in- 
volved, and  that  its  abolition  is  neces- 
sary to  place  the  appointment  of  ministers 
on  a  right  and  permanent  basis,  was 
made  by  Mr.  Cunningham,  and,  after  a 
long  and  able  debate,  was  lost  by  the 
narrow  majority  of  six.  The  unprece- 
dented strength  of  the  anti-patronage 
party  proved  clearly,  that  the  mind  of 
the  Church  was  taking  the  right  direc- 
tion to  obtain  security  against  the  corrupt- 
ing influence  of  secular  interference  in 
things  spiritual,  and  secular  aggression, 
by  aiming  at  the  abolition  of  the  hostile 
element.  And  though  not  yet  successful, 
the  hour  of  victory  cannot  now  be  distant, 
several  of  those  who  opposed  the  motion 
having  declared,  that  if  the  efforts  then 
in  progress  for  securing  the  efficacy  of 
the  Non-Intrusion  principle  should  fail, 
they  would  unite  with  those  who  sought 
redress  by  an  abolition  of  patronage.  A 
motion  approving  of  the  Duke  of  Argyle's 
bill  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five.  A  motion  to 
depose  the  seven  suspended  ministers  of 
Strathbogie  was  carried  by  a  majority  of 
ninety-seven,  and  they  were  deposed  ac- 
cordingly.* The  settlement  of  Mr.  Ed- 

•  It  must  be  noted,  that  when  the  motion  for  deposi- 
tion was  carried,  Dr.  Cook,  as  the  leader  of  his  party, 
read  a  declaration  and  protest  against  this  decision,  in 
which  he  and  those  adaering  to  him  declared  that  they 
"  could  not  cease  to  regard  these  men  as  still  ministers, 
just  as  if  the  proceedings  against  them  had  never  been 
instituted  ;"  adding,  that  "  although  in  the  present  case 
they  dirt  not  submit  to  the  judgment  of  the  General 
Assembly,  they  would  endeavour  faithfully  to  discharge 
the  duties  which,  as  office-bearers  in  the  Established 
Church,  they  were  bound  to  perform."  A  copy  of  this 


wards  was  declared  null  and  void,  and 
the  four  remanent  members  of  the  pres- 
bytery of  Strathbogie  were  instructed  to 
proceed  to  the  induction  of  Mr.  Henry  as 
minister  of  Marnoch.  On  the  motion  of 
Mr.  Dunlop,  an  overture  restoring  to  the 
people  their  right  of  electing  elders  was 
ordered  to  be  transmitted  to  presbyteries, 
previous  to  its  being  enacted  into  a  stand- 
ing law.  This  most  important  measure 
had  been  under  discussion  since  1834,  as 
essential  to  the  restoration  of  tb,e  Church 
to  a  state  of  purity  and  efficiency,  and 
was  now  carried  by  a  majority  of  eighty- 
nine,  completing  the  reformation  of  the 
Church  from  the  abuses  of  Moderatisn:. 
Directions  were  also  given  to  proceed  by 
libel  against  refractory  probationers  when 
applying  to  civil  courts  for  suspension  of 
the  decisions  of  ecclesiastical  courts,  with 
express  reference  to  the  cases  of  Auch- 
terarder,  Lethendy,  and  Marnoch.  It 
may  be  mentioned  also,  that  the  deposed 
seven  applied  to  the  Court  of  Session  for 
an  interdict  to  prohibit  the  Assembly  from 
passing  and  intimating  the  sentence  of 
deposition,  obtained  it,  and  attempted  to 
serve  it,  after  the  sentence  had  been  pro- 
nounced, when  it  could  be  of  no  possible 
avail,  except  it  were  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  offering  an  insult  to  the  supreme  ec- 
clesiastical court,  even  while  its  proc^ed- 
ings  were  sanctioned  by  the  lord  high 
commissioner,  her  majesty's  representa- 
tive. Perhaps  it  was  fitting,  that  those 
who  had  done  their  utmost  to  violate  the 

protest  appeared  next  day  in  the  public  newspapers, 
containing  an  additional  clause,  declaring  that  the  pro- 
testers meant  to  hold  communion  with  the  deposed 
seven.  The  document  had  been  ordered  to  lie  on  the 
table  till  next  day,  before  being  taken  into  consideration, 
to  allow  time  for  cool  reflection  to  moderate  the  heat 
of  the  defeated  party.  The  Assembly  then  refused  to 
receive  such  a  protest  and  declaration,  the  constitution- 
al procedure  being,  for  members,  when  they  could  not 
conscientiously  concur,  to  express  a  dissent  from,  but 
not  a  protest  and  declaration  against,  a  decision  of  the 
supreme  court.  It  was  noticed  also,  that  the  paper 
actually  on  the  table  did  not  contain  the  schismatic 
clause  which  appeared  in  the  newspapers,  Dr.  Cook 
admitting  that  it  did  not,  and  saying  that  steps  had 
been  taken  to  correct  the  published  error;  adding, 
"that  it  would  be  a  matter  of  deep  lamentation  to  him 
if  any  thing  should  occur  which  would  lead  him  to 
bring  these  sad  evils  upon  the  Church,  the  prospect  of 
which  filled  him  with  dismay."  From  this  pacific  ter- 
mination of  a  procedure  which  had  threatened  ;m  im- 
mediate schism,  hopes  began  to  be  entertained  that  the 
Moderates  were  at  length  about  to  consent  to  a  cessa- 
tion of  hostilities,  and  to  allow  a  time  of  quiet,  till  a 
final  adjustment  of  the  perilous  contest  misht  be  ob- 
tained. These  hopes  were  soon  dispelled,  and  ample 
reason  given  to  believe,  that  the  pacific  change  made 
on  the  protest  had  been  merely  a  stratagem,  intended 
to  gain  time  till  their  schemes  should  be  matured  and 
their  full  strength  mustered,  that  they  misht  then  re- 
sume the  conflict,  and  render  it  a  war  of  extermination. 
(See  the  published  Report  of  the  Assembly's  Proceed- 
ings.) 


A.  D.  1842.J 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


417 


British  constitution  should  insult  at  once 
the  most  venerable  institution  in  the  em- 
pire and  the  representative  of  the  sove- 
reign. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  whether  astonish- 
ment or  fury  predominated  among  the 
defeated  Moderates.  They  had  all  along 
vainly  imagined  that  their  Evangelical  op- 
ponents would  act  as  they  would  have  done 
themselves,  and  that  when  brought  to  the 
closing  shock  of  the  encounter,  they 
would  waver  and  recoil.  They  could 
scarcely  yet  believe  that  their  seven 
champions,  or  rather  victims,  were  indeed 
deposed.  But  recovering  a  little  from 
their  stunning  amazement,  they  set  them- 
selves to  counteract  the  moral  influence 
of  the  Assembly's  procedure  by  every 
artifice  which  the  vindictive  feelings  of 
defeated  despotism  could  devise.  Meet- 
ings were  held  to  express  sympathy  with 
the  deposed  seven.  At  these  "sym- 
pathy meetings"  were  seen  collected  Epis- 
copalians, Voluntaries,  and  men  of  no  re- 
ligious profession  at  ail,  banded  together 
in  strange  alliance  against  the  Church  of 
Scotland  in  her  defence  of  the  Re- 
deemer's crown.  In  each  and  all  of 
them  language  full  of  distorted  perver- 
sions and  exaggerated  mis-statements  was 
vehemently  employed  ;  till,  in  concen- 
trated bitterness,  the  leading  enemy  of 
the  Church  had  the  hardihood  to  declare 
in  his  place  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that 
the  Strathbogie  delinquents  had  been  de- 
posed "  simply. and  exclusively  for  their 
obedience  to  the  law  of  the  land."  Let 
the  direct  truth  be  stated,  and  deliberate- 
ly considered.  In  the  indictment  against 
these  men  there  were  nine  distinct 
charges  involving  the  violation  of  their 
ordination  vows,  their  desecration  of 
divine  ordinances,  and  their  overt  acts 
subversive  of  the  constitution  and  laws 
of  the  Church,  and  directly  opposed  to 
the  great  and  sacred  principle  of  Christ's 
Sovereignty  and  Headship, — each  and 
all  purely  ecclesiastical  offences,  arising 
out  of  their  own  spontaneous  movements, 
and  not  one  of  which  the  law  had  ordered 
them  to  commit.  They  of  their  own 
accord  applied  to  the  Court  of  Session  to 
know  whether,  in  the  opinion  of  that 
secular  court,  they  ought  to  do  certain 
ecclesiastical  deeds  ;  they  received  but  an 
opinion,  and  no  order  exposing  them  to 
penalties  should  they  disobey  j  and  the 
53 


very  essence  of  their  guilt  consisted 
in  their  voluntary  application  to  the 
civil  court,  to  which  in  such  matters  the 
constitution  of  the  empire  had  declared 
that  they  w.ere  not  subordinate,  after  they 
had  received  the  most  explicit  instruc- 
tions and  commands  of  the  supreme  ec- 
clesiastical court,  which  they  had  solemn- 
ly vowed. to  obey.  This  is  the  truth; 
and  future  times  will  know  what  term  to 
apply  to  those  who  have  dared  to  assert 
the  contrary. 

On  the  9th  of  June,  an  interdict  was 
granted  by  the  Court  of  Session,  prohibit- 
ing the  presbytery  of  Auchterarder  from 
proceeding  to  the  settlement  of  a  minister 
in  the  pastoral  charge  of  that  parish,  on 
such  maintenance  as  might  be  secured 
to  him  by  the  parishoners ;  as  if  to  say 
that  in  the  opinion  of  that  secular  court, 
the  usurpation  of  patronage  must  be 
maintained,  though  at  the  expense  of 
thereby  suppressing  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel  and  the  pastoral  cure  of  souls. 

Gathering  courage  from  the  prospect 
of  an  early  political  change,  which  they 
expected  to  be  likely  to  strengthen  their 
cause,  the  defeated  Moderates  began  to 
adopt  a  more  perilous  course  of  procedure 
than  any  on  which  they  had  previously 
ventured.  Some  of  their  leading  men 
went  as  a  deputation  to  London ;  and, 
while  there,  published  what  they  termed 
"  A  Statement  for  the  Presbytery  of 
Strathbogie,  and  for  the  Minority  of  the 
late  General  Assembly."  The  leading 
principle  of  this  statement  was  the  weak 
and  common  fallacy  so  often  refuted,  and 
leading  to  such  pernicious  consequences, 
that  when  the  civil  court  pronounces  any 
matter  to  be  within  its  jurisdiction,  it  is 
within  its  jurisdiction,  however  sacred  in 
its  own  nature  it  may  be,  and  that  eccle- 
siastical courts  are  immediately  bound  to 
submit  to  every  such  encroachment,  and 
to  obey  every  decision  founded  upon  it, 
— a  theory  which  ends  in  the  most  com- 
plete and  perfect  Erastianism.  In  the 
conclusion  of  this  new  Moderate  mani- 
festo, its  fabricators  suggested,  that  in 
order  to  secure  their  ultimate  triumph, 
the  law-officers  of  the  crown  should  be 
instructed  to  conduct  at  the  public  charge 
all  such  prosecutions  and  actions  at  law 
as  might  arise  out  of  disputed  settlements, 
similar  to  that  of  Marnoch ;  complacently 
adding,  that  with  such  an  arrangement 


418 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X 


they  "  would  have  much  reason  to  be 
satisfied."  Doubtless  they  would  ;  so 
that  if  they  could  neither  match  their 
faithful  brethren  in  argument,  nor  over- 
awe them  by  threats,  they  might  at  last 
wear  them  out  by  expensive  suits  at  law 
and  ruinous  fines,  their  own  personal 
comforts  and  pecuniary  resources  re- 
maining the  while  untouched.  Further 
to  hasten  on  the  crisis,  they  resolved  to 
hold  ministerial  intercourse  with  the  de- 
posed, contrary  to  their  own  declaration 
at  the  recent  Assembly,  when  giving 
their  reasons  of  dissent  from  its  sentence 
of  deposition.  And  in  this  they  pro- 
ceeded so  far  as  to  assist  these  laymen, 
as  they  unquestionably  were  after  they 
had  been  deposed,  in  the  desecration  of 
the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  supper. 
This,  they  well  knew,  was  an  act  which 
the  Church  of  Scotland  could  not  avoid 
regarding  as  a  heinous  sin,  and  which 
therefore  she  could  not  permit  to  pass  un- 
punished, without  participating  in  its 
guilt.  They  had  recorded  their  dissent ; 
they  were  at  perfect  liberty  still  to  declare 
and  to  maintain  their  sentiments;  and 
there  rested  upon  them  no  peculiar  obli- 
gation to  desecrate  the  ordinances  of  reli- 
gion in  those  seven  parishes  of  Strath- 
bogie,  which  at  the  Assembly  they  had, 
as  a  party  and  by  the  mouth  of  their 
leader,  disclaimed  the  intention  of  doing; 
but  they  hoped  to  involve  their  opponents 
in  the  necessity  of  deposing  so  great  a 
number  for  having  committed  this  new 
crime,  as  to  give  them  some  plausible 
ground  for  raising  the  loud  outcry  of 
tyranny  and  oppression,  with  a  view  to 
induce  the  civil  power  to  arm  and  hasten 
to  the  rescue.  How  strongly  is  this  tor- 
tuous, worldly,  and  cruel  policy  con- 
trasted with  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel, 
and  the  mild  and  much-enduring  spirit 
of  Christianity ! 

Such  was  the  new  aspect  of  affairs 
when  the  commission  met  on  the  1 1th  of 
August.  The  conduct  of  the  Moderate 
party  had  brought  on  the  long-expected 
crisis  ;  and  it  was  now  manifest,  that  un- 
less they  should  retrace  their  steps,  or 
the  Church  should  at  last  prove  unfaith- 
ful to  her  principles,  a  great  and  irre- 
parable schism  was  at  hand.  But  the 
Divine  Head  of  the  Church  did  not  with- 
draw His  presence  from  her  in  this 
momentous  hour.  A  report  was  read, 


containing  an  authentic  account  of  what 
had  taken  place  in  the  district  of  Strath- 
bogie,  and  naming  the  ministers  who  had 
assisted  the  deposed  men  to  desecrate  the 
sacrament.  Then  a  motion  was  made, 
that  while  conference  should  be  held  with 
these  men,  with  the  view  of  reclaiming 
them,  information  should  be  given  to  the 
several  presbyteries  having  jurisdiction 
over  the  ministers  named  in  the  report, 
that  they  might  institute  disciplinary  pro- 
ceedings, and  proceed  in  the  matter  ac- 
cording to  the  laws  of  the  Church.  And 
to  avert,  if  still  possible,  the  danger  and 
the  sin  of  schism,  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  address  to  the  said  brethren  a 
solemn  remonstrance  and  warning,  show- 
ing the  guilt  of  their  conduct,  and  ap- 
pealing to  all  their  better  principles  and 
feelings,  not  thus  to  persevere  in  rending 
asunder  the  venerable  and  blood-bought 
Church  of  their  fathers.  This  motion 
was  carried  by  a  majority  of  sixty  to  thir- 
teen. But  all  the  attempts  of  the  Evan- 
gelical majority  to  avert  a  schism  and 
procure  a  pacific  arrangement  were  in 
vain.  Dr.  Cook  and  Mr.  Robertson,  the  ac- 
knowledged leaders  of  their  party,  gave  in 
reasons  of  dissent,  the  conclusion  of  which 
was  as  follows  :  "  Because  the  resolution 
now  sanctioned  puts  an  end  to  all  hope 
of  devising  any  measure  by  which  the 
members  of  the  Church  might  be  united, 
and  imposes  upon  us,  and  upon  all  who 
agree  with  us  in  the  opinion  which  we 
have  repeatedly  expressed  as  to  our  pre- 
sent distressing  condition,  to  take  such 
steps  as  may  appear  most  effectual  for 
ascertaining  from  competent  authority, 
whether  we  who  now  dissent,  and  they 
who  concur  with  us,  or  they  who  continue 
to  set  at  naught  the  law  of  the  land  and  the 
decisions  of  the  supreme  courts  in  what 
we  esteem  a  civil  right,  are  to  be  held  by 
the  legislature  of  the  country  as  consti- 
tuting the  Established  Church,  and  as 
entitled  to  the  privileges  and  endowments 
conferred  by  statute  upon  the  ministers 
of  that  Church." 

The  plain  meaning  of  this  is  suffi- 
ciently obvious.  Moderatism  now  threw 
off  all  disguise,  and  openly  avowed  its 
intention  to  apply  to  the  legislature  to 
have  itself  declared  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, and  having  the  sole  right  to  the 
privileges  and  endowments  of  that 
Church,  to  the  exclusion  of  Evangelism, 


A.  D.  1841.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


419 


and  of  every  minister  who  continued  to 
hold  that,  in  the  words  of  the  Confession 
of  Faith,  which  is  the  law  of  the  land, 
"  There  is  no  other  Head  of  the  Church 
but  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ," — that,  "  As 
King  and  Head  of  His  Church,  He  hath 
therein  appointed  a  government  in  the 
hand  of  church-officers,  distinct  from  the 
civil  magistrate," — and  that  "  The  civil 
magistrate  may  not  assume  to  himself  the 
administration  of  the  Word  and  sacra- 
ments, or  the  power  of  the  keys." 

There  was  manifestly  no  further  use 
for  argument;  that  was  at  an  end.  The 
appeal  was  to  be  made  to  the  legislature, 
to  the  country,  and  to  God.  To  the 
legislature  it  was  necessary  to  show  how 
many  congregations  they  would  deprive 
of  their  faithful  and  beloved  pastors,  if 
they  should  comply  with  this  Moderate 
request  An  extraordinary  meeting  of 
Commission  was  accordingly  held  on  the 
25th  of  August,  when  a  series  of  resolu- 
tions were  proposed,  promptly  and  de- 
cisively encountering  the  threatened  dan- 
ger, reasserting  the  sacred  principles  of 
the  Church,  enumerating  the  aggressions 
which  had  been  made  by  the  civil  courts 
on  her  constitutional  spiritual  jurisdiction, 
declaring  a  calm  and  settled  determina- 
tion to  maintain  unimpaired  those  hal- 
lowed rights  and  privileges  which  are 
derived  from  the  Divine  Redeemer  alone, 
or  to  perish  in  their  defence ;  yet,  in  the 
forgiving  spirit  of  Christianity,  offering  a 
conference  with  the  erring  brethren,  if 
even  now  they  might  be  reclaimed  from 
their  guilty  and  disastrous  career.  These 
resolutions  were  opposed  by  one  member, 
who  could  not  find  any  person  to  second 
his  motion,  then  passed  in  probably  the 
largest  meeting  of  Commission  ever 
known,  and  one  dissentient  voice  was 
recorded.  A  meeting  was  held  on  the 
same  evening  in  the  West  Church,  ex- 
pressly limited  to  those  who  approved  of 
the  conduct  of  the  Church,  and  were 
willing  to  encounter  every  hazard  in  her 
defence.  This  was  the  greatest  meeting 
which  had  been  held  in  Scotland  since 
the  ever-memorable  day  on  which  the 
National  Covenant  was  signed  in  the 
Grayfriars'  church-yard.  From  south 
to  north,  from  east  to  west,  the  best  and 
holiest  office-bearers  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  elders  and  ministers,  came 
forth,  drawn  by  no  urgent  call  from  any 


central  source,  but  aroused  by  the  im- 
minent danger  of  our  Scottish  Zion,  and 
eager  to  take  their  position  on  the  high 
places  of  the  field,  and  to  peril  all  that 
the  heart  holds  dearest,  and  even  life 
itself  if  necessary,  in  defence  of  religious 
liberty,  and  of  the  Redeemer's  glorious 
crown.  The  area  of  the  church  was 
crowded  by  about  twelve  hundred  minis- 
ters and  elders,  and  the  double  galleries 
of  that  huge  fabric  were  densely  filled 
with  one  compact  continuous  mass  of 
Scotland's  dauntless  God-fearing  men 
and  prayerful  pious  matrons.  One  heart 
but  seemed  to  throb  within,  one  spirit  to 
inspire,  the  whole  vast  multitude, — the 
heart  that,  fearing  God,  can  have  no  other 
fear, — the  spirit  that,  worshipping  God, 
can  bow  before  him  alone. 

The  Moderator  of  the  late  General 
Assembly,  the  venerable  Dr.  Gordon, 
was  chosen  to  preside.  In  a  solemn 
spirit-stirring  tone  did  that  distinguished 
man  declare  his  firm  adherence  to  the 
great  principles  for  which  the  Church  of 
Scotland  is  contending,  and  his  settled 
determination  to  maintain  them  at  all 
hazards,  and  whatever  the  consequences 
might  be.  Brilliant  and  powerful  as  had 
often  been  the  eloquence  of  Dr.  Candlish, 
on  that  great  night  he  far  outshone  him- 
self, the  hearts  of  three  thousand  auditors 
heaving,  trembling,  and  glowing  beneath 
the  might  of  his  living  and  burning 
words.  A  deputation  from  the  Irish 
Presbyterian  Church  was  present,  eager 
to  tell  that  a  million  of  Erin's  warm- 
hearted children  were  ready  to  take  their 
stand  beside  their  Scottish  brethren, 
should  it  again  be  necessary  to  spread 
abroad  the  dreadless  and  unconquered 
old  blue  banner  on  the  free  winds  of 
heaven.  And  not  a  few  of  those  strong- 
minded,  enterprising  men,  of  Scottish 
birth  and  blood,  who  had  long  been  set- 
tled in  England's  wealthier  regions,  were 
also  there,  anxious  to  testify  that  their 
warmest  love  and  dearest  hopes  were 
with  their  country  still,  and  that  they 
held  it  still  their  highest  duty  and  most 
precious  privilege  to  rally  round  the 
venerable  and  beloved  Church  of  their 
fathers  in  her  hour  of  peril.  Yet  ever, 
in  the  midst  of  the  strong  excitemen 
caused  by  such  a  scene,  the  prevailing 
spirit  was  deep,  grave,  and  solemnly  reli- 
gious ;  and  when  at  the  close  of  the  pro- 


420 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X. 


ceedings,  the  122d  psalm  was  given  out  [ 
to  be  sung,  a*l  with  one  spontaneous  im- 
pulse arose,  and  from  three  thousand 
tongues  at  once  poured  forth  in  thunder- 
ous melody  the  sublime  anthem  of  prayer 
and  praise  to  God. 

A  series  of  resolutions,  suited  to  the 
emergency,  and  instinct  with  the  calm 
deliberate  courage  of  Christian  faith, 
having  been  proposed  to  this  great  meet- 
ing, received  its  warm  and  unanimous 
approval.  They  bore,  "  That  this  alarm- 
ing crisis  was  to  be  regarded  as  a  solemn 
call  for  prayerful  deliberation,  in  an 
humble  dependence  on  Almighty  God 
for  strength  and  wisdom  to  meet  and  en- 
dure the  trial ;  that  the  great  principles 
of '  the  freedom  of  the  Church  from  secu- 
lar control  in  the  exercise  of  the  spiritual 
government  and  discipline  committed  to 
her  by  her  Divine  Head,'  and  'that  no 
pastor  shall  be  intruded  on  a  congrega- 
tion contrary  to  the  will  of  the  people,' 
cannot  be  abandoned,  and  must,  at  what- 
ever hazard,  and  in  the  midst  of  whatever 
troubles,  be  steadfastly  maintained  ;  that 
the  fundamental  principle  avowed  by 
those  who  seek  to  have  themselves  recog- 
nized as  exclusively  constituting  the  Es- 
tablished Church  of  Scotland,  would  be 
subversive  of  the  government  appointed 
by  the  Lord  Jesus  in  His  Church,  would 
sanction  such  desolating  settlements  as 
that  of  Marnoch,  and  cannot  be  submitted 
to  by  those  holding  the  principles  set 
forth  in  the  preceding  resolution ;  that 
even  should  those  who  hold  these  princi- 
ples be  thrust  out  from  the  Establishment, 
they  might  still,  adhering  to  the  people, 
and  the  people  to  them,  and  all  co-operat- 
ing in  one  common  cause  and  supported 
by  one  common  fund,  be  the  Church  of 
the  nation,  so  that  the  danger  with  which 
the  Presbyterian  Church  is  threatened 
may  be  calmly  contemplated  and  fear- 
lessly met,  while  at  the  same  time,  with 
firm  unshrinking  front,  and  in  well-com- 
pacted union,  and  in  reliance  upon  Divine 
aid,  every  effort  must  be  made  to  avert  so 
great  a  calamity,  and  to  add  yet  another 
triumph  in  this  land  to  the  cause  of 
Christ's  crown  and  kingdom ;  and  that 
this  meeting  resolve  to  co-operate  in  the 
formation  of  committees,  local  and  gene- 
ral, for  the  purpose  of  securing  complete 
harmony  of  knowledge  and  feeling,  unity 
rf  exertion,  and  concentration  of  energy, 


in  warding  off  impending  dangers,  and 
endeavouring  to  effect  a  happy  and  a 
peaceful  issue  out  of  all  the  troubles  by 
which  the  Church  of  Scotland  is  now 
surrounded,  the  ministers  and  elders  pre- 
sent declaring  their  resolution  to  stand  by 
each  other  and  by  the  Church  in  the  main- 
tenance of  these  principles,  to  which  they 
again  avow  their  determined  adherence, 
praying  Almighty  God  that  He  would  give 
them  strength  to  maintain  them  to  the  end." 
The  Church  of  Scotland  thus  calmly, 
firmly,  and  decisively  took  her  ground, 
declared  her  principles,  and  committed 
herself  to  the  protection  of  her  only  Head 
and  King,  looking  to  Him  alone  for 
strength  to  meet  the  conflict,  fortitude 
under  the  trial,  and  a  peaceful  victory  in 
His  own  all-wise  and  gracious  time. 
Princes  and  people  alike  were  constrained 
to  hear  her  solemn  declaration  and  her 
dignified  appeal.  And  it  became  inevita- 
ble that  the  question  must  be  asked  at  the 
legislature  arid  the  whole  community, 
and  must  gravely  and  deliberately  be 
answered  by  both,  whether  the  National 
Church  was  to  be  composed  of  the  ad- 
herents of  a  system  which  had  thrust  out 
a  third  of  the  population,  protected  heresy 
and  immorality,  opposed  Christian  mis- 
sions, and  prohibited  the  communion  of 
believers, — a  system  which  would  still 
surrender  every  thing  sacred  and  spiritual 
to  the  control  of  the  secular  powers,  and 
would  deliberately  perpetrate  atrocities 
like  that  of  Marnock :  or  whether  it 
should  be  composed  of  those  who  hold, 
teach,  and  maintain  the  principles  com- 
mitted to  the  Church  by  her  only  Head 
and  King,  as  contained  in  the  Scriptures, 
and  embodied  in  the  Standards,  and  en- 
forced-in  the  government  and  discipline 
of  that  true- Presbyterian  Church  which 
takes  for  its  rule  the  Word  of  God  alone; 
which  was  planted  in  our  land  by  the 
firm  hand  of  our  great  reformers,  and 
watered  by  the  blood  of  our  martyred 
fathers  ;  which  was  ratified  by  the  Re- 
volution Settlement ;  whose  secured  in- 
tegrity is  the  very  basis  of  the  Union, 
and  the  safeguard  of  the  British  constitu- 
tion ;  whose  noble  characteristic  it  has 
ever  been,  to  give  education  to  the  young, 
and  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor ; 
and  whose  glorious  distinction  among  all 
Christian  Churches  it  has  been,'  and  still 
is,  to  suffer  in  defence  of  the  Divine  Re- 


A.  D.  1843.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


421 


deemer's  mediatorial  crown.  And  though 
there  were  some  preliminary  stages 
through  which  the  conflict  had  to  pass, 
before  that  momentous  question  could  be 
so  cleared  from  all  extraneous,  or  merely 
concomitant  matter,  that  it  might  be  put 
directly  and  alone,  in  a  manner  becom- 
ing its  great  and  solemn  importance  ; 
yet  it  was  not  doubtful  to  discerning 
minds,  that  the  progress  of  events  was 
rapidly  reducing  the  controversy  to  its 
primary  elements,  and  hastening  to  pro- 
dace  a  crisis,  not  merely  in  the  history 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  but  in  the  re- 
ligious history  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XL 

Introductory  Remarks— Progress  of  the  Controversy — 
The  Liberum  Arbitrium — The  Culsalmond  Case — The 
Middle  Party- Meeting  of  the  Assembly— Outline  of 
its  Proceedings— Remarks  on  the  Position  thus  final- 
ly Assumed  by  the  Church— The  Commission  of  Au- 
gust— Second  Decision  in  the  Auchterarder  Case — 
THE  CONVOCATION— Sir  James  Graham's  Letter — 
Reply  of  the  Commission — The  Stewarton  Case — 
Deputations  sent  through  Scotland,  or  Preparations 
begun  for  a  Disruption— Discussions  in  the  House  of 
Commons — Proceedings  of  the  Civil  Courts  and  the 
Moderate  Party — Continued  Preparations — State  of 
Affairs  at  the  Meeting  of  the  Assembly — THE  DISRUP- 
TION— THE  FREE  ASSEMBLY — Its  Proceedings — The 
Proceedings  of  the  Erastianized  Assembly — Lord 
Aberdeen's  Bill— Progress  of  the  Free  Church- 
Bicentenary  Commemoration  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly — Concluding  Remarks. 

THE  proceedings  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland  in  the  General  Assembly  of 
1842,  may  be  regarded  as  having  fully 
developed,  so  far  as  that  depended  on  the 
Church,  all  the  leading  principles  of  her 
constitution,  involved  in  the  late  struggle, 
as  exhibited  in  her  Standards.  These 
had  all  been,  at  different  times,  fairly  and 
earnestly  stated  and  defended  by  the  evan- 
gelical and  reforming  party ;  but  some 
of  them  had  not  received  the  due  sanc- 
tion of  a  majority,  so  that  they  remained 
in  comparative  abeyance,  many  being 
afraid  to  bring  them  prominently  and  au- 
thoritatively forward,  lest  the  hostility  of 
opponents  should  be  increased  both  in  ex- 
tent and  degree.  But  the  course  of  events 
gradually  led  even  the  most  cautious  to 
perceive,  that  all  temporising  expedients 
were  and  must  be  in  vain  ;  and  that  the 
time  was  at  length  come  for  the  Church 
of  Scotland  openly  to  declare  all  her 
principles,  and  to  take  the  ground  on 
which  she  was  willing  to  encounter  every 


peril,  and  to  triumph  in  the  strength  of 
her  Divine  Head,  or  to  perish  gloriously 
in  his  sacred  cause.  It  seems  expedient, 
therefore,  to  trace  briefly  the  outline  of 
the  most  important  of  those  events  which 
in  a  manner  hedged  in  the  path  of  the 
Church,  leaving  her  but  one  course  of 
procedure — to  go  forward — unless  she 
were  prepared  to  abandon  all  her  most 
sacred  and  cherished  principles,  and  to 
become  the  degraded  slave  of  civil  courts. 
The  extraordinary  meeting  of  Com- 
mission, held  on  the  25th  of  August 
1841,  in  consequence  of  the  declaration 
of  the  Moderate  party,  that  they  meant  to 
take  steps  for  ascertaining  whether  they 
or  the  majority  were  to  be  regarded  as 
constituting  the  Established  Church, — 
led,  as  has  been  related,  to  the  adoption 
of  a  series  of  resolutions,  in  which  the 
leading  principles  of  the  Church  were 
plainly  stated,  and  her  determination  to 
maintain  them  at  all  hazards  solemnly 
declared.  So  far  the  warfare  of  argu- 
ment seemed  to  be  at  an  end ;  for  both 
parties  had  declared  their  principles  and 
determinations ;  and  it  seemed  only  to  re- 
main for  the  Legislature  to  decide  to 
which  of  them  it  meant  to  give  its  sanc- 
tion and  support.  This,  however,  was 
rather  a  delicate  matter.  The  new  ad- 
ministration had  scarcely  assumed  their 
offices,  and  it  would  have  been  a  very 
rash  course  for  them  suddenly  to  have 
adopted  the  views  of  the  minority,  at  the 
hazard,  if  not  with  the  certainty,  of  eject- 
ing the  majority  of  the  Church,  thereby 
ensuring  its  speedy  overthrow.  There 
was  instituted  also,  about  the  same  time, 
a  series  of  negotiations,  conducted  chiefly 
through  the  medium  of  Sir  George  Sin- 
clair, with  the  General  Assembly's  Non- 
Intrusion  Committee.  These  negotia- 
tions have  been  since  published ;  and 
they  show  sufficiently,  that  the  object  of 
Government  was  to  induce  the  Church 
to  accept  Lord  Aberdeen's  bill,  formerly 
rejected,  and  again  produced,  with  the 
insertion  of  a  clause  prepared  by  Sir 
George  Sinclair,  the  effect  of  which 
seemed  to  be,  to  enable  the  Church  courts, 
in  the  exercise  of  their  discretionary 
liberty  of  judgment,  to  reject  a  presentee 
if  they  should  be  of  opinion  that  the  ob 
jections  and  reasons  against  his  settle- 
ment, entertained  by  the  parishioners, 
were  so  strong,  or  entertained  by  such  a 


422 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI 


proportion  of  them,  as  to  preclude  the 
prospect  of  his  ministrations  proving 
useful  to  that  particular  congregation. 
This  discretionary  liberty  of  the  Church 
courts  received  the  designation  of  a 
Liberum  Arbitrium,  and  a  long,  tedious, 
and  intricate  course  of  diplomatic  man- 
agement was  pursued  by  statesmen  and 
lawyers,  with  the  view,  apparently,  of 
deluding  the  Non-Intrusion  Committee 
into  the  belief  that  it  would  indeed  enable 
the  Church  to  give  effect  to  her  own  fun- 
damental principle  in  each  specific  case, 
although  not  by  means  of  a  general  law. 
But  at  length  it  appeared  that  the  con- 
ventional term,  mutually  employed  by 
both  the  Government  and  the  Church, 
was  understood  by  each  party  in  a  man- 
ner essentially  different  from  that  in 
which  it  was  understood  by  the  other. 
The  Church  understood  it  to  secure  to 
the  presbyteries  the  power  of  refusing  to 
intrude  any  presentee  into  a  parish  con- 
trary to  the  will  of  the  people,  merely  in 
consequence  of  their  declared  unwilling- 
ness to  receive  him  as  their  pastor.  The 
Government  understood  it  to  mean  the 
pronouncing  of  a  judgment  upon  the  ob- 
jections or  reasons  stated  by  the  people 
against  the  presentee,  with  liberty  to  the 
presbytery  to  give  effect  to  these  objec- 
tions or  reasons,  by  adopting  them  as 
their  own,  and  thereby  giving  them  judi- 
cial validity,  but  that  the  absolute  fact  of 
the  people's  continued  opposition  was  not 
to  form  itself  the  ground  of  the  presby- 
tery's decision.  In  reality,  a  settlement 
of  the  controversy,  on  a  ground  so  am- 
biguous, would  have  been  equally  dis- 
graceful to  the  Church  and  insulting  to 
the  people ;  it  would  have  destroyed  one 
of  her  fundamental  principles,  and  le- 
galised possible  intrusion.  No  sooner 
was  that  clearly  seen,  in  spite  of  the 
misty  illusions  of  diplomatic  craft,  than 
the  Non-Intrusion  Committee  declared 
against  any  such  mode  of  settlement,  ex- 
pressing their  views  in  such  plain  terms, 
that  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Home 
Department  (Sir  James  Graham)  found 
it  impossible  to  evade  returning  a  direct 
answer,  which  he  did  in  language  of  an 
ungracious,  if  not  insulting  character  ; 
and  all  further  negotiations  between  Go- 
vernment and  the  Church  on  that  basis 
terminated. 

During  these  negotiations  the  country 


was  repeatedly  thrown  into  a  state  of 
great  agitation  and  alarm,  lest  the  Church 
should  be  induced  to  consent  to  an  un- 
satisfactory measure.  This  alarm  was 
industriously  increased  by  the  periodical 
press  favourable  to  the  Moderate  party, 
for  the  purpose,  apparently,  of  sowing 
distrust  between  the  Church  and  the 
people, — confidently  asserting  that  the 
Non-Intrusionists  were  willing  to  abandon 
all  their  principles,  and  to  accept  any  set- 
tlement which  might  secure  to  them  their 
emoluments,  let  the  issue  with  regard  to 
the  rights  of  the  people  be  what  it  might. 
Never,  perhaps,  was  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land in  greater  peril  than  during  the 
course  of  these  diplomatic  transactions ; 
and  for  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  she  was 
fairly  ensnared  by  the  tortuous  policy  of 
weak  expediency-framing  friends  and 
wily  statesmen.  And  when  these  mazy 
entanglements  were  rent  asunder,  and 
she  was  again  placed  on  the  free  and 
open  path  of  rectitude,  her  deliverance 
was  regarded  by  wise  and  pious  men,  as 
nothing  less  than  the  signal  interposition 
of  Divine  Providence,  guided  by  the  un- 
erring and  gracious  hand  of  her  Eternal 
King. 

While  these  diplomatic  proceedings 
were  in  progress,  various  other  events 
took  place,  which  must  be  briefly  stated. 
Two  different  papers  were  drawn  up  by 
the  Non-Intrusion  Committee,  and  pre- 
sented to  Government,  containing  in  very 
clear  and  explicit  language,  a  statement 
of  the  leading  principles  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland  involved  in  the  present  con- 
test, a  summary  of  the  facts  which  had 
occurred  during  its  course,  and  a  view  of 
the  various  methods  by  means  of  which 
these  principles  might  be  most  easily  and 
efficiently  realized.  In  the  opinion  of 
unprejudiced  men,  these  two  papers,  the 
"  Memorial1'  and  the  "  Statement,"  ought 
to  have  enabled  the  Government  fully  to 
understand  the  matter,  and  might  have 
convinced  them  that  they  would  best  dis- 
charge their  own  duty,  and  promote  the 
peace  and  welfare  of  the  empire,  by  pass- 
ing a  legislative  enactment,  securing  to 
the  Church  the  free  exercise  of  those 
great  constitutional  principles  which  she 
had  declared  to  be  essential  to  her  very 
existence.  As  if  to  counteract  the  effect 
which  these  documents  might  produce, 
the  Moderate  party  also  drew  up  a  "  Me- 


A.  D.  1842.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP   SCOTLAND. 


423 


morial,"  addressed  to  her  Majesty's  Go- 
vernment, prepared,  it  appears,  by  a 
Committee  appointed  by  that  party  in 
August.  This  Memorial  may  be  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  most  important 
documents  produced  during  the  whole 
course  of  the  controversy.  It  contains  a 
statement  of  the  principles  held  by  the 
Moderate  party,  in  their  own  language, 
and  set  forth  by  their  own  authority;  and 
the  most  decided  opponent  of  Moderatism 
could  not  possibly  wish  for  better  mate- 
rials on  which  to  proceed  in  condemning 
that  system  as  essentially  Erastian  and 
unscriptural,  and  also,  by  irresistible 
logical  inference,  unchristian,  and  lead- 
ing, as  even  Sir  George  Sinclair  per- 
ceived, to  infidelity.  There  is  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  those  by  whom  the  Me- 
morial was  prepared  and  subscribed  were 
fully  aware  of  its  true  character,  and  of 
the  conclusions  to  which  it  inevitably  led ; 
but  while  this  consideration  may  exonerate 
them  from  moral  guilt,  at  the  expense  of 
their  intellectual  capacity,  it  the  more 
strongly  proves  the  baleful  character  of 
Moderatism  itself,  which  both  involves 
such  consequences,  and  blinds  and  dead- 
ens its  adherents. 

The  hostile  attitude  assumed  by  the 
Moderates  was  rendered  more  determined, 
partly  by  the  fact,  that  several  of  their 
leading  men  had  not  merely  preached  in 
the  pulpits  still  held  by  the  deposed 
Strathbogie  Seven,  but  had  also  assisted 
at  the  pretended  dispensation  of  the  Sacra- 
ment of  the  Lord's  Supper,  conducted  by 
men  who  were  no  longer  ministers  of  the 
gospel  5  and  partly  by  a  new  act  of  un- 
constitutional violence  committed  by 
another  northern  presbytery.  Proceed- 
ings had  been  instituted  against  the  minis- 
ters who  had  held  communion  with  the 
deposed  seven,  in  the  presbyteries  to 
which  they  respectively  belonged  ;  but  in 
consequence  of  protests  and  appeals,  all 
these  cases  were  referred  to  the  next 
General  Assembly.  The  new  cause  of 
collision  arose  out  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  Presbytery  of  Garioch,  in  the  case 
of  a  presentation  to  the  parish  of  Culsal 
mond.  The  main  facts  of  the  case  were 
as  follows : — 

The  Rev.  Ferdinand  Ellis,  minister  o 
Culsalmond  parish,  in  the  Presbytery  of 
Garioch,  had,  it  appears,  been  laid  aside 
from  his  official  duties  for  several  years 


hese  duties  being  discharged  in  the  in- 
erim  by  the  Rev.  William  Middleton,  as 
an  ordained  assistant.  The  patron  at 
ength  issued  a  presentation  in  favour  of 
Mr.  Middleton,  which  was  sustained  by 
he  presbytery  in  the  usual  form.  On 
he  28th  of  October  1841,  the  presbytery 
met  at  Culsalmond  to  moderate  in  the 
call.  It  then  appeared  that  there  was  a 
majority  of  male  heads  of  families  com- 
municants dissenting  from  the  settlement 
of  Mr.  Middleton  as  their  pastor.  The 
majority  of  the  presbytery  (seven  to  five) 
refused  to  sustain  this  dissent  as  a  reason 
o  stop  procedure  according  to  the  stand- 
ng  directions  of  the  General  Assembly, 
and  determined  to  proceed  with  appointing 

day  for  the  settlement,  as  if  no  dissents 
lad  been  offered,  defending  this  course  by 
;he  assertion  th'at  the  Veto  Act  was  illegal. 
The  people,  by  their  law-agent,  then  of- 
fered special  objections  against  the  settle- 
ment, but  the  majority  refused  to  receive 
these  objections.  The  minority  of  the 
presbytery  complained,  and  protested 
against  this  conduct,  appealing  to  the 
synod ;  as  did  also  the  people,  in  due 
form.  But  the  majority,  setting  all  usual 
forms  'at  defiance,  refused  to  receive  these 
complaints  and  appeals,  and  determined 
to  proceed  to  the  settlement  on  an  ap- 
pointed day,  contrary  to.  a  special  act  of 
Assembly  passed  in  1732,  prohibiting 
presbyteries  from  completing  a  settlement 
when  an  appeal  has  been  taken.  On  the 
llth  of  November  1841,  the  presbytery 
again  met,  and,  contrary  to  all  legal  and 
ordinary  procedure,  and  in  the  midst  of 
great  confusion,  caused  by  their  own  ar- 
bitrary and  oppressive  conduct,  went 
through  the  form  of  inducting  Mr.  Mid- 
dleton, not  in  the  church,  but  in  a  private 
room  in  the  manse.  The  Commission 
of  the  General  Assembly,  upon  a  petition 
from  the  parishioners,  cited  the  parties 
complained  against  to  answer  before  the 
supreme  Church  courts ;  and  in  the 
meantime  prohibited  Mr.  Middleton  from 
officiating  in  the  parish,  and  appointed 
the  minority  of  the  Presbytery  of  Garioch 
to  provide  for  the  administration  of  sacred 
ordinances  in  the  parish  of  Culsalmond. 
Mr.  Middleton,  and  the  majority  of  the 
presbytery,  applied  to  the  Court  of  Session 
to  suspend  the  proceedings  of  the  Com- 
mission,— to  interdict  the  intimation  or 

execution  of  its  deliverance, — and  to  in- 


424 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI, 


terdict  also  the  minority  of  the  presbytery 
from  obeying  the  directions  of  the  Com- 
mission. This  interdict  was  refused  by 
the  Lord  Ordinary  (Lord  Ivory) :  but, 
being  carried  before  the  First  Division 
of  the  Court  of  Session,  was  granted  as 
craved,  on  the  10th  of  March  1842.  In 
this  case  the  warfare  of  actions  certainly 
carried  both  the  Moderate  party  and  the 
civil  courts  beyond  their  former  hostile 
positions.  The  Moderate  majority  of  the 
Garioch  Presbytery,  contrary  even  to  the 
usual  and  declared  course  of  that  party, 
refused  to  receive  special  objections 
against  the  presentee ;  and  refused  also 
to  stay  procedure,  in  consequence  of  ap- 
peals to  superior  Church  courts,  contrary 
to  all  former  usage,  as  well  as  to  express 
act  of  Assembly.  The  civil  courts,  on 
their  part,  reviewed  and  interdicted  a  sen- 
tence of  the  Church  court,  when  no  civil 
interest  was  directly  involved,  but  when 
a  superior  ecclesiastical  court  was  inter- 
posing to  check  the  disorderly  conduct 
of  a  subordinate  court  in  a  matter  unde- 
niably spiritual. 

It  has  been  stated  that  the  Non-Intru- 
sion Committee  ceased  to  hold  intercourse 
with  Government,  upon  discovering  the 
essentially 'different  interpretations  put  by 
them  and  those  with  whom  they  had  been 
corresponding,  respecting  the  meaning 
of  that  phrase,  the  Liberum  Arbitrium,  or 
free  discretionary  power  of  presbyteries, 
which  had  been  proposed  as  the  basis  of 
a  settlement.  But  there  was  a  small  mi- 
nority of  that  committee  who  still  con- 
tinued to  think  that  a  settlement  might, 
after  all,  be  framed  upon  that  ambiguous 
phrase,  if  not  such  as  the  Church  ought 
to  ask,  yet  such  as  she  might  submit  to, 
without  absolute  dereliction  of  principle, 
since,  as  they  reasoned,  it  was  impossible 
that  any  thing  more  satisfactory  could  be 
obtained.  Immediately  some  of  the  most 
active  of  that .  small  minority  began  a 
course  of  private  negotiations,  partly  with 
the  most  timid  and  undecided  of  those 
ministers  who  had  generally  acted  along 
with  the  Non-Intrusionists  chiefly  on  the 
ground  of  expediency,  and  partly  with 
the  least  violent  of  the  Moderates.  Ru- 
mours began  to  arise  of  the  formation  of 
a  middle  party,  which  was  to  unite  the 
most  cautious  and  temperate  of  the  other 
two,  thereby  weakening  both,  and  assum- 
ing a  new,  or  at  least  an  intermediate  po- 


sition made  up  of  compromises  and  con- 
cessions, on  which  a  settlement  might 
possibly  be  effected.  At  the  meeting  of 
the  Synod  of  Glasgow  and  Ayr,  in  April, 
a  declaration  was  laid  before  that  court 
by  Dr.  Leishman,  subscribed,  as  was 
said,  by  forty  ministers,  expressing  their 
anxiety  for  a  settlement,  and  giving  it  as 
their  opinion,  that  they  could  conscien- 
tiously submit  to  Lord  Aberdeen's  bill, 
with  the  insertion  of  Sir  George  Sinclair's 
clause,  if  that  were  passed  into  a  law. 
This  was  the  first  public  divulgement  of 
the  course  of  policy  intended  to  be 
pursued  by  the  middle  party  ;  as  it  was 
then  stated  that  they  had  entered  into 
communication  with  Sir.  James  Graham, 
and  entertained  sanguine  expectations 
that  a  settlement  not  absolutely  intolera- 
ble might  yet  be  obtained.  It  further 
appeared,  from  a  speech  of  Dr.  M'Cul- 
loch  of  Kelso,  that  while  he  had  joined 
the  middle  party,  and  was  willing  to  aid 
them  with  all  his  influence,  he  enter- 
tained such  opinions  as  would  have  per- 
mitted him  to  submit  to  the  entire  sacri- 
fice of  the  Non-Intrusion  principle  itself. 
This  might  have  pleased  the  Moderates, 
but  must  have  galled  many  of  the  forty, 
who  sincerely  detested  intrusion,  but  had 
been  drawn,  by  their  love  of  peace,  into 
what  thus  threatened  to  become  an  aban- 
donment of  principle.  Still  the  report 
was  most  industriously  propagated,  that 
the  middle  party  was  increasing  with 
prodigious  rapidity,  and  would  very  soon 
form  a  majority  of  the  entire  Church  of 
Scotland.  The  real  weakness  of  the 
party,  however,  even  numerically,  was 
so  far  discovered  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Synod  of  Mid-Lothian,  early  in  May, 
when  Dr.  Simpson,  the  acknowledged 
framer  and  leader  of  the  party,  could  ob- 
tain, even  with  the  aid  of  the  Moderates 
in  the  synod,  but  a  small  minority  to  sup- 
port his  views.  They  continued,  never- 
theless, to  boast  loudly  of  their  secret 
strength,  and  of  the  favourable  manner 
in  which  their  overtures  were  met  by 
Government.  It  may  be  added,  that  Sir 
James  Graham  seems  to  have  imagined 
that  he  had  now  a  prospect  of  reintro- 
ducingthe  lately  abandoned  measure;  as 
he  induced  Mr.  Campbell  of  Monzie  to 
postpone  a  bill  identical  with  that  for- 
merly brought  forward  by  the  Duke  of 
Argyle,  expressing  his  hope,  arising  out 


A.  D.  1842.] 


HISTORY   OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


425 


of  recent  movements  in  Scotland,  that 
Government  might  be  able  to  introduce  a 
measure  by  which  the  dissensions  of  the 
Scottish  Church  might  be  satisfactorily 
adjusted.  Yet,  even  in  this  compara- 
tively pacificatory  declaration,  the  Home 
Secretary  stated  the  principles  on  which 
alone  Government  could  frame  a  meas- 
ure, and  these  principles  were  essentially 
those  of  Lord  Aberdeen's  bill,  in  which 
the  first  and  fundamental  proposition, 

fovermng  of  course  all  the  rest,  was  the 
etermination  to  maintain  what  was 
termed  "the  civil  rights  of  patrons." 
This  might  have  opened  the  eyes  of  the 
middle  party,  had  they  been  either  able 
or  willing  to  see  any  thing  but  their  own 
preconceived  wishes  and  impressions. 

There  had  been  several  other  minor, 
though  not  unimportant,  events  and  indi- 
cations during  the  course  of  these  public 
and  prominent  occurrences.  Men  of  un- 
blemished character  had  been  tried  as 
implicated  in  what  was  called  the  Cul- 
salmond  riot,  and  honorably  acquitted  by 
a  jury  of  their  countrymen.  A  military 
detachment  had  been  marched  into  the 
district  of  Strathbogie,  without  the  slight- 
est apparent  reason,  but  merely  to  sup- 
port the  intrusion  of  a  probationer  into 
the  parish  of  Glass,  by  means  of  the  men 
who  had  been  deposed  from  the  ministe- 
rial office.  And  several  glaringly  ar- 
bitrary instances  of  despotic  patronage 
had  been  perpetrated  by  the  Home  Sec- 
retary, accompanied  with  language  indi- 
cating1 an  insolent  contempt  for  the  feel- 
ings and  the  petitions  of  the  people. 

Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  the  chief 
events  which  preceded  the  meeting  of 
the  General  Assembly,  and  such  the 
general  state  of  affairs  when  it  met  on 
19th  of  May  1842=  It  seems  impossible 
for  a  thoughtful  mind  to  contemplate 
these  mazy  and  complicated  movements, 
without  perceiving  that  they  were  all 
guided  by  an  invisible  but  an  Almighty 
hand.  flow  many  phases  had  the  con- 
flict assumed  within  the  course  of  one 
short  year!  Encouraged,  apparently, 
by  the  prospect  of  a  change  of  Govern- 
ment, and  the  formation  of  an  adminis- 
tration more  favourable  to  their  views, 
the  Moderate  party  had  cast  cff  their 
previous  reserve,  and  declared  their  in- 
tention to  take  such  steps  as  must  inevita- 
oly  cause  a  schism  in  the  Church. 
54 


Thence  arose  the  great  West  Kirk  meet 
ing,  and  the  noble  resolutions  passed 
there,  which  stirred  the  heart  of  the  king- 
dom. Next  came  the  period  of  diploma- 
tic craft,  in  the  negotiations  respecting 
the  Liberium  Arbitrium, — a  mode  of 
settlement  which  was  very  early,  in  the 
course  of  this  struggle,  forced  upon  the 
consideration  of  the  Church  ;  and  which 
had  never  been  entertained  but  with  ex- 
treme reluctance,  and  with  the  utmost 
danger  of  the  sacrifice  of  principle. 
When  both  the  Church  and  the  people 
were  in  this  state  of  stunned  and  helpless 
alarm,  and  there  seemed  no  way  of  es- 
cape from  a  disastrous  and  dishonourable 
compromise,  on  a  sudden,  in  answer 
doubtless  to  the  deep-breathed  prayers  of 
thousands,  these  lowering  clouds  parted 
asunder,  the  dangers  vanished,  and,  re- 
suming her  sacred  principles,  she  stood 
again  prepared  fearlessly  to  act  or  suffer 
in  their  defence.  The  lawless  deed  of 
Culsalmond, — the  military  seizure  of 
Strathbogie, — and  the  haughty  and  con 
tumelious  despotism  of  the  Home  Secre 
tary,  all  doubtless  intended  to  terrify  hei 
into  submission,  produced  a  very  differ 
ent  result ;  rousing  the  courage  of  thf 
faithful  ministers  to  higher  daring,  con- 
straining the  undecided  to  perceive  that 
there  was  now  no  alternative  but  the 
utter  abandonment,  or  the  resolute  asser- 
tion of  principle,  and  even  imparting  a 
noble  fortitude  to  many  who  had  hitherto 
stood  timidly  aloof  from  the  conflict. 
Last  of  all  came  the  feeble  muster  of  the 
wavering  middle-men,  few  of  whom  had 
ever  truly  belonged  to  the  reforming  ma- 
jority, and  of  these  few,  none  had  ever 
borne  a  prominent  part  in  the  arduous 
struggle.  This  middle  movement  came 
in  time  to  call  off  the  timid  and  the  hesi- 
tating, together  with  some  who  could 
better  suffer  for  truth  and  purity  than 
contend  in  their  defence ;  but  too  late  to 
influence  those  of  more  penetrating 
minds,  capacious  judgments,  and  calmly 
resolute  hearts.  It  scarcely  thinned  the 
defenders  of  the  Church  ;  and  it  left  no 
weak  and  assailable  points  in  their  faith- 
ful and  united  band.  Surely  in  all  this 
the  overruling  power  and  wisdom  of  the 
Redeemer  was  most  graciously  apparent ! 
It  was  not  by  man's  prudence,  but  by 
God's  foreknowledge,  that  all  had  been 
so  wonderfully  ordered ;  and  in  the  full 


426 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.   XL 


and  solemn  perception  that  this  had  been 
the  case,  the  members  of  the  General 
Assembly  met  to  deliberate,  in  the  name, 
and  by  the  authority  of  the  Divine  Head 
and  King  of  the  Church,  on  matters  of 
the  most  momentous  importance  to  His 
spiritual  kingdom. 

Her  Majesty's  Government  had  ap- 
pointed the  Marquis  of  Bute  to  hold  the 
office  of  Lord  High  Commissioner.  This 
nobleman  had  previously  distinguished 
himself  in  promoting  the  cause  of  Church 
extension  ;  and  his  unblemished  charac- 
ter secured  to  him  the  respect  of  the  en- 
tire Church.  The  opening  of  the  As- 
sembly was  conducted  with  more  than 
ordinary  pomp ;  but  the  minds  of  men 
were  too  much  engrossed  by  the  deeply 
important  nature  of  the  matters  soon  to 
come  under  deliberation,  to  permit  them 
to  give  more  than  a  passing  glance  to  the 
gorgeous  pageant  as  it  swept  along.  It 
was  felt  by  all,  that  upon  the  proceedings 
of  this  Assembly  might,  or  rather  must, 
depend  the  present  fate  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland ;  and  friends  and  foes  were 
wrought  up  to  an  almost  equally  intense 
pitch  of  excitement,  in  eager  anticipation 
of  the  result. 

After  sermon  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gor- 
don, Moderator  of  the  preceding  Assem- 
bly, the  Assembly  was  regularly  consti- 
tuted in  St.  Andrew's  Church  ;  and  Dr. 
Welsh,  Professor  of  Church  History  in 
the  University  of  Edinburgh,  was  unani- 
mously chosen  to  be  moderator,  and  as- 
sumed the  chair  accordingly.  Dr.  Cook 
of  St.  Andrews,  as  the  recognised  leader 
of  his  party,  then  formally  renewed  his 
and  their  protest  against  the  ministers  of 
chapels  of  ease,  or  quoad  sacra  parishes, 
being  regarded  as  constitutional  members 
of  Assembly.  This  was  immediately 
met  by  Mr.  Dunlop,  who  declared,  on  the 
part  of  the  majority,  their  firm  resolution 
to  maintain  these  men  in  all  the  due 
powers  and  privileges  of  ministers  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland.  This  incident, 
slight  apparently  in  itself,  gave  some  in- 
dication of  the  probable  course  of  proce- 
dure likely  to  be  followed  by  the  two  con- 
tending parties,  each  seeming  to  be  de- 
termined to  maintain  every  inch  of  the 
position  formerly  occupied.  After  the 
reading  of  the  Queen's  letter,  and  the  re- 
spective addresses  of  the  lord  high  com- 
missioner and  the  moderator,  a  still  more 


important  discussion  arose.  Conflicting 
commissions  for  different  parties  to  sit  as 
members  of  Assembly,  from  the  Presby- 
tery of  Strathbogie,  were  produced,  the 
one  from  the  pretended  presbytery,  con- 
stituted by  the  seven  deposed  ministers, 
in  favour  of  two  ministers  and  an  elder 
of  their  own  number,  the  other  from  the 
real  presbytery,  consisting  of  the  four 
ministers,  not  deposed,  and  their  elders, 
being  the  only  parties  recognised  by  the 
Church  as  the  true  Presbytery  of  Strath- 
bogie.  Mr.  Dunlop  moved,  that  the 
commission  from  the  four  be  sustained, 
and  that  from  the  deposed  seven  be  not 
received.  This  gave  rise  to  a  sharp  dis- 
cussion, in  the  course  of  which  Dr. 
Cook  moved,  that,  in  present  circumstan- 
ces, the  commission  in  favour  of  the  re- 
presentatives of  the  four  be  not  sustained. 
The  vote  was  taken  and  Mr.  Dunlop's 
motion  was  carried  by  215  to  85,  a  very 
large  majority,  in  probably  the  fullest 
Assembly  ever  known  on  the  first  day 
of  its  meeting.  This  was  a  very  im- 
portant vote.  It  clearly  indicated  the 
overwhelming  strength  of  the  Evangeli- 
cal majority,  and  the  weakness  of  their 
opponents.  It  tended,  accordingly,  to 
give  a  tone  of  calm  confidence  to  the  ma- 
jority ;  while  it  equally  discouraged  and 
irritated  the  Mode/ate  party,  by  showing 
the  certainty  of  their  utter  discomfiture. 

A  considerable  part  of  Friday,  the  20th 
of  May,  was  occupied,  as  usual,  in  devo- 
tional exercises ;  and  it  was  remarked 
by  many,  that  the  prayers  of  the  various 
members  who  were  called  upon,  were 
characterised  throughout  by  a  remarka- 
ble degree  of  fervency,  and  earnestness 
of  spirit  and  manner.  Mr.  Dunlop  then 
read  a  report  *Yom  the  joint-committee  of 
the  Five  Scheme^  of  the  Church,  regard- 
ing the  collections,  c'^o-regational  and 
individual,  contributed  during  the  past 
year  to  these  schemes.  From  this  gen- 
eral report  it  appeared,  that  in  the  sums 
collected  for  these  schemes,  there  had 
been  a  decided  increase,  not  only  in  the 
aggregate,  but  in  each  particular  scheme, 
and  in  some  of  them  to  a  large  amount. 
It  appeared,  further,  that  the  period 
during  which  these  collections  had  been 
obtained,  had  been  only  ten  months,  ow- 
ing to  an  alteration  in  the  time  of  making 
up  the  accounts ;  and  that,  when  the 
whole  sums  raised  by  collections  and  in- 


A.  D.  1842.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHUR.H  OF  SCOTLAND. 


427 


dividual  subscriptions  for  all  the  public 
measures  of  the  Church  were  united,  in- 
cluding those  for  defence  of  the  litiga- 
tions in  which  the  Church  had  been  in- 
volved, the  sum  total  was  about  £30,000, 
being  an  increase  beyond  the  amount  of 
the  preceding  year  of  nearly  £8000.  This 
was  a  result  greatly  more  propitious  than 
had  been  anticipated,  on  many  accounts. 
The  year  had  been  one  of  great  com- 
mercial and  mercantile  depression,  throw- 
ing many  thousands  into  absolute  destitu- 
tion, and  exhausting  the  resources  of  the 
charitable  in  their  support.  In  such  a 
state  of  national  distress,  it  would  not 
have  been  surprising  if  the  funds  raised 
for  religious  and  missionary  purposes 
had  also  suffered  a  temporary  depression. 
It  had  also  been  perpetually  reiterated  by 
the  Moderate  party  and  their  newspaper 
advocates,  that  the  dissensions  within  the 
Church  had  completely  paralyzed  all  her 
exertions,  destroyed  her  general  useful- 
ness, and  rendered  her  utterly  inefficient, 
as  a  national  institution,  for  promoting 
the  advancement  of  Christianity  at  home 
and  abroad.  The  very  diffusion  of  such 
gloomy  assertions  and  predictions  tended 
to  their  own  realization  ;  and  it  must  be 
confessed,  that  the  religious  contributions 
of  several  congregations,  where  the  min- 
ister was  one  of  the  Moderate  party,  had 
sunk  down  to  about  one-fourth  of  their 
former  amount.  This  was,  perhaps,  more 
deplorable  than  surprising  ;  for  Moder- 
atism  had  never  shown  itself  friendly  to 
missionary  exertions  ;  and  though  carried 
into  a  temporary  support  -of  these  schemes 
by  the  strength  of  public  opinion,  was 
willing  to  discover  some  pretence  for 
abandoning  them.*  Yet  it  is  very  de- 
plorable when  men,  bearing  the  charac- 
ter of  ministers  of  the  gospel,  avail  them- 

"  "  The  contributions  of  the  145  ministers,  who,  on 

that  occasion,  voted  in  the  majority, 

amount  to  .  .  .       jE4023  9  8 

while  those  of  the  62  in  the  minority  are  no 

more  than  .  .  409  4  8 

Of  the  145,  only  10  made  no  contribution  for  any  of  the 
schemes  ;  and  a  number  of  these  were  either  new 
churches  or  newly  settled;  whereas  there  were  no 
fewer  than  22  out  of  the  62,  that  is  more  than  one-third, 
who  contributed  nothing  at  all.  And  this,  be  it  ob- 
served, is  not  accidental.  The  same  result  has  been 
repeatedly  brought  out  before.  Then  of  the  quoad  sa- 
cra and  parliamentary  church  ministers,  on  the  same 
vote, 
The  36  who  voted  with  the  majority 

contributed  .  .  .      £413  9  2 

The  5  with  the  minority,  only  .  5  15  0 

So  that  the  36  quoad  sacra  ministers  contribute  more  to 
the  missionary  schemes  of  the  church  than  the  whole 
of  the  62  clerical  representatives  of  the  Moderate  party 
put  together."— Scottish  Guardian,  June  13,  1842. 


seives  of  a  pretext,  arising  out  of  a  con 
troversy  with  their  brethren,  to  abandon 
the  great  interests  of  the  Redeemer's 
kingdom.  But,  in  spite  of  such  defec- 
tions, and  of  the  predictions  and  asser- 
tions of  unscrupulous  partizans,  the  re- 
sult has  proved  that  pity  for  perishing 
souls,  and  zeal  for  the  advancement  of 
God's  glory,  in  the  progress  of  the  gos- 
pel all  over  the  world,  were  not  dimin- 
ished, or  rather  were  largely  increased  in 
the  hearts  of  the  people  of  Scotland  ;  and 
that  the  existing  controversy,  painful  and 
alarming  as  it  was,  had,  instead  of  weak- 
ening, greatly  strengthened  their  reli- 
gious feelings,  and  stimulated  their  exer- 
tions. The  state  of  the  Church,  in  this 
point  of  view,  furnished  also  a  startling 
contrast  to  that  of  the  nation.  The  diffi- 
culty of  conducting  the  public  business 
of  the  empire,  with  an  increasing  expen- 
diture, and  a  diminishing  revenue,  not 
adequate  to  meet  the  public  necessities, 
had  been  the  direct  cause  of  the  retire- 
ment of  one  administration,  and  the  ac- 
cession of  another ;  and  even  the  new 
Government,  in  all  its  fresh  strength, 
staggered  and  reeled  in  the  endeavour  to 
frame,  and  carry  into  effect,  a  measure 
by  which  it  hoped  to  rescue  the  nation 
from  its  oppressed  and  sinking  condition. 
In  this  very  period  of  legislative  convul- 
sion, financial  difficulty,  and  wide-spread 
national  poverty,  the  Church  was  seen 
presenting  to  the  service  of  God  the  gifts 
of  a  treasury  more  amply  filled  than  it 
had  ever  previously  been,  with  the  free- 
will offerings  of  the  people  ;  and,  at  the 
same  time  emerging  out  of  that  debt  in 
which  she  had  been  involved  by  the  ex- 
pensive litigations  carried  on  in  defence 
of  her  spiritual  independence,  and  her 
people's  religious  liberties.  Surely  this 
was  another  signal  manifestation  that  the 
rich  blessing  of  God  was  descending 
upon  her  exertions  in  His  service ;  and 
a  great  reason  for  her  to  thank  Him,  and 
take  courage,  and  go  forward  undis- 
mayed. Such,  unquestionably,  was  the 
general  feeling  of  the  Assembly,  as  was 
manifest,  not  merely  by  the  remarks  of 
the  speakers,  but  also,  and  particularly, 
in  the  grateful  tone  of  the  subsequent  de- 
votions. 

The  forenoon  of  Saturday,  the  21st, 
was  signalized  by  a  very  spirit-stirring 
incident.  It  has  been  mentioned  that,  on 


428 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI. 


the  first  day  of  the  Assembly,  a  paper 
was  laid  on  the  table  by  the  commission- 
ers from  the  real  Presbytery  of  Strath- 
bogie,  which  was  understood  to  be  an  in- 
terdict granted  by  the  civil  court,  prohi- 
biting them  from  taking  their  seats  as 
members.  This  paper  the  Assembly 
would  not  read  till  it  should  have  decided, 
according  to  its  own  principles,  respecting 
these  conflicting  commissions.  On  Sat- 
urday, the  commissioners  from  Strathbo- 
gie  were  requested  to  state  to  the  house, 
under  what  circumstances  of  a  peculiar 
nature  they  came  to  take  their  seats. 
Major  Ludovick  Stewart,  the  elder  for 
Strathbogie,  a  war-worn,  yet  stately  ve- 
teran, arose,  holding  in  one  hand  the 
Court  of  Session's  interdict,  and  in  the 
other  his  Bible.  He  stated  that  he  did 
not  regard  lightly  the  interdict  of  a  civil 
court,  for  he  had  long  been  accustomed 
to  strict  discipline  ;  but  that  he  held  that 
there  were  circumstances  in  which  a  per- 
son might  be  placed,  when  it  would  be 
criminal  to  obey  the  interdict  of  any 
earthly  court.  "  I  hold  in  my  hands," 
said  the  venerable  officer,  "  an  authority 
in  this  holy  Book,  which  does  not  pro- 
hibit me  from  standing  forth  in  support  of 
the  principles  of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
So  long  as  I  am  able,  I  will  serve  my 
God  as  faithfully  as  I  have  served  my 
country;  but  there  is  nothing  in  this 
Book  which  commands  me  to  obey  such 
an  interdict,  and  I  will  not  obey  anything 
which  implies  criminality  to  the  Church 
of  Scotland."  It  is  impossible  to  describe 
the  thrilling  effect  produced  by  this  short 
solemn  speech, — the  depth  of  feeling 
which  held  the  Assembly  in  silent,  un- 
breathing  fixedness  of  attention, — and  the 
looks  of  intense  sympathy  and  admiration 
with  which  all  eyes  regarded  one  whose 
earnest  words  and  dignifiedaspect  realized 
to  every  imagination  the  bodily  presence 
of  some  martyred  warrior  of  the  covenant. 
Dr.  Candlish,  in  a  short  but  very  im- 
pressive speech,  pointed  out  the  un- 
paralleled character  of  this  unconstitu- 
tional interference  on  the  part  of  the  Court 
of  Session,  with  the  powers  and  privileges 
of  the  Assembly  ;  and  then  moved  a  reso- 
lution, expressive  of  deep  and  entire  sym- 
pathy with  those  members  who  had  been 
so  violently  obstructed,  in  discharge  of 
their  public  duty,  by  the  civil  courts  ;  the 
determination  of  the  Assembly  to  support 


and  encourage  them  by  every  means  in . 
its  power ;  and  a  solemn  protest  against 
the  attempt  thus  made,  for  the  first  time, , 
on  the  part  of  any  civil  tribunal,  to  inter- 
fere  with  the  constitution  of  the  supreme 
courts  of  this  Church,  declaring  such  in- 
terference to  be  wholly  unconstitutional, 
and  such  as  the  Assembly  cannot  recog- 
nise, when  pronounced  in  a  matter  wholly 
ecclesiastical,  and  placed  under  the  exclu- 
sive jurisdiction  of  this  supreme  ecclesias- 
tical judicatory.  Dr.  Cook  moved  that 
this  resolution  be  not  adopted.  The  vote 
was  taken,  and  Dr.  Candlish's  motion 
was  carried  by  a  majority  of  97  ;  the  vote 
being  173  to  76. 

Several  other  important  events  took 
place  on  the  same  day.  Dr.  Candlish,  as 
convener  of  the  Committee  for  Corres- 
pondence with  Foreign  Churches,  pro- 
duced two  letters,  one  of  them  from 
the  Commission,  the  other  from  the  As- 
sembly of  the  Church  in  Canada,  and  a 
third  from  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States 
of  America.  This  last  letter  was  pub- 
licly read.  It  expressed,  in  clear  and 
emphatic  terms,  their  sympathy  with  the 
Church  of  Scotland  in  her  present  trou- 
bles,— their  conviction  that  the  Lord 
would  not  forsake  her  when  engaged  in 
defending  his  own  cause, — and  their 
earnest  hope  and  prayer  that  the  Church 
might  soon  be,  by  God's  blessing,  de- 
livered from  her  difficulties  and  dangers. 
It  was  moved  and  agreed  to,  that  the 
Committee  should  prepare  suitable  an- 
swers to  these  interesting  letters. 

Reports  were  then  given  in  from  the 
Committee  on  the  Commission  record, 
and  from  the  Special  Commission  ap- 
pointed by  the  preceding  Assembly,  to 
attend  to  the  state  of  religious  affairs  in 
the  district  of  Strathbogie,  and  in  other 
similar  matters.  These  reports  necessari- 
ly brought  under  the  notice  of  the  As- 
sembly the  conduct  of  those  ministers  of 
the  Moderate  party  who  had  assisted  the 
deposed  seven  of  Strathbogie  in  the  pre- 
tended dispensation  of  the  sacrament.  It 
was  moved  that  these  ministers  should  be 
cited  to  appear  at  the  bar  of  the  Assembly 
on  Thursday,  to  answer  the  charge 
brought  against  them;  and  no  opposition 
being  made,  they  were  cited  accordingly 
Warrant  was  also  granted  for  citing  wit- 
nesses to  prove,  if  necessary,  the  facts  of 


A.  D.  1842.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


429 


the  caso.     Several  other  accused  parties 
were  cited  to  appear  on  specified  days. 

In  the  evening,  a  motion  was  made  by 
Mr.  Cunningham,  and  seconded  by  Mr. 
Hetherington,  to  rescind  that  part  of  the 
Act  of  Assembly  1799,  which  prohibited 
all  ministers  of  the  Church  of  Scotland 
from  permitting  to  preach  in  their  pulpits, 
or  holding  ministerial  communion  with 
persons  not  qualified  to  receive  a  presen- 
tation. That  act,  as  is  well  known,  was 
passed  by  the  Moderate  party  for  the  very 
purpose  of  preventing  Mr.  Simeon  of 
Cambridge,  Rowland  Hill,  and  other 
evangelical  ministers  of  the  Church  of 
England,  from  being  permitted  to  preach 
in  any  pulpit  of  the  Established  Church 
of  Scotland.  It  had  the  effect  of  cutting 
the  Church  off  from  communion  with 
every  other  Church,  and  thereby  it  vir- 
tually denied  the  doctrine  of  a  "  Church 
universal,"  rejected  the  "  communion  of 
saints,"  and  disclaimed  the  brotherly  af- 
fection infused  into  all  true  members  of 
the  household  of  faith  by  the  presence 
and  energy  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  was 
thus  equally  sectarian  and  sinful  in  spirit 
and  tendency,  and  was  one  of  the  most  dis- 
graceful and  unchristian  of  the  many 
guilty  deeds  done  by  Moderatism,  in  the 
name  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  So 
much,  however,  was  this  felt  to  be  its 
character,  that  no  person  spoke  in  its  de- 
fence, at  least  directly ;  though  some 
appeared  very  apprehensive  that  the  re- 
scinding of  it  might  lead  to  a  dangerous 
laxity  in  the  admission  of  men  to  minis- 
terial commm.ion  who  were  not  sound  in 
the  faith.  Though  this  danger  could  not 
be  regarded  as  very  great,  seeing  the  re- 
peal of  that  act  would  only  restore  the 
Church  of  Scotland  to  the  position  in 
which  she  had  been  placed  and  left  by 
the  Covenanters  themselves,  yet  a  CL  w 
tionary  clause  was  added  for  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  scrupulous.  This  was  one  of 
the  most  .truly  Christian  decisions  of  this 
Assembly,  and  one,  also,  of  very  happy 
omen,  and  in  most  perfect  accordance  with 
the  almost  universal  sympathy  expressed 
by  Christian  Churches  with  the  Church 
of  Scotland  in  her  struggles  and  her  suf- 
ferings ;  contrasting,  at  the  same  time, 
strongly  with  the  bigotry  and  intolerance 
of  a  party  in  the  Church  of  England.  It 
gave  no  dubious  indication,  that  whatever 
worldly  politicians  might  imagine,  the 


Church  of  Scotland  occupied,  at  that  mo- 
ment, the  noblest  and  most  important  po- 
sition of  any  institution,  civil  or  ecclesias- 
tical, in  the  world, — that,  while  they  were 
vainly  striving  to  circumscribe  and  fetter 
and  confine  her,  she  was  snapping  asun- 
der their  feeble  bands,  overpassing  their 
jealousy  besieging  lines,  and  both  awa- 
kening and  responding  to  the  sympathet- 
ic feelings  of  all  living  Christendom. 

On  Monday,  May  23,  the  report  of  the 
Committee  for  classing  returns  to  over- 
tures was  then  given  in ;  and,  as  it  ap- 
peared that  a  majority  of  the  presbyteries 
had  approved  of  the  overture  on  the 
Eldership,  Mr.  Dunlop  moved  that  the 
Assembly  pass  it  accordingly  into  a  stand- 
ing law  of  the  Church.  This  was  done  : 
and  it  was  also  ordered  to  be  recorded  in 
the  books  of  the  kirk-session  in  every 
parish  throughout  the  kingdom.  Thus 
another  very  important  reform  was  com- 
pleted, and  the  sincerity  of  the  Church,  in 
her  advocacy  of  the  religious  rights  of  the 
people,  placed  beyond  suspicion.  It  had 
long  been  the  practice  of  the  Moderate 
party  to  introduce  into  the  eldership  men 
who  favoured  their  views  of  church  poli- 
cy, however  unfit  for  that  office ;  and 
when  the  Church  began  her  course 
of  self-reformation,  the  opposition  of  these 
elders  formed  one  of  the  most  difficult  ob- 
stacles to  her  endeavours,  their  votes  re- 
peatedly giving  the  preponderance  to  the 
Moderate  side,  when  it  would  otherwise 
have  been  defeated.  It  is  now  the  law 
of  the  Church,  that  the  elders  are  to  be 
elected  by  the  whole  male  communicants 
of  the  congregation  ;  and  by  the  judicious 
use  of  this  religious  right,  the  people  may 
prevent  the  possibility  of  Moderatism  ever 
regaining  the  ascendency  in  Church 
courts. 

The  next  subject  which  came  before 
u."  Assembly,  was  that  of  Patronage.  It 
appeared  that  overtures  had  been  trans- 
mitted from  12  synods,  24  presbyteries, 
and  38  parishes,  besides  several  others 
from  associations  and  kirk-sessions,  all 
praying  for  the  abolition  of  patronage. 
Mr.  Cunningham  then  proposed  the  fol- 
lowing motion: — "That  the  General 
Assembly  having  considered  the  over- 
tures anent  patronage,  resolve  and  declare, 
that  patronage  is  a  grievance,  has  been 
attended  with  much  injury  to  the  cause 
of  true  religion  in  the  Church  and  king- 


430 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  X 


dom.  is  the  main  cause  of  the  difficulties 
in  which  the  Church  is  at  present  in- 
volved, and  that  it  ought  to  be  abolished." 
In  a  speech  of  very  great  clearness  and 
argumentative  power,  Mr.  Cunningham 
explained,  defended,  and  enforced  this  mo- 
mentous question.  He  showed  the  essential 
distinction  between  the  Church  of -Christ 
and  any  wordly  institution,  proving  irre- 
sistibly, that  having  received  its  origin, 
laws  and  organization,  from  Christ  alone, 
no  merely  secular  power  could  have 
any  right  to  interfere  with  the  appoint- 
ment of  its  office-bearers ;  that  in  regu- 
lating that  matter,  recourse  must  be  had 
to  the  Word  of  God  alone,  from  which  it 
was  plainly  manifest,  that  presbyteries  and 
Christian  congregations  had  each  a  duty 
divinely  assigned  to  them,  while  no  men- 
tion was  made  of  any  function  to  be  exer- 
cised by  any  third  and  worldly  party  ; 
that  every  attempt  to  defend  patronage 
must  be  based  upon  some  secular  consi- 
deration, and  must  involve  the  grievous 
error  of  setting  aside  or  superseding  the 
great  rule,  that  in  every  thing  pertaining 
to  Christ's  House,  direction  must  be 
sought  and  taken  from  Him  alone. 
Availing  himself  of  these  primary  princi- 
ples, he  met  and  refuted  the  leading  argu- 
ments generally  used  by  the  defenders 
of  Patronage,  whether  viewed  as  arising 
out  of  the  donation  given  by  an  indi- 
vidual, or  the  endowments  granted  by  a 
State  ;  for  in  either  or  both  of  these  sup- 
positions, the  real  question  to  be  deter- 
mined was,  not  whether  it  were  natural 
and  reasonable  for  the  donor  to  retain  the 
power  of  appointing  a  pastor  who  should 
enjoy  the  fruits  of  the  endowment,  but,  in 
what  manner  ought  the  ministers  of 
Christian  churches  to  be  appointed,  so  as 
may  be  most  accordant  with  the  will  of 
Christ,  and  most  conducive  to  the  spirit- 
ual welfare  of  the  people.  He  prov  ^ 
clearly,  that  to  determine  the  question  of 
patronage  on  the  ground  of  any  endow- 
ment granted  by  the  State  or  an  individual, 
or  on  account  of  any  civil  qualification, 
was  most  decidedly  Erastian,  and  must 
introduce  a  hostile  and  destructive  element 
into  the  very  heart  of  the  Church.  To- 
wards the  conclusion  of  his  unanswerable 
speech,  Mr.  Cunningham  briefly  alluded 
to  the  perfidious  Act  of  Q,ueen  Anne,  and 
to  the  baneful  effects  produced  by  that  act, 
both  in  former  times  and  at  present,  and 


most  earnestly  called  upon  the  Church 
not  to  hesitate,  from  any  weak  or  unman- 
ly fear  of  consequences,  from  demanding 
the  abolition  of  patronage,  by  which  pro- 
cedure, while  boldly  and  fully  following 
out  the  principles  of  the  Word  of  God, 
she  would  also  secure  her  best  earthly 
support — the  confidence  of  the  free-heart- 
ed  and  religious  people  of  Scotland. 

A  counter  motion  was  made  by  the 
Procurator  : — "  That  the  Assembly  hav- 
ing considered  the  overtures  and  petitions, 
find  it  inexpedient,  in  present  circum- 
stances, to  adopt  the  overtures/'  A  long 
and  very  animated  discussion  follo\ved, 
during  the  course  of  which  several  rather 
peculiar  indications  respecting  the  state 
of  parties  and  the  progress  of  opinion  ap- 
peared. It  became  evident  that  the  Pro- 
curator's motion  was  framed  by  the  new 
middle  party,  and  that  the  Moderates  had 
refrained  from  proposing  a  motion  of  their 
own,  in  the  hope  that  by  supporting  that 
of  the  middle  party,  they  might  have  the 
best  prospect  of  success  in  their  attempt 
to  defeat  the  anti-patronage  movement. 
The  vote  was  at  length  taken,  and  the 
motion  for  the  abolition  of  patronage  car- 
ried  by  a  majority  of  69,  in  the  fullest 
house  ever  known,  the  numbers  being — 
for  abolition,  216  ;  inexpedient  in  present 
circumstances,  147;  total,  363.  In  the 
year  1841,  a  similar  motion  was  lost  by 
6 ;  and  although  the  Moderates  so  far 
compromised  their  own  views  in  order  to 
effect  a  junction  with  the  middle  party,  as 
to  move  that  it  was  inexpedient  to  apply 
for  the  abolition  of  patronage  in  present 
circumstances,  which  implied  that  it  might 
be  expedient  in  other  circumstances,  yet 
both  combined  sustained  a  complete  de- 
feat, and  the  Church  of  Scotland  resumed 
her  ancient  and  constitutional  opposition 
*"  ihe  great  unscriptural  and  unpresby- 
terian  grievance  of  secular  patronage. 
The  announcement  of  the  decision  was  re- 
ceived with  loud  and  long  applause  by 
the  anxious  and  crowded  spectators,  and 
with  warm  mutual  congratulations,  and 
silent  breathing's  of  grateful  thanks  to 
God,  by  the  faithful  majority  whose  votes 
had  secured  the  welcome  victory. 

On  Tuesday,  May  24,  the  Assembly 
proceeded  to  the  main  business  of  thq 
important  day,  the  consideration  of  an 
overture,  signed  by  about  150  members  of 
Assembly,  for  a  "  Declaration  against  the 


A.  D.  1842.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


431 


unconstitutional  encroachments  of  the  civil 
courts."  This  singularly  clear  and  power- 
ful document,  potpfcred  by  Mr.  Dunlop, 
was  read  at  full  length  by  the  clerk  of 
the  Assembly,  amid  the  silent  and  deep 
attention  of  the  whole  house.  Dr.  Chal- 
mers then  moved  that  it  be  adopted  as  the 
resolution  of  the  Assembly,  which  was 
seconded  by  Dr.  Gordon.  Dr.  Cook,  in- 
stead of  meeting  it  with  a  direct  negative, 
moved  a  series  of  resolutions  of  a  different, 
but  not  directly  opposite,  character.  The 
speech  of  Dr.  Chalmers  was  characterized 
by  ail  the  lofty  and  fervid  eloquence  of 
that  great  man.  He  did  not,  indeed,  at- 
tempt to  follow,  explain,  and  enforce  the 
various  leading  topics  of  the  Declaration ; 
but  taking  up  the  subject  in  that  point  of 
view  most  suited  to  command  the  atten- 
tion of  a  patriotic  and  enlightened  states- 
man, he  first  removed  the  seeming  diffi- 
culties of  arriving  at  a  right  understand- 
ing of  the  essential  elements  of  the  ques- 
tion, which  have  been  produced  by  mis- 
representing it  as  little  more  than  the 
personal  wranglings  of  individuals  and 
parties  in  the  Church,  instead  of  regard- 
ing it  as  a  great  constitutional  question 
concerning  the  respective  jurisdictions  of 
two  separate  and  distinct  co-ordinate 
courts,  each  supreme  and  independent  in 
its  own  province.  He  then  drew  atten- 
tion to  the  formidable  consequences  which 
must  inevitably  follow,  should  the  Legis- 
lature permit  the  civil  court  to  persevere,  in 
its  encroachments  upon  the  constitutional 
jurisdiction  of  the  Church, — issuing  in- 
terdicts in  spiritual  matters  which  religion 
and  conscience  were  constrained  to  disre- 
gard,— uttering  threats  of  pains  and  pen- 
alties which  it  could  not  inflict  without 
committing  the  sin  of  persecution, — and, 
by  assuming  that  the  possession  of  su- 
perior might  was  equivalent  to  right, 
actually  employing  the  argument  of  phy- 
sical force,  an  argument  which  had 
already  been  assumed,  and  might  ere 
long,  after  the  example  of  the  civil  court, 
be  directed  with  terrific  power,  by  men 
who  have  the  strength  of  millions  of  the 
lawless  and  the  ungodly  on  their  side, 
against  all  the  institutions  of  the  empire. 
Such  an  argument,  so  powerfully  brought 
forward  by  such  a  man,  might  well  have 
caused  statesmen  to  pause  and  ponder,  if 
they  had  heart  to  feel,  and  intellect  to 
understand  it, — if  they  had  not  been  un- 


der the  spell  of  a  blinding  and  deadly 
infatuation. 

The  resolutions  and  the  speech  of  Dr. 
Cook  were  alike  weak  and  evasive,  not 
touching,  not  even  approaching,  the 
essence  of  the  subject.  He  proposed  the 
rescinding  of  the  Veto  Act,  and  the  an- 
nulling of  all  the  penal  or  judicial  pro- 
ceedings founded  on  it ;  asserted  that  the 
doctrines  of  Christ's  Headship,  and  the 
distinct  government  of  the  Church,  might 
be  held  with  such  diversities  of  opinion, 
and  various  modes  of  application,  as  to 
afford  no  cause  of  irreconcilable  disagree- 
ment between  parties  entertaining  widely 
different  views  ;  advised  that  all  agitation 
should  cease,  and  ministers  should  confine 
themselves  chiefly  to  their  pastoral  duties ; 
and  asserted,  that  under  the  existing  laws 
of  the  Church,  there  was  already  suffi- 
cient security  against  the  settlement  of 
unqualified  and  unsuitable  ministers. 
Such  were  the  resolutions  moved  by  Dr. 
Cook ;  and  his  speech  was  a  mere  ex- 
planation of  them,  exhibiting  in  its  pro- 
gress, not  only  strange  feebleness  of 
reasoning,  but  deplorable  want  of  pre- 
cision in  the  statement  of  principles, 
which  in  their  loose  and  vague  indefinite 
ness  might  mean  any  thing  or  nothing, 
and  could  lead  to  no  fixed  course  of 
thought  and  action.  Nor  did  he  even 
touch  upon  the  encroachments  of  the  civil 
court,  either  to  condemn  or  to  approve 
them,  nor  explain  in  what  manner  his 
motion  could  rescue  the  Church  from 
future  similar  invasions, — unless  it  were 
to  be  inferred,  that  principles  so  very 
laxly  held  might  be  abandoned  when- 
ever they  should  be  assailed. 

The  speech  of  Mr.  Dunlop  was  a  full 
and  complete  commentary  on  the  whole 
of  the  Declaration,  leaving  nothing  to  be 
desired  for  its  explanation  and  defence; 
but  as  both  that  able  document  and  speech 
have  been  put  in  the  possession  of  entire 
Christendom,  it  cannot  be  necessary  to 
insert  here  even  the  briefest  outline  of 
them. 

Mr.  Robertson  of  Ellon,  as  usual, 
came  nearer  the  heart  of  the  question 
than  any  other  speaker  on  the  Moderate 
side  ;  but  still  he  rather  dealt  with  points 
and  specialties  than  attempted  to  grapple 
with  great  principles.  One  of  his  minute 
criticisms  on  the  Act  1592,  respecting  the 
presbyteries  being  bound  and  astricted  to 


432 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI. 


receive  and  admit  qualified  ministers,  was 
answered  by  Dr.  Lee,  who  proved  that 
this  expression  could  not  mean  persons 
already  ordained,  because  out  of  46  pre- 
sentations granted  by  the  king  himself 
within  a  year  after  the  passing  of  that 
Act,  27  were  in  favour  of  persons  not 
ordained.  He  made  also  a  very  important 
admission,  by  stating,  that  he  regarded 
the  interdict  granted  by  the  Court  of 
Session,  against  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel,  by  ministers  appointed  by  the 
Church,  within  the  seven  parishes  of 
Strathbogie,  as  an  incompetent  act  on  the 
part  of  the  civil  court.  This  admission — 
although  subsequently  Mr.  Robertson  was 
very  anxious  to  limit  and  qualify  it — was 
gladly  welcomed  by  the  majority,  as  in- 
dicating the  existence  of  some  ground  on 
which  both  parties  might  yet  accordantly 
meet.  After  some  further  discussion,  and 
some  able  speeches  by  Dr.  Buchanan  of 
Glasgow,  Mr.  Gray  of  Perth,  and  others, 
the  vote  was  taken,  and  the  motion  of 
Dr.  Chalmers  carried  by  a  majority  of 
131, — the  numbers  being  241  to  110. 

The  adoption  of  this  Claim  of  Rights 
and  Declaration  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  civil  courts,  as  the  resolu- 
tion of  the  General  Assembly,  was  one 
of  the  most  important  and  momentous 
steps  ever  taken  by  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land. It  put  an  end  for  ever  to  all  the 
ambiguities  which  had  hitherto  sur- 
rounded her  position,  and  obscured  her 
great  principles ;  it  placed  in  the  most 
clear  and  prominent  point  of  view  the 
rights  secured  to  her  by  the  laws  and 
constitution  of  the  empire,  rendering  also 
distinctly  apparent  every  aggression  made 
by  the  civil  courts  upon  these  rights  ;  and 
while  it  declared  her  firm  and  unalterable 
determination  to  maintain  and'  defend  all 
the  rights,  privileges,  and  principles 
essential  to  a  Church  of  Christ,  and 
secured  to  her  by  many  legislative  enact- 
ments, at  whatever  hazard,  it  necessarily 
assumed  a  position  which  even  statesmen 
must  regard  with  respect,  and  might  well 
hesitate  directly  to  assail,  assured  that  it 
must  call  forth  the  smpathy  and  the  ad- 
miration of  all  truly  religious  men,  arid 
that  it  could  not  possibly  be  overthrown 
without  the  imminent  danger,  if  not  the 
absolute  certainty,  of  plunging  the  king- 
dom into  the  dire  horrors  of  a  wild,  far- 
spreading  revolutionary  convulsion. 


It  may  be  remarked,  that  the  greater 
part  of  the  debate  unjpn  this  great  subject 
was  not  peculiarly  anirfated.  This  arose 
partly  from  the  fact,  that  Dr.  Cook's  mo- 
tion, instead  of  directly  opposing  that  of 
Dr.  Chalmers,  took  up  what  may  be 
termed  a  parallel  position,  so  that  the 
different  speakers  were  not  necessarily 
brought  into  collision,  being  at  liberty  to 
!  advocate  their  own  peculiar  views  with 
|  little  reference  to  those  of  the  other  party, 
I  consequently  the  discussion  moved  slowly 
j  forward  on  parallel  lines,  till  it  came  to 
a  pause  rather  than  a  conclusion.  Yet 
several  curious  manifestations  of  opinion 
appeared  during  the  debate,  some  of 
which  have  been  already  noticed,  though 
perhaps  the  most  remarkable  were  the 
explanations  of  spiritual  independence 
and  non-intrusion  given  by  Dr.  Cook  and 
his  friends.  From  these  it  appeared  that, 
by  "  the  spiritual  independence  of  the 
Church,"  the  Moderate  party  understand, 
the  liberty  enjoyed  by  private  individuals 
to  withdraw  from  the  Church  and  be- 
come Dissenters  if  dissatisfied  with  it ; 
and  by  "  non-intrusion"  they  understand, 
that  when  an  unacceptable  minister  is 
settled  in  a  parish,  the  parishioners  ought 
not  to  be  thrust  forcibly  into  the  church, 
and  compelled  to  hear  the  minister  against 
their  will.  Something  similar  had  pre- 
viously been  hinted  in  controversial  pam- 
phlets '}  but  the  honour  of  seeing  the 
principles  of  Moderatism  on  these  points 
revealed  to  the  light  of  open  day,  was  re- 
served for  the  General  Assembly  of 
1842. 

On  Thursday,  May  26,  there  was 
brought  before  the  Assembly  the  case  of 
those  ministers  who  were  reported  by  the 
Special  Commission  as  having  held  com- 
munion with  the  deposed  seven. of  Strath- 
bogie,  by  receiving  the  elements  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  at  their  hands.  These 
were,  the  Rev.  James  Robertson,  minister 
at  Ellon  ;  Rev.  James  Grant,  at  Leith  ; 
Rev.  John  Cook,  at  Haddington ;  Rev. 
Robert  Stirling,  at  Galston  ;  Rev.  Charles 
Hope,  at  Lamington ;  Rev.  John  Wilson, 
at  Walston  ;  Rev.  James  Bryce,  late  at 
Calcutta  ;  Rev.  Alexander  Cushny,  at 
Rayne  ;  Rev.  Thomas  Hill,  at  Logiepert; 
Rev. George  Peters,  at  Kemnay;  and  Rev. 
William  Mearns,  missionary  at  Glenrin- 
nes — eleven  in  all.  When  they  took  their 
station  at  the  bar  D*.  Cook  read  a  protest, 


A.  D.  18-12.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


433 


in  his  own  name  and  in  that  of  those  who 
should  adhere  to  him,  against  the  compe- 
tency of  the  General  Assembly  to  enter- 
tain a  motion  for  regarding  as  a  ground 
of  ecclesiastical  censure  the  charge  pre- 
ferred against  the  ministers  at  the  bar  ; 
declaring  themselves  bound,  whatever 
judgment  the  Assembly  may  pronounce, 
to  act  as  circumstances  might  require,  in 
accordance  with  their  convictions  of  duty. 
The  accused  brethren  were  then  asked  if 
they  had  any  statements  to  make  to  the 
Assembly.  They  produced  a  written  do- 
cument, which  proved  to  be  a  protest,  the 
general  purport  of  which  was : — a  com- 
plaint of  the  irregular  and  summary  na- 
ture of  the  proceedings  against  them  ;  an 
admission  of  the  truth  of  the  matters  of 
fact  with  which  they  were  charged,  but  a 
denial  that  these  implied  any  thing  culpa- 
ble ;  the  assertion  that  the  sentence  of  de- 
position passed  against  the  seven  late  min- 
isters of  Strathbogie  was  an  excess  of  ju- 
risdiction, and  therefore  incompetent,  and 
null  and  void ;  and  a  declaration  that  they 
regarded  their  conduct  as  not  involving 
matter  of  judicial  procedure  or  ecclesias- 
tical censure.  Being  then  asked  if  they 
had  any  further  statements  to  make,  they 
answered,  that  if  the  protest  should  be 
recorded  in  the  journals  of  the  Assembly, 
they  had  nothing  more  to  say.  Thus, 
contrary  to  all  expectation,  terminated 
their  defence. 

Dr.  Candlish  then,  in  a  speech  of  sur- 
passing acuteness  of  thought,  logical  pre- 
cision, and  solemn,  unimpassioned,  yet 
impressive  eloquence,  proceeded  to  state 
the  real  and  essential  character  of  the 
offence  committed  by  the  accused  parties. 
He  disentangled  their  conduct  alike  from 
the  sophistical  defences  of  friends,  and  the 
exaggerated  accusations  of  adversaries, 
placing  it,  when  analyzed  to  its  very  ele- 
ments, in  the  clear  dry  light  of  severely 
simple  truth,  there  to  be  viewed  and 
judged  by  itself  alone.  He  proved  that 
it  was  not  of  the  same  nature  as  the 
offence  for  which  the  seven  had  been  de- 
posed, and  that  it  could  not  become  so, 
,  till  they  should  violate  a  sentence  of  the 
Assembly,  pronounced  immediately  and 
directly  against  themselves,  and  should 
also  call  in  the  civil  authority  to  interfere 
with  the  disc  pline  of  the  Church,  and  to 
stay  the  censures  duly  pronounced  against 
them.  He  further  reasoned,  that  although 
55 


their  conduct  might  imply  a  desecration 
of  the  sacrament,  yet  it  was  only  by  infer- 
ence and  construction,  arguing,  that  as 
even  civil  courts  did  not  now  condemn  a 
man  for  constructive  treason,  so  it  would 
not  become  an  ecclesiastical  court  to  pass 
the  severest  censure  on  what  was  essen- 
tially a  constructive  crime.  Thus  reduced 
to  its  simplest  elemental  form,  the  offence 
committed  by  these  brethren  was  shown 
to  be  one  against  the  authority  of  the 
supreme  court  of  the  Church,  that  is,  the 
offence  of  contumacy,  connected  with  the 
encouragement  of  schismatic  and  divisive 
courses,  and  as  such  deserving  direct  and 
summary  censure.  Dr.  Candlish  also 
refuted  several  of  the  ordinary  arguments 
used  in  defence  of  the  conduct  of  these 
ministers,  and  particularly  their  own  as- 
sertion, that  they  regarded  the  sentence 
of  deposition  as  null  and  void  ;  showing 
that  they  could  not  rationally  or  conscien- 
tiously assume  that  as  not  done,  which 
they  well  knew  had  been  done,  but  that 
it  was  their  duty,  both  in  reason  and  con- 
science, to  view  it  as  an  existent  reality, 
and  then  to  determine  what  their  course 
of  procedure  ought  to  be.  He  concluded 
his  exceedingly  able  and  luminous  speech, 
by  moving  that  the  Assembly  find  the 
conduct  of  the  accused  ministers  censur- 
able, that  a  committee  be  appointed  to 
deal  with  them,  and  to  report  on  Monday, 
on  which  day  they  be  cited  to  appear  at 
the  bar.  To  this  motion  the  Moderate 
party,  sheltering  themselves  under  the 
protestation  given  in  by  Dr.  Cook,  made 
no  opposition,  and  it  was  agreed  to  with- 
out a  vote. 

The  proceedings  of  the  Assembly  on 
Friday,  May  27,  embraced  some  matters 
of  considerable  importance,  and  were 
characterized  by  faithful  adherence  to 
principle.  The  case  of  Mr.  Wilson, 
minister  of  Stranraer,  was  brought  for- 
ward. This  person  was  charged  with 
fraud  and  swindling,  and  had  applied  for, 
and  obtained  an  interdict  prohibiting  the 
Presbytery  from  proceeding  with  his  trial, 
on  various  grounds,  one  of  which  was, 
that  the  presbytery  was  vitiated  by  the 
presence  of  a  quoad  sncra  minister.  The 
Assembly  found  Mr.  Wilson  liable  to  the 
highest  censure  of  the  Church  for  apply- 
ing to  the  civil  court  to  impede  the  course 
of  discipline,  appointed  a  committee  to 
deal  with  him,  and  to  report  on  Monday, 


434 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XL 


and  summoned  him  to  appear  on  that  day. 
A  similar  course  of  procedure  was  adopted 
in  the  case  of  Mr.  Clark,  formerly  pre- 
sentee to  Lethendy,  and  residing,  under 
the  authority  of  the  Court  of  Session,  in 
the  manse  thereof,  who  was  charged  with 
the  crimes  of  drunkenness,  obscenity,  and 
profane  swearing.  He  too  had  obtained 
an  interdict  against  the  Presbytery  of 
Dunkeld,  as  vitiated  by  the  presence  in  it 
of  quoad  sacra  ministers  ;  and  for  this 
offence  he  was  deprived  of  his  license, 
without  further  probation.  In  the  course 
of  the  discussion  upon  this  case,  it  was 
stated,  that  the  First  Division  of  the  Court 
of  Session  had  that  very  day,  by  an  ap- 
parent majority  of  one  (the  real  numbers 
being  two  to  two,  but  the  Lord  Ordinary, 
Ivory,  not  being  entitled  in  the  circum- 
stances to  vote),  affirmed  the  interdict  pro- 
hibiting the  commissioners  from  the  true 
Presbytery  of  Strathbogie  from  sitting  as 
members  of  Assembly,  thereby  assuming 
the  power  of  interfering  with  the  consti- 
tution of  the  supreme  ecclesiastical  court 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland;  and  some 
very  important  remarks  were  made  on 
this  subject  by  Mr.  A.  E.  Monteith. 
Another  interdict  was  treated  in  the  same 
manner,  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Livingston  of 
Cambu&nethan,  who  had  been  convicted 
of  theft,  and  had  sought  to  prevent  the 
pronouncing  of  judgment,  by  obtaining 
an  interdict  because  of  quoad  sacra  minis- 
ters. The  sentence  'of  deposition  was 
pronounced  by  the  Assembly  on  the  spot, 
disregarding  and  condemning  the  inter- 
dict. The  Assembly  also  rescinded  and 
declared  void  the  pretended  settlement  of 
Mr.  Duguid  in  the  parish  of  Glass,  by 
the  deposed  ministers  of  Strathbogie,  pro- 
nouncing him  no  minister  of  the  Gospel, 
and  depriving  him  of  his  license  for  his 
schismatic  proceedings.  The  Culsal- 
mond  case  next  occupied  the  attention  of 
the  Assembly.  Its  nature  has  been 
already  stated,  and  need  not  be  here  re- 
peated. Dr.  Cook  moved,  that  the  settle- 
ment of  Mr.  Middleton  be  not  disturbed. 
Mr.  Dunlop  moved,  that  the  complaint 
against  it  be  sustained,  that  the  settlement 
•be  rescinded,  and  Mr.  Middleton  found  to 
have  disqualified  himself  by  his  conduct; 
and  as  to  the  rest,  reserve  consideration 
of  the  conduct  of  the  majority  of  the 
presbytery,  and  of  Mr.  Middleton,  till  a 
subsequent  day.  Professor  Alexander 


moved,  to  reduce  the  settlement,  on  ac- 
count of  the  irregularities  of  the  proce- 
dure, and  to  send  the  case  back  to  the 
presbytery  to  take  the  special  objections. 
The  motions  of  Mr.  Dunlop  and  Profes- 
sor Alexander  were  put  against  each 
other,  and  Mr.  Dunlop's  carried  by  214 
to  8.  Dr.  Cook  then  allowed  Mr.  Dun- 
lop's  motion  to  pass  without  another  di- 
vision, and  next  day  gave  in  reasons  of 
dissent,  signed  by  himself  and  about  60 
other  members,  which  served  to  indicate 
the  relative  proportions  of  middle-men 
and  decided  Moderates. 

The  decisions  of  this  day  gave  practi- 
cal proof  of  the  Church  of  Scotland's 
determination  not  to  permit  her  constitu- 
tion to  be  violated,  and  her  discipline  pre- 
vented by  the  interference  of  the  civil 
courts  ;  and  it  was  a  matter  of  no  slight 
moment  to  perceive  what  kind  of  men 
most  readily  applied  for,  and  received  the 
Court  of  Session's  illegal  protection, — 
men  accused  of  swindling,  theft,  drunk- 
enness, and  other  gross  immoralities. 
The  judgment  of  public  opinion  cannot 
fail  sooner  or  later,  to  ratify  the  emphatic 
language  of  a  member  of  Assembly,  that 
"  Church  courts  discharge  their  whole 
duty  regarding  such  interdicts,  by  despi- 
sing them  and. trampling  them  under  their 
feet." 

On  Saturday,  May  28,  the  report  of 
the  Non-Intrusion  Committee,  appointed 
by  last  Assembly,  was  read  by  Dr.  Gor- 
don. After  narrating  the  various  nego- 
tiations which  have  been  already  stated, 
the  report  explicitly  condemned  any  set- 
tlement, upon  the  basis  of  what  had  been 
termed  the  Liberum  Arbitrium,  being 
fully  convinced  that  it  would  prove  to  be 
of  the  most  undesirable  nature,  and  would 
neither  contain  what  the  Church  regard- 
ed as  indispensable  to  the  maintenance 
of  her  fundamental  principles,  nor  afford 
due  protection  to  the  rights  of  the  people. 
Dr.  Candlish  moved,  that  the  report  be 
approved  of  generally,  and  that  a  special 
commission  be  appointed,  with  reference 
to  the  present  difficulties  of  the  Church, 
instructing  them  to  have  respect  to  the 
several  deliverances  of  this  Assembly  on 
the  state  of  the  affairs  of  the  Church,  arnd 
to  be  guided  in  all  their  proceedings  and 
deliberations  by  the  spirit  of  these  deliver- 
ances ;  the  understanding  being,  that  the 
deliverances  to  be  thus  kept  in  view  are, 


A.  D    1842.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


435 


— the  declaration  that  patronage  is  an  evil 
and  ought  to  be  abolished,  the  assertion 
of  the  Church's  spiritual  independence, 
as  stated  in  the  Declaration  and  Claim  of 
Rights,  and  the  approval  of  the  principles 
laid  do\vn  in  the  report  of  the  Non-Intru- 
sion Committee,  namely,  that  the  Duke 
of  Argyle's  bill  is  the  very  least  that  can 
be  accepted,  and  the  express  condemna- 
tion of  any  measure  founded  on  the  Lib- 
e.rum  Arbitrium.  In  the  discussion  that 
followed  the  proposal  of  this  motion,  Dr. 
Lwshman  spoke  respecting  the  move- 
ment of  the  middle  party  ;  and  laboured 
to  defend  their  proceedings,  but  succeeded 
in  proving  nothing  more  than  that  he  and 
the  40  were  still  enveloped  in  the  misty 
delusions,  and  held  fast  in  the  snares  from 
which  the  Non-Intrusion  Committee  had 
been  providentially  delivered.  Dr.  Lau- 
rie talked  imposingly  of  the  strength 
of  the  middle  party,  affirming  that  the  40 
were  now  increased  to  400  ;  and  that  he 
regarded  the  rise  of  such  a  party  as  an 
answer  to  prayer  for  a  peaceful  settlement. 
Mr.  Mackenzie,  an  elder  from  Inverness, 
reminded  him,  that  men  were  not  to  take 
their  own  convictions  and  impressions  for 
answers  to  prayer,  the  test  of  which  was, 
accordance  with  the  word  of  God.  After 
some  further  discussion,  Dr.  Candlish  re- 
plied in  a  singularly  brilliant  and  effec- 
tive speech,  varying  from  pointed  retort, 
and  half  playful  irony,  till  it  rose  towards 
the  conclusion  into  a  strain  of  lofty,  indig- 
nant, and  commanding  eloquence,  when 
he  condemned  the  mean  and  paltry  con- 
duct of  statesmen  in  balancing  words  and 
clauses,  and  higgling  about  the  very  low- 
est terms  to  which  conscience  might  be 
screwed  into  uneasy  submission  ;  instead 
of  dealing  with  the  subject  like  a  great 
question  of  principle,  affecting  the  inte- 
rests of  generations  yet  unborn,  and  in- 
volving the  liberties  of  the  Church,  and 
the  constitution  of  the  State. 

Dr.  Leishman  prudently  abstained  from 
exhibiting  the  weakness  of  the  middle 
party  by  a  division  ;  the  motion  was  car- 
ried without  a  vote ;  and  thus  the  great 
principle  of  anti-patronage  and  spiritual 
independence  were  made  the  rules  by 
which  all  the  future  contendings  of  the 
Church  must  be  guided. 

The  petition  of  the  parishioners  of 
Rhynie,  praying  for  permission  to  erect 
a  place  of  worship  within  the  boundaries 


f   the    adjoining    parish,   Auchendoir, 
Drought  before  the  notice  of  the  Assembly 

case  of  remarkable  persecuting  oppres- 
sion. It  appeared  that  they  had  been  lit- 
;rally  hunted  out  of  their  own  parish  by 
he  Duke  of  Richmond,  its  sole  proprietor, 
or  feudal  superior,  and  not  allowed  a  foot 
of  ground  on  which  to  build  a  church  at 
heir  own  expense,  the  parish  church  be- 
ng  wrongfully  withheld  by  Mr.  Allar- 
dyce,  notwithstanding  his  deposition. 
Pitying  their  persecuted  condition,  Mr. 
Leith  Lumsden  offered  them  a  site  for  a 
church  on  his  property,  provided  the  As- 
sembly would  grant  permission,  which 
was  necessary,  on  account  of  its  being 
Beyond  the  proper  ecclesiastical  bounds 
of  the  parish.  The  prayer  of  the  petition 
was  granted  by  a  majority  of  152  to  60; 
and  the  thanks  of  the  Assembly  tendered 
;o  Mr.  Lumsden  for  his  Christian  benevo- 
ence.*  In  the  course  of  the  discussion, 
Mr.  Robertson  of  Ellon  so  far  disgraced 
lis  own  manly  intellect,  as  to  employ  one 
of  the  quibbling  arguments  generally 
used  only  by  the  weaker  men  of  his  par- 
y, — asking  why  other  ministers  had  not 
been  appointed  to  the  seven  parishes  of 
Strathbogie,  according  to  the  jus  devolu- 

7i)  if  the  previous  ministers  had  really 
been  deposed  ?  The  answer  was  easy 
and  conclusive  ;  the  interdicts  of  the  civil 
courts  could  prevent  the  exercise  of  the 
civil  right  of  patronage  jure  devoluto, 
hough  they  could  not  prevent  the  forma- 
tion of  the  pastoral  tie ;  and,  as  the  whote 
subject  was  still  under  undecided  discus- 
sion, it  was  not  deemed  expedient,  unne- 
cessarily, to  embarrass  final  arrangements 
by  any  precipitate  forgone  conclusion. 
Mr.  Robertson  shrunk  back  from  the 
topic  with  evident  symptoms  of  regret  that 
he  had  touched  it.  The  Assembly  then 
renewed  their  resolutions  of  last  year,  in 
favour  of  an  inquiry  into  the  state  of  the 
poor:  and  in  following  out  the  recom- 
mendation in  the  queen's  letter  in  behoof 

*  On  the  morning  of  the  13th  of  June,  the  people  of 
Rhynie  assembled  in  great  numbers,  before  day-break 
at  the  site  granted  for  the  intended  church,  resolved  t > 
erect  it  before,  an  interdict  which  had  been  threatened 
by  the  other  heritors  could  be  procured.  Timber  had 
already  been  prepared,  and  stone  hewn  in  the  adjacent 
mountains.  Carts,  labourers,  masons,  and  carpenters 
plied  the  work  with  active  hands  and  willing  minds. 
Under  their  vigorous  exertions  the  work,  ''rose  like  an 
exhalation  ;"  and  ere  the  evening  closed,  a  large,  well 
executed,  and  commodious  structure  was  nearly  ready 
for  the  purposes  of  public  worship.  Those  who  think 
to  crush  the  people  of  Scotland,  may  judge  of  the  ener- 
gy and  resolution  they  have  to  encounter  by  the  fact, 

Of  A  CHUCK  BUILT  IN  A  DAY 


436 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI 


of  the  labouring  classes  in  distress,  re- 
solved to  invite  the  co-operation  of  all  par- 
ties, and  took  steps  for  the  formation  of  a 
Central  Committee,  to  be  composed  of  per- 
sons of  all  denominations,  at  whose  dispo- 
sal all  the  funds  raised  by  contributions 
and  collections  throughout  the  Church 
and  kingdom  should  be  placed  ;  and  then 
concluded  the  business  of  the  week,  by 
hearingthe  report  on  Sabbath  Observance. 

One  incident  which  very  impressively 
indicates  the  state  of  mind  both  of  the  As- 
sembly and  of  the  public,  must  here  be 
mentioned.  Intimation  had  been  given 
that  on  Sabbath  evening  a  meeting  of  the 
Assembly  for  prayer  would  be  held  in 
the  place  of  worship  at  that  time  occupied 
by  the  Assembly,  with  particular  refer- 
ence to  the  perilous  state  of  the  Church  ; 
and  a  dense  mass  of  people  crowded  the 
house  at  the  appointed  hour,  leaving 
merely  the  space  usually  allotted  to  the 
members.  The  seats  on  the  sides  com- 
monly occupied  by  the  Evangelical  ma- 
jority were  soon  completely  filled  ;  but 
for  a  considerable  time  those  on  the  Mod- 
erate side  remained  empty,  till  the  assem- 
bling people,  seeing  that  none  of  that  par- 
ty were  likely  to  appear,  took  possession 
of  them.  So  far  as  was  observed,  not  a 
single  Moderate  minister,  with  the  excep- 
tion, if  it  be  one,  of  Dr.  Lee,  came  to  join 
with  his  brethren  in  supplicating  God  to 
rescue  the  Church  from  distress  and  dan- 
ger, which  might  surely  have  been  con- 
scientiously done  in  general  terms,  without 
specific  reference  to  any  peculiar  mode  of 
deliverance.  The  devotional  services 
were  conducted  successively  by  three  ven- 
erated fathers  of  the  Church  ;  and  noth- 
ing could  exceed  the  solemn,  earnest  rev- 
erential awe  by  which  the  whole  vast 
congregation  seemed  to  be  pervaded  and 
impressed.  "  God  has  not  forsaken  his 
people ;  his  presence  is  among  us  here !" 
was  the  silent  but  deep  conviction  of  many 
a  grateful  and  adoring  heart,  especially 
when  the  tremulous  tones  of  the  voice  of 
prayer  told  the  strong  emotions  of  the 
supplicating  and  believing  soul  from 
which  it  rose  to  heaven.  An*d  when  the 
sacred  duties  closed,  men  returned  to  their 
abodes  refreshed,  encouraged,  and  in- 
wardly thanking  God  for  what  they  had 
felt,  vitnessed,  and  enjoyed. 

Monday,  the  30th  day  of  May,  was  the 
last  day  of  the  Assembly's  ordinary  du- 


ration ;  and,  as  there  was  still  a  large 
amount  of  business  to  be  done,  the  House 
met  at  the  early  hour  of  ten.  The  first 
subject  of  importance  which  was  taken 
up,  was  the  report  of  the  committee  which 
had  been  appointed  to  confer  with  the 
ministers  who  had  held  communion  with 
the  late  ministers  of  Strathbogie.  The 
report  was  produced,  and  the  accused 
parties  appeared  at  the  bar.  When  asked 
if  they  had  any  thing  further  to  say,  they 
produced  a  paper,  which  proved  to  be  a 
protest,  bearing,  that  in  thus  appearing  in 
obedience  to  their  citation,  they  were  not 
to  be  held  as  departing  from  their  former 
protestation,  but  on  account  of  their  re- 
spect for  the  venerable  court,  and  their 
desire  to  promote  the  peace  of  the  church. 
Dr.  Makellar,  then,  in  a  very  calm  and 
temperate  speech,  moved,  that  the  minis- 
ters at  the  bar  be  suspended  from  the  ex- 
ercise of  their  judicial  functions,  as  mem- 
bers of  presbyteries,  and  all  other  judica- 
tories  of  the  Church,  until  after  the  first 
Wednesday  of  March  1843.  Mr.  Mon- 
teith,  advocate,  disapproved  of  this  sen- 
tence, on  the  ground  of  its  not  being  one 
of  greater  severity,  and,  in  his  opinion, 
not  adequate  to  the  grave  nature  of  the 
offence.  Professor  Alexander  regarded 
it  as  too  severe;  but,  while  he  disapproved 
of  the  proceedings  of  the  majority,  had 
no  sympathy  with  those  who  talked  of 
driving  them  out  of  the  Church,  being 
fully  persuaded,  that  "except  they  re- 
mained in  the  ship,  it  could  not  be  saved." 
Dr.  Chandlish  defended  the  proposed  sen- 
tence, and  explained  the  reasons  of  its 
leniency,  and  of  its  peculiar  character. 
The  motion  was  then  agreed  to  without  a 
vote  ;  and  the  accused  ministers  having 
reserved  their  right  to  take  instruments 
and  crave  extracts,  if  they  should  require 
to  do  so,  left  the  bar,  and  soon  afterwards 
the  Assembly,  in  whose  proceedings 
those  who  were  members  did  not  attempt 
to  take  any  further  share,  thus  directly 
obeying  the  sentence. 

This  sentence  met  with  probably  less 
general  approbation  than  any  other  pro- 
nounced by  the  Assembly,  partly  on  ac- 
count of  its  extreme  leniency,  and  partly 
from  want  of  being  very  accurately  under- 
stood. It  was  very  lenient,  but  not  to 
such  a  degree  as  to  involve  any  compro- 
mise of  firmness  or  of  principle ;  and  it 
met  the  direct  nature  of  the  offence,  as 


A.  D.  1842.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


437 


that  came  before  the  Assembly  for  judg- 
ment. For  it  must  be  observed,  that  the 
direct  charge  against  them  was  one  of 
disregard  to  the  authority  of  the  superior 
Church  courts,  which  being  contumacy, 
required  to  be  disposed  of  in  a  summary 
manner,  and  which  according  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Evangelical  majority,  did 
not  necessarily  infer  deposition,  unless  it 
involved  also  some  heinous  sin,  in  which 
case  the  course  of  procedure  must  have 
been  by  way  of  libel.  If  the  direct 
charge  had  been,  that  they  had  desecra- 
ted the  sacraments,  they  might  have  been 
liable  to  deposition,  but  they  must  have 
been  regularly  tried  by  libel ;  and 
though,  perhaps,  their  conduct  was 
thought  by  very  many  to  have  actually 
involved  that  grave  charge,  yet,  as  that 
did  not  necessarily  appear  in  the  accusa- 
tion brought  against  them,  it  was  not  le- 
gitimately before  the  Assembly,  and  could 
not  have  been  founded  on,  without,  at 
the  very  least,  an  apparent  irregularity 
of  procedure.  Some  people  found  fault 
with  the  sentence  on  another  ground ; 
arguing  that,  if  the  Assembly  could  sus- 
pend ministers  from  the  exercise  of  their 
judicial  functions  without  interfering 
with  the  ministerial,  why  had  not  this 
been  done  at  first  in  the  case  of  the 
Strathbogie  seven,  who  were  at  once  sus- 
pended by  the  Commission  from  all  their 
functions.  To  this  there  is  a  very  easy 
and  sufficient  answer.  The  suspension 
of  the  Strathbogie  seven  was  not  penal, 
but  preventive, — it  was  not  intended  as 
punishment  for  a  crime  already  commit- 
ted, but  to  prevent  them  from  committing 
a  crime  which  they  had  declared  their 
intention  to  commit,  and  which  could  not 
be  prevented  otherwise  than  by  taking 
away  their  power  to  do  it.  For  it  must 
be  remembered,  that  the  Strathbogie 
seven  had  declared  their  intention  to  or- 
dain Mr.  Edwards  ;  and  as  ordination  is 
not  a  judicial  but  a  ministerial  act,  and 
may  be,  and  often  has  been,  performed 
by  a  competent  number  of  ministers, 
though  not  met  as  a  presbytery,  the  sus- 
pension of  their  judicial  functions  would 
not  have  prevented  them  from  being  in  a 
capacity  to  perform  validly  the  act  of  or- 
dination. In  short,  it  is  fully  believed, 
that  the  more  the  sentence  is  examined, 
calmly  and  impartially,  the  more  will  its 
judicious  nature  become  evident ;  and  it 


is  no  slight  merit,  that,  while  its  very 
leniency  rendered  its  violation  wholly  in 
excusable,  it  placed  the  Moderate  party 
in  such  a  position,  that  they  must  either 
appear  to  all  men  the  wilful  disturbers  of 
the  public  peace,  or  must  thenceforth  be 
silent  respecting  their  boasted  determina- 
tion to  make  common  cause  with  the 
Strathbogie  seven. 

Mr.  Wilson  of  Stranraer  was  then  ci- 
ted, and  as  he  adhered  to  the  interdict, 
was  deposed. 

On  the  application  of  the  parties  inte- 
rested, clauses  were  sanctioned  in  the 
constitution  of  new  churches,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  securing  the  property,  in  the 
event  of  a  schism  in  the  Establishment,  to 
those  who  should  adhere  to  the  princi- 
ples of  non-intrusion  and  spiritual  inde- 
pendence, as  maintained  by  the  present 
majority. 

The  regulations  on  calls  were  re-trans- 
mitted, with  an  alteration  which  would 
admit  of  the  call  being  brought  into  ef- 
fective operation.  Those  parts  of  the  re- 
gulations which  related  to  special  objec- 
tions were  left  out ;  and  the  substance  of 
them  was  embodied  in  a  separate  decla- 
ratory act ;  by  passing  which  unanimous- 
ly, the  Assembly  declared  to  be  wrong, 
in  ecclesiastical  law,  one  of  the  principal 
points  on  which  the  Court  of  Session 
had  decided  the  Culsalmond  case. 

The  four  home  missionary  objects 
were  included  under  one  committee,  to 
be  called  the  Home  Mission  Committee. 

The  revised  "  Claim  of  Rights"  was 
formally  and  finally  adopted  by  the  As- 
sembly. 

A  committee  was  appointed  to  con- 
duct the  correspondence  with  foreign 
churches ;  those  namely  of  Holland, 
Switzerland,  Prussia,  Hungary,  the  Pro- 
testant Church  of  France,  the  Walden- 
sian  Church,  and  the  Presbyterian 
Churches  in  America,  Ireland,  and  Eng- 
land, the  Wesleyan  and  Calvinistic  Me- 
thodists, and  other  orthodox  Presbyterian 
Dissenters. 

The  Assembly  then  passed  a  declara- 
tion of  the  Church  of  Scotland's  deter- 
mination to  maintain  the  principles  on 
which  the  ministers  of  quoad  sacra  pa 
rishes  had  been  admitted  to  the  enjoy- 
ment of  all  the  rights  and  privileges  pos- 
sessed by  the  other  ministers  of  the 
Church.  This,  considering  the  fierce 


438 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI 


and  continued  hostility  shown  to  the  ad- 
mission of  these  ministers  into  Church 
courts,  and  the  many  interdicts  granted 
by  the  Court  of  Session  on  that  ground, 
was  a  peculiarly  important  declaration, 
but  one  which  it  was  evident  might 
greatly  increase  the  intensity  of  the  con- 
test of  jurisdiction. 

A  resolution  was  passed  recommend- 
ing concert  in  prayer. 

A  motion  was  passed  enjoining  pres- 
byteries to  be  careful  in  examining  stu- 
dents and  licentiates  in  their  knowledge 
of  the  standards,  history,  and  constitution 
of  the  Church. 

Certain  alterations  in  the  form  of  pro- 
cess were  agreed  to,  the  most  important 
of  which  was,  that  all  ministers  charged 
with  heresies  or  immoral  offences  should 
be  suspended  from  the  exercise  of  their 
ministerial  functions,  from  the  period  of 
their  being  libelled  to  the  termination  of 
their  case.  This  was  strenuously  op- 
posed by  the  Moderates,  but  carried  with- 
out a  vote.  An  overture  was  passed,  and 
directed  to  be  transmitted  to  presbyteries, 
the  object  of  which  was  to  prohibit  the 
conjunction  of  professorships  with  minis- 
terial charges,  even  within  university 
towns,  and  thereby  to  put  an  end  to  every 
kind  and  degree  of  pluralities.  Lastly, 
a  day  of  fasting  and  humiliation  was  ap- 
pointed to  be  observed  on  Thursday,  the 
2 1st  of  July ;  and  instructions  were  given 
that  a  pastoral  address  should  be  prepared 
to  be  read  from  all  the  pulpits  in  the 
Church. 

With  these  solemn  acts  the  Assembly 
closed  its  deliberations. 

The  moderator  presented  to  the  Lord 
High  Commissioner  the  Claim  of  Rights, 
with  an  address  to  the  Glueen,  request- 
ing him  to  present  them  to  her  Majesty ; 
and  also  an  address  in  favour  of  the  abo- 
lition of  patronage,  requesting  him  to 
present  it  likewise  to  the  Glueen.  His 
Grace  replied  that  he  would  have  the  ho- 
nour of  presenting  the  address  and 
Claim  of  Rights  to  her  Majesty,  and  also 
of  presenting  the  anti-patronage  address  ; 
but  wished  it  to  be  distinctly  understood, 
that  in  doing  so  he  expressed  no  appro- 
bation of  it.  The  Marquis  of  Breadal- 
bane,  who  had  signed  a  petition  for  the 
repeal  of  Queen  Anne's  Act,  was  re- 
quested to  present  the  anti-patronage  pe- 


tition to  the  House  of  Lords,  and  Mr. 
Fox  Maule  to  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  moderator  then  addressed  the 
house,  in  a  speech  remarkable  for  its 
eloquence  of  language,  and  solemn  ele- 
vation of  thought ;  and  having  conclu 
ded,  he  dissolved  the  Assembly  in  the 
name  of  the  divine  Head  and  King  of 
the  Church,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Then 
turning  to  the  Lord  High  Commissioner, 
he  preferred  to  him  the  thanks  of  the 
Assembly,  and  expressed  their  united 
prayers  for  his  Grace's  best  welfare. 
His  Grace  having  also  gone  through  the 
form  of  dissolving  the  Assembly,  the  mod- 
erator prayed  ;  and  after  a  portion  of 
Scripture  had  been  read,  and  the  conclu' 
sion  of  the  122d  Psalm  had  been  sung 
the  apostolic  benediction  was  pronounced, 
and  the  important  Assembly  of  1842  was 
closed. 

It  is  impossible  to  reflect  upon  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  General  Assembly,  of 
1842,  without  coming  to  the  conclusion, 
that  it  marked  an  era  of  vast  importance 
in  the  history  of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
It  became  evident  to  every  reflecting  per- 
son, that  from  it  would  be  dated  either  the 
overthrow  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  this  kingdom,  or  her  THIRD  REFOR- 
MATION. There  remained  no  longer  any 
obscurity  respecting  her  principles,  nor 
any  retreat  from  her  position.  States- 
men and  men  of  the  world  might  indeed 
regard  her  with  increased  hostility,  but 
they  could  no  longer  affect  to  misunder- 
stand her  demands.  They  might  still 
view  her  as  weak  and  unable  to  resist 
their  political  power,  but  they  could  not 
continue  to  misrepresent  the  contest  as 
merely  one  between  two  rival  parties  in 
her  own  communion,  nor  pretend  that 
her  own  internal  disunion,  and  the  bal- 
ance of  conflicting  parties  within  her, 
were  the  reasons  why  they  refused  to 
take  her  claims  and  complaints  into  con- 
sideration. In  several  respects,  also,  her 
own  position  was  greatly  improved.  The 
first  vote  of  the  Assembly,  on  the  day  of 
its  meeting,  respecting  the  commissions 
from  Strathbogie,  indicated  the  strength 
and  determination  of  the  majority,  dis- 
pirited the  Moderate  party,  and  gave 
both  calmness  and  decision  to  all  its  sub- 
sequent procedure, — the  calmness  of  con- 


A.  D.  1845J.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP   SCOTLAND. 


439 


scious  strength,  the  decision  of  sound 
principle  held  in  fearless  integrity.  The 
rescinding  of  the  sectarian  act  of  1799 
restored  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  Chris- 
tian communion  with  other  orthodox 
Christian  Churches,  and  harmonized 
completely  with  the  deep  interest  felt  in 
her  present  struggles  by  all  the  religious- 
minded  people  of  Protestant  Christen- 
dom ;  and  with  the  presence  in  the  As- 
sembly both  of  the  deputations  from 
England  and  Ireland,  and  also  with  that 
of  pious  and  intelligent  ministers  from 
Prussia  and  Switzerland,  who  witnessed 
the  proceedings  with  the  most  intense  at- 
tention and  delight. 

By  resolving  to  apply  for  the  abolition 
of  patronage,  as  in  itself  a  grievance  and 
the  main  cause  of  her  present  troubles, 
the  Church  not  only  dispelled  the  illu- 
sions in  which  her  reforming  move- 
ments had  been  so  long  involved,  taking 
once  more  the  old  and  well-known 
ground  of  other  days,  on  which  she 
might  with  confidence  expect  the  high- 
hearted and  faithful  of  the  land  to  rally 
in  her  defence  ;  but  also,  although  almost 
incidentally,  broke  and  dispersed  the 
threatened  confederacy  of  a  middle  party, 
uniting  at  the  same  time,  more  firmly 
than  ever,  the  reforming  majority.  By 
,he  Declaration  and  Claim  of  Rights, 
.he  great  principles  in  defence  of  which 
the  contest  had  been  waged,  were  brought 
forward  in  the  most  definite  and  promi- 
nent manner,  clearly  proved  to  be  not  a 
temporary  conflict  of  parties,  but  the  old 
and  great  struggle  between  the  Church 
and  the  world,  and  the  whole  subject  was 
suitably  prepared  to  be  laid  before  the 
Legislature,  and  displayed  to  the  uni- 
verse. And  by  the  firm  determination 
shown  to  suppress  internal  insurrection, 
by  punishing,  mildly  yet  unhesitatingly, 
those  who  held  communion  with  deposed 
men, — who  applied  to  the  civil  courts  for 
interdicts  to  stay  the  course  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal discipline, — or  who  entered  into  cen- 
surable private  engagements  with  patrons ; 
and  also  by  her  declared  resolution  to 
maintain  the  rights  of  quoad  sacra  minis- 
ters at  all  hazards,  the  Church  proved 
that  she  was  in  earnest,  and  must  conquer 
or  perish.  By  occupying,  distinctly  and 
decidedly,  these  three  positions,  the 
Church  came  directly  and  immediately 
into  contact  with  the  three  great  worldly 


powers  in  the  kingdom — the  aristocracy, 
on  the  ground  of  anti-patronage ;  the 
legislature,  through  the  Claim  of  Rights  ; 
and  the  courts  of  civil  law,  in  defence  of 
the  quoad  sacra  ministers.  These  are 
formidable  antagonists  ;  but  the  Moderate 
party  were  thoroughly  discomfited ;  the 
danger  of  disunion  threatened  by  the 
middle-men  disappeared  ;  and  the  position 
was  taken  which  the  religious  people  of 
Scotland  can  understand,  and  have  al- 
ways shown  themselves  ready  to  defend. 
And  what  did  all  this  portend  ?  Peace  ? 
Not  so,  but  rather  the  preparation  for  a 
desperate  and  conclusive  struggle.  Like 
an  army  preparing  to  decide  the  war  by 
a  pitched  engagement,  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  in  the  Assembly  of  1842,  ad- 
vanced beyond  the  thickets,  cleared  the 
battle-ground,  called  in  the  skirmishers, 
seized  on  the  strengths  of  the  position, 
and  took  her  stand  arrayed  beneath  the 
sacred  banner  of  the  divine  Captain  of 
her  salvation,  ready  in  his  name,  and 
under  his  command,  to  fight  the  good 
fight  of  faith,  "  strong  in  the  Lord  and  in 
the  power  of  his  might." 

The  effect  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
Assembly  upon  the  mind  and  feelings  of 
the  entire  empire  was  sudden  and  great. 
Before  its  meeting,  all.  parties  and  classes 
of  men  had  looked  forward  to  it  with 
various  anticipations,  but  all  expecting 
that  it  would  inevitably  bring  the  contest 
nearly  to  a  close.  For  some  time  after 
it  rose,  its  proceedings  formed  almost  the 
sole  topic  of  discussion  in  every  circle, 
and  in  every  periodical  publication.  By 
some,  the  whole  conduct  of  the  Church 
was  vehemently  condemned ;  by  others, 
not  less  warmly  applauded.  Politicians 
in  general,  of  every  name  and  shade, 
wer$  loud  and  violent  in  their  censure  ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  all  persons  and 
denominations  of  distinguished  piety  and 
spirituality  of  mind,  expressed  great  ad- 
miration of  the  faithfulness,  zeal,  and  in- 
trepidity displayed  by  the  Church  of 
Scotland  in  such  a  time  of  anxieties  and 
perils.  The  only  religious  bodies  that 
indicated  disapproval  were  those  tinctured 
with  Erastianism, — such  as  Episcopa- 
lians, Moderates,  and  Middle-men.  This 
was  to  be  expected,  because  they  could 
not  sympathize  with  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  es- 


440 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XL 


pecially  in  the  article  of  spiritual  inde- 
pendence, if  indeed  they  understood  what 
that  great  principle  really  meant.  In 
the  higher  regions  of  the  political  world, 
the  feeling  appeared  to  be  that  of  stern 
and  unappeaseable  indignation.  That  a 
Church  should  dare  to  tell  statesmen  that 
she  regarded  herself  as  altogether  inde- 
pendent of  their  control,  while  acting  in 
her  own  province,  and  deciding  upon 
spiritual  matters,  was,  in  their  estimation, 
a  degree  of  presumption  not  to  be  en- 
dured, and  they  took  the  earliest  oppor- 
tunity of  displaying  their  determined 
hostility  to  such  a  lofty  and  unpardonable 
claim. 

The  first  opportunity  that  presented 
itself  was  on  the  15th  of  June,  the  day  to 
which  the  second  reading  of  Campbell 
of  Monzie's  bill  had  been  postponed  at 
the  request  of  the  Government  itself.  On 
that  day,  instead  of  permitting  the  discus- 
sion respecting  that  measure  to  proceed, 
as  had  been  expected,  the  Speaker  directed 
the  attention  of  the  house  to  an  objection 
in  point  of  form,  stating,  that  since  the 
bill  affected  crown  patronages,  it  could 
not  be  discussed  without  involving  a 
breach  of  the  royal  prerogative,  unless 
the  permission  of  the  crown  were  first 
obtained.  No  such  objection  had  'been 
urged  against  the  previous  bills  of  Lord 
Aberdeen,  or  the  Duke  of  Argyle,  al- 
though these  equally  affected  crown  pa- 
tronages ;  nor  had  Monzie's  bill  been 
prevented  on  that  ground  at  its  first  read- 
ing ;  but  the  ministry  probably  expected 
that  they  would  thus  display  their  decided 
disapprobation  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land's claims,  and  awe  her  into  submis- 
sion by  their  haughty  and  contemptuous 
treatment.  If  so,  they  only  proved  how 
little  they  understood  both  the  principles 
which  they  thus  scornfully  rejected,  and 
the  men  with  whom  they  had  to  ueal. 
A  still  stronger  and  more  grave  accusa- 
tion might  be  brought  against  them,  as 
statesmen.  Was  it  prudent,  was  it  con- 
sistent with  sound  constitutional  policy, 
thus  summarily  to  crush  a  bill  brought 
forward  for  the  redress  of  grievances,  and 
the  vindication  of  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges of  an  important  body  of  British 
subjects,  by  the  mere  assertion  of  the 
royal  prerogative  ?  No  person  who  fully 
understands  and  values  the  true  princi- 
ples of  British  liberty  will  ever  attempt  to 


vindicate  such  conduct ;  and  no  friend  of 
the  British  monarchy  will  ever  regard  it 
as  an  example  to  be  followed,  but  rather 
as  a  dangerous  error  to  be  carefully 
shunned. 

This  conduct  of  the  ministry  was  fol- 
lowed by  various  effects  which  they  could 
scarcely  have  contemplated.  Many  peo- 
ple, not  peculiarly  friendly  to  the  Church, 
exclaimed  against  it  as  a  mean  evasion, 
by  which  Government  contrived  to  avoid 
a  discussion  which  they  dared  not  openly 
meet.  It  was  evident  that  the  Church 
was  ready  to  lay  her  claims  before  the 
public,  and  earnestly  courted  the  fullest 
possible  discussion  ;  and  the  counterpart 
idea  was  scarcely  less  evident,  that  this 
was  exactly  what  her  opponents  were 
anxious  to  prevent.  Her  character  for 
conscious  honesty  of  purpose,  was  ele- 
vated, while  that  of  the  ministry  suffered 
a  corresponding  depression.  But  the 
Church  was  not  to  be  so  easily  baffled, 
and  reduced  to  silence.  If  Government 
had  resolved  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  her  ap- 
plication, she  could  address  the  kingdom. 
It  was  accordingly  arranged,  that  on  the 
first  week  of  July,  simultaneous  meetings 
should  be  held  throughout  the  whole  of 
Scotland,  for  the  purpose  of  stating,  ex- 
plaining and  advocating  the  principles 
declared  and  defended,  and  the  proceed- 
ings followed  by  the  recent  General  As- 
sembly. These  meetings  were  very 
numerously  attended ;  and  the  clear,  able, 
and  eloquent  addresses  of  so  many  emi- 
nent men  contributed  greatly  to  dispel 
ignorance  and  prejudice,  called  forth  in 
almost  every  instance  the  most  enthusias- 
tic expressions  of  approbation,  and  tended 
greatly  to  prepare  the 'public  mind  for 
the  important  events  that  were  soon  to 
follow.  In  a  great  number  of  places  as- 
sociations were  formed  for  the  defence  of 
the  Church,  and  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
moting the  circulation  of  the  necessary 
information,  that  Scotland  might  be  made 
aware  of  the  position  of  imminent  peril  in 
which  her  venerated  and  beloved  Church 
had  been  placed  by  treacherous  factions 
within  her  own  pale,  and  by  the  hostility 
of  the  civil  powers. 

About  the  same  time,  the  General  As- 
sembly of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
Ireland  met  at  Belfast ;  and  on  the  8th 
of  July  a  deputation  of  the  General  As- 
sembly of  the  Church  of  Scotland  ad 


A.  D.  1842.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


441 


dressed  the  Irish  Assembly,  and  received 
from  that  body  the  most  encouraging  re- 
ception, and  the  warmest  assurance  of 
aid  in  the  struggle  for  the  defence  of  great 
and  sacred  principles  in  which  she  was 
engaged. 

A  new  case  of  great  importance  was 
brought  before  the  Court  of  Session  on 
.he  28th  day  of  June.  This  was  the 
Stewarton  case,  the  nature  of  which  it  is 
necessary  briefly  to  state.  In  conse- 
quence of  the  act  of  Assembly  1839,  ad- 
mitting the  Associate  Synod  of  the  Seces- 
sion into  connection  and  full  communion 
with  the  Church  of  Scotland,  a  congre- 
gation of  that  body,  who  had  their  place 
of  worship  in  the  village  of  Stewarton, 
Ayrshire,  applied  to  the  presbytery  of 
Irvine,  within  whose  bounds  the  village 
is  situated,  to  be  so  received  and  admitted. 
The  presbytery  complied  with  this  re- 
quest ;  and  Mr.  Clelland,  the  minister  of 
that  congregation,  having  signed  the 
Confession  of  Faith,  his  name  was  added 
to  the  roll,  and  he  took  his  place  in  the 
presbytery.  Subsequently  the  presby- 
tery were  interdicted  from  assigning  a 
territorial  district  to  the  pastoral  superin- 
tendence of  Mr.  Clelland,  at  the  instance 
of  William  Cunninghame,  Esq.  of  Lain- 
shaw,  and  other  proprietors.  This  inter- 
dict was  granted  in  March  1840,  and  ren- 
dered perpetual  on  the  15th  June  same 
year.  Tne  presbytery,  after  having  re- 
ceived the  authoritative  sanction  of  the 
synod  of  Glasgow  and  Ayr,  and  the 
Commission  of  Assembly,  proceeded  to 
point  out  a  territorial  district  quoad  spir- 
itualia  within  which  the  minister  of  the 
Stewarton  congregation  should  exercise 
his  sacred  functions,  expressly  declaring, 
at  the  same  time,  that  no  civil  right  be- 
longing to  any  party  should  be  held  to  be 
affected  in  any  degree  by  that  arrange- 
ment. The  case  assumed  a  somewhat 
new  form  shortly  afterwards.  Mr.  Clel- 
land having  demitted  his  charge,  a  call 
was  given  by  the  congregation  to  another 
person  to  be  his  successor.  The  heritors 
immediately  applied  for  a  special  inter- 
dict to  prevent  the  induction  of  another 
minister  into  the  vacant  charge,  which 
was  granted  on  the  17th  of  March  1841. 
By  another  change  of  circumstances  the 
case  assumed  a  new,  and  still  more  sim- 
ple and  unsecular  aspect.  A  portion  of 
the  original  congregation  had  opposed 
5C 


the  union  with  the  Establishment,  and 
raised  an  action  to  claim  the  right  of 
property  in  the  place  of  worship.  In  this 
action  they  were  successful ;  and  about 
the  same  time  the  person  in  whose  favour 
the  call  had  been  given  died.  There  was 
now  a  congregation  without  either  min- 
ister or  place  of  worship,  so  that  the  case 
was  completely  denuded  of  every  vestige 
of  personal  rights  or  civil  property,  and 
it  might  have  been  expected  that  the  case 
before  the  civil  court  had  of  itself  termi- 
nated. But  when  the  presbytery  were 
about  to  moderate  in  a  call  to  a  minister 
to  the  congregation  alone,  without  place 
of  worship  or  civil  interests  of  any  kind 
being  even  by  possibility  involved,  they 
were  again  met  by  the  interdict  of  the 
civil  court,  prohibiting  the  appointment 
of  "  any  minister  to  the  new  parish  pro- 
posed to  be  erected  ;"  and  also  prohibit- 
ing the  presbytery  from  receiving  into 
their  number  "any  minister  or  elder,  in 
respect  to  their  alleged  election  or  nomi- 
nation to  their  respective  offices  in  the 
said  new  parish." 

Such  were  the  main  facts  of  the  Stew- 
arton case,  when  it  was  fully  brought  be- 
fore the  Court  of  Session.  It  will  be  evi- 
dent to  every  one,  that  by  the  singular 
process  of  events  it  had  been  stripped  of 
all  that  could  even  seem  to  involve  a  civil 
right,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  that  term, 
since  it  could  affect  neither  person  nor 
property.  The  question,  therefore,  ap- 
peared, in  the  simplest  possible  form, — 
"  Had  civil  courts  the  power  to  prevent 
the  Church  of  Scotland  from  extending 
the  means  of  spiritual  instruction  to  the 
community  as  necessity  required,  by 
forming  or  receiving  congregations,  or- 
daining ministers  and  other  office-bear- 
ers, and  giving  to  them  the  full  possession 
of  all  the  spiritual  functions  which  in 
every  true  Presbyterian  Church  ordina- 
tion has  always  been  held  to  convey?" 
This,  it  must  be  evident,  was  an  abso 
lutely  vital  question  ;  and  upon  its  de- 
cision alone,  even  had  there  been  no 
other  cause  of  collision  between  the  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  courts,  must  have  de- 
pended the  fate  of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
For  if  it  be  in  the  power  of  hostile  heri- 
tors and  civil  courts  to  prevent  the  spirit- 
ual growth  of  the  Church,  while  the 
population  is  rapidly  increasing,  they 
may,  within  the  course  of  a  single  gen- 


442 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI. 


eration,  reduce  it  to  the  condition  of  being 
the  Church  of  a  minority,  and  may  then 
safely  abolish  it  altogether,  if  so  inclined. 
And  still  more,  if  the  civil  courts  have 
the  power  of  laying  an  arrest  on  the  pro- 
gress of  any  Christian  Church,  they 
must  also  be  viewed  as  having  the  power 
to  stop  the  progress  of  the  Redeemer's 
kingdom ;  or  at  least,  the  power  of  ren- 
dering; such  Church  no  longer  truly 
Christian,  by  taking  from  it  the  liberty 
of  obeying  Christ  by  extending  his  king- 
dom. To  this  the  Church  of  Scotland 
could  not  submit,  without  ceasing  to  be  a 
Church  of  Christ ;  consequently  it  was 
evident,  that  an  adverse  decision  of  this 
vital  question  would  bring  before  her  the 
alternative,  whether  to  yield  up  her 
Christian  character,  or  to  abandon,  if  re- 
dress could  not  be  obtained,  the  civil  ad- 
vantages and  emoluments  of  an  Estab- 
lished Church, — an  alternative  which, 
by  any  sincere  Christian,  must  always 
and  at  once  be  regarded  as  no  alternative 
at  all. 

The  pleadings  before  the  Court  of  this 
important  case  began  on  the  2 1st  of  June, 
and  closed  on  the  28th  of  the  same  month. 
Immediately  upon  the  close  of  the  plead- 
ings by  the  counsel  for  the  presbytery, 
the  Lord  President  drew  the  attention  of 
the  Court  to  that  part  of  the  plea  by  the 
defenders  in  which  they  declined  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  civil  court  in  spiritual 
matters  ;  expressing  his  opinion  that  if  it 
were  construed  as  the  language  seemed 
to  imply,  it  might  be  regarded  as  sedi- 
tious, and  it  might  be  necessary  to  com- 
mit the  parties  using  it  to  immediate  im- 
prisonment! It  seemed  as  if  the  spirit 
of  James  VI.  had  taken  possession  of  the 
presiding  judges,  and  were  about  to  re- 
enact  the  persecution  of  Black,  and 
Welsh,  and  Melville.  But  the  threaten- 
ing storm  abated  ;  permission  was  grant- 
ed to  explain  the  language  of  the  plea; 
and  in  the  course  of  a  few  days  an  ex- 
planation was  produced  and  accepted, 
which,  while  expressed  in  more  cautious 
and  guarded  terms,  contained  a  declina- 
ture  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  civil  court 
in  spiritual  matters,  as  distinct  and  ex- 
plicit as  before.  The  result  of  this  dis- 
cussion was  so  far  favourable  to  the 
Church ;  for  the  explanation  being 
allowed  to  be  entered  on  the  record,  the 
plea  of  independence  in  spiritual  matters 


was  thereby  secured  in  that  case,  let  the 
ultimate  decision  be  what  it  might.  It 
was  of  advantage  also,  as  incidentally 
vindicating  the  Church  from  the  calum- 
nious accusation,  that,  by  pleading  at  all, 
she  admitted  the  jurisdiction  of  the  civil 
courts,  and  then  refused  to  obey  it,  when 
an  adverse  decision  was  given.  Yet 
strange  as  it  may  appear,  although  the 
Court  of  Session  was  undeniably  baffled 
by  the  respectful  firmness  of  the  counsel 
for  the  Church,  the  Moderate  party  had 
the  effrontery  loudly  to  proclaim,  that  the 
Church  had  at  last  abandoned  the  plea 
of  spiritual  independence.  It  certainly 
required  no  little  hardihood  to  make  such 
an  assertion  in  the  face  of  printed  records, 
to  which  any  person  might  have  access ; 
yet  it  was  made,  for  habit  is  very  power- 
ful. The  final  decision  of  the  Stewarton 
case  was  then  postponed,  with  the  view, 
avowedly,  of  securing  to  it  time  for  full 
deliberation. 

On  the  19th  of  July  the  Court  of  Ses- 
sion decided  another  element  of  the 
Auchterarder  case.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that,  when  the  House  of  Lords 
affirmed  the  decision  of  the  Court  of  Ses- 
sion, the  Church  yielded  to  that  decision 
to  the  extent  specified  in  the  act  1592, 
leaving  to  the  patron  "  the  haill  fruits  of 
the  benefice."  But  as  the  act  of  parlia- 
ment respecting  the  Widows'  Fund  as- 
signed all  vacant  stipends  to  that  fund, 
the  point  was  litigated  whether  the  sti- 
pend of  Auchterarder  should  belong  to 
the  Widows'  Fund  or  to  the  Earl  of 
Kinnoul.  The  decision  of  the  Court  of 
Session,  the  whole  Judges  being  present, 
was  in  favour  of  the  patron  against  the 
claim  of  the  Widows'  Fund,  by  a  ma- 
jority of  eight  to  five.  The  First  Di- 
vision gave  the  expenses  to  the  pursuers. 
This  decision,  however  contrary  to  the 
plain  meaning  of  an  act  of  Parliament, 
had  an  apparent  tendency  to  clear  the 
question  between  the  conflicting  jurisdic- 
tions, and  to  diminish  the  subjects  of  liti- 
gation. For  the  patron's  action  of  dama- 
ges ought  in  equity  to  be  regarded  as 
having  lost  its  ground,  since  the  Court 
had  decided  that  the  presentation  secured 
the  fruits  of  the  benefice,  so  that  the  veto 
of  the  congregation  could  inflict  no  dam- 
age upon  what  are  termed  "  the  patrimo- 
nial rights  of  the  patron,"  or  upon  the 
presentee,  who  might  at  any  time  be  put 


A.  D.  1842.] 


HISTORY   OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


443 


in  possession  of  them.  It  had  also  an- 
other effect.  It  rendered  the  question  of 
jurisdiction  as  simple  and  essential  as  in 
the  Stewarton  case ;  since,  if  any  further 
steps  were  to  be  taken  against  the 
Church,  it  could  only  be  for  the  purpose 
of  attempting-,  by  civil  coercion,  to  com- 
pel her  to  perform  the  spiritual  act  of  or- 
dination, even  when  separated  from  the 
usual  civil  consequences,  these  having 
been  already  disposed  of  according  to  the 
patron's  claim. 

A  great  number  of  interdicts  were 
granted  on  the  same  day,  at  the  instance 
of  the  deposed  Strathbogie  seven — some 
on  claims  which  they  preferred,  others 
against  members  sent  to  the  Assembly 
from  the  true  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie 
to  the  recent  Assembly, — with  the  con- 
currence of  her  Majesty's  advocate,  pray- 
ing the  Court  "  to  inflict  such  punish- 
ment, by  imprisonment,  fine,  or  otherwise, 
as  might  be  considered  necessary  and 
proper."  Also  at  the  instance  of  other 
ministers  who  had  been  deposed  by  the 
late  Assembly,  on  account  of  attempting 
to  stop  the  course  of  justice  when  accu- 
sed of  flagrant  crimes,  by  seeking  and 
obtaining  interdicts  on  the  ground  of  the 
presence  in  Church  courts  of  quoad  sacra 
ministers,  although  no  decision  had  yet 
been  given  by  the  civil  court  on  that 
question.  Interdicts  were  also  granted 
against  the  Special  Commission  appoint- 
ed to  take  charge  of  the  religious  inter- 
ests of  Strathbogie,  Culsalmond,  and 
other  places  in  similar  circumstances. 
And  petions  and  complaints  were  ap- 
plied for  and  subsequently  granted  against 
those  who  were  engaged  in  ordaining 
Mr.  Henry  to  the  new  Church  at  Mar- 
noch,  and  Mr.  Arthur  at  Stewarton,  al- 
though no  civil  interests  were  involved 
in  either  of  these  cases.  Such  proceed- 
ings served  very  clearly  to  indicate  the 
determination  of  the  opponents  of  the 
Church  to  force  on  a  speedy  crisis  ;  and 
they  formed  a  very  intelligible  comment 
on  what  was  meant  by  some  members  of 
the  Legislature  when  they  spoke  of  "  al- 
lowing the  law  to  take  its  course." 

One  strange  and  almost  incredible 
case  of  civil  interference  in  spiritual 
matters  deserves  to  be  particularly  noted. 
On  Sabbath  the  7th  of  August,  the  sa- 
crament of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  dis- 
pensed at  Stranraer  by  the  deposed  minis- 


ter to  about  twenty  or  thirty  people ;  and 
on  the  same  by  two  of  the  ministers  of 
the  presbytery,  in  the  church  of  the  Re- 
formed Presbyterians,  to  upwards  of  four 
hundred  communicants.  No  sooner  was 
it  known  that  the  use  of  this  church  had 
been  granted  to  the  presbytery,  than  an 
interdict  was  applied  for  to  prohibit  that 
congregation  from  affording  even  that 
temporary  accommodation  to  their  fellow- 
worshippers.  Nor  did  the  Court  of  Ses- 
sion hesitate  to  grant  it;  thus  perpetrating 
a  gross  outrage  upon  the  rights  both  ot 
conscience  and  of  private  property,  and 
assailing  a  body  of  Christians  uncon- 
nected with  the  Establishment. 

While  this  small,  yet  most  harassing 
warfare  was  going  on  in  Scotland,  an 
event  took  place  in  England  which  vir- 
tually decided  the  conflict.  This  was  the 
decision  of  the  second  appeal  to  the 
House  of  Lords  in  the  Auchterarder  case. 
The  first  appeal  regarded  the  question, 
whether  the  presbytery  had  acted  legally 
in  refusing  to  ordain  Mr.  Young  when 
vetoed  by  the  communicants.  The  se- 
cond was,  whether  the  presbytery  were 
liable  to  an  action  of  damages  in  conse- 
quence of  that  refusal.  It  has  already 
been  shown  that  the  action  for  damages 
did  not,  and  could  not  proceed  upon  the 
ground  of  a  civil  injury  sustained  by  pa- 
tron and  presentee ;  for  the  Court  had 
awarded  the  fruits  of  the  benefice  to  the 
patron.  The  Court  of  Session,  never- 
theless, had  decreed  that  the  presbytery 
was  liable  to  an  action  of  damages ;  and 
the  case  had  been  appealed  to  the  House 
of  Lords.  On  the  9th  of  August  the 
case  was  brought  before  the  House ;  and 
the  Lord  Chancellor  (Lyndhurst),  and 
Lords  Cottenham,  Brougham,  and  Camp- 
bell, guiding,  as  law  lords,  the  judgment 
of  the  House  in  legal  questions,  decided 
that  the  presbytery  of  Auchterarder  was 
liable  to  an  action  of  damages  at  the  in- 
stance of  the  patron  and  his  presentee, 
for  refusing  to  ordain  Mr.  Young,  al- 
though no  civil  interest  was  any  longer 
involved  in  the  refusal.  These  learned 
Lords  never  once  adverted  to  the  consti- 
tution of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  by 
which  an  independent  ecclesiastical  ju- 
risdiction was  secured  to  it  in  many  un- 
repealed  acts  of  parliament ;  but  reason- 
ing from  vague  generalities,  totally  in- 
applicable, and  from  cases  in  English 


444 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI 


law,  affirmed  the  liability  unanimously, 
and  without  hesitation.  The  necessary 
effect  of  that  judgment  was-,  that  the 
Church  courts  were  held  liable  to  actions 
of  damages  for  refusing  to  perform  a 
purely  spiritual  act ;  and  conversely,  by 
parity  of  reason,  for  performing  a  purely 
spiritual  act,— consequently,  all  ecclesias- 
tical government  and  discipline  were  at 
once  laid  prostrate  by  that  most  iniquitous 
and  unconstitutional  decision.  Nay,  it 
might  be  truly  asserted,  that  by  this  de- 
cision ecclesiastical  courts  were  alto- 
gether abolished,  for  the  very  essence  of 
a  court  is  its  liberty  to  decide  according 
to  its  own  conscientious  conviction  ;  and 
therefore,  that  it  is  no  court  where  not 
only  can  the  sentences  be  reversed,  but 
the  judges  themselves  punished  for  their 
judgment.  From  the  moment  that  this 
judgment  was  passed,  it  became  evident 
to  every  spiritually-minded  and  reflecting 
man,  that  unless  the  legislature  should 
very  speedily  set  it  aside  by  a  new  enact- 
ment, repressing  the  encroachments  of 
the  civil  courts,  the  Church  of  Scotland 
could  not  continue  in  connection  with 
the  State,  but  must  protest,  remonstrate, 
and  retire,  leaving  to  the  "  Prince  of  the 
kings  of  the  earth,"  her  own  Head  and 
King,  to  vindicate  His  own  cause  in  His 
own  time  arid  way.  Such  was  the  grave 
opinion  generally  entertained  by  the 
evangelical  body,  while  their  narrow- 
minded  and  short-sighted  opponents  re- 
garded it  merely  as  a  mode  of  crushing 
them  into  subjection  by  civil  pains  and 
penalties, — unaware,  in  their  ignorance, 
that  men  who  know  and  can  appreciate 
spiritual  liberty,  can  suffer  in  its  defence, 
but  cannot  yield  it,  be  the  peril  what  it 
may. 

On  the  10th  of  August  the  Commis- 
sion of  Assembly  held  its  usual  quarterly 
meeting,  and  was  numerously  attended. 
Some  discussion  ensued  respecting  the 
delay  that  had  taken  place  in  presenting 
to  the  Queen  the  Claim  of  Rights,  and 
the  Address  for  the  Abolition  of  Patron- 
age ;  when  it  appeared  that  the  delay 
was  accidental  and  unintentional.  The 
case  of  Abertaff  was  reported  to  the  Com- 
mission, from  which  it  appeared  that  the 
minister,  Mr.  Smith,  had  procured  inter- 
dicts, not  only  against  the  presbytery,  for- 
bidding them  to  proceed  with  his  trial, 
but  also  against  the  list  of  witnesses,  pro- 


hibiting them  from  appearing  to  bear 
evidence.  The  case  was  remitted  to  the 
Assembly,  and  the  presbytery  empowered 
to  make  provision  for  the  dispensation  of 
religious  ordinances  in  the  parish.  A 
communication  was  received  from  Ameri- 
ca, proposing  the  commemoration  of  the 
Westminster  Assembly,  to  be  held  on  the 
1st  day  of  July  1843,  that  being  the  day 
on  which  it  first  met  two  hundred  years 
before.  The  same  idea  had  been  sug- 
gested to  the  Irish  Assembly  at  Belfast, 
who  entered  cordially  into  the  suggestion, 
as  did  also  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
England.  A  committee  was  formed  for 
the  purpose  of  devising  the  best  method 
of  co-operating  with  all  Presbyterian 
Churches  in  that  important  matter,  which 
presented  so  favourable  an  opportunity  of 
concentrating  the  energies  of  Presbyte- 
rianisrn,  and  diffusing  its  principles  with 
increased  vigour  throughout  the  world. 

There  was  a  considerably  numerous 
meeting  of  the  Moderate  party  held  on 
the  morning  of  the  10th,  Principal  Hal- 
dane  of  St.  Andrews  in  the  chair,  at 
which  it  was  determined  to  support  the 
deposed  Strathbogie  men,  and  to  send  a 
deputation  to  assist  those  persons  in  their 
pretended  celebration  of  the  sacrament  of 
the  Lord's  Supper.  This  determination 
was  announced  in  the  newspapers  of  next 
day,  rendering  it  publicly  manifest,  that, 
like  the  civil  courts,  the  Moderates  were 
resolved  to  prosecute  every  means  of 
forcing  on  the  crisis,  even  before  it  was 
known  that  the  second  Auchterarder  de- 
cision, given  by  the  House  of  Lords  the 
preceding  day,  had  already  done  the  des- 
tructive deed. 

A  special  meeting  of  Commission  was 
held  on  the  30th  of  August,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  preparing  an  address  to  the 
Queen,  on  her  Majesty's  visit  to  Scot- 
land. When  the  Commission  met,  a 
sharp  discussion  took  place  on  a  prelimi- 
nary point  of  great  importance.  It  was 
the  general  opinion,  that  as  her  Majesty's 
visit  was  not  on  State  affairs,  it  would  not 
be  expedient  to  introduce  the  subject  of 
the  serious  dangers  impending  over  the 
Church  into  the  address  itself;  but  the 
majority  thought  it  necessary  to  pass  a 
motion,  for  the  purpose  of  having  it  en- 
tered on  the  Commission's  records,  in 
which  should  be  declared  the  determina- 
tion of  the  Church  to  maintain  her  sacred 


A.  D.  1843.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


445 


spiritual  rights  and  liberties,  and  that  even 
with  increased  energy  and  resolution,  in 
consequence  of  the  increasing  danger 
caused  by  recent  events,  together  with  a 
statement  of  the  reason  why  the  Commis- 
sion refrained  from  bringing  the  subject 
before  her  Majesty  in  present  circum- 
stances. The  Moderate  party  vehemently 
opposed  all  reference  to  any  such  subject, 
venturing  to  stigmatize  the  very  sugges- 
tion as  savouring  of  a  want  of  loyalty, 
and  certainly  tending  to  foment  strife.  A 
very  animated  debate  arose  upon  this  mo- 
tion, the  most  remarkable  feature  of 
which  was,  that  when  reference  was 
made  to  the  recent  decision  affirming  lia- 
bility to  damages  in  the  Auchterarder 
case,  and  when  it  was  said,  that  unless 
that  decision  should  be  reversed,  it  must 
ere  long  issue  in  the  breaking  up  of  the 
Establishment,  the  Moderates  received 
the  declaration  with  shouts  of  exultation 
and  mockery.  This  drew  from  Dr. 
Candlish  an  indignant  rebuke,  in  a  speech 
altogether  worthy  of  himself  and  of  the 
occasion,  in  which  he  nobly  vindicated 
the  principles  and  the  loyalty  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland, — referring  to  the 
period  when  our  covenanted  ancestors, 
although  firmly  opposing  a  monarch's 
despotism,  were  yet  alone  found  faithful 
to  that  monarch  in  his  adversity.  The 
motion  was  carried  against  two  others, 
one  of  an  intermediate,  and  another  of  a 
more  decided  character ;  and  addresses 
were  prepared,  and  deputations  appointed 
to  present  them  to  her  Majesty  and  Prince 
Albert. 

This  was  the  first  meeting  of  a  supe- 
rior Church  court  since  the  second  Auch- 
terarder decision  ;  and  it  was  not  difficult 
to  perceive  the  effect  of  that  event  upon 
the  two  contending  parties.  The  Evan- 
gelical majority  displayed  the  grave,  yet 
resolute  bearing,  the  calm,  deliberate 
courage  and  energy  of  men  who  were 
fully  aware  of  the  dangers  by  which 
they  were  menaced,  and  as  fully  prepared 
to  meet  them  with  unshrinking  fortitude, 
relying  with  unwavering  faith  on  the 
strength  and  wisdom  of  God  to  support 
and  guide  them  in  the  hour  of  need.  On 
the  Moderate  side,  there -was  manifest  an 
air  of  anticipated  triumph,  and  a  heart- 
less spirit  of  delight  in  the  difficulties  of 
-heir  opponents,  though  they  could  not 
but  be  aware  that  the  recent  decision  of 


the  House  of  Lords  involved  the  breaking 
up,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  as  an  establishment. 
For  it  required  no  very  great  degree  of 
penetration  to  see,  that  the  Evangelical 
majority  could  not  yield  to  that  judgment 
without  such  a  loss  of  character,  and 
consequently  of  moral  influence,  as 
would  destroy  their  usefulness,  and  at  the 
same  time  confirm  the  Voluntary  argu- 
ment,— in  addition  to  the  withering  effect 
upon  themselves  of  a  violated  conscience : 
or,  if  they  should  in  a  body  quit  connec- 
tion with  the  State,  the  Establishment 
would,  by  that  very  act,  receive  a  shock 
from  which  it  could  not  recover.  Yet 
they  evidently  rejoiced  to  see  the  Church 
of  Scotland  in  such  imminent  peril,  being 
unable,  apparently,  to  see  in  it  any  thing 
else  but  a  preliminary  step  to  their  own 
restoration  to  power.  Even  their  own 
explanation  of  their  cheers,  when  allusion 
was  made  to  the  impending  disruption  of 
the  Establishment,  "  that  it  was  because 
they  did  not  believe  the  announcement," 
implied  such  a  disbelief  in  the  honest  in- 
tegrity of  their  opponents  as  proved  them- 
selves to  be  destitute  of  that  character, 
according  to  the  well  known  maxim,  that 
each  man  suspects  that  of  others  which 
he  knows  to  be  true  of  himself.  It  was, 
in  short,  a  melancholy  proof  of  the  heart- 
less cruelty,  and  want  of  principle,  char- 
acteristic of  thorough  Moderatism. 

Availing  themselves  of  the  opportu- 
nity presented  by  the  presence  of  so  many 
ministers  in  Edinburgh,  the  Evangelical 
body  held  several  private  meetings  for 
mutual  consultation  respecting  the  course 
now  to  be  adopted,  in  consequence  of  the 
new  position  in  which  affairs  had  been 
placed  by  the  recent  decision.  It  was  the 
opinion  of  some  of  the  most  determined 
men,  that  the  proper  course  would  be,  for 
presbyteries  to  decline  proceeding  to  or- 
dination in  all  cases  of  presentation,  and 
to  refer  each  to  the  next  General  As- 
sembly. Others  thought  that  the  Church 
should  regard  the  decision  of  the  House 
of  Lords  as  altogether  incompetent,  and 
not  binding  on  the  conscience,  and  should 
therefore  proceed  as  if  it  had  never  been 
pronounced,  ordaining  where  the  pre- 
sentee was  acceptable  and  qualified,  and 
refusing  to  ordain  where  he  was  rejected. 
At  length  an  intermediate  course  received 
the  approbation  of  the  greater  number  j 


446 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI. 


and  it  was  generally  agreed,  that  pres- 
byteries might  proceed  as  under  the  Veto 
Act,  carefully  guarding,  in  each  instance, 
against  being  thought  to  consent  to  the 
principle  of  the  late  decision,  by  entering 
on  their  records  a  strong  protest,  which 
should  embody  a  new  and  explicit  asser- 
tion of  the  constitutional  principles,  rights, 
and  privileges  of  the  Church.  This 
plan  was  very  soon  carried  into  effect  in 
several  presbyteries,  the  example  having 
been  set  by  the  presbytery  of  Edinburgh 
in  the  case  of  Mr.  Arnot's  presentation 
to  Ratho.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that, 
in  point  of  what  may  be  termed  theoretical 
propriety,  the  first  of  these  plans  would 
have  been  the  most  correct.  For  it  is 
clear,  that  presbyteries  could  not  be  re- 
garded as  acting  freely  on  their  own  re- 
sponsibility as  office-bearers  of  the  Church, 
when  inducting  presentees,  under  the 
penalty  of  being  liable  to  actions  of 
damages  if  they  should  refuse,  however 
much  opposed  the  people  might  be  to  the 
persons  presented,  and  however  tho- 
roughly convinced  the  presbytery  might 
be  that  the  appointment  of  a  person,  in 
such  circumstances,  could  not  be  for  edi- 
fication. It  was  felt,  too,  that  to  act  con- 
scientiously in  such  a  condition  would 
try  severely  the  firmness  of  the  most  de- 
termined, and  might  prove  a  grievous 
snare  to  those  of  weaker  and  more  timid 
character.  Yet  it  was  well  that  an  inter- 
mediate course  was  adopted,  since  it 
avoided  hastening  on  the  crisis  prema- 
turely, and  allowed  the  full  developement 
of  all  the  evils  that  rendered  the  last  step 
necessary. 

The  Queen's  visit  gave  occasion  to  the 
manifestation  of  another  element  in  the 
general  contest.  Her  Majesty  landed  at 
Granton  on  the  morning  of  Thursday, 
September  1,  and  proceeded  to  Dalkeith, 
where  she  resided  with  the  Duke  of  Buc- 
cleuch.  But  instead  of  attending  divine 
worship  in  the  High  Church  of  Edin- 
burgh, as  constitutionally  the  Presbyte- 
rian sovereign  of  a  Presbyterian  king- 
dom, and  as  George  IV.  on  his  visit  had 
done,  the  dining-room  at  Dalkeith  was 
turned  into  a  temporary  chapel,  a  pulpit 
being  erected  at  the  one  end  of  it,  and 
Mr.  Ramsay,  Episcopalian  minister  of 
St.  John's  Chapel,  Edinburgh,  a  decided 
Puseyite,  was  sent  for  to  officiate.  How 
Mr.  Ramsay  reconciled  it  to  his  con- 


science to  preach  in  what  he  would  re- 
gard as  an  unconsecrated  place,  it  is  not 
easy  to  imagine.  Again,  at  Drumrnond 
Castle,  the  Queen  attended  the  ministra- 
tions of  an  Episcopalian  chaplain,  neglect- 
ing the  Establishment,  which  she  had 
sworn  to  support,  and  giving  her  coun- 
tenance to  its  avowed  and  implacable 
enemy.  It  was  not  supposed  that  this 
arose  from  any  hostility  entertained  by 
the  sovereign  against  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, but  from  the  well  known  hostility 
of  her  constitutional  advisers  against  the 
reforming  and  evangelical  majority.  The 
Earl  of  Aberdeen  attended  her  Majesty, 
in  the  function,  it  was  understood,  of 
Home  Secretary ;  and  no  one  who  re- 
membered the  part  he  had  all  along 
acted,  could  doubt  his  determined  enmity 
against  the  cause,  and  the  men  whom  he 
had  attempted  to  delude,  and  then  bitterly 
calumniated  and  reviled.  With  remark- 
able infatuation,  the  Moderate  party  ap- 
peared to  rejoice  in  the  evident  disrespect 
done  to  the  Church.  They  did  not  seem 
to  perceive,  that  if  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Scotland  should  be  over- 
thrown, they  must  either  join  its  destroy- 
ers, or  perish  in  its  ruins.  The  Puseyite 
Episcopalians  rejoiced  greatly  in  the  sun- 
shine of  royal  favour  which  thus  shone 
around  them  ;  and  their  prelates  presented 
an  address  of  no  doubtful  import  to  her 
Majesty,  boasting  of  their  obedience  to 
the  laws.  For  some  time  after  the  oc- 
currence of  this  event,  there  appeared 
symptoms  of  an  incipient  controversy  in 
nearly  all  the  periodical  organs  of  the 
various  parties  in  the  country  ;  but  it  was 
suppressed,  though  with  very  manifest 
difficulty,  by  the  reluctance  universally 
felt  to  say  any  thing  that  might  appear 
personally  disrespectful  to  the  youthful 
and  beloved  Queen.  There  is  some 
reason,  however,  to  believe,  that  the  sup- 
pressed feeling  of  dissatisfaction  died  not 
away,  but  merely  sunk  into  the  still 
depths  of  the  heart  of  Scotland,  adding 
another  element  of  strength  to  the  anti- 
prelatic  under-current  that  there  sweeps 
steadily  along,  waiting  its  time  to  pour 
forth  its  irresistible  might  when  the  full 
hour  of  retribution  shall  have  come. 

For  a  short  period  the  contest  seemed 
to  have  subsided,  during  the  busy  time  of 
harvest.  But  even  in  this  interval  oi 
comparative  quiescence,  there  were  sev- 


A.  D.  1842.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


447 


eral  indications  of  unabated  hostility 
against  the  Church,  on  the  part  of  the 
civil  courts.  An  interdict  was  granted 
against  the  presbytery  of  Arbroath,  and 
laid  before  that  court  on  the  5th  of  Octo- 
ber, forbidding  them  to  prevent  the  ad- 
mission to  the  Lord's  Table  of  a  person 
who  had,  as  it  was  alleged,  in  a  state  of 
drunkenness,  disturbed  the  public  wor- 
ship of  God  in  the  parish  church  of  In- 
verkeillor,  and  had  refused  to  submit  to 
the  requirements  of  church  discipline. 
It  began  also  to  be  customary  for  opposing 
heritors  to  apply  for  and  obtain  interdicts 
forbidding  meetings  to  be  held  in  parish 
churches, — a  course  which  was  exten- 
sively followed  during  the  succeeding 
winter  and  spring,  as  if  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  arguments  which  they  could  not 
answer. 

But  this  short  breathing-time  was  not 
unimproved.  It  allowed  leisure  for  de- 
liberate reflection,  respecting  the  state  of  the 
Church,  and  the  course  of  conduct  which 
that  state  had  rendered  necessary.  About 
the  middle  of  October,  a  circular  letter, 
signed  by  32  of  the  most  able,  pious,  and 
venerable  fathers  of  the  Church,  was  sent 
to  all  those  ministers  throughout  the  king- 
dom, who  had  in  general  acted  with,  and 
contributed  to  form,  the  Evangelical  ma- 
jority. In  this  circular,  attention  was 
directed  to  the  peculiar  character  and  in- 
evitable consequences  of  the  second 
Auchterarder  decision,  as  subversive  of 
the  essential  liberties  of  the  Church,  and 
leading  certainly  to  its  destruction,  unless 
speedily  remedied  ;  and  a  general  meet- 
ing or  convocation  was  called  to  be  held 
at  Edinburgh  on  the  17th  of  November, 
the  day  after  the  ordinary  meeting  of  the 
Commission.  This  circular  was  pre- 
pared and  signed  almost  exclusively  by 
the  aged  fathers  in  the  Church. — a  point 
of  no  small  importance,  proving  that  the 
contest  was  not  caused  and  carried  on 
merely  by  young  and  fiery  controver- 
sialists, as  opponents  loudly  and  con- 
stantly assorted.  And  in  order  that  the 
Convocation  might  be  as  numerously  at- 
tended as  possible,  considerable  sums 
were  subscribed  to  defray  the  travelling 
expenses  of  ministers  from  distant  parts 
of  the  country,  while  some  parishes  un- 
dertook to  bear  the  charges  of  their  own 
ministers.  Accommodation  was  also 


liberally  provided,  by  numbers  of  the 
Edinburgh  citizens,  for  the  ministers 
during  the  time  of  their  deliberations. 

The  week  before  the  Convocation  met 
was  perhaps  a  time  of  more  general  and 
fervent  prayer  throughout  Scotland,  than 
had  been  known  for  centuries;  both 
ministers  and  people  feeling,  that  upon 
the  result  of  its  momentous  deliberations, 
would  depend,  not  merely  the  existence 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  all  her 
purity  and  freedom,  established  or  not, 
but  also  the  character  and  welfare  of  true 
evangelical  and  spiritual  religion  in  the 
country.  And  it  must  be  added  that 
during  the  sitting  of  the  Convocation,  the 
absence  of  the  ministers  did  not  prevent 
the  continuation  of  meetings  for  prayer, 
conducted  by  the  pious  and  venerable 
village  or  rural  patriarchs,  who  knew 
the  principles  of  the  Church  of  Christ 
and  believed  them  to  be  those  for  which 
the  Church  of  their  fathers  had  often 
suffered,  and  was  again  called  on  to 
suffer  in  circumstances  of  imminent 
peril. 

The  Commission  of  Assembly  met  on 
the  16th,  according  to  its  usual  arrange- 
ment, and  was  very  fully  attended  by  the 
Evangelical  body.  Few  Moderates  were 
present,  and  of  these,  some  went  away  al- 
most immediately,  leaving  a  protest 
against  its  proceedings,  as  illegally  con- 
stituted, on  account  of  the  exclusion  of 
Dr.  Bryce,  who  had  been  suspended  by 
the  preceding  Commission.  A  very  in- 
teresting report  was  read  by  Dr.  Cand- 
lish,  on  the  arrangements  for  the  pro- 
posed celebration  of  the  Westminster  Bi- 
centenary ;  and  particularly  with  regard 
to  a  basis  for  the  formation  of  a  greater 
degree  of  unity  among  evangelical  Chris- 
tian churches,  than  has  hitherto  existed. 
In  the  evening  an  important  discussion 
took  place  concerning  the  state  of  the 
Church,  in  which  was  clearly  pointed 
out  the  absolute  necessity  of  taking  some 
decided  step  in  defence  of  religious 
liberty.  A  memorial  was  prepared, 
drawing  the  attention  of  Government 
again  to  the  Claim  of  Right,  and  the 
other  documents  transmitted  to  it  by  last 
Assembly,  to  which  no  answer  had  yet 
been  returned  ;  and  pointing  out  the  new 
encroachments  on  the  spiritual  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  Church  which  had  taker 


448 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XL 


place  since  that  time,  craving  redress  of 
those  grievances.  No  other  transactions 
of  peculiar  importance  took  place. 

Next  day,  the  17th  of  November,  the 
CONVOCATION  met.  It  was  formally  open- 
ed by  a  sermon,  preached  by  Dr.  Chal- 
mers, in  St.  George's  Church,  from  the 
text,  "Unto  the  upright  there  ariseth 
light  in  darkness."  (Psalm,  cxii.  4.)  In 
this  sermon  there  was  a  brief,  but  a  clear, 
lofty,  and  forcible  exposition  of  great  prin- 
ciples, applicable  to  the  disturbed  and  peri- 
lous condition  of  the  Church ;  and  tending 
to  explain,  and  in  its  explanation  furnish- 
ing a  very  striking  exam  pie  of,  the  manner 
in  which  light  might  be  expected  to  arise 
in  the  midst  of  darkness.  It  may,  with 
truth,  be  said,  that  by  nearly  the  entire  au- 
dience, the  sermon  was  regarded  as  itself  an 
emanation  of  that  light  which  it  described. 

On  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  the 
Convocation  met  for  deliberation  in  Rox- 
burgh Street  Church.  Dr.  Chalmers 
was  chosen  to  be  moderator,  or  chair- 
man, it  being  understood,  that  in  his  ab- 
sence, the  next  eldest  of  those  who  had 
been  moderators  of  Assembly  should  oc- 
cupy the  chair,  or  some  other  minister, 
distinguished  by  piety,  and  venerable  by 
years.  Mr.  Pitcairn  of  Cockpen  was  ap- 
pointed clerk  to  the  Convocation,  and  ar- 
rangements to  regulate  the  course  of  pro- 
cedure were  made.  It  was  resolved  that 
each  meeting  should  be  opened  with 
praise,  reading  a  portion  of  the  Word  of 
God,  and  prayer ; — that  the  meetings 
shouJd  be  from  11  forenoon  to  4  after- 
noon, and  from  7  to  10  evening,  or  later  if 
necessary ;  and  that  once,  at  least,  during 
each  meeting,  the  business  should  be  sus- 
pended, and  the  Convocation  should  en- 
gage in  prayer,  in  order  that  the  course 
of  the  discussion  might,  from  time  to 
time,  be  subjected  to  the  stilling  and  hal- 
lowing influence  of  solemn  and  united 
devotion.  After  the  roll  of  those  present 
had  been  prepared,  the  circular  calling 
the  Convocation  was  read,  it  was  stated 
that  those  who  had  come,  must  of  course, 
be  held  as  concurring  generally  in  the 
views  contained  in  that  circular.  This 
gave  rise  to  some  discussion,  from  which 
it  appeared,  that  there  was  a  small  num- 
ber present,  prepared  rather  to  oppose 
than  to  support  the  leading  principles 
stated  in  that  document.  During  the 
course  of  the  discussions  which  took 


place,  on  the  second  day  of  the  Convo- 
cation, all  the  diversities  of  opinion  that 
existed  among  the  ministers  present  were 
fully  developed  :  and  these,  considering 
that  there  were  assembled  about  450  men 
of  free  and  independent  minds,  all  accus- 
tomed to  think  and  act  for  themselves, 
were  exceedingly  few.  There  were  in- 
deed but  three  tolerably  distinct  views  en- 
tertained and  stated  in  the  meeting.  The 
great  majority  came  fully  prepared  to 
frame  and  carry  into  effect  the  measures 
which  were  finally  adopted  as  the  resolu- 
tions of  the  Convocation.  It  was  the  un- 
hesitating conviction  of  the  entire  body, 
that  the  decisions  of  the  civil  courts  were 
completely  subversive  of  the  constitution 
of  the  Church,  and  must  speedily  issue 
in  its  destruction,  unless  some  adequate 
remedy  could  be  procured ;  but  the  diver- 
sities of  opinion  arose  on  the  questions — 
What  ought  to  be  regarded  as  an  ade- 
quate remedy?  and  What  would  be  the 
duty  of  the  Church  should  no  remedy  be 
obtained  ?  A  very  small  number  thought 
that  what  they  termed  "  a  good  non-in- 
trusion measure"  might  be  a  sufficient 
remedy.  A  somewhat  more  numerous 
party,  agreeing  with  the  majority,  that 
no  mere  non-intrusion  measure  could  be 
of  any  avail,  so  long  as  the  second  Auch- 
terarder  judgment  stood  unrepealed,  still 
differed  with  regard  to  the  duty  of  the 
Church,  in  the  event  of  no  remedy  being 
granted,  or  no  answer  returned  to  the  ap- 
plications which  were  to  be  made  to 
Government.  Their  argument  was  to 
the  effect,  that  since  the  British  Constitu- 
tion had  expressly  guaranteed  spiritual 
independence  to  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
she  was  entitled  to  regard  any  decision 
of  the  civil  courts  which  violated  that 
spiritual  independence,  as  so  unconstitu- 
tional, that  it  was  in  itself,  and  must  ever 
be,  null  and  void,  incapable  of  laying 
any  obligation  upon  conscience  requiring 
obedience, — or  rather,  that  the  duty  of 
defending  the  constitution,  laid  a  prior 
and  greater  obligation  upon  conscience, 
actually  to  refuse  obedience.  The  legiti- 
mate conclusion  of  this  argument  was, 
that  let  the  State  do  what  it  might,  the 
duty  of  the  Church  would  be,  to  resist 
the  decisions  of  the  civil  courts,  to  retain 
her  position  as  an  Establishment,  and  to 
suffer,  till  the  State  should  of  itself  change 
its  persecuting  course,  or  be  compelled  to 


A.  D.  1812.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


449 


do  so  by  the  righteous  indignation  of  the 
community.  It  will  be  at  once  evident 
to  every  reflecting  mind,  that  had  the 
Church  adopted  this  course  of  procedure 
the  inevitable  consequence  would  have 
been,  a  revolutionary  struggle  of  the  most 
appalling  character.  And  it  deserves  to 
be  especially  marked,  that  this  formidable 
theory  of  the  Church's  duty  was  enter- 
tained and  asserted  chiefly  by  those 
whose  general  leanings  had  been,  and 
still  were  towards  the  middle  party,  and 
not  by  those  who  had  been  regarded  as 
the  advocates  of  extreme  opinions;  that, 
in  truth,  those  very  leaders,  such  as  Drs. 
Chalmers,  Candlish,  Cunningham,  and 
others,  were  the  men  by  whom  this 
perilous  theory  was  most  strenuously  and 
ably  opposed.  And  it  is  right  that  the 
whole  community  should  know  that  it  is 
chiefly  owing  to  the  wise  and  temperate 
counsels  of  those  much  maligned  but 
most  honourable  and  disinterested  men, 
guided  unquestionably  by  wisdom  from 
above,  that  the  Church  did  not  adopt  a 
course  which  must  speedily  have  plunged 
the  kingdom  into  the  horrors  of  a  wild 
and  devastating  civil  revolution.  By 
reasoning  clear  and  forcible  as  lightning, 
it  was  shown  that  such  a  course  would 
confound  sacred  and  civil  duties, — would 
confound  the  rights  and  the  duties  of  the 
Church  in  sacred  things,  with  the  rights 
and  duties  of  the  civil  magistrate  about 
sacred  things, — would  be  undertaking 
the  defence  of  the  civil  constitution  for 
the  integrity  of  which  the  Church  is  not 
responsible,  and  would  be  interfering 
with  that  duty  for  which  the  State  is 
alone  responsible  to  Him  who  is  not  only 
"  Head  of  the  Church,"  but  also  "  Prince 
of  the  kings  of  the  earth." 

But  it  would  be  inexpedient  here  to 
give  a  full  detail  of  the  discussions  held 
in  the  Convocation ;  although  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say,  that  from  them  the  most 
eage  and  practised,  the  most  enlightened 
and  philosophical  statesman  might  have 
learned  wisdom.  It  may,  however,  be 
yet  regarded  as  a  duty  to  lay  the  most 
important  of  them  before  the  public,  es- 
pecially in  times  when  the  great  prin- 
ciples which  they  elucidated  are  becom- 
ing those  by  which  the  destinies  of  the 
world  are  moved  and  moulded. 

The  discussions  which  began  on  the 
evening  of  the  17th  of  November,  con 
57 


inued  with  the  interval  of  the  Sabbath- 
day,  till  the  24th,  on  which  day  a  public 
meeting  was  held  in  Lady  Glenorchy's 
Church,  in  the  evening,  at  which  ad- 
dresses were  delivered,  stating  the  leading 
)rinciples  which  the  Convocation  had  re- 
solved to  avow  and  defend.  The  meet- 
ng  of  that  evening,  formed,  indeed,  a  fit- 
ing  conclusion  to  the  momentous  delib- 
erations of  the  Convocation.  The  open- 
'ng  prayer,  by  Dr.  Brown  of  Gksgow, 
,vas  one  of  marvellous  solemnity,  spirit- 
uality, faith,  and  earnest  self-denying  de- 
votedness  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  the 
welfare  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom. — 
"ull,  indeed,  of  the  Spirit  of  grace  and 
supplication.  And  the  concluding  ad- 
dress by  Dr.  Candlish,  not  merely  held 
he  vast  multitude  in  breathless  admira- 
ion,  but  placing,  as  it  did,  every  event, 
not  only  of  the  Church,  but  the  empire 
and  the  world,  full  in  the  light  of  sacred 
ruth,  constrained  every  one  to  see  all 
hings,  and  to  think,  and  feel,  and  judge 
of  them  all,  as  in  the  light  of  eternity, 
and  in  the  presence  of  God. 

The  "Resolutions  of  the  Convocation," 
the  "  Memorial  to  Government,"  and  the 
'  Address  to  the  People  of  Scotland," 
have  been  so  extensively  circulated,  and 
are  so  recent,  that  it  cannot  be  necessary 
to  give  here  even  an  outline  of  them. 
This  only  it  may  be  necessary  to  state, 
that  in  the^rs^  series  of  resolutions,  the 
leading  idea  embodied,  was  a  declaration, 
that  in  the  opinion  of  the  members  of 
Convocation,  the  second  Auchterarder 
judgment  contained  a  principle  so  com- 
pletely subversive  of  all  spiritual  jurisdic- 
tion, that  not  only  could  the  government 
of  the  Church  not  be  conformed  to  that 
principle,  but  it  was  essentially  fatal  to  the 
very  existence  of  Church  government. 
The  second  series  of  resolutions  was,  in 
truth,  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  firstr 
declaring  it  to  be  the  duty  of  the  Church  / 
to  terminate  its  connection  with  the  State,  V» 
if  no  measure  of  redress,  such  as  was 
held  to  be  indispensable,  should  be 
granted.  About  20  of  the  ministers  re- 
quired a  slight  modification  in  the  expres- 
sion of  their  assent  to  the  second  series 
of  resolutions.  It  was  generally  held, 
that  the  refusal  of  the  State  to  return  any 
answer,  ought  to  be  regarded  as  equiva- 
lent to  a  refusal  of  the  Church's  applica- 
tion for  redress,  so  as  to  define  the  tim.9 


450 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI. 


when  it  would  be  her  duty  to  relinquish 
the  position  and  advantages  of  the  Estab- 
lishment. But  this  small  party  could  not 
view  the  mere  silence  of  the  State  as  ade- 
quately deciding  the  path  and  fixing  the 
period  of  duty,  so  as  to  constitute  an  ob- 
ligation on  conscience  to  quit  the  Estab- 
lishment ;  though  they  adhered  so  far, 
that  the  Legislature  would,  after  a  reason- 
able time,  oblige  them  to  adopt  that 
course  on  the  ground  of  Christian  expe- 
diency. With  this  slight  modification, 
the  second  series  of  resolutions  was  signed 
by  upwards  of  350  ministers,  several 
having  been  obliged  to  return  to  their 
homes  before  the  conclusion  ;  -and  the 
small  party  who,  at  first,  seemed  inclined 
to  oppose,  having  either  joined  their 
brethern,  or  altogether  withdrawn. 

In  taking  the  peculiarly  solemn  and 
perilous  steps  already  specified,  the  Con- 
vocation did  not  act  rashly  and  unwit- 
tingly. As  already  stated,  the  meeting 
was  called,  not  by  hasty  and  impetuous 
youth,  but  by  the  grave  and  aged  fathers 
of  the  Church.  It  was  composed  chiefly 
of  those  most  far  advanced  in  life,  on 
whom  the  feeling  of  nearness  to  the  grave 
and  the  world  to  come  most  habitu- 
ally rested ;  of  those  most  enlarged  minds, 
whether  from  genius  or  acquirements  ; 
of  those  whose  piety  had  been  most  con- 
spicuous, and  whose  labours  had  been 
most  successful  in  winning  souls  to  Christ  ; 
of  all,  in  short,  most  distinguished  for 
venerable  age,  deep  piety,  genius,  talent, 
learning,  energy  of  mind  and  cha 


laracter, 

and  every  kind  of  professional  and  per- 
sonal eminence  in  the  Church.  It  was 
impossible  to  look  around  the  Convoca- 
tion on  the  truly  noble  and  dignified  band 
•of  Christian  ministers  there  assembled, 
without  feeling  constrained  to  say, "  Whe- 
ther these  men  remain  connected  with  the 
State,  or  leave  it,  where  they  are,  there 
the  Church  of  Scotland  is."  And  their 
deliberations  were  throughout  charac- 
terised by  unwonted  solemnity  of  feeling 
and  disinterested  earnestness  of  purpose. 
The  spirit  of  prayer,  and  the  spirit  which 
true  prayer  produces,  was  most  distinctly 
manifest.  They  were  a  band  of  brothers, 
with  one  heart  filled  by  the  love  of  God, 
and  every  hour  tended  to  the  production 
of  one  mind,  by  the  moulding  and  blend- 
ing energies  of  faith  and  prayer.  Once, 
and  once  only,  did  there  appear  symptoms 


of  division,  on  the  first  evening  of  their 
meeting,  ere  heart  had  fully  met  with 
heart,  and  mind  opened  itself  to  mind. 
This  was  almost  instantly  repressed  by  a 
solemn,  serious,  and  well-timed  adrroin- 
tion,  in  which  was  pointed  out  the  abso- 
lute necessity  of  calm,  patient  self-denial, 
and  brotherly  love,  of  mutual  forbearance, 
and  above  all,  of  dependence  upon  God, 
and  the  constant  application  to  Him  for 
that  wisdom  which  cometh  from  above. 
The  danger  was  seen,  and  met ;  the  rem- 
edy was  sought,  and  obtained.  From 
that  time  forward,  all  was  candour,  and 
frankness,  and  harmony.  If  any  tendency 
to  asperity  of  language  or  feeling  ap- 
peared, it  was  instantly  checked,  and  a 
deep  and  solemn  tone  reproduced.  If 
any  apparent  tendency  to  division  created 
alarm,  it  was  subdued,  and  a  sacred  sin- 
gleness of  aim  restored.  And  when 
unanimity  appeared  beyond  what  had 
been  hoped,  it  drew  forth,  not  the  exulta- 
tion of  triumphant  policy,  but  the  hal- 
lowed spirit  of  grateful  thanksgiving  and 
adoration.  It  was  a  scene  in  which 
conscience  was  allowed  its  free  exercise, 
enlightened  and  guided  by  fervent  devo- 
tion ;  in  which  selfishness  perished,  over- 
whelmed by  the  awful  importance  of  the 
subjects  under  deliberation,  and  the  results 
which  might  follow  ;  and  in  which  the 
interests  of  time  gave  place  to  those  of 
eternity,  the  feelings  of  earth  yielded  to 
those  of  heaven,  and  all  human  duties 
were  subordinated  to  the  duties  which 
man  owes  to  his  great  God  and  Saviour. 
Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  the  leading 
facts  of  the  Convocation ;  but  it  was  an 
event  of  too  great  importance  to  be  dis- 
missed without  some  remarks  on  its  spirit 
and  tendency.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
show,  that  a  meeting  of  ministers  of  the 
gospel  has  been  held  in  modern  times,  if 
ever,  in  whose  deliberations  were  involved 
matters  of  deeper  moment  to  the  welfare 
of  the  Christian  Church  and  to  the  world, 
than  that  of  the  Convocation  which  met 
in  Edinburgh  on  the  17th,  and  concluded 
on  the  24th  of  November  1842.  One 
very  manifest  effect  of  this  Convocation, 
as  appeared  when  its  "  Memorial  to  the 
Government,"  and  its  "  Address  to  the 
people  of  Scotland"  were  promulgated, 
was  the  clear  light  in  which  it  displayed 
to  the  world  the  real  nature  of  the  con- 
flict in  which  the  Church  of  Scotland  was 


A.  D.  1842.] 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


451 


engaged, — a  conflict  involving  the  very 
existence  of  that  spiritual  jurisdiction 
which  is  essential  to  the  purity  and  free- 
dom of  the  Church  general  of  Christ. 
Long  had  this  conflict  been  obscured  and 
misrepresented,  as  if  it  were  either  a  mere 
struggle  for  ascendency  between  two 
parties  in  the  Church  courts,  or  a  tem- 
porary collision  between  the  civil  and  ec- 
clesiastical courts  on  some  small  question 
respecting  the  boundaries  of  jurisdiction 
between  them.  And  in  this  latter  view, 
it  had  been  frequently  and  confidently 
asserted,  that  the  Church  courts  were 
arrogating  to  themselves,  under  the  name 
of  spiritual  independence,  powers  which 
did  not  belong  to  them,  which  were  des- 
potic in  their  nature,  and  Popish  in  their 
tendency,  and  which  were  incompatible 
with  the  duties  of  subjects  in  a  well-con- 
stituted government,  and  destructive  of 
the  peace  and  order  of  society.  All  these, 
and  many  similar  charges  against  the 
conduct  and  pretensions  of  the  Church, 
were  fully  met,  and  conclusively  an- 
swered by  the  productions  of  the  Convoca- 
tion. The  Church  distinctly  and  amply 
declared,  and  explained  both  her  own 
duty  and  that  of  the  State,  to  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  By  the  clear  exposition 
given  of  her  views  respecting  the  right 
and  duty  of  the  supreme  civil  magistrate, 
to  be  guided  by  his  own  conscience,  en- 
lightened by  the  Word  of  God,  in  all  that 
he  does  circa  sacra,  in  matters  external 
to,  but  concerning  the  Church,  she  vin- 
dicated herself,  in  the  estimation  of  all 
intelligent  and  right-minded  men,  from 
the  accusation  of  attempting  to  usurp  a 
Popish  supremacy  over  the  State  in  tem- 
poral affairs.  At  the  same  time,  with 
equal  clearness,  she  asserted  her  own 
divinely  given,  and  inherent  right  to  de- 
termine for  herself,  according  to  her  own 
conscientious  understanding  of  the  princi- 
ples and  laws  of  her  Divine  Head  and 
King,  her  own  duty  in  sacris,  in  all  mat- 
ters essentially  sacred  and  spiritual,  sub- 
ject to  no  control  or  coercion  within  that 
purely  spiritual  province. 

But  there  was  no  reason  to  expect,  nor 
was  it  expected,  that  the  dense  clouds  of 
misrepresentation  and  calumny  which 
had  so  long  thickened  round  her  path, 
would  be  at  once  dispelled.  On  the  con- 
trary, all  were  convinced,  that  the  more 


fully  these  great  principles  were  dis- 
played, the  more  intensely  would  the 
hostility  of  the  world  be  roused.  It  is 
well  known,  that  the  sacred  truths  which 
men  cannot  confute,  and  will  not  receive, 
they  only  the  more  vehemently  deny  and 
oppose.  And  while  the  members  of 
Convocation  held  themselves  impera- 
tively bound  to  declare  and  maintain 
their  principles,  they  did  not  expect  the 
result  to  be  an  early  and  an  easy  triumph, 
but  a  fierce  renewal  of  the  conflict,  in  a 
spirit  of  embittered  hatred,  and  with  in- 
creased determination  on  the  part  of  their 
opponents.  This  was  indeed  inevitable, 
unless  the  civil  powers  had  resolved  to 
grant  a  full  and  satisfactory  redress. 
For,  by  the  position  taken,  and  the  prin- 
ciples declared  by  the  Church,  the  State 
was  constrained  to  view  the  matter  in  its 
essential  character,  and  in  all  its  magni- 
tude and  importance.  It  seems  probable, 
that  Government  had  imagined  that  their 
silence  with  regard  to  the  Claim  of  Right, 
would,  of  itself,  be  enough  to  overawe  the 
Church  into  corresponding  silence,  and 
to  deter  her  from  making  any  fresh  ap- 
plication. But  the  Convocation  dispelled 
this  imagination,  and  constrained  Govern- 
ment to  know,  that  the  silence  of  the 
Legislature  would  be  a  culpable  neglect 
of  its  duty,  at  the  least ;  and  when  coupled 
with  the  conduct  of  the  civil  courts,  would 
be  regarded  as  equivalent  to  a  sanction 
of  all  their  unconstitutional  and  unscrip- 
tural  encroachments  on  the  sacred  rights 
of  the  Church,  and  would,  of  itself,  pro- 
duce a  result  as  disastrous  as  could  be 
effected  by  the  most  explicit  condemna- 
tion of  her  claims.  In  this  manner,  it 
was  rendered  unavoidable,  that  the  mind 
of  the  State  should  be  revealed  ;  since 
evasion  would,  in  its  certain  conse- 
quences, be  equal  to  refusal  of  redress. 
Thus  would  it  be  made  to  appear,  whether 
the  State  were  prepared  to  acknowledge, 
or  to  disavow,  its  own  allegiance  and 
duty  to  the  King  of  kings ;  whether  it 
were  prepared  to  redress,  or  to  consum- 
mate the  violence  done  to  the  British 
Constitution,  by  the  unjust  and  pernicious 
Patronage  Act  of  1712  ;  whether  it  were 
prepared  to  protect,  or  to  destroy  the  reli- 
gious, and,  by  inevitable  consequence, 
the  civil  liberties  of  the  people.  All  this 
was  involved  in  the  answer  which  the 


452 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI. 


Legislature  might  give  to  the  solemn 
appeal  made  to  it  by  the  Convocation,  or 
even  by  refusing  to  answer. 

Nor  could  the  nation  fail  to  be  deeply 
affected  by  the  proceedings  of  the  Convo- 
cation, and  constrained  also  to  declare  its 
mind  on  the  momentous  question  so 
clearly  stated  and  explained.  For  the 
Address  to  the  People  rendered  it  un- 
avoidable for  the  whole  community  to 
consider  their  own  duty  in  the  matter, 
and  to  determine  whether  they  were  pre- 
pared to  permit  their  religious  liberties  to 
be  utterly  subverted,  and  the  Church  of 
their  fathers  overthrown,  without  one 
constitutional  and  legal  attempt  to  save 
them  ;  or,  whether  they  were  prepared 
at  length  to  make  their  voice  heard'  by 
the  Legislature  in  tones  too  distinct  and 
significant  to  be  any  longer  disregarded. 
When  the  appeal  was  made,  it  rested  for 
themselves  to  determine,  whether  they 
had  become  so  engrossed  by  the  cold  and 
selfish  spirit  of  a  secular  age,  that  they 
had  ceased  to  value  spiritual  rights  and 
privileges,  and  were  only  to  be  taught,  to 
their  loss  and  shame,  by  the  result,  that 
they  had  despised  their  birthright,  and 
culpably  forfeited  the  most  precious  bless- 
ing that  God  gives  to  nations. 

The  deep  solemnity  of  the  Convoca- 
tion's proceedings,  and  the  language  of 
its  Resolutions,  Memorial,  and  Address, 
were  well  fitted  to  vindicate  the  Church 
from  the  common  charge  of  stubborn  per- 
tinacity in  adhering  to  principles  which 
the  civil  courts  had  called  illegal.  These 
principles  were  shown  to  be  too  sacred 
to  be  yielded  up,  be  the  hazard  what  it 
might.  It  was  proved,  that  they  involve 
the  very  essence  of  Christianity, — the 
spiritual  union  of  individual  believers, 
and  of  every  true  Church,  with  the  Lord 
Jesud  Christ.  For  as  every  believer 
must  obey  God  rather  than  man,  in  all 
that  He  has  commanded,  so  must  every 
Church  ;  and  to  take  commands  from 
any  earthly  power  in  matters  spiritual,  is 
to  allow  that  spiritual  union  to  be  broken. 
But  the  civil  courts  had  interposed  in 
matters  so  purely  spiritual  as  the  ordina- 
tion, suspension,  and  deposition  of  minis- 
ters, in  the  administration  of  the  sacra- 
ments, and  in  acts  of  discipline  regarding 
the  admission  and  rejection  of  ordinary 
members.  If  this  can  be  done,  then  there 
can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  spiritual  king- 


dom of  Christ  upon  earth,  which  is  ex- 
pressly contrary  to  the  whole  tenor  of  the 
Word  of  God.  To  such  unscriptural 
conduct  the  Church  can  never  submit. 
To  such  unscriptural  conduct,  whatso- 
ever party  submits,  will  not  easily  prove 
its  claim  to  be  regarded  as  a  Church  of 
Christ.  These  points,  therefore,  could 
not  be  yielded,  even  though  the  furnace 
should  be  heated  seven  times  more  than 
it  was  wont.  "  We  must  obey  God  rather 
than  man  :" — this  is  the  sole  answer 
which  the  Church  could  give. 

It  is  an  opinion  entertained  by  many, 
from  the  aspect  of  our  country  and  the 
world,  that  some  great  event  is  fast  ap- 
proaching. With  that  great  event,  the 
Church  controversy  in  Scotland  is,  be- 
yond all  question,  closely  connected. 
And  the  Convocation  was  so  led,  as  to 
give  the  fullest  possible  developement  of 
its  leading  principle.  That  principle,  as 
held  by  her  opponents,  is  the  supremacy  ' 
of  the  civil  courts  over  the  ecclesiastical, 
not  only  in  civil  matters,  which  is  not  de- 
nied, but  in  all  matters,  however  mani- 
festly spiritual.  This  is  equivalent  to  the 
rejection  of  Christ's  mediatorial  sove- 
reignty ;  it  is  saying,  "  We  will  not  have 
this  man  to  reign  over  us."  tn  England 
the  Puseyite  party  seem  hastening  on  a 
struggle  of  a  dangerous  character,  in- 
volving all  that  is  arrogant  in  the  preten- 
sions and  superstitious  in  the  practices  of 
Popery.  On  the  Continent  there  are 
symptoms  of  a  vast  combination  of  ra- 
tionalistic infidelity,  nominal  evangelism, 
and  Popish  superstition,  under  the  aus-  > 
pices  of  the  Prussian  monarch.  And 
when  to  these  is  added,  the  prevalent 
spirit  of  commercial  selfishness  and  hard- 
hearted utilitarianism,  so  characteristic 
of  the  age,  it  is  impossible  not  to  be 
struck  with  the  wide  and  mighty  muster 
of  portentous  elements  of  strife  and  con- 
vulsion. 

Nor  does  it  seem  visionary  to  entertain 
the  idea,  that  the  present  may  be  the  very 
commencement  of  the  last  great  conflict 
between  the  powers  of  light  and  dark- 
ness which  sacred  prophecy  foretells  as 
destined  to  precede  the  glories  of  the  lat- 
ter days.  Every  thing  seems  ripening 
and  hastening  on  to  that  great,  universal, 
and  terrific  struggle.  The  progress  ol 
events  has  led  to  the  full  developemen* 
of  the  principles  held  by  the  world  with  ; 


A.  I).  1S43.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


regard  to  Christianity  ;  and,  consequent- 
ly, has  drawn  prominently  forth  that  es- 
sential element  in  Christianity  which  the 
•  world  most  intensely  hates, — its  spiritual 
independence.  The  Christian  Church 
must  nevertheless  continue  to  hold  what 
is  essential  to  her  union  with  her  Head 
and  King.  Thus  the  conflicting  and  an- 
tagonist powers  are  forming  their  lines, 
mustering  their  hosts,  and  talking  up  their 
positions ;  they  must  come  speedily  into 
direct  and  destructive  collision.  Chris- 
tianity may  be  at  first  overborne  and 
smitten  prostrate ;  but  in  its  weakest  and 
most  suffering  hour,  its  Divine  Head  will 
interpose  for  deliverance,  when  His  own 
holy  arm  shall  alone  be  seen,  and  not 
man's  might  or  prudence. 

So  far  as  this  view  is  entertained,  it 
must  be  regarded  as  of  incalculable  im- 
portance, that  the  Evangelical  Church  of 
Scotland,  in  Convocation  met,  renewed 
her  Testimony  in  behalf  of  the  Redeem- 
er's Crown.  From  the  beginning  of  her 
existence  as  a  national  Church,  that  has 
been  her  peculiar,  distinctive,  and  very 
glorious  province.  Repeatedly  has  she 
renewed  that  Testimony  in  perilous 
times, — never  without  suffering  in  its 
behalf,  and  never  without  final  success. 
And  it  may  be  that  she  is  now  called 
upon  to  complete  her  Testimony  in  de- 
fence of  the  "  many  crowns"  worn  by 
her  Divine  Head  and  only  King,  not 
merely  against  the  power  of  despotic 
sovereigns  as  formerly,  but  against  a  still 
more  formidable  antagonist — the  stern 
and  pitiless  spirit  of  abstract  laws.  If 
kings  and  judges  alike, — if  the  world  in 
its  mightiest  powers,  be  resolved  to  reject 
His  sovereignty,  the  more  imperatively 
is  the  Church  called  upon  to  declare  in 
its  defence, — the  greater,  doubtless,  will 
be  the  peril,  and  equally  the  greater  will 
be  the  glory  when  He  shall  take  to  Him 
his  great  power  and  reign.  It  would 
appear  that  the  Convocation  was  led  to 
take  the  true  position,  and  to  begin  to  de- 
clare aloud  that  great  Testimony.  The 
men  of  the  world  may  slay  the  wit- 
nesses,— they  may  trample  their  bodies 
in  the  dust ;  but  that  triumph  will  be 
short.  The  spirit  of  the  Lord  will  en- 
ter into  them. — they  will  be  raised  into 
the  heavens  of  spiritual  life  and  power, 
and  the  city  of  the  persecutors  will 
perish. 


The  proceedings  of  the  Convocation,* 
the  unanimity  with  which  so  many  min- 
isters had  concurred  in  its  strong  and 
self-denying,  or  rather  self-sacrificing  re- 
solutions, and  the  quickened  attention 
and  awakened  sympathy  begun  to  be  ma- 
nifested by  the  country,  seemed  for  a 
time  to  have  astonished,  and  even  stun- 
ned the  antagonists  of  the  Church.  Re- 
covering from  their  amazement,  they  re- 
sumed their  previous  artifices,  and  plied 
them  with  increased  keenness  and  activi- 
ty. Every  conceivable  misrepresenta- 
tion was  put  forth  respecting  the  motives 
by  which  the  Convocation  was  actuated, 
the  temper  and  feelings  which  it  display- 
ed, and  the  conclusion  to  which  it  had 
come.  Perhaps  the  most  general  calum- 
ny directed  against  it  was,  that  it  was  a 
nefarious  attempt  to  bully  and  overawe 
the  Government ;  and  that,  notwithstand- 
ing the  solemn  pledge  which  had  been 
taken  before  God  and  the  world,  the 
Convocationists  would  not  quit  connec- 
tion with  the  State,  and  thereby  sacrifice 
their  emoluments,  though  the  Legislature 
should  refuse  redress.  This,  of  course, 
still  proceeded  upon  the  deplorable  fact, 
that  those  who  uttered  these  sentiments 
judged  others  according  to  their  own 
standard,  and  knowing  well  that  they 
would  not  themselves  sacrifice  wealth, 
station,  and  influence,  for  the  sake  of 
conscience,  they  could  not  believe  that 
the  evangelical  ministers  would  after  all 
make  that  sacrifice.  Most  industriously 
was  this  calumnious  theory  promulgated, 
and  not  without  some  effect,  confirming 
the  opinions  of  the  worldly-minded,  and 
exciting  suspicions  respecting  the  sincer- 
ity of  the  Church  in  the  minds  of  many 
who  would  otherwise  have  been  her 
eager  and  devoted  supporters.  In  spite 
of  all  these  misrepresentations,  the  cause 
of  the  Church  continued  steadily  to  ad- 
vance, and  to  gain  the  favour  of  all  who 
understood  and  valued  the  principles  of 
religious  liberty. 

[1843.]  But  at  length,  in  the  midst  01 
this  comparative  calm,  the  storm  burst 
forth  with  new  power  and  violence.  A 
letter  from  Sir  James  Graham,  Secretary 
of  State  for  the  Home  Department,  dated 
4th  January  1843,  was  received  by  Dr. 
Welsh,  the  Moderator  of  the  late  General 
Assembly,  in  answer  to  the  recent  Memo- 
rial of  the  Commission.  To  what  extent 


454 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI. 


the  appearance  of  this  document  was  due 
to  the  determined  conduct  of  the  Convo- 
cation, cannot  be  ascertained,  no  notice 
being  taken  of  it  in  the  letter  itself;  but 
the  spirit  and  temper  of  that  singular 
State- paper  sufficiently  proved  that  the 
angry  feeling  of  a  galled  partizan,  rather 
than  the  grave  and  deliberate  thought  of 
a  wise  statesman,  had  presided  in  its  com- 
position. It  begins  by  a  haughty  admis- 
sion that  the  Secretary  of  State  had  been 
"  unwilling  to  intercept  the  transmission 
to  the  throne"  of  the  Claim  of  Right,  and 
the  Address  for  the  Abolition  of  Patron- 
age. It  then  "  studiously  combines"  these 
two  papers,  which  had  been  by  the  As- 
sembly as  studiously  kept  separate  ;  and 
proceeds  to  reject  both  applications  on  the 
ground  of  the  necessity  for  defending  the 
civil  rights  of  patrons.  A  most  unfair 
attempt  is  then  made  to  represent  the 
Church  as  claiming  the  sole  power  of 
determining  what  matters  are  spiritual, 
and  what  civil,  in  all  questions  of  disputed 
jurisdiction, — a  claim  which  the  Church 
had  repeatedly  and  most  explicitly  denied ; 
but  which,  in  truth,  formed  the  very  es- 
sence of  the  civil  court's  encroachments. 
This  gratuitous  imputation  is  then  cen- 
sured and  condemned,  as  if  it  were  the 
claim  which  the  Church  had  advanced. 
Various  other  accusations,  equally  un- 
founded, are  also  urged  against  the 
Church:  and  a  sufficient. amount  of  mis- 
representation and  calumny  having  been 
vended,  the  claims  of  the  Church  are 
wholly  and  peremptorily  rejected.  This 
letter  has  been,  by  the  opponents  of  the 
Church,  characterised  as  a  most  able  and 
statesmanlike  document.  If  it  be  states- 
manlike to  misstate  facts, — to  put  an  un- 
just construction  upon  arguments, — to 
pervert  history,— to  repeat  refuted  calum- 
nies,— to  employ  sophistry  instead  of 
reasoning, — and  to  repel  with  haughty 
scorn  the  firm  but  respectful  appeal  of  a 
Christian  Church  complaining  of  gross 
wrong  and  outrage, — then  was  it  indeed 
a  statesmanlike  document,  and  that,  too, 
of  the  highest  order,  and  Sir  James  Gra- 
ham must  ever  be  renowned  as  a  most 
distinguished  statesman.  But  if  to  pen 
and  promulgate  such  a  tissue  would  stamp 
infamy  upon  the  basest  partizan  in  some 
paltry  political  intrigue,  then  let  the  Right 
"Honourable  Baronet  weigh  well  the  sen- 
tence which  truth  will  dictate,  and  posterity 


will  loudly  pronounce  upon  the  reputed 
author  of  that  document.  Nor  is  it  be- 
yond the  province  of  the  historian,  or  any 
abuse  of  his  privilege,  in  some  degree  to 
anticipate,  on  historical  grounds,  the  judg- 
ment on  such  a  matter  which  future  times 
will  most  assuredly  award  and  confirm. 

A  meeting  of  the  Special  Commission 
was  held  on  the  12th  of  January,  to  lake 
into  consideration  the  Home  Secretary's 
remarkable  letter,  and  to  frame  to  it  such 
an  answer  as  might  meet  and  repel  the 
injurious  perversions  with  which  it  so 
lavishly  abounded.  It  did  not  indeed  lie 
directly  within  the  province  of  the  Special 
Commission  to  enter  into  formal  corres- 
pondence with  Sir  James  Graham ;  but 
a  minute  was  framed  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  contain  a  complete  answer,  which 
was  extracted  and  transmitted  to  the  Home 
Office  in  the  first  instance,  and  then  printed 
and  published  along  with  the  letter  itself. 
This  was  rendered  absolutely  necessary 
in  consequence  of  the  extensive  circula- 
tion which  the  opponents  of  the  Church 
were  eagerly  giving  to  that  document. 
It  was  also  resolved  that  a  special  meet- 
ing of  the  Commission  of  Assembly 
should  be  held  on  the  31st  of  January, 
for  the  purpose  of  having  the  letter  of  the 
Secretary  of  State  laid  before  them,  and 
of  taking  into  consideration  the  propriety 
of  applying  to  both  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment by  petition,  and  thus  obtaining  the 
decision  of  the  Legislature  itself  as  the 
last  resource,  now  that  the  sentiments  of 
the  Government  had  been  declared.  The 
minute  of  the  Special  Commission  was 
prepared  by  Mr.  Dunlop,  and  though  not 
rivalling  the  sententious  brevity  of  the 
Home  Secretary's  production,  was  in 
every  other  respect  as  far  superior  to  it 
as  truth  is  to  error,  sound  reasoning  to 
sophistry,  and  high-minded  integrity  of 
principle  and  purpose,  to  the  subtle  \vilrs 
of  diplomatic  craft. 

Before  the  Commission  of  Assembly 
met,  another  event  had  taken  place,  which 
would  of  itself  have  been  subversive  of 
the  Church,  if  not  redressed.  On  the 
20th  of  January  the  Stewarton  case  was 
decided,  denying  the  power  of  the  Church 
to  permit  ministers  of  quoad  sacra  par- 
ishes to  be  members  of  Church  courts, 
and  decided  by  the  usual  majority  of 
eight  of  the  Judges  against  five.  This 
decision  was  not  unexpected,  the  opinions 


A.    D.  1843.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


455 


of  the  Judges  on  all  ecclesiastical  matters 
having  been  previously  made  sufficiently 
apparent.  But  although  the  judgment 
had  been  anticipated, — anticipated  in 
every  point  of  view,  not  only  in  the  ex- 
pectation of  both  the  public  and  the 
Church,  but  also  literally,  by  their  Lord- 
ships granting  interdicts,  in  many  cases, 
on  the  ground  that  there  were  quoad  sacra 
ministers  in  the  presbyteries  before  they 
had  themselves  decided  the  question, — yet 
it  was  left  to  be  an  additional  and  deadly 
blow  inflicted  on  the  Church  by  the  civil 
court.  It  involved,  at  least,  two  fatal  ele- 
ments :  It  assumed  that  the  civil  court 
had  the  power  of  regulating  the  constitu- 
tion of  Church  courts,  which  destroyed 
their  independence  of  itself;  and  it  seemed 
to  determine  that  there  were  to  be  thence- 
forth two  orders  of  ministers  in  the 
Church,  which  would  heve  annihilated 
the  principle  of  ministerial  equality,  and 
rendered  it  no  longer  a  Presbyterian 
Church.  It  was  impossible,  therefore, 
that  the  Church  could  submit  to  this  de- 
cision, fatal  alike  to  its  primary  constitu- 
tution,  to  its  spiritual  independence,  and 
to  its  very  existence  as  a  National  Church, 
by  rendering  it  incapable  of  extending  its 
means  of  religious  instruction  in  propor- 
tion to  the  necessities  of  an  increasing 
population.  But  it  came  in  time  to  com- 
plete the  melancholy  sum  of  the  grievous 
wrongs  done  to  the  Church  of  Scotland 
by  the  civil  courts,  and  to  give  to  the  Le- 
gislature the  opportunity  of  redressing 
them  all  at  once,  or  of  taking  upon  itself 
the  fearful  responsibility  of  the  whole 
dark  series. 

On  the  31st  of  January  the  extraor- 
dinary meeting  of  the  Commission  of 
Assembly  was  held,  for  the  special  pur- 
pose of  receiving  Sir  James  Graham's 
letter,  and  of  preparing  a  petition  to  Par- 
liament. But  before  its  proper  business 
had  begun,  Dr.  Cook  directed  its  atten- 
tion to  the  Stewarton  decision,  and  in  con- 
formity with  it,  moved  that  ministers  of 
quoad  sacra  parishes  should  not  be  en- 
rolled, nor  permitted  to  take  part  in  the 
deliberations  of  the  Commission.  Even 
this  was  premature,  as  the  decision  of 
the  Court  of  Session  might  be  appealed 
to  the  House  of  Lords,  and  in  fact  was 
appealed  as  soon  as  it  could  be  regularly 
done.  Dr.  Cook's  motion  was  opposed 
by  Mr.  Dunlop,  and  defeated  by  a  ma- 


jority of  one  hundred  and  fifteen  to  twen- 
ty-three ;  upon  which  Dr.  Cook  and  his 
party  read  a  protest,  and  withdrew. 
Thus  the  first  divisive  or  schismatical 
step  was  actually  taken  by  the  Moderate 
party,  and  upon  no  higher  ground  than 
the  unconfirmed  decision  of  a  subordinate 
civil  court. 

The  subject  of  Sir  James  Graham's 
letter  was  then  brought  before  the  Com- 
mission ;  and  Dr.  Candlish,  in  a  speech 
of  great  acuteness,  eloquence,  and  power, 
investigated  its  leading  points,  detected  its 
perversions  and  misstatements,  exposed 
its  fallacies,  and  repelled  its  unjust  accu- 
sations. He  concluded  by  moving  a  se- 
ries of  resolutions,  in  which  the  leading 
points  of  the  Home  Secretary's  letter  were 
directly  met,  and  by  which  the  minute  of 
the  Special  Commission  was  adopted  as 
the  Commission  of  Assembly's  own 
answer.  This  motion  was  seconded  by 
Dr.  Chalmers,  who,  in  a  short  but  ex- 
ceedingly clear  and  forcible  speech,  ex- 
plained the  exact  position  in  which  the 
Church  at  that  moment  stood,  the  precise 
nature  of  her  claims,  the  manifest  view  in 
which  these  were  regarded  by  the  Gov- 
ernment, the  utter  futility  of  repealing  the 
Veto  Act,  the  all  but  absolute  certainty 
that  the  Evangelical  body  must  be 
speedily  driven  from  the  Establishment, 
and  the  consequent  duty  and  necessity  of 
taking  immediate  measures  to  prepare  for 
that  event ;  so  that,  come  when  it  might, 
Scotland  should  not  be  taken  by  surprise, 
and  laid  helpless  and  hopeless  beneath 
the  feet  of  her  enemies,  but  might  yet  be 
rendered  "  an  experimental  garden,  co- 
vered with  churches  and  with  schools." 
The  resolutions  were  carried  unani- 
mously ;  and  a  petition  was  prepared  to 
be  transmitted  to  Parliament,  briefly  re- 
capitulating the  grievances  more  fully  de- 
tailed in  the  Claim  of  Right,  stating  those 
which  had  recently  taken  place,  and 
praying  that  the  Church  might  be  heard 
by  cerjain  of  their  number,  or  by  their 
counsel,  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons in  support  of  their  petition.  This 
concluded  the  business  of  this  Com- 
mission ;  and  it  cannot  fail  to  be  remarked, 
that  all  the  elements  necessary  for  bring- 
ing the  conflict  to  a  close  were  at  length 
fully  developed,  either  in  actual  and  vigor- 
ous operation,  or  so  clearly  indicated  that 
their  almost  immediate  action  could  not  be 


456 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI. 


averted.  By  the  Stewirton  decision,  the 
last  hope  that  the  Court  of. Session  might 
possibly  pause  in  its  destructive  career 
was  destroyed  ;  by  the  petition  to  Parlia- 
ment, the  Church  adopted  a  course  which 
rendered  it  impossible  for  the  Government 
again  to  prevent  her  claims  from  being 
brought  formally  before  the  Legislature, 
so  as  to  secure  such  an  answer  as  might 
render  the  path  of  duty  plain  ;  and  in  the 
speech  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  an  indication 
was  given  that  a  direct  and  immediate  ap- 
peal was  about  to  be  made  to  the  piety 
and  zeal  of  Scotland  for  the  means  of 
maintaining,  extending,  and  perpetuating 
evangelical  truth  and  religious  liberty  in 
the  kingdom,  out  of  the  pale  of  the  Estab- 
lishment, since  it  was  too  evident  that 
within  it  these  were  no  longer  to  be 
tolerated. 

It  was  now  universally  felt,  by  all  sin- 
cere friends  of  the  Church,  that  there  had 
been  enough  of  mere  deliberation,  and 
that  the  time  for  strenuous  and  united  ex- 
ertion had  come.  Nor  were  they  unpre- 
pared for  that  immediate  action  which 
was  imperatively  necessary.  There  had 
been  a  meeting  of  elders  intimated  to 
be  held  on  the  1st  of  February,  the  day 
after  the  Commission.  This  meeting 
was  very  numerously  attended ;  and  after 
a  long  and  earnest  discussion  respecting 
the  measures  which  ought  to  be  adopted 
in  an  emergency  so  great,  a  memorial 
was  framed  to  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  the 
other  members  of  Government,  containing 
a  vindication  of  the  Church  from  the 
unjust  aspersions  of  her  adversaries,  a 
statement  of  the  many  and  great  benefits 
which  had  been  conferred  on  the  com- 
munity by  her  instrumentality,  and  an 
earnest  appeal  to  the  justice  and  the 
patriotism  of  her  Majesty's  administration, 
praying  them  to  interpose  and  preserve 
an  institution  so  sacred  and  precious  from 
impending  destruction.  But  a  still  more 
important  step  was  taken  by  the  meeting 
of  elders.  It  was  resolved  that  a  number 
of  the  most  active  and  influential  of 
the  members  should,  along  with  the  com- 
mittee  of  ministers  appointed  by  the  late 
Convocation,  constitute  a  PROVISIONAL 
COMMITTEE  of  interim  administration  and 
management ;  the  object  of  which  should 
be  to  commence  active  and  energetic  ex- 
ertions adequate  to  the  nature  of  the  crisis 
at  hand  ;  so  that  when  the  disruption  of 


the  Church  should  take  place,  prepara- 
tion might  have  been  already  made  to 
enable  the  pastors  to  continue  their  minis- 
trations without  interruption,  and  to  pro- 
vide at  once  the  means  of  public  worship 
to  all  who  might  adhere  to  the  disesta- 
blished Church  throughout  every  part  of 
the  kingdom.  The  Provisional  Com- 
mittee was  accordingly  formed,  and  entered 
immediately  upon  the  strenuous  dis- 
charge of  its  important  duties.  There 
were  three  main  objects  to  be  accom- 
plished, which  naturally  led  to  a  subdivi- 
sion of  the  committee  into  three  main 
branches.  It  was  necessary  to  ascertain 
the  numbers  of  those  who  adhered  to  the 
Claim  of  Right,  and  the  principles  em- 
bodied in  the  resolutions  of  the  Convoca- 
tion ;  and  also,  by  diffusing  information, 
to  dispel  error  and  prejudice,  and  increase 
the  number  of»  such  adherents.  This 
formed  the  peculiar  province  of  the  statis- 
tical sub-committee.  Again,  it  was  ne- 
cessary to  raise  funds  for  the  erection  of 
places '  of  worship,  when  the  adhering 
ministers  should  have  been  constrained 
by  conscience  to  abandon  connection  with 
the  State  ;  and  to  this  the  attention  of  the 
building  sub-committee  was  directed.  And 
further,  it  was  necessary  to  provide  means 
for  the  support  of  the  ministry,  when  com- 
pelled to  relinquish  all  claim  upon  that 
statutory  support  which  they  had  pre- 
viously enjoyed,  as  ministers  of  an  en- 
dowed Church.  This  formed  the  duty 
of  the  Financial  Committee,  in  which 
was  speedily  merged  the  committee  of  the 
Church  Defence  Associations. 

This  general  arrangement  having  been 
made,  and  a  convener  appointed  to  direct 
the  operations  of  each  sub-committee, 
these  divisions  of  the  Provisional  Com- 
mittee entered  at  once  upon  the  discharge 
of  their  important  duties,  with  a  degree 
of  wise,  zealous,  and  active  energy,  alto- 
gether astonishing,  meeting  everywhere 
encouragement  and  success  far  beyond 
what  almost  any  person  had  ventured  to 
anticipate.  In  order  at  once  to  ascertain 
the  slate  of  the  country  with  regard  to  ad- 
herents, and  to  diffuse  sound  information, 
the  kingdom  was  divided  into  districts, 
and  deputations  were  sent  throughout  it, 
to  address  the  people  in  explanation  of  the 
great  principles  at  stake,  to  point  out  the 
almost  inevitable  certainty  of  a  speedy 
disruption  of  the  Church,  to  ascertain  the 


A.  D.  1842.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


457 


number  of  those  who  were  resolved  to 
defend  religious  truth  and  liberty,  and  to 
see  what  provision  could  be  made,  or 
would  be  required,  in  every  parish,  town, 
or  county,  in  the  kingdom.  The  effect 
of  these  deputations  was  very  great,  and 
very  beneficial.  Long  had  the  adver- 
saries of  the  Church  striven  to  persuade 
the  people,  that  the  whole  controversy 
was  merely  one  on  the  part  of  the  minis- 
ters for  power  to  themselves ;  and,  to  a 
considerable  extent  had  the  people  been 
misled  by  such  misrepresentations.  But 
when  the  real  nature  of  the  contest  was 
made  known,  and  the  actual  state  of  af- 
fairs explained,  with  all  the  eloquence  of 
truth  and  sincerity,  the  response  was 
equally  instantaneous  and  enthusiastic, 
proving  that  the  heart  of  Scotland  still 
was  sound,  and  the  mind  of  Scotland  still 
held  and  valued  the  principles  for  which, 
in  other  days,  the  Scottish  martyrs  had 
borne  their  dying  testimony. 

The  feelings  thus  awakened  were  not 
permitted  to  die  away;  the  intelligence 
thus  communicated  was  not  permitted  to 
be  forgotten.  Associations  were  formed 
throughout  the  whole  kingdom,  and 
placed  in  connection  with  the  Provisional 
Committee  in  Edinburgh.  A  series  of 
Communications  were  issued  weekly  by 
the  Provisional  Committee,  containing 
information  of  what  had  been  done  and 
was  doing  in  all  parts  of  the  kingdom, 
suggesting  the  most  suitable  measures  to 
be  adopted,  giving  directions  how  these 
could  be  most  successfully  carried  into 
effect,  and  thus  at  once  completely  in- 
structing and  thoroughly  organizing 
the  entire  adhering  community.  So 
thoroughly  was  the  kingdom  organized, 
and  so  extensive  was  the  demand  for  these 
Communications,  that  there  were  issued 
of  them,  not  under  100,000,  and  more 
frequently  150,000  every  week.  The 
enemies  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  began 
at  length  to  perceive  that  she  possessed  a 
vitality  and  a  power,  the  remotest  idea  of 
which  had  never  entered  into  their  imag- 
ination. In  vain  did  Moderate  and  ir- 
religious periodicals  ply  their  old  work  of 
slander  and  falsehood.  The  Church  held 
on  her  course,  obstructed  by  their  darkest 
insinuations  and  their  loudest  outcries,  no 
more  than  the  moon's  path  in  the  heavens 
is  obstructed  by  the  murky  clouds  and 
baying  dogs  beneath.  And  both  friends 
58 


and  foes  alike  began  to  be  convinced  that 
the  Church  of  Scotland  was  indeed  on  the 
point  of  sustaining  a  shock,  the  occur- 
rence of  which  many  had  hitherto  con- 
tinued to  regard  as  visionary, — a  shock 
which  would  either  separate  her  as  a 
Church  from  the  State,  or,  at  least,  expel 
from  her  communion  the  vast  body  of  her 
most  able  and  zealous  ministers,  and  most 
pious  and  right-minded  people.  One 
only  gleam  of  hope  seemed  yet  to  glim- 
mer in  the  growing  darkness.  Might  it 
not  be,  that  the  Legislature,  having  an 
opportunity  of  deliberately  considering 
the  claims  and  complaints  of  the  Church, 
as  these  had  been  repeatedly  stated  and 
explained  by  herself,  and  being  at  length 
convinced  that  both  Church  and  nation 
were  in  earnest,  would,  on  the  presenting 
of  the  Commission's  petition,  grant  such 
redress  as  might  avert  the  threatened  ca- 
lamity ?  To  this  faint  gleam  the  eyes  of 
many  anxiously  turned ;  but  this,  too,  was 
destined  to  be  speedily  extinguished. 

When  the  Right  Honourable  Fox 
Maule  presented  the  petition  of  the  Com- 
mission, he  also  gave  notice  of  a  motion, 
that  the  House  should  go  into  committee, 
to  take  into  consideration  the  claims  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland.  On  the  7th  of 
March,  1843,  this  motion  came  under 
discussion  before  the  House,  and  occu- 
pied its  attention  on  that  and  the  succeed- 
ing day.  This  was  the  first  opportunity 
that  had  been  obtained  for  bringing  the 
whole  subject  formally  under  the  deliber- 
ate consideration  of  the  House,  though 
speeches  relating  to  it  had  been  uttered 
on  various  occasions.  The  whole  ques- 
tion was  stated  with  great  distinctness 
and  force  of  argument  by  Mr.  Fox  Maule; 
its  legal  character  was  explained  and 
vindicated  with  remarkable  ability  by  Mr. 
Rutherford ;  the  inconsistencies  of  the 
Church's  opponents  were  detected,  and 
their  calumnies  exposed  and  repelled 
with  fervid  and  glowing  eloquence  by 
Mr.  P.  M.  Stewart,  and  Mr.  Campbell  of 
Monzie ;  and  Sir  G.  Gray,  in  a  calm  and 
dispassionate,  but  generous  and  truly 
statesman-like  speech,  gave  his  support 
to  the  motion.  On  the  other  hand,  Sir 
James  Graham  opposed  it,  repeating  in 
an  expanded  form  the  groundless  and  in- 
jurious misrepresentations  that  formed 
the  substance  of  his  sententious  letter, — 
declaring  that  the  claim  of  the  Church 


458 


HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XL 


of  Scotland  to  co-ordinate  jurisdiction  in- 
dependent of  the  civil  courts  in  spiritual 
matters,  was  "  so  unjust  and  unreasonable, 
that  the  sooner  the  House  extinguished 
it  the  better ; "  the  Solicitor-General 
evaded,  but  did  not  even  attempt  to  meet 
Mr.  Rutherford's  legal  argument ;  and 
Sir  Robert  Peel  gave  utterance  to  senti- 
ments which  not  only  proved  his  entire 
and  unchangeable  opposition  to  the  claims 
of  the  Church,  but  also  revealed  the  true 
cause  of  that  opposition.  "If,"  said  he, 
"  a  Church  chooses  to  participate  in  the 
advantages  appertaining  to  an  Establish- 
ment, that  Church — whether  it  be  the 
Church  of  England,  the  Church  of  Rome, 
or  the  Church  of  Scotland, — that  Church 
must  conform  itself  to  the  law."  This 
declaration,  delivered  with  even  vehe- 
ment emphasis,  clearly  proved  that,  in 
Sir  Robert  Peel's  opinion,  a  Church  can- 
not both  be  established,  and  at  the  same 
time  enjoy  spiritual  independence, — a 
principle  to  which  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land never  assented,  which  gives  to 
Voluntaries  all  that  their  argument  re- 
quires for  the  overthrow  of  Establish- 
ments, and  which  that  statesman  may  yet 
learn  to  be  incompatible  with  the  per- 
manent existence  of  any  Established 
Church  in  the  present  stage  and  condi- 
tion of  society,  Again  he  declared,  "  My 
opinion  is,  that  such  claims,  were  you  to 
concede  them,  would  be  unlimited  in 
their  extent.  They  could  not  be  limited 
to  the  Church  of  Scotland.  A  principle, 
then,  is  involved,  and  if  the  principle  be 
conceded  by  the  House  of  Commons, 
why,  the  House  of  Commons  must  be 
prepared  to  carry  it  out."  It  was,  per- 
haps, creditable  to  the  candour  of  the 
Right  Honourable  Baronet  that  he  made 
such  a  statement,  but  not  equally  to  his 
prudence.  For  it  proved  that  what  the 
Church  and  people  of  Scotland  dreaded 
at  the  time  of  the  Union,  and  strove  to 
prevent  by  the  Act  of  Security,  had  at 
length  taken  place  ;  and  that  the  British 
Parliament,  in  violation  of  national  faith, 
had  destroyed  the  spiritual  independence 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in  order  to 
prevent  that  great  and  sacred  principle 
from  extending  to  England,  and  disturb- 
ing the  torpor  of  her  wealthy  but  secu- 
larized and  enslaved  Establishment. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  characterise  the 
speeches  of  the  various  other  members 


by  whom  the  Church  of  Scotland's  claims 
were  opposed,  displaying  chiefly  >  as  they 
did,  utter  ignorance  of  the  subject,  with 
one  exception.  That  exception  was  the 
speech  of  Mr.  Colquhoun  of  Killermont, 
who  had  previously  endeavoured  to  dis- 
tinguish himself  as  a  zealous  friend  and 
strenuous  supporter  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland, — who  had  advocated  her  claims 
both  in  speeches  and  pamphlets,  and  who 
now,  in  her  hour  of  extremity,  not  only 
deserted  but  misrepresented  her  cause. 
Nay  more,  he  presumed  to  print  and 
circulate  letters  to  those  ministers  who 
had  signed  the  Convocation's  resolutions, 
in  which  he  endeavoured,  by  sophistry, 
and  by  drawing  guilefully  pathetic  pic- 
tures of  the  calamities  which  might  befall 
their  families,  to  persuade  them  to  aban- 
don the  principles  which  they  had  in  the 
most  solemn  manner  avowed  and  pledged 
themselves  to  maintain.  True,  the  temp- 
tation did  not  succeed,  but  for  that  no 
thanks  were  due  to  the  tempter.  And 
as  an  act  of  historical  and  retributive  jus- 
tice, his  name  is  here  singled  out  that 
posterity  may  fix  upon  it  the  brand  of  re- 
probation which  it  deserves. 

The  result  was,  that  the  motion,  and 
by  consequence  the  Church  of  Scotland's 
claims,  were  rejected  by  a  majority  of 
135,  the  votes  being  21 1  against,  and  76 
for  the  motion.  It  deserves,  however,  to 
be  stated,  that  of  the  Scottish  members 
who  voted,  there  was  a  decided  majority, 
25  to  12,  in  favour  of  the  motion,  render- 
ing it  all  the  more  manifest  that  the  spiri- 
tual liberties  of  the  Church  of  Scotland 
were  indeed  overthrown,  as  had  at  the 
Union  been  dreaded,  by  English  and 
Prelatic  influence.* 

From  this  time  forward  it  was  no 
longer  doubtful  that  a  disruption  of  the 
Church  would  take  place.  This  was  in- 
deed rendered  absolutely  inevitable  by 
the  destruction  of  every  lingering  hope 
that  the  Legislature  might  interpose  in  a 
favourable  manner,  and  the  path  of  duty 
was.  at  the  same  time,  rendered  clear  by 
he  removal  of  that  obstacle  which  might 
tiave  continued  to  hamper  some,  had  no 
answer  been  obtained.  So  far  the  event 
ivas  propitious,  deplorable  as  in  every 
other  sense  it  must  be  regarded.  The 


*  It  scarcely  requires  to  be  noted,  that  the  influence 
f  the  bishops  was  understood  to  be  strenuously  exerted 
against  the  claims  of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 


A.  D.  1843.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND. 


459 


only  point  on  which  any  contest  could 
now  be  waged  was  with  regard  to  the 
approaching  General  Assembly.  As  the 
Evangelical  body  had  held  a  decided 
and  even  a  growing  majority  since  1834, 
it  was  desirable  that  it  should  be  retained, 
so  that  the  Church  should,  by  the  voice 
of  her  highest  court,  formally  relinquish 
her  connection  with  the  State,  since  she 
could  not  conform  to  the  conditions  on 
which  alone  the  Legislature  had  now 
declared  that  the  benefits  of  an  Establish- 
ment could  be  granted.  This,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  was  the  obvious  policy  of 
the  Moderate  party,  of  the  civil  courts, 
and  of  the  State  itself  to  prevent ;  both 
because  they  would  thereby  diminish 
the  effect  upon  the  country,  and  would 
escape  from  the  perilous  necessity  of 
actually  "creating  a  Church,"  to  use 
their  own  expression.  .  Every  effort  ac- 
cordingly was  made,  and  every  artifice 
employed,  in  order  to  break  down  the 
Evangelical  majority.  In  all  presbyteries 
where  the  Moderates  formed  the  majority 
they  returned  as  members  of  Assembly 
only  those  of  their  own  party,  a  course 
which  was  perfectly  legitimate,  however 
unusual ;  in  others  they  first  proposed  the 
exclusion  of  the  quoad  sacra,  ministers, 
and  when  outvoted,  they  withdrew,  formed 
themselves  into  a  separate  presbytery,  and 
chose  their  own  members,  and  in  a  consid- 
erable number  of  instances  a  junction 
took  place  between  them  and  the  middle 
party,  by  which  a  majority  was  obtained, 
and  persons  of  their  own  principles 
chosen.  In  some  presbytev'.cs  a  still  more 
violent  course  was  followed.  Interdicts 
were  sought  and  obtained  to  prevent 
quoad  sacra  ministers  from  sitting  in 
presbyteries;  and  in  one  remarkable  case, 
first  the  presbytery  of  Perth,  and  then  the 
synod,  were  interdicted  from  holding  their 
regular  meetings  for  despatch  of  business, 
unless  all  such  ministers  were  first  ex- 
cluded. These  lawless  encroachments 
might  have  been  resisted,  and  presby- 
teries might  have  disregarded  them,  and 
proceeded  according  to  their  own  consti- 
tutional rights  and  privileges ;  but  they 
could  have  done  so  only  with  the  certain- 
ty of  being  dragged  before  the  Court  of 
Session,  and  punished  by  heavy  fines,  per- 
haps imprisonment,  for  the  offence  of 
breaking  the  interdicts  of  that  Court,  and 
setting  its  authority  at  defiance.  It  thus 


became  obvious,  that  the  Church  was  no 
longer  in  a  condition  to  exercise  the  right 
of  choosing  representatives,  and  that 
therefore  a  free  and  lawfully  constituted 
General  Assembly  could  not  be  held. 
In  this  manner  the  Church  was  absolute- 
ly shut  up  to  one  only  course  of  proce- 
dure, to  preserve  her  spiritual  liberties  as 
a  Church  of  Christ. 

In  the  meantime  the  preparations  to 
meet  the  now  inevitable  disruption  were 
carried  on  with  increasing  activity  and 
success.  New  associations  were  rapidly 
formed  in  every  quarter,  great  numbers 
readily  joining  who  had  hitherto  continued 
to  stand  aloof.  Large  sums  were  sub- 
scribed, both  for  the  erection  of  churches, 
and  for  the  support  of  the  ministry.  Plans 
were  prepared  by  a  very  skilful  architect, 
according  to  which,  places  of  worship 
might  be  built  sufficiently  commodious 
and  comfortable,  and  yet  at  a  very  redu- 
ced scale  of  expenditure,  compared  with 
the  usual  cost  of  such  buildings.  Scot- 
land began  again  to  display  her  warm 
heart,  strong  mind,  and  unconquerable 
energy  of  character,  when  thus  once  more 
aroused  to  assert  and  defend  her  religious 
liberty.  Nor  did  these  quickened  efforts 
bear  at  all  the  aspect  of  being  called  forth 
by  the  energy  of  despair.  There  was 
doubtless  some  anxiety  till  the  final  step 
should  be  taken ;  but  there  was  a  cheer- 
fulness of  manner,  an  open  and  warm 
frankness  of  intercourse,  a  fearless  and 
manly  independence  of  demeanour,  and 
through  all,  and  above  all,  a  solemn  se- 
riousness, which  told  of  peace,,  comfort, 
and  hope,  such  as  the  world  could  neither 
give  nor  take  away  ;  of  light,  encourage- 
ment, and  strength,  sought  and  obtained 
from  heaven ;  and  of  that  fear  of  God 
which  enables  the  heart  to  triumph  over 
all  other  fear. 

There  were  a  few  events  of  inferior 
importance  which  took  place  between  the 
rejection  of  the  Church's  petition  by  the 
Legislature,  and  the  meeting  of  Assem- 
bly,— events  which  did  not  attract  much 
public  notice,  in  consequence  of  the  en- 
grossing attention  bestowed  on  the  pre- 
paration for  what  was  so  soon  to  take  place, 
and  which  yet  deserve  to  be  briefly  men- 
tioned. On  the  2 1st  of  March  the  action 
for  damages  against  the  Presbytery  of 
Dunkeld,  arising  out  of  the  Lethendy  case, 
was  decided.  Lord  Cunninghame  pre- 


460 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI. 


siding  in  the  trial.  It  was  proved  that 
no  damage  of  a  civil  nature  had  been  sus- 
tained by  patron  or  presentee.  A  previous 
judgment  of  the  Court  of  Session  had 
awarded  the  fruits  of  the  benefice  to  the 
patron  ;  the  presentee  had  been  residing 
for  a  considerable  time  in  the  manse,  and 
in  the  undisturbed  possession  of  the  civil 
emoluments  ;  nothing,  in  short,  was  want- 
ing to  him  but  ordination,  and  the  Court 
of  Session  had  empowered  the  Moderate 
minority  to  ordain  Mr.  Clark  themselves, 
so  that  there  was  not  the  shadow  of  a 
ground  on  which  an  action  of  damages 
could  rest,  it  being  utterly  impossible  for 
the  majority  to  inflict  any  injury  of  either 
a  civil  or  a  spiritual  nature.  Yet  Lord 
Cunninghame,  in  his  charge  to  the  jury, 
asserted  damages  to  be  due  ;  and  the  jury, 
thus  instructed,  awarded  them,  though  to 
a  considerably  less  amount  than  had  been 
claimed.  At  the  conclusion  of  Lord  Cun- 
ninghame's  charge,  certain  exceptions  to 
it  were  taken  by  Mr.  Rutherford,  counsel 
for  the  presbytery,  so  clear,  searching, 
and  indisputable,  that  the  learned  judge, 
even  in  his  pride  of  place  and  power, 
shrunk  from  all  discussion  regarding 
them.  The  result  of  this  trial  was  a  very 
marked  demonstration  of  the  distinction 
between  power  and  right ;  for  the  civil 
courts  had  assumed  and  exercised  the 
power  of  inflicting  damages,  even  where 
no  injury  had  been  sustained  ;  but  by  all 
unprejudiced  people  it  was  felt,  that  in 
their  eagerness  to  crush  the  Church 
courts,  they  had  perpetrated  a  grievous 
wrong,  from  which  the  moral  sense  of 
mankind  recoiled  with  blended  feelings 
of  sharne  and  indignation,  to  see  such 
things  done  under  the  sanction  of  law, 
and  in  a  free  and  civilized,  and  nominally 
Christian  country. 

Not  long  afterwards,  a  discussion  arose 
in  the  House  of  Lords  which  threatened 
to  embarrass  the  Government  in  its  in- 
tended course.  The  Earl  of  Aberdeen 
had  intimated  his  design  of  again  intro- 
ducing his  former  bill,  with  such  explana- 
tion and  modifications  as  might  be  thought 
necessary  or  desirable.  The  speech  of 
his  Lordship  gave  offence  to  the  Law 
Lords,  who  complained  that  such  a  bill  as 
he  had  described,  bearing  the  title  of  a 
declaratory  enactment,  would  be  contrary 
to  the  principles  on  which  they  had  de- 
cided the  Auchterarder  appeals,  and  by 


declaring  that  to  be  law  which  they  af- 
firmed was  not  law,  would  be  equivalent 
to  a  censure  upon  the  solemn  judgment 
of  the  House.  Several  sharp  and  keen 
altercations  followed,  at  different  times, 
on  the  same  subject,  the  resuh  of  which 
was  a  compromise,  Lord  Aberdeen  ren- 
dering his  bill  declaratory  in  some,  and 
enacting  in  others  of  its  clauses.  This 
modification,  however,  took  place  at  a  dif- 
ferent stage,  to  which  reference  will,  in 
the  proper  place,  be  made. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  when  the 
time  for  the  meeting  of  the  General  As- 
sembly drew  near.  There  was  scarcely 
a  single  point  of  the  conflict  which  had 
not  been  fought  out, — scarcely  a  single 
disputed  question  which  had  not  been 
resolved  so  as  to  cause  its  primary  ele- 
ments to  appear.  During  the  course  of 
the  protracted  struggle,  every  leading 
principle  of  the  Church  of  Scotland's  con- 
stitution had  been  assailed  and  overborne 
by  the  decisions  of  the  civil  courts,  so 
that  her  entire  government  and  discipline 
had  been  subverted.  Kirk-sessions  and 
presbyteries  had  been  prevented  from 
exercising  discipline,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
parish  of  Inverkeillor,  and  Presbytery 
of  Arbroath.  The  Court  of  Session  had 
assumed  the  power  of  determining  who 
were  or  were  not  to  be  rulers  and  office- 
bearers, as  ministers  and  elders  in  the 
possession  of  all  their  due  functions,  pre- 
venting the  Church  from  extending  reli- 
gious instruction  to  the  people,  and  de- 
stroying t^e  principle  of  Presbyterian 
equality  of  ministers,  as  in  the  case  of 
Stewarton,  affecting  all  quoad  sacra 
parishes.  It  had  been  decided  that  the 
minority  of  a  presbytery  might  supersede 
the  majority,  though  fewer  than  the  legal 
number  required  to  constitute  a  presby- 
tery at  all,  and  might,  in  defiance  of  the 
orders  of  every  superior  Church  court, 
transact  business,  and  give  license,  induc- 
tion, and  ordination,  as  in  the  case  of 
Auchterarder.  The  Court  of  Session 
had  assumed  and  exercised  the  power  of 
removing  the  sentence  of  deposition,  and 
restoring  deposed  persons  to  their  eccle- 
siastical character,  as  in  the  case  of 
Strathbogie.  Damages  had  been  found 
due  to  a  rejected  presentee,  against  the 
majority  of  a  presbytery,  because  they 
refused  to  ordain  him,  although  he  was  in 
possession  of  the  fruits  of  the  benefice,  and 


A.  D.  1843.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


401 


the  civil  court  had  empowered  the  minority 
to  confer  ordination,  as  in  the  case  of  Leth- 
endy.  And,  as  if  to  complete  the  utter 
prostration  of  religious  liberty,  the  Court 
of  Session  first  interdicted  the  Church 
courts  from  ordaining  ministers'  on  the 
call  of  the  people,  where  no  civil  interests 
of  other  parties  could  possibly  be  involved, 
as  in  the  cases  of  Marnoch  and  Stewarton, 
and  then  inflicted  a  fine  upon  those  who 
had,  in  a  matter  so  purely  and  exclusively 
spiritual,  dared  to  obey  God  rather  than 
man.  And  both  Government  and  the 
Legislature  had  distinctly  and  peremp- 
torily refused  to  redress  these  grievous 
wrongs,  to  restrain  the  civil  courts  within 
their  own  proper  jurisdiction,  and  to  pro- 
tect the  Church  of  Scotland  from  being 
again  exposed  to  similar  violent  encroach- 
ments upon  those  sacred  rights  and  pri- 
vileges "  which  God  has  given  to  His 
Church." 

There  were,  in  these  circumstances, 
but  two  possible  courses  for  the  Church 
to  follow : — either  to  sink  at  once  into 
the  condition  of  a  merely  secular  institu- 
tion, the  creature  and  the  slave  of  the 
State ;  or,  to  retain  her  God-given  prin- 
ciples in  all  their  holy  and  free  integrity, 
and  to  resign  that  position  and  those 
emoluments  which  could  no  longer  be 
retained  without  sin  and  dishonour.  Few 
of  the  truly  religious,  either  ministers  or 
people,  doubted  for  a  moment  which  al- 
ternative the  Evangelical  body  would 
choose.  But  by  men  .of  the  world  in 
general,  and  by  the  Moderate  party  in 
^articular,  it  was  still  believed,  that  when 
/the  time  for  quitting-  the  Erastianized 
^.Establishment  should  come,  by  far  the 
greater  proportion  would  succumb,  and 
nothing  but  a  very  few  of  the  leading 
men  would  redeem  the  pledges  which 
had  been  repeatedly  and  most  solemnly 
made  to  their  own  conscience,  to  evan- 
gelical Christianity,  and  to  their  great 
God  and  Saviour.  That  such  a  supposi- 
tion should  be  entertained,  was  not  less 
discreditable  to  those  who  entertained  it, 
than  insulting  and  injurious  to  the  char- 
acter of  evangelical  Christianity.  It  is 
discreditable  to  any  man  to  suspect  others 
of  dishonesty  and  guile,  exposing  him  to 
the  charge  of  judging  them  by  himself, 
and  therefore  of  being  himself  dishonest 
and  guileful.  And  it  is  highly  insulting 
and  injurious  to  the  character  of  evan- 


gelical Christianity  to  suspect  its  ministers 
of  being  men  who  value  worldly  wealth 
and  honour  more  than  a  good  conscience 
and  the  command  of  God.  But  it  seemed 
that  Lord  Aberdeen  had  been  partly  per- 
suaded that  conscience  did  in  reality  exer- 
cise some  power  in  the  minds  of  Pres- 
byterian ministers, — a  persuasion  which 
only  led  him  to  make  a  new  attempt  to 
delude  it,  and  to  bring  its  influence  then 
into  operation  on  his  side.  A  short  time 
before  the  meeting  of  the  Assembly,  he 
made  a  public  statement  in  the  House  of 
Lords  respecting  the  principles  of  such 
a  bill  as  the  Government  might  yet  bring 
forward.  This  statement  was  consider- 
ably plausible,  and  made  some  impression 
on  those  who  equally  longed  for  a  peace- 
ful settlement  and  dreaded  a  disruption. 
And  soon  afterwards,  in  answer  to  some 
questions  asked  by  the  Marquis  of  Bread- 
albane,  he  repeated  his  subtle  sophisms, 
and  concluded  by  saying,  that  if  the  min- 
isters should  secede  without  seeing  his 
newly  modelled  bill,  "  they  would  not  be 
able,  at  the  last  day,  to  call  the  God  of 
Truth  to  witness  that  they  had  been 
driven  to  that  course  by  the  persecution 
of  the  Legislature."  This  was  the  most 
deceitful  and  cruel  part  of  all  the  deceit- 
ful and  cruel  course  of  diplomatic  craft 
so  steadily  prosecuted  by  the  Earl  of 
Aberdeen,  as  became  afterwards  manifest 
when  the  bill  was  produced,  and  was 
found  to  contain,  in  an  enacting  clause, 
an  express  and  special  condemnation  of 
that  principle,  without  the  sanctioned 
existence  of  which  the  Church  had  de- 
clared that  she  could  not  continue  in  con- 
nection with  the  State.  His  Lordship's 
diplomatic  craft  was  again  unsuccessful. 
Men  asked  the  opposite  question, — If  the 
Earl  of  Aberdeen  has  a  measure  which 
will  preserve  the  Church  in  its  integrity 
as  a  national  institution,  how  will  he 
answer  at  the  last  day  for  not  producing 
it  in  time  to  prevent  her  overthrow  ? — 
and  if  he  has  not,  but  merely  means  to 
deceive,  how  will  he  answer  for  this 
appeal  to  the  God  of  Truth  ?  A  feeling 
of  high-toned  moral  indignation,  roused 
by  this  fresh  insult  and  outrage,  swept 
away  at  once  the  wicked  sophistry,  and 
the  Church  held  on  her  course. 

On  the  Monday  before  the  meeting  of 
thjB  General  Assembly,  that  is,  on  the 
15th  day  of  May,  a  large  proportion  of 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI 


the  ministers  who  had  signed  the  resolu- 
tions of  the  Convocation  assembled  in 
Edinburgh,  to  hold  a  closing  consulta- 
tion, preparatory  to  the  adoption  of  a 
final  measure  and  the  taking  of  a  final 
step.  The  subject  of  deliberation  was, 
whether  the  refusal  of  Government  and 
the  Legislature  to  the  applications  of  the 
Church  amounted  to  such  a  rejection  of 
her  claims  for  redress,  as  to  realize  the 
position  contemplated  in  the  second  series 
of  resolutions,  and  to  render  an  immediate 
separation  from  the  State  an  act  of  neces- 
sary duty.  There  were  a  few,  and  but  a 
few,  whom  Lord  Aberdeen's  sophistry 
and  appeal  to  God  had  so  far  influenced, 
that  they  could  almost  have  been  per- 
suaded to  consent  to  a  brief  period  of 
prolonged  delay.  But  when  Dr.  Gordon, 
in  a  speech  of  astonishing  mental  power, 
loftiness  of  principle,  and  Christian  dig- 
nity, had  detected  and  exposed  the  hollow 
character  of  the  proposed  mode  of  settle- 
ment, and  insisted  on  the  imperative  ne- 
cessity of  maintaining  principle  at  all 
hazards ;  and  when  Mr.  Campbell  of 
Monzie  had  further  revealed  and  con- 
demned the  tissue  of  diplomatic  craft  with 
which  it  had  been  hoped  that  the  Church 
might  yet  be  ensnared  and  fettered;  every 
doubt  vanished,  every  difficulty  disap- 
peared, and  with  one  heart  and  mind  the 
band  of  brothers  next  addressed  their 
thoughts  to  deliberate  by  what  course, 
and  in  what  manner,  the  closing  event 
might  be  most  suitably  accomplished. 
Nor  was  this  a  difficult  point  to  deter- 
mine. Not  only  were  there  double  re- 
turns of  commissioners  to  the  Assembly 
from  twelve  presbyteries,  in  consequence 
chiefly  of  the  schismatical  procedure  of 
the  Moderate  party,  but  one  entire  pres- 
bytery was  disfranchised  by  an  interdict ; 
and  many  members  were  also  interdicted 
from  taking  their  places.  It  was  evident, 
therefore,  that  the  Assembly  could  not  be 
regarded  as  a  free  and  lawful  Assembly, 
duly  elected  according  to  the  laws  and 
the  constitution  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land. The  proper  course  accordingly 
was,  that  so  soon  as  the  Assembly  should 
be  met,  and  before  it  was  constituted,  a 
protest  against  it,  as  unconstitutional  and 
bereft  of  its  due  freedom,  should  be  taken 
by  the  Evangelical  body,  and  that  they 
should  then  retire  and  form  themselves 
into  a  separate  court.  The  propriety*  of 


this  course  was  at  once  apparent,  and  it 
obtained  unanimous  approbation.  A  pro- 
test was  then  framed,  deliberately  read, 
and  cordially,  even  enthusiastically  adopted 
by  the  whole  ministers  and  elders  present 
who  had  signed  the  resolutions  of  the 
Convocation,  those  who  had  formerly 
given  a  modified  adherence  withdrawing 
that  modification,  and  joining  unreserv- 
edly with  their  brethren.  The  protest* 
thus  resolved  upon  was  prepared  chiefly 
by  Mr.  Dunlop,  and  was  unquestionably 
the  most  complete  and  the  ablest  docu- 
ment to  which  the  whole  contest  had 
given  rise,  summing  up  the  main  ele- 
ments of  the  great  controversy,  exhibiting 
the  successive  encroachments  of  the  civil 
courts,  and  stating  the  inevitable  conse- 
quences as  violating  both  the  constitution 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  the  prin- 
ciples and  laws  of  every  true  Christian 
Church,  as  contained  in  the  sacred  Scrip- 
tures, with  such  distinctness,  perspicuity, 
and  force,  that  it  was  impossible  either  to 
misunderstand  the  meaning  or  evade  the 
reasoning  of  this  unanswerable  argu- 
ment. With  the  adoption  of  this  admir- 
able protest  terminated  the  private  deli- 
berations of  that  Evangelical  majority, 
who,  since  1834,  had  striven  to  reform 
and  defend  the  beloved  and  venerated 
Church  of  their  fathers,  and  who  were  now 
prepared  to  preserve  her  principles  and 
her  honour,  though  all  else  should  be  lost. 
The  day  had  now  come, — the  day  big 
with  the  fate  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
and  without  presumption  it  may  be  added, 
with  the  spiritual  welfare  of  Christendom. 
It  was  a  bright  and  lovely  day  of  May — 
the  memorable  18th — when  nearly  all 
that  Scotland  could  produce  of  aristocratic 
grandeur,  and  civic  authority,  and  legal 
dignity,  and  clerical  aspiration,  and  min- 
isterial worth,  and  upright  integrity,  and 
fervent  piety,  and  eager  curiosity,  thronged 
the  ancient  capital,  and  poured  their  count- 
less multitudes  along  her  streets,  and  to 
every  point  of  peculiar  importance.  The 
reign  of  silence  in  grey  Holyrood  was 
interrupted,  for  the  annual  glitter  and 
noisy  bustle  of  reflected  royalty  was 
there  ;  the  sombre  aspect  of  the  old  town 
was  changed  into  the  brightness  of  a 
gorgeous  procession,  as  her  Majesty's 
commissioner  proceeded  to  the  cathedral 
church  of  St.  Giles  ;  and  a  close-pent 

The  Protest,  see  Appendix. 


A.  D.  1843.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


463 


crowd  had  already,  from  an  early  hour, 
filled  St.  Andrews,  where  the  Assembly 
was  ere  long  to  meet.  Slowly  the  hours 
wore  past  till  the  levee  terminated,  and 
the  sermon  had  been  preached  by  Dr. 
Welsh,  the  moderator  of  the  preceding 
Assembly, — a  sermon  distinguished  alike 
by  clearness  of  thought,  loftiness  of  prin- 
ciple, and  emphatic  energy  of  expression. 
Then  began  the  active  interest  of  the  day. 
The  streets  were  filled  by  a  dense  mass 
of  human  beings  ;  and  it  required  the 
utmost  exertions  of  a  large  body  of  police 
to  open  an  avenue  through  the  multitude, 
such  as  to  permit  the  processional  move- 
ment of  the  commissioner  to  advance. 
As  the  brilliant  train  swept  past,  it  was 
regarded  by  the  people  with  utter  indif- 
ference,— their  beloved  Church  was  on 
her  trial,  and  what  was  shadowed  royalty 
compared  to  that  1  When  the  slow  pro- 
cession passed,  the  vast  crowd  closed  be- 
hind it,  as  the  disparted  ocean- wave  closes 
behind  the  gliding  ship.  Within  the  As- 
sembly Hall,  in  St.  Andrew's  Church, 
the  tramp  of  steeds,  the  clash  of  military 
accoutrements,  and  the  ringing  swell  of 
martial  music  was  heard  ;  the  langour 
of  long  hours  was  at  once  thrown  off, 
and  all  prepared,  with  sharpened  eye  and 
mind,  to  notice  and  to  treasure  up  in 
memory's  most  retentive  tablets  the  even 
awfully  important  events  of  each  next 
trembling  moment.  All  were  keenly 
alive,  yet  all  were  deeply  still,  in  the  in- 
tense eagerness  of  curiosity,  or  the  solemn 
earnestness  of  prayer. 

The  members  of  Assembly  came  throng- 
ing in  by  either  door.  On  the  Moderate 
side,  there  was  the  appearance  of  uncer- 
tainty and  care,  and  somewhat,  perhaps, 
of  gloomy  fear,  lest  after  all  their  victory 
should  prove  more  disastrous  than  defeat ; 
and  on  the  Evangelical  side,  there  was 
that  grave  and  settled  seriousness  of 
aspect,  that  chastened  awe  of  mien  and 
bearing  which  men  wear  when  engaged 
in  some  great  and  sacred  enterprise.  The 
commissioner,  the  Marquis  of  Bute,  en- 
tered, and  was  received  with  the  usual 
ceremonies  of  respect.  The  moderator 
opened  the  meeting  with  prayer.  Then 
followed  a  pause  of  brief  duration,  but 
of  dead  silence,  unbroken  save  by  the 
quickened  beatings  of  a  thousand  hearts. 
Again  the  moderator  spoke,  uttering 
slowly,  and  firmly  the  following  words : 


— "  According  to  the  usual  form  of  pro- 
cedure, this  is  the  time  for  making  up 
the  roll ;  but,  in  consequence  of  certain 
proceedings  affecting  our  rights  and  pri- 
vileges,— proceedings  which  have  been 
sanctioned  by  her  Majesty's  Government, 
and  by  the  Legislature  of  the  country, 
and  more  especially  in  respect  that  there 
has  been  an  infringement  on  the  liberties 
of  our  constitution,  so  that  we  could  not 
now  constitute  this  Court  without  a  viola- 
tion of  the  terms  of  the  union  between 
Church  and  State  in  this  land,  as  now 
authoritatively  declared,  I  must  protest 
against  our  proceeding  further.  The 
reasons  that  have  led  me  to  this  con- 
clusion are  fully  set  forth  in  the  docu- 
ment which  I  hold  in  my  hand,  and 
which,  with  permission  of  the  House,  I 
shall  now  proceed  to  read."  He  then 
read  the  protest,  laid  it  on  the  table 
before  the  clerk,  and  bowing  to  the 
throne  where  sat  the  Commissioner, 
attended  by  the  law  officers  of  the 
crown,  withdrew,  closely  followed  by  all 
the  men  of  distinguished  genius,  and 
talent,  and  learning,  and  piety,  and  faith- 
fulness, and  energy,  and  zeal,-  -by  all 
whose  lives  and  labours  had  shed  fresh 
grace  and  glory  on  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, as  honoured  servants  of  her  Head 
and  King.  A  long-drawn  sobbing  sigh, 
a  suppressed  cheer,  at  once  of  admiration 
and  deep  sympathy,  'swept  round  the 
Church,  as  the  crowded  spectators  gazed 
intently  on  the  strangely  solemn  scene. 
As  man  by  man  rose  an'd  joined  the  re- 
tiring band,  and  seat  by  seat  was  emptied 
on  the  left  side  of  the  throne,  the  Mo- 
derate party,  the  attendants  of  the  com- 
missioner, and  the  Commissioner  himself, 
gazed  on  with  countenances  expressive 
of  astonishment  and  dismay.  They  were 
beginning  to  learn  that  religious  liberty 
was  a  reality  which  the  powers  of  the 
world  might  assail,  but  could  not  con- 
quer ;  that  faith  and  truth  had  yet  a 
home  upon  the  earth,  and  that  there  ex- 
isted a  class  of  men  to  whom  stainless 
integrity  of  character,  and  a  conscience 
void  of  offence,  and  spiritual  independence, 
and  the  glory  of  the  Redeemer's  Crown, 
were  more  precious  than  all  that  the 
world  could  give  or  take  away.  In 
some  instances,  the  excited  aspect  of 
boasting  and  baffled  scorners  was  even 
fearful ;  some  who  but  a  few  hours  be- 


464 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI. 


fore  had  sent  intimation  to  Government 
that  not  thirty  ministers  would  leave  the 
Establishment,  and  whose  faces,  as  they 
marked  the  event,  grew  livid  and  ghastly 
with  agitation. 

At  the  door  of  the  church,  and  in  the 
street  immediately  in  front  of  it,  there  had 
been  some  excitement  among  the  crowd 
from  their  closeness  to  the  scene,  and  yet 
the  impossibility  of  knowing  what  was 
going  on  within.  "  When  will  they 
come  ?"  They  will  not  come."  "  They 
will  come,"  had  been  the  abruptly  inter- 
changed exclamations,  when  the  door 
opened,  and  "Here  they  come  '"  announced 
to  the  vast  multitude  that  the  deed  was 
done,  and  that  the  Evangelical  Church  of 
Scotland  was  free  !  Instantly  the  whole 
mass  of  people  was  in  motion,  hats  and 
handkerchiefs  were  waved  aloft,  and  a 
shout,  not  loud  nor  long,  but  deep  and 
earnest, — a  shout,  the  voice  of  the  heart 
rather  than  of  the  lip,  burst  from  the 
countless  thousands  that  thronged  street, 
and  door,  and  window,  and  even  housetop, 
wherever  a  foot  could  be  perched  and  a 
view  obtained.  And  how  were  the  min- 
isters to  work  their  way  through  that 
dense  crowd  ?  No  civic  force  was  there 
to  clear  a  path  ;  the  military  had  retired  ; 
but  with  one  similtaneous  impulse  the 
mass  divided  right  and  left,  and  opened 
an  avenue  in  the  middle  of  the  street  so 
broad  that  four  might  walk  abreast,  and 
through  that  living  lane,  the  venerable 
defenders  of  religious  liberty  moved  calm- 
ly and  steadily  on  along  the  line  of  street 
leading  to  their  appointed  place  of  meet- 
ing at  Tanfield  Hall,  on  the  north  side  of 
the  city,  in  the  valley  formed  by  the  wa- 
ter of  Leith.  Never,  perhaps,  was  there 
a  more  signal  instance  beheld  of  the  pow- 
er which  tried  and  trusted  moral  worth 
and  religious  dignity  exercises  over  the 
mind  of  man,  than  in  that  marvellous 
spectacle  ;  and  frankly  did  many  stran- 
gers, natives  of  other  lands,  who  were 
present,  declare,  that  in  no  country  but 
Scotland  could  such  a  moral  and  religious 
triumph  have  been  displayed.  Not  one 
single"  jarring  incident  occurred ;  no 
haste,  no  confusion  disturbed  the  great 
and  grave  solemnity  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland's  Exodus ;  her  friends  were 
stilled  from  tumultuary  applause,  her  ene- 
mies were  restrained  from  wrathful  vio- 
lence, and  the  presiding  care  of  her  Di- 


vine Head  and  King  rendered  her  path 
one  of  serenity  and  peace.  Yet  when 
the  protesting  ministers  and  elders  took 
their  places  in  the  space  reserved  for  them 
in  the  spacious  Hall,  within  which  alrea- 
dy at  least  three  thousand  spectators  had 
assembled,  and  when  Dr.  Welsh  opened 
the  meeting  with  a  prayer  remarkable 
for  solemnity  of  tone,  comprehensiveness 
of  thought,  and  even  sublime  fervour  of 
devotional  spirit,  many  a  bosom  could  no 
longer  restrain  its  full  and  bursting  emo- 
tions, and  many  a  grave  and  manly  coun- 
tenance was  copiously  bathed  in  tears. 
It  was  not  sorrow,  s'till  less  was  it  regret ; 
it  was  the  outpouring  of  unutterable  grati- 
tude to  God  for  that  grace  which  had 
enabled  them  to  maintain  their  integrity, 
and  to  bear  an  unshaken  testimony  to  the 
truth  of  Christ's  mediatorial  sovereignty, 
and  for  that  providential  goodness  which 
had  watched  over  them,  preserved  them 
from  all  strife  and  confusion,  and  given 
to  all  their  proceedings  that  air  of  calm 
untroubled  dignity  which  so  well  be- 
seemed the  sacred  nature  and  the  vast  im- 
portance of  the  event.  Another  mode  of 
relief  to  the  full  heart  was  obtained  when 
that  great  multitude  stood  up  to  sing  the 
praises  of  the  Lord,  in  such  a  strain  of 
rejoicing  and  adoring  melody  as  human 
ears  have  seldom  heard,  and  human  voices 
seldom  raised  to  heaven.  But  enough; 
the  whole  scene  was  far  beyond  descrip- 
tion,— a  scene  such  as  to  share  in  and 
behold,  might  have  amply  repaid  the  toils 
and  sorrows  of  a  lifetime, — a  scene  worth 
living  to  witness,  worth  dying  to  realize. 
The  events  which  followed  are  too  re- 
cent in  their  occurrence,  and  too  deeply 
engraved  on  the  mind  of  the  country,  to 
require  to  be  here  recorded  in  minute  de- 
tail. A  few  only  of  those  which  were  of 
chief  importance  may  be  briefly  stated. 
Dr.  Welsh,  in  a  short  emphatic  speech, 
moved  that  Dr.  Chalmers  should  be  cho- 
sen Moderator  of  this  the  First  General 
Assembly  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scot- 
land. The  motion  was  carried  by  accla- 
mation, and  Dr.  Chalmers  took  the  chair. 
The  43d  Psalm  was  then  sung,  prayer 
was  again  offered  up  to  God,  and  che  As- 
sembly was  thus  regularly  constituted. 
Dr.  Chalmers  then  commenced  the  busi- 
ness by  an  address,  in  which  he  recapitu- 
lated the  principles  of  the  recent  conflict, 
as  necessarily  the  same  on  which  the  new 


A.  D.  1843.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


465 


Assembly  was  now  constituted  and  pre- 
pared henceforth  to  act ;  viewed  the  posi- 
tion which  must  now  be  occupied,  and 
the  course  of  conduct  which  ought  to  be 
followed  towards  other  parties  ;  and  con- 
cluded with  a  beautiful  statement  and  ap- 
plication of  the  sacred  principles  and  hea- 
venly affections  that  knit  together  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  faithful  pastors  and 
their  pious  people.  It  was  then  proposed 
by  Dr.  Candlish,  that  the  Assembly 
should  assume  into  their  body,  as  mem- 
bers of  the  House,  all  those  ministers  who 
had  signed  the  Protest,  or  a  concurrence 
in  it,  together  with  one  elder  from  each 
adhering  kirk-session.  This  proposal 
was  received  with  unanimous  approba- 
tion ;  and  thus  the  Assembly  was  put  in  a 
position  to  complete,  by  means  of  a  for- 
mal Deed  of  Demision,  individually 
signed,  the  separation  of  the  Free  Protest- 
ing Church  of  Scotland  from  the  State, 
and  from  the  Erastianized  Establishment. 
The  time  of  several  successive  days 
was  occupied  in  receiving  deputations 
from  other  Churches,  who  expressed  their 
concurrence  in  the  principles  and  sym- 
pathy with  the  sufferings  of  the  Free 
Church  ;  in  hearing  the  reports  of  the 
sub-divisions  of  the  Provisional  Commit- 
tee, and  of  the  Committees  for  managing 
the  Schemes  of  the  Church,  of  which  the 
one  for  the  conversion  of  the  Jews  ob- 
tained the  precedence  ;*  and  in  receiving 
the  declared  adherence  of  a  large  body  of 
probationers,  during  the  course  of  which 
proceeding,  many  very  eloquent  and  very 
impressive  addresses  called  forth  the  deep 
emotions  of  the  vast  audience.  At 
length,  on  Tuesday,  the  23d  of  May,  the 
Act  of  Separation  and  Deed  of  Demis- 
sion f  was  read,  received  the  approbation 
of  the  Assembly,  and  was  prepared  for 
receiving  the  signatures  of  all  adhering 
ministers  and  elders.  All  other  business 
was  suspended,  that  this  momentous  act 
might  with  due  deliberation  and  solemni- 
ty be  done,  in  the  presence  of  the  whole 
Assembly.  The  roll  of  names  was  called 
in  the  usual  arrangement  of  synods  and 
presbyteries.  Ten  by  ten  the  members 
rose,  moved  to  the  platform  behind  the 
Moderator's  chair,  and  there,  with  un- 
it was  a  curious  and  an  encoura<rin<r  coincidence, 
that  as  the  Church  of  Scotland  had  been  the  first 
Church  that  sent  missionaries  to  the  Jews  so  to  resume 
that  mission  was  the  first  enterprise  of  the  Free  Church, 
t  Deed  of  Demission,  see  Appendix. 

59 


swerving  heart  and  steady  hand,  calmly 
completed  the  sacrifice  of  all  their  worldly 
possessions,  and  their  station  in  society, 
for  the  sake,  as  they  firmly  believed  and 
deeply  felt  of  Christ's  Crown  and  Cove- 
nant.* At  least  five  hours  were  occupied 
in  the  deliberate  execution  of  this  singu- 
larly impressive  and  self-denying  deed ; 
and  yet  throughout  this  protracted  period 
there  appeared  no  symptom  of  either  ex- 
citement or  langour.  It  was  the  result, 
not  of  hasty  and  fickle  passion,  but  of 
steady  and  unchangeable  principle;  it 
was  the  deed  of  the  soul,  rather  than  of 
the  heart ;  it  had  been  caused,  and  it  was 
accomplished  by  the  power  of  spiritual 
and  eternal  truth,  and  therefore  it  dis- 
played somewhat  of  the  majestic  serenity 
and  immoveable  steadfastness  of  eternity 
itself. 

As  much  important  business  connected 
with  the  reorganization  of  the  Church  re- 
quired to  be  done,  the  Assembly  continued 
its  sittings  with  unabated  zeal,  attended 
by  crowds  displaying  undiminished  inter- 
est in  its  proceedings,  till  the  evening  of 
Tuesday,  May  30,  when  it  was  closed 
after  an  address  by  Dr.  Chalmers,  in 
which  the  rare  combination  of  genius, 
wisdom,  and  piety,  which  characterizes 
that  distinguished  servant  of  God  was 
pre-eminently  displayed.  So  terminated 
the  memorable  FIRST  GENERAL  ASSEM- 
BLY OF  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND, 
having  by  its  noble  and  self-denying, 
or  rather  self-sacrificing  DEED  OF  DEMIS- 
SION, saved  both  the  principles  and  the 
character  of  the  true  Evangelical  and 
Presbyterian  Church,  for  which  the  Scot- 
tish reformers  toiled,  and  the  Scottish 
martyrs  died,  from  the  imminent  peril  to 
which  they  were  exposed  by  the  treache- 
rous and  the  faint-hearted  within  the 
camp,  and  the  fierce  hostility  and  subtle 
guile  of  the  civil  powers  without.  Firm- 
ly and  fully  had  the  faithful  ministers  re- 
deemed all  their  pledges,  and  borne 
their  testimony,  and  suffered  the  loss  of 
all  things  in  defence  of  the  Saviour's 
Crown,  and  the  sacred  rights  and  privi- 
leges of  His  Church  and  people ;  but 
there  was  not  a  man  of  that  God-fearing 
and  world-defying  band  whose  deepest 
thought  was  not,  "  Not  we,  but  the  grace 


t  The  number  of  those  who  signed  on  that  day  was 
386;  additional  signatures,  subsequently  given,  have 
raised  it  to  upwards  of  470. 


466 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI. 


of  God  in  us."     And  when  they  departed 
not  as  usual  to  return  to  homes  renderec 
doubly  dear  in  all  their  hallowed  tran 
quillity  hy  a  period  of  toilful  absence,  bu 
to  break  up  their  households,  and  to  go 
forth  as  strangers  and  pilgrims  in  reality 
into   a   world    whose   hostility   was  bu 
too  surely  known,  it  was  not  with  feel 
ings  of  woe  and  despondency,  but  will 
the  deep  and  chastened  joy  of  hearts  con 
scious  of  temptations  repelled,  duty  dis 
charged,  trials  well  and  fully  endured 
and  souls  graciously  strengthened  by  in 
ward  spiritual  might,  and  thus  preparec 
for  all  that  should  lie  before  them,  in  act 
ing  or  suffering,  till  their  Christian  war 
fare  should  be  done,  and  they  should  be 
called  to  enter  into  the  rest  that  remaineth 
for  the  people  of  God,  who  have  "fough 
the  good  fight  and  finished  their  course.' 
It  is  a  melancholy  contrast  to  turn  to  the 
proceedings  of  what  has  been  not  inaptly 
called,  the  Residuary  Assembly.      The 
state  of  feeling  in  that  Assembly  produced 
by  the  disruption,  seemed  at  first  to  be  the 
blank  confusion  of  utter  amazement  and 
dismay.      Never,  till  that  moment,  had 
they  realized  the  idea  that  the  Evangeli- 
cal ministers  were  men  of  greater  sin- 
cerity and  rectitude  than  themselves, — 
hence  the  incredulity  which  they  had  all 
along-  entertained,  and  the  false  reports 
which  they  had  transmitted  to  Govern- 
ment,  respecting  the   probability  of  the 
threatened    disruption   which   had    now- 
taken  place.     It  was  not  till  the  Monday 
that  they  were  sufficiently  recovered  from 
their  stunning  astonishment  to  proceed  to 
the  despatch  of  business.     But  then  they 
went  forward  with  the  blended  eagerness 
of  tyrants  and  servility  of  slaves,  increased 
by  the  blind  impetuosity  of  men  acting 
under  the  spell  of  infatuation.     Adopting, 
apparently,  the  Letter  of  Her  Majesty's 
Administration*  as  the  supreme  law  by 
which   their   whole   conduct  was  to  be 
-guided,  they  repealed  the  Act  on  Calls, 
commonly  denominated  the   Veto   Act, 
thereby  subjecting  the  people  entirely  to 
the   despotism   of  patrons   and   Church 
courts,  and  at  the  same  time  admitting  the 
principle,  that   the   Church   was  bound 
to  regulate  its  procedure  according  to  the 
dictates  of  the  civil  courts  ;  they  expelled 
the  whole  of  the  quoti  sacra  ministers, 
declaring  the  act  which  gave  them  admis- 

*  Queen's  Letter,  see  Appendix. 


sion  null  and  void  from  the  beginning, 
thereby  admitting  the  power  of  the  civil 
courts  to  determine  who  were  to  be  the 
members  of  ecclesiastical  courts,  consent- 
ing to  the  unpresbyterian  theory  of  two 
orders  of  ministers,  and  allowing  hostile 
landholders  to  stop  at  pleasure  the  exten- 
sion of  religious  instruction  to  those  who 
were  destitute  of  that  blessing ;  they  re- 
scinded the  original  and  recently  revived 
laws  respecting  the  popular  election  of 
elders,  thereby  depriving  the  people  of 
representatives  and  protectors  in  Church 
courts  ;  they  restored  the  Strathbogie  men 
to  their  status  as  ministers,  without  re- 
poning  them,  as  if  no  sentence  of  deposi- 
tion had  been  passed,  thereby  sanctioning 
the  fatal  theory,  that  the  sentence  of 
Church  courts  may  be  disregarded  as 
null  and  void,  though  not  proved  sinful, 
which,  if  followed  out,  would  foster  in- 
subordination, and  end  in  dissociation  and 
anarchy  ;  they  rescinded  all  the  sentences 
of  deposition  passed  upon  ministers  con- 
victed of  criminal  and  immoral  conduct, 
remitting  these  cases  to  their  respective 
presbyteries,  "  to  take  such  steps  in  the 
matter  as  they  should  see  fit ;"  and  they 
restored  the  Act  of  1799,  thereby  cutting 
themselves  off  from  religious  communion 
with  every  Church  in  the  world. 

Such  were  the  proceedings  of  the  Mo- 
derate and  Erastian  Assembly  ;  and  thus, 
in  one  short  week,  they  swept  away  the 
reformation  of  nine  years,  and  did  their 
utmost  to  place  the  Establishment  in  the 
exact  position  which  it  had  occupied  at 
the  end  of  the  preceding  century ;  as  if 
utterly  unaware,  that  though  Moderatism 
may  have  no  power  of  life  and  motion, 
the  mind  of  man  and  the  affairs  of  society 
live  and  advance,  and  that,  therefore,  a 
system  unable  to  adapt  itself  to  the  spirit 
of  the  age  cannot  be  maintained.     But 
they  had  pleased  the  Government,  they 
had   harmonized  with  the   civil   courts, 
they  had  expelled  the  popular   element 
and  influence  from  their  own  courts,  they 
had   been  relieved  from  the   disturbing 
mental,  moral,  and  spiritual  energy  of 
their   evangelical  antagonists,   and  they 
might  surely  at  length  hope  for  a  period 
of  untroubled  repose.     True,  there  was 
some  dread  that  the  Free  Church  might 
yet  cross  their  path ;  and  there  was  a  ne- 
cessity  for  filling  the  demitted  charges 
with   all   convenient  speed ;    and    there 


A.  D.  1842.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


467 


might  be  some  uneasy  misgivings  about 
the  probabilities  of  the  future  ;  and  there 
could  be  little  ground  of  trust  in  the  sup- 
port of  an  approving  Providence  ;  but 
they  had  the  security  of  continuing  to 
dwell  in  their  manses  and  receive  their 
stipend,  though  their  ministry  should  be 
deserted  by  the  people  ;  and  they  had  the 
prospect  of  obtaining  translations  to  those 
more  lucrative  or  dignified  positions,  out 
of  which  treachery,  fraud,  and  force,  had 
expelled  their  better  brethren.* 

Lord  Aberdeen,  as  was  previously 
stated,  had  given  intimation  of  a  bill  soon 
to  be  introduced,  such  as  ought,  in  his 
opinion,  to  have  prevented  the  disruption 
of  the  Church.  On  the  1st  of  June  his 
lordship  brought  forward  his  bill,  which 
proved  to  be  his  former  measure,  some- 
what altered  for  the  worse.  It  had  to  en- 
counter the  direct  opposition  of  the  Law 
Lords,  who  affirmed  that  it  gave  power 
to  the  Church  courts  to  infringe  the 
rights  of  patrons,  and  was  contrary  to  the 
Auchterarder  decision.  Well  did  the 
earl  know,  that  no  Moderate  presbytery 
would  ever  dispute  the  authority  of  pa- 
trons ;  but  to  mitigate  the  hostility  of  his 
learned  and  noble  antagonists,  he  con- 
sented that  it  should  be  both  declaratory 
and  enacting, — declaring  that  to  be  law 
which  had  yet  to  be  enacted,  and  enacting 
that  which  had  already  been  declared, and. 
thus  reducing  the  whole  measure  to  a 
tissue  of  preposterous  absurdity.  When 
the  bill  came  before  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, it  was  again  encountered  and  ex- 
posed with  such  skill  and  power  by  the 
friends  of  the  Free  Church,  that  it  nar- 
rowly escaped  rejection.  And  after  it 
had  become  law,  it  was  so  little  satisfacto- 
ry to  the  Establishment,  that  at  the  meet- 
ing of  their  Commission  it  was  strongly 
censured  by  a  large  and  influential  mi- 
nority of  that  body.  So  ended  the  glories 
of  Aberdeen  diplomacy  in  ecclesiastical 
affairs,  with  the  dissatisfaction  of  all  par- 
ties concerned. 

Although  the  history  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland  properly  ends  with  the  dises- 
tablishment of  that  evangelical  body 
which  had  alone  held  and  maintained  the 
principles  of  its  standards,  and  followed 
the  example  of  its  founders  and  its  mar- 

*  A  few,  and  but  a  few,  of  those  who  had  generally 
acted  along  with  the  Evangelical  body  deserted  at  the 
hour  of  extremity.  It  is  mercy  to  leave  their  names 
is  far  as  possible  in  oblivion. 


tyrs  ;  yet  a  few  sentences  maybe  allowed 
in  which  to  trace  its  operations  in  its  new 
condition,  as  the  Free  Protesting  Church 
of  Scotland.  It  was  well  and  truly  said 
by  several  of  the  deputations  from  other 
Churches,  that  whatever  the  remaining 
Establishment  might  be  called,  they  had 
no  difficulty  in  perceiving  that  the  Free 
Church  was  the  Church  of  the  Scottish 
people — that  she  already  possessed  their 
hearts,  and  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  go 
forth  and  possess  the  land.  On  the  Sab- 
bath after  the  termination  of  the  Assem- 
bly, the  ministers  of  the  Free  Church  ab- 
stained from  using  their  former  places  of 
worship,  and  preached  in  halls,  or  barns, 
or  in  the  open  air,  to  audiences  many 
times  more  numerous,  and  unspeakably 
more  intensely  attentive  than  had  ever 
before  attended  their  ministrations. 
There  was  in  their  own  devotions  and 
instructions  a  fervour,  a  pathos,  and  a 
spirituality  to  which  they  had  rarely  or 
never  before  attained ;  and  their  people 
gazed  on  them  and  listened  to  them  with 
an  earnest  sympathizing  and  admiring 
love,  which  rendered  every  word  pre 
cious,  and  its  impression  deep  and  last- 
ing. It  may  be  safely  said,  that  the  gos- 
pel was,  that  day,  preached  in  Scotland 
to  a  greater  number  of  eager  and  atten- 
tive auditors  than  had  ever  before  listened 
to  its  hallowed  message.  And  yet  that 
was  but  the  beginning.  From  Sabbath 
to  Sabbath,  and  on  almost  every  week- 
day evening,  the  people  sought  to  hear, 
ancl  the  ministers'  of  the  Free  Church 
hastened  to  proclaim,  the  glad  tidings  of 
salvation.  Nor  did  this  remarkable  avidi- 
ty of  the  people  to  hear,  and  willingness 
of  the  ministers  to  preach,  bear  almost 
any  reference  to  the  recent  controversy 
and  its  result;  but  both  ministers  and 
people  felt  themselves  at  last  free,  and  they 
used  that  freedom  in  the  service  of  theii 
Divine  Lord  and  Master. 

At  the  same  time,  as  the  hearts  of  the 
people  had  been  opened  to  receive  the 
gospel,  so  were  their  hands  opened  to 
contribute  towards  its  support  and  exten- 
sion throughout  the  kingdom.  Large 
sums  were  subscribed  and  collected  for 
the  erection  of  plain  and  humble,  but 
comfortable  places  of  worship,  and  for 
the  due  maintenance  of  the  faithful  an' 
self-denying  ministers  of  the  Free  Church 
Within  two  months  after  the  disruption, 


468 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI 


upwards  of  £240,000  had  been  subscribed, 
and  nearly  800  associations  formed, 
parfly  to  aid  in  supporting-,  and  partly 
that  they  might  themselves  enjoy  the  in- 
estimable blessing  of  a  pure  and  free  gos- 
pel. Churches  in  all  directions  began  to 
be  erected  ;  every  minister  and  proba- 
tioner was  constrained  to  discharge 
double  or  threefold  duty  ;  and  still  the  de- 
mand continued  to  increase.  Nothing 
could  be  more  apparent,  than  that  a  larger 
proportion  of  the  people  than  of  the  min- 
isters had  abandoned  the  Erastian  Es- 
tablishment ;  and  that  if  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  ministers  could  have  been  obtained, 
the  Free  Church  might  have  at  once  pos- 
sessed the  land,  as  the  Church  of  the 
Scottish  people.*  In  many  localities,  in- 
deed, there  were  great  difficulties  to  be 
surmounted,  arising  chiefly  out  of  the 
narrow-minded  and  persecuting  hostility 
of  the  landlords,  some  denying  sites  for 
the  erection  of  churches,  and  others 
threatening  to  eject  their  tenantry  and 
other  dependents  if  they  ventured  to  ad- 
here to  the  Free  Church.  This  perse- 
cuting spirit  generally  overshot  its  pur- 
pose, rousing  instead  of  subduing  the 
moral  courage  and  determination  of  the 
high-hearted  Scottish  peasantry,  calling 
forth  the  indignation  of  the  public  mind, 
and  suggesting  the  perilous  questions, 
how  far  such  conduct  was  consistent  with 
the, law  of  toleration  and  British  freedom 
of  opinion,  and  how  far  the  rights  of 
property  might  overbear  the  rights  of 
conscience. 

Before  the  disruption  took  place,  it 
had  been  repeatedly  suggested  that  depu- 
tations should  be  sent  to  lay  before  the 
frank  and  generous  people  of  England 
an  account  of  the  wrongs  inflicted  on  the 
Church  of  Scotland.  With  this  it  had 
been  found  impracticable  to  comply  dur- 
ing the  contest.  But  now  several  depu- 
tations were  sent,  and  were  hailed  with 
ready  kindness  and  liberal  sympathy — 
large  sums  being  promptly  contributed  to 
aid  in  meeting  the  urgent  and  increasing 
demands  for  the  immediate  erection  of 
places  of  worship  for  the  Free  Church. 
Warm-hearted  Irish  Presbyterians  lent 
their  help,  both  in  money  and  in  minis- 
ters, to  relieve  the  ministers  of  the  Free 
Church  from  some  of  their  overwhelm- 

*  It  is  enough  to  refer  to  the  too  well-known  instances 
of  Butherlandshire,  Ross-shire,  the  Isle  ofSkye,  &c.  &c. 


ing  toils.  Even  America  sent,  no* 
merely  the  voice  of  encouragement,  bu 
also  liberal  pecuniary  assistance  across 
the  wide  Atlantic,  requesting  that  a  depu- 
tation might  be  sent  to  that  vast  continent, 
to  communicate  information,  and  to  re- 
ceive a  fuller  measure  of  substantial  sym- 
pathy in  return. 

In  the  midst  of  these  mighty  and  en- 
couraging movements  an  event  occur- 
red, with  a  short  outline  of  which  this 
narrative  must  close.  This  was  the  Bi- 
centenary Commemoration  of  the  first 
meeting  of  the  Westminster  Assembly. 
It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  steps 
had  been  taken  towards  making  suitable 
arrangements  for  the  commemoration 
long  before  the  disruption.  The  General 
Assembly  of  the  Free  Church  did  not 
neglect  this  matter  in  the  midst  of  all  its 
great  and  urgent  exertions.  A  commit- 
tee was  appointed  to  make  suitable  ar- 
rangements, and  to  correspond  with  other 
Presbyterian  Churches,  who,  holding 
the  same  standards,  were  equally  inter- 
ested in  the  commemoration.  The  first 
meeting  of  the  Westminster  Assembly 
was  held  on  the  1st  day  of  July  1643; 
and,  allowing  for  the  difference  between 
the  old  and  new  styles,  it  was  appointed 
that  the  commemoration  should  be  held 
on  the  12th  of  July  1843,  and  in  the 
same  great  hall  which  had  been  occupied 
by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Free 
Church.  On  the  previous  evening,  an 
introductory  sermon  was  preached  by  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Symington  of  the  Reformed  Pres- 
byterian Church,  in  which  the  principles 
of  Christian  love  were  beautifully  and 
impressively  explained  and  enforced. 
The  large  hall  was  nearly  filled  early  in 
the  forenoon  of  the  12th  with  ministers 
and  people  from  all  the  Presbyterian 
Churches  in  the  kingdom,  without  dis- 
tinction, and  without  jealousy  or  envy.  It 
was  soon  evident  that  all  had  come  to- 
gether animated  by  the  true  spirit  of 
Christian  love.  Most  cheeringly  and 
affectingly  beautiful  was  the  sight  of 
ministers  of  all  Presbyterian  denomina- 
tions,*— the  Free  Church,  the  United 
Secession,  the  Relief,  the  Original  Seces- 
sion, the  Reformed  Presbyterian,  and 

*  Not  one  minister  of  the  Erastian  Establishment 
gave  countenance  to,  or  took  any  part  MI,  the  Com- 
memoration ;  but  this  was  consistent,  for  how  could 
they  commemorate  the  Westminster  Assembly,  which 
was  so  decidedly  opposed  to  Erastianism  1 


A.  D.  1843.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


469 


the  English  and  Irish  Presbyterians,  thus 
united  in  one  common  object,  commenc- 
ing in  the  unity  of  the  Spirit,  proceeding 
in  the  harmony  of  oneness  in  heart  and 
mind,  and  concluding  by  drawing  more 
closely  and  kindly  the  bonds  of  peace. 
Many  eloquent  and  powerful  addresses 
were  delivered,  explaining  and  vindicat- 
ing the  great  principles  of  Presbyterian 
Church  government,  doctrine,  and  dis- 
cipline, as  contained  in  the  Standards 
framed  by  the  Westminster  Divines.  It 
was  the  remark  of  all,  that  during  the 
two  days  in  which  the  commemoration 
was  held,  greater  progress  had  been 
made  towards  realizing  the  sublime  idea 
of  one. grand  Evangelical  and  Presbyte- 
rian Union,  than  during  the  two  centu- 
ries that  had  elapsed  since  it  was  first  en- 
tertained by  the  Westminster  Assembly. 
The  meeting  could  not  separate,  the 
hearts  of  men  were  too  full  and  grateful, 
without  determining  that  similar  meet- 
ings should  again  be  held,  and  a  cordial 
co-operation  in  all  religious  duties  be  be- 
gun and  carried  on,  in  the  hope  and  with 
the  desire  that  it  might  lead  to  the  ulti- 
mate incorporation  and  thorough  union 
of  all  Evangelical  and  Presbyterian 
Churches.  Nor  was  that  unity  of  spirit 
and  harmony  of  heart  confined  to  Pres- 
byterians, but  a  cordial  expression  of 
readiness  to  co-operate  with  evangelical 
Episcopalians  and  Congregationalists 
was  also  made,  and  sanctioned  by  the 
warm  applause  of  the  meeting.  The 
very  existence  of  such  a  meeting  as  this, 
the  unanimity  of  mind  and  brotherly  love 
which  prevailed  in  it,  and  the  expansion 
of  aim  and  effort,  and  the  commencement 
of  evangelical  intercourse  and  co-opera- 
tion which  it  produced,  may  all  be  fairly 
attributed  to  the  principles  maintained 
and  the  position  taken  by  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland.  And  with  this  brief 
account  of  the  propitious  commencement 
of  her  actions  and  endeavours  as  a  Free 
Church,  ends  the  history  of  her  existence 
as  an  Establishment. 

Many  grave  and  solemn  thoughts  must 
necessarily  arise  in  the  mind  which  has 
been  long  and  intensely  occupied  with 
the  history  of  a  Christian  Church.  All 
the  interests  of  time,  and  the  feelings  and 
passions  that  agitate  human  nature,  seem 
to  sink  into  nothingness  in  comparison 


with  the  interests  of  spiritual  truth  and 
of  eternity  ;  or,  so  far  as  they  are  at  all 
regarded,  they  are  beheld  in  a  very  dif- 
ferent point  of  view  from  that  in  which 
they  appear  to  the  man  whose  mind  and 
heart  are  engrossed  by  the  objects  of  the 
passing  hour.  When  the  events  of  life 
arid  time  are  contemplated  habitually  in 
the  relation  which  they  bear  to  the  souls 
of  men  and  to  eternity,  the  mind  becomes 
conscious  that  it  has  attained  a  loftier 
eminence,  from  which  it  enjoys  a  clear 
perception  of  what  would  otherwise  have 
remained  obscure  and  indistinct.  Then, 
all  events — national,  political,  and  even 
personal — are  seen  as  they  subserve  or 
oppose  those  great  ends  for  which  man 
was  created  and  redeemed ;  and  writh 
reference  to  that,  as  by  a  sacred  standard, 
are  they  tried. 

Thus  viewed  and  estimated,  the  Evan- 
gelical and  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scot- 
land appears  the  most  perfect  and  bene- 
ficial, yet  most  persecuted  Christian  in- 
stitution that  has  ever  yet  been  established 
among  mankind.  In  assuming  for  her 
first  principle  that  sacred  truth,  THAT  THE 
LORD  JESUS  CHRIST  is  THE  ONLY  HEAD 
AND  KING  OF  THE  CHURCH,  she  placed 
her  foundation,  indeed,  upon  the  Rock 
of  Ages  ;  but  she  placed  it  where  it  was 
certain  to  be  assailed  by  all  the  storms 
and  tempests  which  the  enemy  of  all  sa- 
cred truth,  the  god  of  this  world,  could 
raise.  That  she  shoujd  suffer  in  holding 
this  truth,  was  inevitable ;  for  it  is  the 
very  truth  for  holding  and  asserting 
which  Christ  himself  was  accused  before 
Pilate,  condemned,  and  crucified.  "If 
thou  let  this  man  go,  thou  art  not  Cesar's 
friend,"  was  the  argument  which  wrung 
from  the  Roman  governor  the  sentence 
of  death  against  Him  who  is  King  of 
kings  and  Lord  of  Lords.  And  for  faith- 
fully maintaining  the  same  great  truth 
has  the  Church  of  Scotland  often,  almost 
incessantly,  suffered  persecution,  is  suf- 
fering still,  and  must  suffer  so  long  as 
she  continues  to  maintain  it,  till  He  come 
whose  right  it  is  to  reign  universally. 
This  great  principle  Romanism  cannot 
hold,  because  it  constitutes  the  pope  its 
head  ;  Prelacy  cannot  hold,  because  it 
yields  practically  its  headship  to  an 
earthly  king  ;  Voluntaryism  cannot  fully 
hold,  because  by  not  only  totally  with- 
drawing from,  but  absolutely  denying 


470 


HISTORY    OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI 


he  lawfulness  of  all  connection  with  the 
State,  it  virtually  denies  Christ's  right  to 
reign,  not  only  as  King  of  the  Church, 
but  also  as  King  of  kings.  It  is,  there- 
fore, and  has  always  been,  the  peculiar 
glory  of  the  true  Church  of  Scotland  to 
declare,  maintain,  and  suffer  in  defence 
of  the  Divine  Redeemer's  Mediatorial 
Crown. 

And  let  it  be  peculiarly  marked,  as 
every  stage  of  her  history  testifies,  that 
exactly  in  proportion  to  the  faithfulness 
with  which  sne  maintained  that  truth,  did 
her  Head  and  King  honour  her  with 
His  presence  and  His  blessing,  in  her 
supreme  courts  held  in  His  name,  in  all 
her  inferior  judicatories,  in  her  pastors, 
and  in  her  people.  When  most  faithful 
in  her  allegiance  to  Him,  she  was 
always  most  prosperous  in  that  which 
constitutes  the  true  prosperity  of  a  Chris- 
tian Church, — in  promoting  the  progress 
and  the  power  of  vital  godliness  through- 
out the  nation.  To  that  is  solely  owing 
the  high  eminence  which  the  Scottish 
people  so  early  gained  and  so  long  held 
among  mankind,  notwithstanding  the 
smallness  of  the  kingdom  and  the  com- 
parative barrenness  of  the  country  and 
severity  of  the  climate.  And  in  like 
manner,  in  proportion  as  she  violated  or 
yielded  that  principle,  did  she  sink  into  a 
fatal  spiritual  lethargy,  while  the  increas- 
ing, disregarded,  and  alienated  popula- 
tion rapidly  degenerated  into  vice,  pov- 
erty, and  turbulence.  Of  this,  the  pre- 
sent state  of  Scotland,  after  the  long  and 
torpid  period  of  Moderatism,  or  unspiritu- 
ality,  is  a  fearful  proof.  Scotland  is  not 
what  it  was  ;  because  for  several  genera- 
tions the  Church  of  Scotland  was  under 
•the  domination  of  a  party,  the  spirit  of 
whose  system  was  the  spirit  of  the  world, 
not  the  spirit  of  evangelical  Christianity. 
Dark  must  have  been  the  cloud  of  infatu- 
ation which  rested  on  the  minds  of  the 
Legislature,  when,  by  its  countenance 
and  support,  Moderatism  was  enabled  to 
consummate  its  guilt  by  exterminating 
all  that  constituted  the  life  and  glory  of 
the  Church, — when  its  ancient  power  to 
paralyze,  which  had  been  shaken  off, 
was,  by  the  authority  of  civil  courts  and 
the  State,  raised  into  a  power  to  destroy. 

Yet,  truth  is  eternal ;  and  when  a 
great  truth  has  been  clearly  stated,  it 
cannot  perish.  Repeatedly  has  this  been 


proved  in  the  case  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland  ;  for  repeatedly  has  that  great 
truth  which  is  her  fundamental  principle 
been  for  a  time  obscured  and  overwhelm- 
ed, but  has  again  shone  forth,  rising  from 
out  the  ruins  of  whatsoever  had  attempt- 
ed its  destruction.  And  in  every  succes- 
sive instance  of  its  repeated  emergence 
it  has  obtained  a  fuller  developement,  and 
acquired  a  mightier  power,  than  it  had 
previously  done.  Thus,  in  the  Second 
Reformation,  the  sole  sovereignty  of 
Christ  over  His  Church  was  more  am- 
ply manifested  than  before,  and  the 
Church  was  more  completely  freed  from 
the  clinging  fetters  of  the  world  than 
ever  it  had  previously  been.  And 
though  that  period  of  spiritual  freedom 
was  but  of  short  duration,  yet  it  present- 
ed a  brief  realization  of  what  a  Christian 
Church  ought  to  be  in  its  relation  to 
Christ,  to  the  State,  and  to  the  community. 
The  power  of  the  example  then  displayed 
lives  still,  and  is  even  now  putting  forth 
its  vital  realizing  energy.  And  when 
the  Third  Reformation,  now  in  progress, 
shall  have  been  accomplished,  it  will  then 
be  clearly  seen,  that  the  successive  cycles 
through  which  the  Church  of  Scotland 
has  run,  havje  but  been  expansions  of 
each  other,  the  moving  principle  being 
still  the  same,  and  all  the  elements  re- 
maining unchanged,  but  becoming  more 
fully  developed. 

We  have  termed  the  recent,  or  rather 
the  present  great  movement  in  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  the  Third  Refor- 
mation ;  and  under  that  character  some 
of  its  most  remarkable  aspects  deserve  to 
be  seriously  contemplated,  so  far  as  they 
are  yet  revealed.  The  first  peculiarity 
which  demands  attention,  is  that  which 
arises  out  of  the  nature  of  the  contest  and 
the  character  of  the  assailants.  From 
the  period  of  the  Revolution,  and  espe- 
cially from  that  of  the  Patronage  Act, 
the  Church  has  been  divided.  One 
party,  the  Evangelical,  has  striven  to  act 
in  conformity  to  the  spirit  of  her  sacred 
first  principle,  though  that  should  be  of- 
fensive to  the  world  ;  the  other,  the  Mod- 
derate,  has  attempted  to  hide  that  princi- 
ple, to  keep  it  in  abeyance,  and  to  act  in 
conformity  to  the  world.  From  this  di- 
vergency at  the  centre,  has  necessarily 
followed  a  still  widening  divergency  in 
the  growth  and  progress  of  these  two 


A.  D.  1843.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


471 


parties.  But  the  one  which  held  the 
original  principles  of  the  Evangelical 
Presbyterian  Church  in  truth  and  sin- 
cerity, was  alone  truly  the  Church  of 
Scotland ;  the  other  was  its  worldly 
counterfeit,  and  for  that  very  reason  it 
obtained  most  of  the  world's  favour. 
Fearful  have  been  the  consequences  to 
Scotland  of  the  long  domination  of  the 
worldly  system  ;  but  a  demonstration  of 
inestimable  value  has  been  made,  which 
will  yet  be  understood  and  applied.  It 
has  been  clearly  proved,  that  a  Church 
really  Erastian,  but  nominally  and  in 
form  Presbyterian,  is  of  all  Protestant 
Churches  the  worst,  having  neither  ritual 
to  attract,  nor  faith  and  warmth  to  inspire 
and  animate  the  people,  whom  at  the 
same  time  it  deprives  of  every  vestige  of 
spiritual  liberty.  It  seems  expressly  cal- 
culated to  produce  national  infidelity,  by 
driving  vital  religion  out  of  its  pale,  and 
deadening  all  that  remain  within  it.  If 
Popery  has  been  termed  the  religion  of 
fallen  man,  Moderatism  may,  with  equal 
propriety,  be  termed  the  religion  of  fallen 
Presbyterians;  or,  as  the  same  secular 
spirit  may  prevail  in  any  church,  it  may 
be  termed  the  religion  of  fallen  Protest- 
ants. And  yet,  notwithstanding  the  pre- 
sent apparent  triumph  of  that  system,  it 
may  be  safely  predicted  that  the  reign  of 
Moderatism  has  passed  away,  and  can- 
not again  be  permanently  re-established. 
Its  doom  is  written  in  the  word  of  truth, 
which  condemns  the  "  earthly"  and  the 
"  lukewarm,"  manifested  in  the  signs  of 
ihe  times ;  urged  on  by  the  advancing 
spirit  of  the  age ;  and  will  soon  be  pro- 
nounced alike  by  politicians,  who  will 
find  that  it  can  no  longer  subserve  their 
purposes  ;  and  by  the  indignant  voice  of 
an  outraged  and  insulted  nation.  The 
Evangelical  and  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Scotland  has  been  cast  out,  and  may 
be  for  a  time  trodden  under  foot ;  all  ec- 
clesiastical establishments  may  be  over- 
thrown ;  and  they  that  dwell  on  the  earth 
may  rejoice  because  Christ's  witnesses 
have  been  slain.  But  that  Church  which 
is  willing  to  perish  rather  than  surrender 
the  Crown  Rights  of  the  Redeemer,  may 
be  persecuted, but  shall  not  be  forsaken, — 
may  be  cast  down,  but  cannot  be  de- 
stroyed ;  for  the  Lord  Jesus,  for  whom  it 
suffers  will  be  with  it  always,  even  to  the 
end  of  the  world. 


Christianity,  in  its  practical  embodi 
ment  as  a  system,  has  always  suffered 
more  or  less  corruption  by  the  intermin- 
gling of  things  civil  with  things  spiritual. 
In  Popery,  the  distinctions  between  them 
are  lost  by  the  spiritual  or  ecclesiastical 
authority  engrossing  all  power,  civil  and 
sacred  ;  in  an  Erastian  Church,  by  the 
civil  power  assuming  a  right  to  dictate  in 
spiritual  matters ;  and  in  churches  which 
hold  what  is  termed  the  voluntary  princi- 
ple, an  evil  at  least  equal  arises  by  the 
civil  power  being  compelled  to  become 
virtually  atheistic.  The  ruling  princi- 
ple of  the  Church  of  Scotland  is  differ- 
ent from  all  these ;  she  has  been  con- 
strained to  encounter  each  of  them  in 
succession  ;  and  she  has  recently  been 
exposed  to  the  combined  hostility  of 
them  all.  She  disclaims  all  power  in 
matters  civil ;  she  will  not  surrender  the 
power  which  Christ  has  given  her  in 
matters  spiritual ;  and  she  fearlessly  tells 
both  governments  and  communities,  that 
it  is  their  duty  to  be  Christians,  to  act 
as  Christians,  and  to  make  it  their  chief 
object  to  promote  Christ's  kingdom  and 
glory.  For  this  has  she  been,  and  still 
is,  exposed  to  threefold  peril, — for  this 
has  she  been  compelled  to  abandon  the 
temple  where  her  children  worshipped 
God,  and  to  erect  a  tabernacle  in  the 
wilderness  ;  and  fot  this  is  she  still  pur- 
sued by  the  fierce  wrath  of  her  relent- 
less enemies.  But  through  the  triple 
darkness  of  the  lowering  tempest  which 
surrounds  her,  there  may  be  seen  the 
dawning  brightness  of  a  thrice  glorious 
and  peaceful  day.  Her  conflict  has 
now  been  freed  from  every  admixture  of 
a  worldly  nature  on  her  side  ;  all  politi-- 
cal  parties  have  alike  deserted  her  cause, 
or  are  banded  together  against  her,  so 
that  she  is  not  even  tempted  to  put  her 
trust  in  princes  or  the  sons  of  men  ; 
while  the  masses  of  an  irreligious  and 
immoral  population,  left  in  that  state  by 
Moderatism,  seem  ready  to  add  the  fierce 
and  irresponsible  element  of  physical 
force.  But  for  these  very  reasons  little 
of  worldly  contamination  can  now  cleave 
to  her,  and  intermingle  in  her  procedure  ; 
she  is  followed  by  the  sympathy  and  the 
prayers  of  all  truly  evangelical  Churches ; 
she  is  in  the  condition  to  be  most  thor- 
oughly purified  by  the  fiery  trial  through 
which  she  is  passing  ;  and  bereft  as  she 


472 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XI 


is  of  all  human  help,  the  more  manifestly 
will  the  final  victory  be  the  Lord's. 

It  has  already  been  shown  ho\v  re- 
markably the  progress  of  events  has 
been  so  guided  by  the  hand  of  Providence, 
as  to  bring  to  the  light  the  very  central 
element  of  the  last  grand  controversy 
between  the  Church  and  this  world. 
During  the  earlier  stages  of  the  contro- 
versy, its  tri'e  nature  was  apparent  to 
comparatively  few,  and  not  at  all  to  the 
greater  part  of  the  nation.  As  it  advanced, 
one  cause  of  obscurity  was  removed  after 
aviother,  and  its  real  character  became 
r.iore  and  more  manifest  to  all  who  could 
discern  spiritual  things.  And  at  last  the 
very  essence  of  the  mighty  subject  ap- 
peared distinct  and  alone,  in  the  form  of 
this  direct  and  intelligible  question, — 
Shall  the  will  of  Christ,  or  the  will  of 
man,  be  the  supreme  law  and  rule  of  the 
Church  in  spiritual  matters?  To  this 
question  the  Church  can  have  but  one 
answer,  and  the  world  has  but  one.  Of- 
ten have  these  conflicting  answers  come 
into  partial  collision  ;  but  never,  at  any 
period  in  the  history  of  the  Christian 
Church,  has  this  question  been  raised 
with  such  unavoidable  precision,  and  the 
antagonist  deliverances  given  with  such 
appalling  emphasis.  The  two  contend- 
ing principles  which  these  answers  em- 
body, are  now  brougfet  front  to  front,  in 
the  attitude  of  determined  hostility,  and 
till  the  one  or  other  perish  there  can  be 
no  peace  and  rest  for  Christendom. 

The  same  idea  might  be  stated  and  il- 
lustrated in  a  somewhat  different  man- 
ner,— Is  it  the  duty  of  the  State  to  give  en- 
couragement and  support  to  the  Church 
of  Christ,  without  attempting  to  deprive 
it  of  that  spiritual  independence  which  is 
necessary  for  the  right  discharge  of  all 
its  spiritual  duties  ?  From  the  very  be- 
ginning of  her  existence  the  Church  of 
Scotland  has  maintained  the  affirmative 
of  this  great  question,  and  it  has  been 
her  constant  endeavour  to  demonstrate 
to  the  world,  that  a  Christian  Church 
may  be  in  connection  with  the  State, 
thus  giving  to  rulers  the  opportunity 
of  obeying  the  King  Eternal,  and  reali- 
zing the  predictions  of  His  Word ;  and 
may,  nevertheless,  maintain  its  alle- 
giance inviolate  to  its  own  Divine  King, 
and  enjoy  that  spiritual  freedom  where- 
with Christ  has  made  his  people  free. 


The  full  realization  of  this  attempt  seems 
to  be  yet  premature,  as  it  has  proved  to  be 
in  bygone  times  ;  but  something  has  been 
gained  in  each  successive  conflict ;  and 
more  will  yet  be  gained  in  this,  both  be- 
cause to  human  view  the  difficulties  to 
be  surmounted  are  greater  than  ever,  and 
because  the  object  of  the  contest  stands 
more  clearly  defined. 

Even  the  fact  that  the  antagonist  pow- 
er appears  in  the  impassive  form  of  ab- 
stract human  law,  though  an  element  of 
peculiar  danger,  is  equally  an  element  of 
purity  and  hope.  It  is  not  now  with 
persons  that  the  Church  has  to  contend 
so  much  as  with  principles  ;  and  who 
may  doubt  the  issue  when  a  human  prin- 
ciple presumes  to  encounter  one  that  is 
undeniably  divine?  Men  have  yet  to  be 
taught,  that  law  itself  can  have  no  *'sure 
basis  but  the  Word  of  God ;  and  that 
equally  those  who  make,  and  those  who 
interpret  and  administer  a  nation's  laws, 
are  bound  to  regard  it  as  their  first  duty 
both  to  legislate  and  to  administer  not 
otherwise  than  according  to  the  will  of 
Christ.  And  formidable  as  is  the  might 
of  human  law,  it  has  already  so  far  been, 
and  will  yet  more  be  compelled  to  feel, 
that  its  utmost  energy  sinks  into  absolute 
powerlessness,  when  directed  against 
conscience  enlightened  and  upheld  by 
Him  who  alone  is  Lord  of  the  conscience. 
Then  will  men  learn  the  full  meaning 
of  those  simple  yet  sublime  words, 
"  Whether  it  be  right  in  the  sight  of  God 
to  hearken  unto  you  more  than  unto  God, 
judge  ye." 

Repeatedly  has  the  thought  been  sug- 
gested, during  the  course  of  this  history, 
that  civil  and  religious  liberty  exist  and 
fall  together.  Nowhere  has  this  been 
more  signally  proved  than  in  Scotland, 
and  never  more  manifestly  than  at  pre- 
sent. Before  the  Church  of  Scotland 
could  be  assailed,  it  was  necessary  to  vio- 
late the  British  constitution,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Patronage  Act  of  Q,ueen 
Anne.  Before  she  could  be  overthrown, 
it  was  necessary  to  subvert  it,  as  has  been 
too  manifestly  done  by  the  recent  pro- 
ceedings of  the  civil  courts  and  the  Le- 
gislature. And  in  the  endeavour  to 
crush  the  Free  Church,  even  the  theory 
of  toleration  is  set  aside,  and  liberty  of 
conscience  is  denied.  And  it  were  well 
for  the  nation,  if  all  who  value  the  rights 


A.    D.  1843.] 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


47o 


and  privileges  of  freemen  were  aware, 
that  whether  such  be  her  desire  or  not, 
the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  is  at  this 
moment  the  chief  safeguard  of  all  liber- 
ty, civil  and  religious.  She  cannot  be 
overborne  without  a  fatal  shock  being 
given  to  the  very  freedom  of  the  soul, 
from  which  air'  other  freedom  springs. 
And  those  who  support  her  antagonists 
may  yet  mourn  to  know,  that  they  have 
been  busily  engaged  in  forging  fetters 
for  themselves. 

With  strangely  unobservant  eye  and 
mind  must  that  reader  have  perused  these 
pages,  who  has  not  clearly  perceived  that 
the  contest  in  which  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land has  been  engaged,  is  precisely  the 
same  in  which  for  centuries  she  has 
fought,  and  bled,  and  conquered.  "  Take 
from  us  the  liberty  of  Assemblies,  and 
take  from  us  the  Gospel,"  said  John 
Knox.  "  What  is  Caesar's,  or  what  is 
ours,  let  it  be  given  to  Cassar,  but  that 
may  not  derogate  from  Christ's  right ;  let 
the  God  by  whom  kings  reign  have  His 
own  place  and  prerogative,"  said  Alex- 
ander Henderson.  "  We  can  die,  but  we 
cannot  forswear  ourselves,  and  be  false 
traitors  to  Christ,"  said  the  Covenanters. 
"  The  spiritual  independence  of  the  Re- 
ueemer's  kingdom,  in  all  matters  touch- 
ing the  doctrine,  government,  and  disci- 
pline of  the  Church,  and  the  sole  Head- 
ship of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  on  which 
it  depends,  as  also  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges of  the  Christian  people,  we  will 
assert,  and  at  all  hazards  defend,  by  the 
help  and  with  the  blessing  of  Almighty 
God,"  was  the  solemn  declaration  of 
those  true-hearted  Presbyterians,  and 
faithful  servants  of  the  Lord,  who  have 
been,  and  still  are  so  strenuously  endea- 
vouring to  effect  the  Church  of  Scotland's 
Third  Great  Reformation.  The  First 
Reformation,  like  a  whirlwind,  dashed 
to  the  earth,  and  swept  away  the  apostate 
and  idolatrous  Church  of  Rome,  though 
deeply  rooted  in  the  deceived  and  blind- 
ed natipn.  The  Second  Reformation,  af- 
ter a  long  and  painful  struggle,  overthrew 
and  banished  from  Scotland  that  perjured 
and  blood-thirsty  prelatic  usurpation, 
which  the  craft  of  one  sovereign,  and  the 
fierce  despotism  of  his  three  successors, 
had  in  vain  attempted  to  erect  upon  the 
ruins  of  the  persecuted  Presbyterian 
Church.  And  the  Third  Reformation 
60 


has  been  engaged  in  bui  sting  asundei 
the  fetters,  and  casting  oft  the  yoke  of 
that  cold,  worldly,  unspiritual,  unchris- 
tian system,  so  well  designated  Modera- 
tism.  In  each  of  these  Reformations  the 
Church  has  experienced  the  most  despe- 
rate opposition,  has  been  for  a  time  over- 
borne, and  in  the  First  and  Second  she 
ultimately  obtained  the  victory.  By  the 
Black  Acts  of  1584,  she  was  overpower- 
ed and  enslaved,  but  regained  her  liberty 
in  1592.  By  the  Glasgow  Act  of  1662, 
she  was  disestablished,  silenced,  driven 
to  the  mountain  solitudes,  and  the  best 
blood  of  her  sons  and  daughters  shed 
like  water  ;  but  the  revolution  of  1688 
terminated  for  a  time  her  sufferings, 
sanctioned  her  principles,  and  ratified  her 
liberties.  By  the  recent  decisions  of  the 
Civil  Courts,  the  rejection  of  her  Claim 
of  Rights  by  the  Legislature,  and  the 
Bill  of  Lord  Aberdeen,  her  constitution 
has  been  again  subverted,  and  those  who 
continue  to  hold  and  defend  it  have  been 
once  more,  like  their  forefathers,  com- 
pelled to  forsake  their  homes_and  places 
of  worship,  and  to  bear  a  full  and  public 
testimony  against  an  Erastianized  Es- 
tablishment, and  Erastian  principles  in 
the  State. 

But  the  end  is  not  yet.  If  her  prin- 
ciples be,  as  we  believe,  sacred  and  divine, 
they  must  and  will  finally  conquer. 
And  though  the  warfare  of  argument  is 
ended,  the  sterner  warfare  of  principle  is 
yet  only  beginning.  Other  Churches 
are  now  learning  the  meaning  of  her  testi- 
mony, and  are  employing  its  high  and  holy 
terms.  The  very  sympathy  which  her 
wrongs,  her  sufferings,  and  her  undaunt- 
ed bearing  have  called  fo-.h,  have  tended 
unspeakably  more  to  diffuse  her  prin- 
ciples than  could  have  done  her  early 
and  complete  triumph  in  their  defence, 
Evangelical  Christianity  can  now  lift  a 
more  erect  and  ennobled  head  in  the 
world,  since  God  has  enabled  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland  to  give  an  undeni- 
able proof  that  religion  is  something  more 
than  a  system  of  dead  forms  and  vague 
professions, — that  there  are  still  Chris- 
tians on  earth,  even  in  this  secular  and 
selfish  age,  to  whom  grace  has  been  given 
to  suffer  the  loss  of  all  things  in  their 
Divine  Redeemer's  cause.  Humbly  and 
gratefully  let  the  Free  Church  adore  her 
sole  Head  and  King,  that  He  has  not 


474 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  XL 


withdrawn  from  her  that  hidden  spiritua 
life  which  has  enabled  her  to  dare  the 
furnace,  and  will  bring  her  unscathed 
through  all  its  purifying  fires.  And  let 
other  Churches  seek  to  realize  a  similar 
union  with  Him,  both  as  the  first  and 
most  certain  step  towards  union  with  each 
other,  and  as  a  preparation  for  their  own 
approaching  hour  of  trial.  She  has  al- 
ready drunk  deeply  of  the  cup  out  of 
which  all  other  Churches  will  have  ere 
long,  perhaps,  to  drink  ;  and  unspeakably 
the  most  fearful  will  it  be  for  that  Church 
which  shall  have  to  drain  the  dregs. 
For  it  seems  evident  to  almost  every  re- 
flecting mind,  that  the  last  great  conflict 
between  the  Church  and  the  world,  fore- 
told in  sacred  prophecy,  has  already  be- 
gun. The  various  events  which  may 
take  place  during  its  progress  cannot  be 
fully  foreseen  ;  but  the  issue  is  certain, 
and  it  is  awful, — the  destruction  of  all 
that  take  counsel  together  against  Jeho- 
vah, and  against  his  Anointed.  "  Be 
wise  now,  therefore,  O  ye  kings ;  be  in- 
structed, ye  judges  of  the  earth.  Serve 
the  Lord  with  fear,  and  rejoice  with 
trembling.  Kiss  the  Son,  lest  he  be 
angry,  and  ye  perish  from  the  way,  when 
his  wrath  is  kindled  but  a  little." 

It  would  be  equally  presumptuous  and 
unwise  to  hazard  any  definite  opinion  re- 
specting the  exact  nature  and  probable 
extent  and  duration  of  the  fearful  conflict 
of  irreconcilable  principles  which  has 
rent  asunder  the  Church  of  Scotland,  ex- 
pelled her  genuine  children  from  the 
temples  where  their  fathers  worshipped 
God,  is  rapidly  spreading  into  other  lands 
and  rousing  other  Churches,  and  may 
soon  convulse  Christendom  and  the 
world.  Enough  to  know  that  the  Lord 
God  Almighty  reigneth,  and  that  the 


Judge  of  all  the  earth  will  do  right 
Earnestly  is  it  to  be  wished  and  hoped 
that  the  warfare  may  continue  to  be 
spiritual,  not  carnal, — not  waged  against 
kings,  and  governments,  and  armed 
troops,  as  in  former  days  ;  but  not  the 
less  arduous  may  be  the  contest,  and  not 
the  less  protracted  may  be  the  struggle, 
against  an  antagonist  power  entrenched 
within  legal  forms,  and  aided  by  the  ag- 
gressive might  of  that  modern  despotism, 
abstract  human  law, — forgetful,  in  its 
pride,  of  those  high  spiritual  laws  which 
mould  time,  which  frame  and  govern 
life,  which  made  and  guide  the  universe, 
which  were  promulgated  from  heaven  to 
lead  immortal  souls  to  .its  abodes  of  ever- 
lasting peace,  and  which  have  their  sum 
and  centre  in  Him  who  is  the  King  Eter- 
nal. Whether  the  early  triumph  of  these 
high  spiritual  laws  shall  glad  the  hearts 
of  those  who  are  now,  exposed  to  every 
peril,  their  dauntless  defenders, — or 
whether  it  be  reserved  for  that  day,  near 
or  remote,  when  angels  shall  proclaim, 
"  The  kingdoms  of  this  earth  are  become 
the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  his 
Christ,  and  He  shall  reign  for  ever  and 
ever," — it  becomes  not  short-sighted  man 
to  conjecture ;  but  the  Free  Church  of 
Scotland  may,  and,  as  we  pray  and  trust, 
she  will,  go  forward  in  her  holy  course 
of  reformation,  completing  her  great  tes- 
timony, bearing  the  cross  and  defending 
the  crown  of  her  only  and  Divine  Head 
and  King,  strong  in  the  Lord  and  in  the 
power  of  his  might,  in  the  spirit  of  faith 
and  prayer,  and  hope, — encouraging  her 
heart  with  these  sacred  words,  "  THE 
LORD  is  OUR  JUDGE,  THE  LORD  is  OUR 
LAWGIVER,  THE  LORD  is  OUR  KING; 
HE  WILL  SAVE  us." 


APPENDIX, 


No.  I. 

Note  on  the  Death  of  Cardinal  Beaton,  p.  33. 

THE  attempt  which  has  been  made  by  Patrick 
Eraser  Tytler,  Esq.,  in  his  History  of  Scotland, 
to  prove  that  the  great  and  pious  Scottish  Re- 
formers were  implicated  in  some  of  the  most  crim- 
inal transactions  of  that  dark  and  stormy  period 
in  which  they  lived,  having  been  briefly  alluded 
to  in  the  body  of  this  work,  it  may  seem  neces- 
sary to  take  more  specific  notice  of  his  opinions 
than  could  there  appropriately  be  done.  With 
regard  to  the  charge  insinuated  against  Wishart, 
however,  that  he  was  concerned  in  a  conspiracy 
against  the  life  of  Cardinal  Beaton,  little  need  be 
said,  till  Mr.  Tytler  give  a  satisfactory  answer  to 
the  complete  "  Vindication  of  George  Wishart," 
which  appeared  in  the  Edinburgh  Christian  Mon- 
itor, vol.  iii.  p.  475,  in  the  year  1823.  The 
grounds  of  this  accusation  are,  the  prophetic  lan- 
guage of  Wishart  at  the  stake,  which  some  men 
think  more  likely  to  have  proceeded  from  actual 
knowledge  of  an  intended  assassination,  than 
from  any  preternatural  enlightenment  granted  to 
the  dying  martyr;  and  the  casual  mention  in 
some  manuscript  correspondence  of  the  period, 
that  "  a  Scottishman  called  Wysshert,"  was  said 
to  have  been  employed  by  Henry  VIII.  in  some 
alleged  conspiracy  against  the  life  of  the  cardinal. 
The  first  of  these  conjectural  suppositions  we 
leave  to  those  who  can  entertain  it;  because 
neither  reasoning,  nor  reference  to  many  similar 
well-authenticated  cases,  would  be  likely  to  pro- 
duce conviction  in  their  minds.  Another  answer 
might  be  given,  which  would  be  more  satisfactory 
to  some ;  neither  Fox,  in  his  account  of  Wishart's 
martyrdom,  nor  Knox,  make  any  mention  of  his 
prophetic  language ;  those,  therefore,  who  wish 
to  fasten  this  charge  upon  him  must  first  prove 
that  he  spoke  such  words.  With  regard  to  the 
other,  it  is  enough  to  state,  that  in  the  "  Vindica- 
tion" referred  to  above,  it  is  proved,  by  direct  his- 
torical testimony,  that  if  any  such  person  existed 
as  is  mentioned  in  the  manuscript,  he  could  nei- 
ther have  been  the  martyr,  nor  his  brother  the 
laird  of  Pittarow.  This  of  itself  is  enough  to  vin- 
dicate the  memory  of  Wishart  from  any  such  mere 
conjectural  aspersion  ;  for  no  conjecture,  founded 
on  the  mere  similarity  of  a  name,  loosely  men- 
tioned in  the  gossiping  language  of  epistolary  cor- 
respondence, may  ever  be  allowed  to  set  aside 
direct  historical  testimony.  It  would,  besides,  re- 
quire the  most  incontrovertible  evidence  to  sub- 
stantiate such  a  charge  against  all  the  moral  im- 
probabilities, or  rather  impossibilities,  which  it  has 
to  encounter,  when  brought  against  the  mild,  pa- 
tient, gracious,  and  heavenly-minded  martyr, 
George  Wishart. 


Note  on  the  Death  ofJRizzio,  p.  68. 

In  the  seventh  volume  of  his  History  of  Scot- 
land, Mr.  Tytler  has  directly,  and  even  ostenta- 
tiously, charged  John  Knox  with  being  "  precog- 
nizant  of,  and  implicated  in,"  the  murder,  of 
David  Rizzio.  This  charge  has  been  met,  and, 
as  most  people  think,  completely  refuted,  by  the 
Rev.  Thomas  M'Crie,  son  of  the  distinguished 
biographer  of  Knox.  It  is  not  my  intention,  cer- 
tainly, to  retrace  the  ground  which  has  been  so 
ably  occupied  by  Mr.  M'Crie,  thinking  it  enough 
to  refer  the  reader  to  his  answer  to  Mr.  Tytler,  as 
it  appeared  in  the  appendix  to  his  "  Sketches  of 
Scottish  Church  History."  Still,  as  there  may 
be  different  methods  of  demonstrating  the  same 
truth,  I  think  it  expedient  to  offer,  very  briefly, 
my  reasons  for  regarding  Mr.  Tytler's  accusation 
as  utterly  untenable ;  and  this,  I  trust,  I  may  do 
without  being  suspected  of  intending  any  disre- 
spect to  that  gentleman. 

Every  historian  finds  himself  often  compelled 
to  balance  conflicting  evidence,  in  order  to  arrive 
at  the  truth  of  any  subject  respecting  which  con- 
tradictory statements  have  been  made.  The  evi- 
dence thus  to  be  estimated  is  to  be  of  two  kinds, 
— the  evidence  of  facts,  and  the  evidence  of  moral 
probability.  These  kinds  of  evidence  sometimes 
seem  opposed  to  each  other,  and  sometimes  they 
coincide.  When  they  coincide,  a  conclusion 
amounting  to  absolute  certainty  is  obtained ;  but 
when  they  are  opposed  to  each  other,  the  task 
becomes  considerably  difficult  to  determine  to 
which  of  them  the  greatest  credit  is  due,  and  very 
opposite  conclusions  will  be  drawn  from  the  same 
data  by  minds^  differently  constituted.  It  requires 
a  higher  cast  of  mind  to  appreciate  duly  the  evi- 
dence of  moral  probability,  than  it  does  that  of 

|  facts  ;  although,  no  doubt,  when  the  facts  can  be, 
or  have  been,  fully  ascertained  and  substantiated, 
nothing  more  is  required,  and  the  controversy  is 
at  an  end.  Yet  such  is  the  power  of  moral  pro- 

!  bability,  that  every  man  must  have  felt  himself 
constrained  in  peculiar  instances  to  reject  in- 

j  stinctively  the  argument  of  facts,  and  to  say,  "  I 

I  cannot  believe  that  a  man  of  a  character  so  high 
and  noble  could  have  done  a  deed  so  base."  It 
will  not  be  a  small  amount  of  the  evidence  of  facts 
that  will  suffice  to  set  aside  such  an  instinctive 
moral  conviction  ;  and  when  facts  are  brought 
forward  with  that  view,  they  will  be  met  by  a  sill- 
ing investigation  whether  they  really  occurred, 
and  on  what  authority  we  are  asked  to  believe 
that  they  actually  took  place  as  they  are  said  to 
have  done.  Nothing  short  of  the  direct  testi- 
mony of  a  sufficient  number  of  witnesses  of  un- 
doubted veracity,  and  adequately  acquainted  with 
the  facts  which  they  relate,  will  ever  substantiate 
a  charge  which  is  instinctively  felt  to  be  morally 


476 


APPENDIX. 


improbable.  If,  for  example,  any  person  were  to 
attempt  to  propagate  a  report  that  the  Duke  of 
Wellington  had  been  detected  in  an  act  of  petty 
theft,  every  man  would  at  once  indignantly  feel 
and  declare,  that  it  was  impossible  ;  and  it  would 
require  an  extraordinary  amount  of  direct  evi- 
dence to  induce  and  constrain  any  man  to  believe 
a  report  so  abhorrently  incredible.  Not  less  clear 
and  incontrovertible  ought  to  be  the  evidence 
brought  forward  by  him  who  accuses  John  Knox 
of  being  implicated  in  an  act  of  private  murder. 
What,  then,  is  the  amount  of  evidence  adduced 
by  Mr.  Tytler  1 

The  following  is  a  brief  outline  of  the  main 
facts  of  the  event.  Queen  Mary  had  joined  the 
League  of  Bayonne,  which  was  framed  for  the 
purpose  of  utterly  exterminating  Protestantism 
by  violence.  This  was  well  known  to  the  Scot- 
tish Protestant  nobles  ;  and  her  Italian  secretary, 
David  Rizzio,  was  believed  to  be  the  agent 
through  whom  she  held  intercourse  with  the 
Romish  powers.  The  Protestant  nobles  resolved 
to  seize  Rizzio,  bring  him  to  trial,  and  condemn 
him  to  death,  as  a  person  engaged  in  treasonable 
transactions.  At  the  same  time  the  weak,  vain, 
and  violent  Darnley  conceived  a  strong  hatred 
against  this  Italian,  on  the  ground  of  an  imagined 
guilty  intercourse  between  him  and  the  queen. 
The  nobles  were  not  reluctant  to  obtain  Darnley 's 
countenance  to  promote  their  own  design  against 
Rizzio's  life.  There  was  thus  a  double  plot ;  and 
Mr.  Tytler,  without  the  shadow  of  evidence  to 
support  it,  nay,  against  direct  evidence  to  the 
contrary,  conjectures  that  the  nobles  must  have 
abandoned  their  own  intention  of  a  public  trial 
and  execution,  and  adopted  Darnley's  scheme  of 
a  private  murder.  Rizzio  was  actually  seized 
and  murdered.  Soon  afterwards,  the  blandish- 
ments of  the  queen  prevailed  over  her  fickle  hus- 
band, and  induced  him  to  violate  his  engagement 
to  the  lords ;  and  thus  the  conspiracy  was  broken 
up,  and  the  betrayed  noblemen  fled"  to  various 
quarters,  to  escape  from  the  vengeance  of  the 
queen.  John  Knox  retired  to  Kyle  for  a  season, 
well  knowing  that  Mary  bore  to  him  no  favour, 
and  that  if  she  had  it  in  her  power  to  bring 
him  within  the  sweep  of  her  meditated  vengeance, 
she  was  not  likely  to  let  slip  the  opportunity. 

Accounts  of  these  transactions  were  sent  to 
Cecil  by  the  Earl  of  Bedford,  and  by  Sir  Thomas 
Randolph,  from  Berwick,  to  which  town  several 
of  the  Scottish  nobles  had  fled  for  safety.  In 
Randolph's  letter,  dated  the  21st  of  March,  the 
names  of  those  who  were  concerned  in  the  death 
of  Rizzio  are  mentioned  ;  and  in  the  same  letter 
it  is  stated,  that  the  intention  of  the  lords  was  to 
have  hanged  him,  but  that  a  tumult  arising  in  the 
court  below,  and  fearing  a  rescue,  they  went  the 
next  way  to  work  with  him.  On  the  27th 
another  letter  was  sent  by  Randolph,  giving  a 
formal  and  authentic  list  of  those  who  were  con- 
corned  in  the  death  of  Rizzio.  In  neither  of  these 
does  the  name  of  Knox  occur.  An  account  of 
the  whole  matter  was  sent  to  Cecil  by  Morton 
and  Ruthven  ;  and  as  rumour  had  then  begun  to 
implicate  Knox  and  Craig,  these  noblemen  ex- 
pressly declare,  that  the  ministers  were  "  neither 
art  nor  part  of  that  deed,  nor  participate  thereof." 
A  similar  declaration  is  contained  in  Ruthven's 
own  narrative  of  the  event,  in  which  he  strongly 
exonerates  the  ministers.  Douglas  of  Lochleven, 


another  of  the  conspirators,  disclaims  the  inten- 
tion  of  murdering  Rizzio,  and  declares  that  it  was 
their  purpose  to  punish  him  by  order  of  justice. 
Hume  of  Godscroft,  in  his  History  of  the  House 
of  Douglas,  says  the  same.  Every  author,  in 
short,  of  any  credibility,  gives  the  same  general 
statement, — that  the  lords  intended  to  bring  Riz- 
zio to  a  public  trial,  and  to  condemn  him  to  death 
and  execute  him  as  a  plotter  against  the  religion 
and  the  liberties  of  the  kingdom,  and  that  the 
ministers  were  in  no  respect  implicated  in  the 
matter. 

To  overwhelm  the  whole  of  the  evidence  thus 
briefly  stated,  Mr.  Tytler  brings  forward  the  one 
small  fact,  that  he  found  a  slip  of  paper  pinned 
to  Randolph's  first  letter,  which  slip  contained  a 
list  of  those  "who  were  at  the  death  of  Davy, 
and  privy  thereunto,  and  are  now  in  displeasure 
with  the  queen,  and  their  houses  taken  and, 
spoiled."  This  pinned  list  contains  the  names 
of  John  Knox  and  John  Craig.  It  has  no  sig- 
nature, but  is  thought  to  be  in  the  handwriting 
of  a  clerk  employed  by  the  Earl  of  Bedford, — a 
likely  enough  person  to  pick  up  the  floating  ru- 
mours of  the  day.  This  pinned  list  contains 
enough  to  prove  it  unworthy  of  credit.  It  states 
that  "all  these  were  at  the  death  of  Davy," 
whereas  it  is  certain  that  neither  Knox  nor  Craig 
were  present.  It  further  adds,  that  they  "  are 
now  in  displeasure  with  the  queen,  and  their 
houses  taken  and  spoiled  ;"  yet  it  is  known  that 
Craig  was  not  in  displeasure  with  the  queen,  and 
there  is  no  evidence  that  the  house  of  Knox 
was  "taken  and  spoiled."  Such  glaring  mis- 
statements  prove  this  pinned  slip  to  be  a  mere 
transcript  of  some  popular  report,  such  as  are 
busily  circulated  without  examination  when  any 
remarkable  event  excites  the  public  mind,  but 
which  no  man  of  candour  or  of  judgment  regards. 
It  is  strange  reasoning,  surely,  to  say,  that  be« 
cause  an  unauthenticated  rumour  is  false  in  two 
points,  it  must  be  true  in  the  third.  Mr.  Tytler 
is  not  at  liberty  to  change  the  express  words  of 
this  precious  document,  converting  and  into  or, 
that  it  may  the  better  serve  his  purpose.  He 
does  so  at  the  hazard  of  endangering  his  own 
character  for  candour  and  integrity.  It  must  be 
taken  as  it  is,  without  any  such  constructions, 
and  then  it  manifests  its  own  falsehood. 

Feeling,  apparently,  that  this  small  fact  of  the 
pinned  list  furnished  but  slender  evidence  on  the 
strength  of  which  to  implicate  John  Knox  in  a 
charge  of  murder,  Mr.  Tytler  attempts  to  corrob- 
orate it  by  reasoning  from  the  known  sentiments 
of  the  Reformer  ;  that  is,  he  leaves  the  evidence 
of  facts,  and  enters  upon  the  evidence  of  moral 
probability.  His  first  and  chief  argument  is,  that 
Knox  held  it  lawful  for  private  persons  to  put  to 
death  notorious  murderers  and  tyrants,  provided 
that  ajl  redress  by  the  ordinary  courts  of  justice  was 
impossible.  This  will  not  prove  that  Knox  would 
either  have  engaged  in  such  a  deed  himself,  or 
would  have  approved  of  its  being  done  privately; 
and,  besides,  in  t,he  case  of  Rizzio,  the  supposed 
emergency  did  not  exist,  the  banded  lords  being 
sufficiently  powerful  to  bring  him  to  a  public 
trial,  as  it  is  proved  that  they  intended  to  do,  his 
private  seizure  being  merely  to  prevent  the  possi- 
ble occurrence  of  a  public  tumult.  The  attempt 
to  fasten  such  a  charge  upon  the  Reformer,  on 
the  ground  of  his  holding  such  an  abstract  theory, 


APPENDIX. 


477 


is  manifestly  absurd,  unless  it  be  first  proved  that 
the  case  was  precisely  such  as  his  theory  sup- 
posed. And  even  then  it  would  be  necessary  to 
show  that  he  could,  consistently  with  his  own 
character,  have  put  his  theory  into  execution  in 
the  same  manner  as  that  in  which  Rizzio  was 
killed.  Now,  from  the  whole  tenor  of  Knox's 
life  it  is  evident  that  he  could  not  have  committed 
a  deliberate,  contrived,  private  murder.  Such  a 
man,  had  he  not  been  a  Christian,  might  have 
killed  a  tyrant  in  his  open  court  and  surrounded 
by  his  guards,  but  could  not  have  crept  into  his 
bedchamber  to  murder  him  in  secret.  Mr.  Tyt- 
ler  attempts  further  to  prove,  that  the  murder  of 
Rizzio  was  not  accidental,  arising  out  of  a  sudden 
tumultuous  frenzy  enhanced  by  the  apprehension 
of  being  frustrated  in  the  completion  of  their  de- 
sign. Strange  that  he  does  not  perceive  how 
much  more  improbable  this  renders  it  that  Knox 
could  have  been  implicated  in  the  crime.  Indeed, 
reasoning  from  Mr.  Tytler's  premises,  and  taking 
into  consideration  the  high,  bold,  and  pious  char- 
acter of  John  Knox,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that 
no  man  who  can  comprehend  moral  evidence 
will  ever  regard  the  charge  against  him  as  any 
thing  else  than  a  charge  involving  a  moral  im- 
possibility. And  this  I  regard  as  a  proof  how 
unfit  Mr.  Tytler  is  to  deal  with  moral  evidence. 

Another  argument  on  which  he  builds  is  this : 
that  at  a  subsequent  period  one  of  the  ministers, 
defending  Knox  from  the  aspersions  of  King 
James,  said,  "that  the  slaughter  of  David  was 
allowed  by  Knox,  as  far  as  it  was  the  work  of 
God,  and  not  otherwise."  Mr.  Tytler  here  evi- 
dently misunderstands  both  the  sentiment  and 
the  word  used  to  express  it.  The  sentiment  is  a 
sufficiently  common  one,  nothing  being  more 
usual  than  for  men  to  say,  when  any  great  crim- 
inal perishes  miserably,  that  it  is  a  remarkable 
instance  of  the  righteous  retribution  of  Provi- 
dence, while  they  do  not  intend  to  express  ap- 
probation of  the  human  instrumentality  by  which 
such  retribution  was  effected.  The  word  allowed 
was  in  former  times  used,  not  to  mean  permitted 
an  event  to  take  place,  but  generally  in  the  loose 
sense  of  approbation  of  the  object  intended,  and 
often  little  more  than  abstaining  from  censure. 
The  meaning  of  the  sentence  is  plainly  this :  So 
far  as  the  death  of  Rizzio  may  be  regarded  as  the 
righteous  retribution  of  Providence,  John  Knox 
approved,  or  did  not  condemn  it;  but  he  ex- 
pressed no  approbation  of  it,  so  far  as  it  was  the 
deed  of  guilty  men.  Rightly  understood,  this 
goes  to  prove  that  Knox  was  not  implicated  in  a 
deed  which,  so  far  as  it  was  man's,  he  disaVow*. 

Mr.  Tytler  attempts  to  remove  another,  objec- 
tion to  which  his  accusation  is  exposed,  from  the 
declaration  of  Morton  and  Ruthven,  that  none  of 
the  ministers  were  "  art  and  part,  or  participate," 
in  the  deed.  This  he  does  by  labouring  to  show, 
that  in  Morton's  estimation,  to  be  precognizant 
of  an  intended  crime  without  revealing  it,  and  to 
be  "art  and  part"  in  it,  were  not  equivalent  ex- 
pressions. He  might  have  understood  Morton's 
meaning  better  had  he  attended  a  little  more  ac- 
curately to  his  reasoning.  Morton  was  accused 
of  being  "  art  and  part"  in  Darnley's  murder. 
This  he  strenuously  denied;  yet  he  owed  that 
he  knew  it  was  intended,  and  did  not  reveal  it. 
When  asked  how  he  could  reconcile  this  with  his 
denial  of  being  art  and  part  in  it,  he  answered. 


"  To  whom  should  I  have  revealed  it  ?  To  the 
queen  1  She  was  the  doer  thereof.  The  kinw 
was  such  a  child,  that  there  was  nothing  tol3 
him  but  he  would  reveal  it  to  her  again.  And 
therefore  I  durst  in  no  ways  reveal  it.  I  fore- 
knew, indeed,  and  concealed  it,  because  I  durst 
not  reveal  it  to  any  creature  for  my  life."  Morton 
reasons,  that  the  primary  law  of  self-preservation 
exonerated  him  from  the  accusation  of  being  ac- 
cessary to  the  commission  of  a  crime  of  which  he 
was  precognizant,  and  disapproved  yet  concealed, 
because  he  believed  that  to  reveal  it  would  cause  his 
own  death,  and  would  not  prevent  its  being  com- 
mitted. But  he  could  not  have  given  to  John 
Knox  the  same  excuse  which  he  took  to  himself, 
when  he  denied  that  "  precognizance "  was  in 
such  a  case  equivalent  to  "  art  and  part,"  unless 
he  had  been  prepared  to  prove,  that  for  Knox  to 
have  revealed  it  would  have  caused  his  own  death 
without  preventing  the  crime,  so  that  to  be  silent 
was  merely  an  act  of  self-preservation,  and  im- 
plied no  approbation  of  the  deed.  In  this  instance 
also  Mr.  Tytler  shows  himself  to  be  singularly 
unable  to  understand  and  apply  moral  evidence 
and  reasoning. 

But  it  is  needless  to  traverse  the  whole  ground  of 
Mr.  Tytler's  small  facts  and  smaller  arguments. 
Enough  has  been  said,  I  trust,  to  substantiate  the 
opinion  given  in  the  body  of  this  work,  that 
"  certainly  so  grave  a  charge,  and  so  improbable, 
was  never  brought  forward  and  maintained  on 
evidence  so  slender,  nay,  so  absolutely  incredi- 
ble." Mr.  Tytler  would  need  to  beware,  other- 
wise his  character  as  a  historian  will  not  long 
stand  high,  either  for  candour  and  impartiality, 
or  for  soundness  of  judgment.  There  is  a  law  of 
retribution  which  never  fails  in  its  operation. 
When  a  man  assails  the  character  of  another,  and 
fails  to  prove  his  charge,  the  accusation  recoils, 
crushing  him  who  put  it  in  motion.  And  even 
though  no  consequence  so  serious  should  take 
place,  the  public  may  begin  to  draw  this  conclu- 
sion, that  the  mind  which  is  continually  prying 
into  minute  details,  is  liable  to  lose  the  higher 
faculties  of  comprehensiveness  and  discrimina- 
tion, to  form  an  undue  estimate  of  the  value  of 
small  facts,  and  to  regard  as  discoveries  what  a 
mind  of  higher  order  would  at  once  have  per- 
ceived to  be  merely  the  idle  rumours  or  the  parti- 
zan  insinuations  of  the  day,  and  would  have 
deemed  unworthy  of  any  notice. 


No.  II. 
ACTS  OF  PARLIAMENT. 

In  the  year  1560,  on  the  17th  of  August,  the 
First  Confession  of  Faith  of  the  Reformed  Church 
of  Scotland  was  "  professed,  ratifiet,  and  ap- 
proveit  in  Parliament ;"  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Pope  was  abolished ;  and  an  act  was  passed 
against  idolatry,  and  another  abolishing  the  mass. 

In  the  year  1567,  on  the  19th  of  April,  Queen 
Mary,  before  the  last  series  of  criminal  actions 
which  led  to  her  imprisonment  and  exile,  passed  an 
act  securing  to  all  her  subjects  freedom  froirTcivil 
njury  in  their  adherence  to  the  Reformed  faith. 


478 


APPENDIX. 


But  it  was  not  till  the  meeting  of  the  first  par- 
liament, held  by  the  Regent  Murray,  that  a  full 
recognition  was  made  of  the  Reformed  Church, 
amounting  to  its  establishment  as  the  National 
Church  of  Scotland.  The  most  important  points 
of  these  acts  of  parliament  are  here  given. 

Act  1567.  ck.  6.  Anent  the  trew  and  holy  Kirk, 
and  of  thame  that  are  dedarit  not  to  be  of  ike 
samin. 

Item,  Forsamekle  as  the  Ministeris  of  the  blissit 
Euangell  of  Jesus  Christ,  quhome  God  of  his 
mercy  hes  now  rasit  vp  amangis  vs,  or  heirefter 
sail  rais,  aggreing  with  thame  that  now  liues,  in 
doctrine  and  administratioun  of  the  Sacramentis, 
and  the  pepill  of  this  realme,  that  professis  Christ 
as  he  now  is  offerit  in  his  Euangell,  and  do  com- 
municat  with  the  holy  sacramentis  (as  in  the  re- 
formit  Kirkis  of  this  Realme  ar  publicklie  admin- 
istrat),  according  to  the  Confession  of  the  Faith, 
Our  Souerane  Lord,  with  auise  of  my  Lord  Re- 
gent and  three  Estatis  of  this  present  Parliament, 
hes  declarit  and  declaris  the  foirsaid  kirk  to  be  the 
onlie  trew  and  holy  Kirk  of  Jesus  Christ  within 
this  realme,  and  decernis  and  declareis  that  all 
and  sundrie  quha  outher  gainsayis  the  Word  of 
the  Euangell  ressauit  and  appreuit  as  the  heides 
of  the  Confessioun  professit  in  Parliament  of  be- 
foir,  in  the  yeir  of  God  1560  yeirs,  as  alswa  spe- 
cifiet  in  the  Actis  of  this  Parliament  mair  partic- 
ularlie  dois  expres,  and  now  ratifyit  and  appreuit 
in  this  present  Parliament,  or  that  refusis  the 
participation  of  the  holy  sacraments  as  thay  ar 
now  ministrat,  to  be  na  membris  of  the  said  Kirk 
within  this  realme  now  presently  professit  swa 
lang  as  they  keipe  thame  selfis  sa  deuydit  fra  the 
societie  of  Christis  body. 

Ad  1567,  ck.  7.  Anent  ike  Admissioun  of  thame 
that  sal  be  presentit  to  Benefices  hauand  cure  of 
Ministrie. 

Item,  It  is  statute  and  ordained  by  our  Sove- 
raine  Lord,  with  advice  of  his  dearest  Regent, 
and  three  Estatis  of  this  present  Parliament,  that 
the  examination  and  admission  of  ministers, 
within  this  Realme,  be  only  in  the  power  of  the 
Kirk,  now  openlie  and  publicly  professed  within 
the  samin.  The  presentation  of  laic  Patronages 
alwais  reserved  to  the  Just  and  auncient  Patrones. 
And  that  the  Patron  present  ane  qualified  per- 
soun,  within  sex  Moneths  (after  it  may  cum  to 
his  knavvledge,  of  the  decease  of  him  quha  bruiked 
the  Benefice  of  before)  to  the  Superintendent  of 
thay  partis,  quhar  the  Benefice  lyis,  or  uthers 
havand  commission  of  the  Kirk  to  that  effect; 
utherwaies  the  Kirk  to  have  power,  to  dispone 
the  samin  to  ane  qualifyed  person  for  that  time. 

Providing  that  in  caice  the  Patron  present  ane 
person  qualified  to  his  understanding,  and  failze- 
ing  of  ane,  ane  uther  within  the  said  six  Moneths, 
and  the  said  Superintendent  or  Commissioner  of 
of  the  Kirk  refusis  to  receive  and  admit  the  per- 
son presented  be  the  Patron,  as  said  is :  It  sail  be 
lessum  [lawful]  to  the  Patron  to  appeale  to  the 
Superintendent  and  Ministers  of  that  province 
quhar  the  Benefice  lyis,  and  desire  the  person 
presented  to  be  admitted,  quhilk  gif  they  refuse, 
to  appeal  to  the  General  Assemblie  of  the  haill 
realme,  be  quhom  the  cause  be  and  decyded,  sail 
take  end,  as  they  decerne  and  declair 


Act  1567,  ck.  12.  Anent  the  iurisdictioun  of  the 
Kirk. 

Item,  Anent  the  Artickle  proponit  and  geuin  in 
by  the  Kirk  to  my  Lord  Regent  and  the  thre  Es- 
tatis of  this  present  Parliament,  anent  the  iuris- 
dictioun  iustlie  apperteining  to  the  trew  Kirk 
and  immaculat  spous  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  be  de- 
clarit and  expressit  as  the  artickle  at  mair  lenth 
is  consult :  The  Kingis  Grace,  with  auise  of  my 
Lord  Regent  and  thre  Estatis  of  this  present  Par- 
liament, hes  declarit  and  gran  tit  iurisdictioun  to 
the  said  Kirk  ;  quhilk  consistis  and  standis.  in 
preiching  of  the  trew  word  of  Jesus  Christ,  cor- 
rection of  the  maneris,  and  administration  of  haly 
sacramentis.  And  declaris,  thatthair  is  na  vther 
face  of  Kirk  nor  vther  face  of  Religioun,  than  is 
presentlie  be  the  faour  of  God  establischeit  within 
this  realme.  And  that  thair  be  na  vther  iurisdic- 
tioun ecclesiasticall  acknawledgit  within  this 
realme,  vther  than  that  quhilk  is  and  sail  be 
within  the  same  Kirk,  or  that  quhilk  flowis  thair- 
fra  concerning  the  premisses ;  and  forther,  our 
Souerane  Lord,  with  auis,  of  my  Lord  Regent 
and  thre  Estatis  foirsadis,  hes  geuein  and  geuis 
power  and  commission  to  Schir  James  Balfour 
of  Pittindreich,  Kyncht,  Priour  of  Pittinwecm ; 
Mark,  Commendatour  of  Newbottill ;  Johne 
Priour  of  Coldinghame,  Lord  Preuie  Seal ;  Mais- 
ter  James  Makgill  of  Rankillour  Nether,  Clerk 
of  Register ;  William  Maitland,  younger  of  Le- 
thington,  Secretar  to  our  Souerane  Lord ;  Schir 
Johne  Bellenden  of  Auchinoull,  Knycht,  Justice 
Clerk;  John  Erskine  of  Dune;  Maister  Johne 
Spottiswod,  Superintendent  of  Lowthaine  ; 
Johne  Knox  ;  Maister  Johne  Craig ;  and  Mais- 
ter Dauid  Lindesay,  Ministeris  of  the  worde  of 
God,  To  seirche  furth  mair  speciallie,  and  to  con- 
sidder,  quhat  vther  speciall  pointis  or  clausis 
sould  appertene  to  the  iurisdictioun,  priuilege, 
and  authoritie  of  the  said  Kirk,  and  to  declair 
thair  mindis  thairanentis  to  my  Lord  Regent  and 
thre  Estatis  of  this  Realme  at  the  nixt  Parlia- 
ment, Swa  that  they  may  tak  ordour  thairintill, 
and  authories  the  samin  be  act  of  Parliament,  as 
sail  be  fund  agreable  to  the  worde  of  God. 

[These  acts  were  again  ratified  in  the  years 
1578,  1579,  and  1581. 

In  1581,  a  short  act  was  passed  respecting  the 
few  lay  patronages  at  that  time  existing,  but 
which  the  king  was  strenuously  endeavouring  to 
increase.] 

Act  1581,  ck.  102.  Thai  ministeris  sail  be  pre- 
sentit be  the  Kingis  Majestie  and  the  lawit 
Patronis,  to  all  benefices  of  cuir  under  Pre- 
lacyis. 

Item,-It  is  statute  and  ordanitbeour  Souerane 
Lord,  with  aduise  of  his  thre  Estatis  of  this  pres- 
ent Parliament,  That  all  benefices  of  cuir  under 
prelacyis,  sail  be  presentit  be  our  Souerane  Lord, 
and  the  lawit  personis,  in  the  fauoure  of  abill 
and  qualifeit  ministers,  apt  and  willing  to  enter 
in  that  functioun — and  to  discharge  the  dewtie 
thairof.  And  in  cace  any  sail  happin  to  be 
gevin  and  disponit  wtherwise  hereafter,  decernis 
and  declaris  the  giftis  and  dispositiounis  to  be 
null  and  of  none  availl,  force,  nor  effect. 

[Next  appear  the  "  Black  Acts"  of  1584 


APPENDIX. 


479 


Act  1584,  ch.  129.  An  Ad  confirming  the  Kingis 
Majesties  Royall  Power  over  all  Stalls  and 
Subjectis  within  this  Realme. 

Forsameklc  as  syndrie  personis,  being  laitlie 
callit  befoir  the  Kingis  Majestic  and  his  secreit 
Counsel!,  to  answer  upon  certaine  pointis  to  have 
bene  inquirit  of  thame,  concerning  sum  treasoun- 
able,  seditious,  and  contumelious  speches,  utterit 
by  thame  in  Pulpit,  Scholis,  and  vtherways,  to 
the  disdane  and  reprooche  of  his  Hienes,  his  Pro- 
genitouris,  and  present  Counsell,  contemtuouslie 
declinit  the  judgment  of  his  Hienes  and  his  said 
Counsell  in  that  behalf,  to  the  evill  exemple  of 
uthers  to  do  the  like,  gif  tymous  remeid  be  not 
providit:  Tlhairfoir  our  Souerane  Lord,  and  his 
thrie  Estatis,  assembled  in  this  present  Parlia- 
ment, ratifeis  and  apprevis,  and  perpetuallie  con- 
firmis  the  royall  power  and  authoritie  over  all 
statis,  alsweil  Spirituall  as  Temporall,  within  this 
Realme,  in  the  persoun  of  the  Kingis  Majestic, 
our  Souerane  Lord,  his  airis  and  successouris : 
And  als  statutis  and  ordanis,  that  his  Hienes,  his 
said  airis  and  successouris,  be  thameselffis  and 
thair  counsellis,  ar,  and  in  tyme  to  cum  sail  be, 
jugcs  competent  to  all  personis  his  Hienes  sub- 
jectis,  of  quhatsumever  estate,  degrie,  functioun, 
or  conditioun  that  ever  they  be  of,  Spirituall  or 
Temporall,  in  all  matteris  quhairin  they,  or  ony 
of  thame,  sail  be  apprehendit,  summound,  or 
chargcit  to  answer  to  sik  thingis  as  sail  be  in- 
quirit of  thame,  be  our  Soverane  Lord  and  his 
Counsell.  And  that  nane  of  thame,  quhilkis  sail 
happin  to  be  apprehendit,  callit,  or  summound  to 
the  efl'ect  foirsaid,  presume  or  tak  upoun  hand  to 
decline  the  jugement  of  his  Hienes,  his  airis  or 
successouris,  or  thair  Counsell,  in  the  premisses, 
under  the  pane  of  treasoun. 

Act  1584,  ch.  131.  Act  discharging  all  jurisdic- 
tionis  and  judgmentis,  not  approvit  be  Parlia- 
ment, and  all  Assembkis  and  Conventions, 
without  our  Souerane  Lordis  speciall  licence 
and  commandment. 

Our  Souerane  Lord  and  his  thrie  Estates,  as- 
semblit  in  this  present  Parliament,  dischargeis  all 
jugementis  and  jurisdictionis,  Spirituall  or  Tem- 
porall, accustomat  to  be  usit  and  execute,  upoun 
ony  of  his  Hienes  subjectis,  quhilkis  are  not  ap- 
provit be  his  Hienes  and  his  saids  thrie  Estatis, 
convenit  in  Parliament ;  and  decernis  the  same 
to  ceis  in  tyme  cumming,  quhil  the  ordour  thereof 
be  first  sene  and  considerit  in  Parliament,  and  be 
allowit  and  ratifeit  be  thame.  Certifeing  thame 
that  sail  proceid  in  using  and  exerceing  of  the 
saids  jugementis  and  jurisdictionis,  or  in  obeying 
of  the  same,  not  being  allowit  and  ratifeit,  as  said 
is,  They  sail  be  repute,  halden,  callit,  presewit, 
and  punissit  as  usurparis,  and  contemnaris  of  his 
Hienes  auctoritie,  in  example  of  utheris.  And 
als  it  is  statute  and  ordainit,  be  our  Souerane 
Lord,  and  his  thrie  Estatis,  that  none  of  his  Hie- 
nes subjectis,  of  quhatsumever  qualitie,  estate,  or 
functioun  they  be  of,  Spirituall  or  Temporall,  pre- 
sume to  tak  upoun  hand,  to  convocat,  convene, 
or  assemble  thaniselffis  togidder,  for  holding  of 
councellis,  conventionis,  or  assembleis,  to  treat, 
consult  and  determinat  in  ony  matter  of  Estate, 
Civill  or  Ecclesiasticall  (except  in  the  ordinare 
jugementis),  without  his  Majesties  speciall  com- 
mandement,  expres  licence  had  and  obtenit  to 


that  effect,  under  the  panis  ordinit  in  the  lawis 
and  actis  of  Parliament,  agains  sic  as  unlawfullie 
convocat  the  Kingis  lieges. 

Act  1584,  ch.  132.     The  Causes  and  Maner  of 
Deprivation  of  Ministers. 

Our  Souerane  Lord,  and  his  thrie  Estatis,  as- 
semblit  in  this  present  Parliament,  willing  that 
the  word  of  God  sail  be  preachit,  and  Sacramentis 
administrat  in  puritie  and  synceritie,  and  that  the 
rentis,  quhairon  the  Ministeris  audit  to  be  sus- 
tenit,  sail  not  be  possest  be  unworthie  personis 
neglecting  to  do  thair  dewties,  for  whilkis  they 
accept  thair  benefices,  being  utherwayis  polluted 
with  the  fraill  and  enorme  crymis  and  vices  after 
specefeit.  It  is,  thairfoir,  statute  and  ordainit  be 
his  Hienes,  with  auice  of  the  saides  thrie  Estatis, 
that  all  Personis,  Ministeris,  or  Reiddaris,  or  uth- 
eris providit  to  benefices,  sen  his  Hienes  Corona- 
tioun  (not  having  vote  in  his  Hienes  Parliament), 
suspectit  culpable  of  heresie,  papistrie,  fals  and 
erroneous  doctrine,  common  blasphemie,  fornica- 
tion, common  drunkennes,  non-residence,  plural- 
itie  of  benefices  having  cure,  quhairunto  they  are 
providit  sen  the  said  Coronatioun,  Symonie,  and 
dilapidatioun  of  the  rentis  of  benefices,  contrare 
the  lait  Act  of  Parliament,  being  lawfullie  and  or- 
dourlie  callit,  tryit,  and  adjudgit  culpable,  in  the 
vices  and  causes  aboue written,  or  onie  of  thame, 
be  the  ordinare  Bishop  of  the  diocie,  or  utheris 
the  Kingis  Majesties  Commissionaris  to  be  consti- 
tute in  Ecclesiasticall  causes,  sail  be  deprivit 
alsweil  fra  thair  functioun  in  the  Ministerie,  as 
fra  thair  benefices,  quhilkis  sail  be  thairby  de- 
clarit  to  be  vacand  ;  to  be  presentit  and  conferrit 
of  new,  as  gif  the  personis  possessouris  thairof, 
were  naturallie  dead  :  And  that  it  sail  be  esteemit 
and  jugeit  not-residence,  quhair  the  persoun  be- 
ing in  the  function  of  the  ministerie,  providit  to 
ane  benefice,  sen  the  Kingis  Majesties  Corona- 
tioun, makis  not  residence  at  his  mans,  gif  he  ony 
hes ;  and  failzeing  thereof,  at  sum  uther  dwelling- 
place  within  the  parochin ;  but  remains  absent 
thairfra,  and  from  his  Kirk,  and  using  of  his 
office,  be  the  space  of  four  Sondayis  in  the  haill 
zeir,  without  lawfull  caus  and  impediment,  allowit 
be  his  ordinare.  And  quhair  ony  persoun  is  ad- 
mittit  to  ma  benefices,  havand  cure,  sen  our 
Soverane  Lordis  Coronatioun,  the  acceptioun  of 
the  last  sail  be  sufficient  cause  of  deprevatioun 
from  the  remnant,  swa  that  he  be  providit  to  twa 
or  ma  benefices  havand  cure,  sen  the  tyme  of  the 
said  Coronation.  And  nevertheles,  this  present 
Act  sail  not  extend  to  ony  persoun  providit  to  his 
benefice  befoir  the  said  Coronatioun,  nathcr  sail 
the  bruking  of  the  said  office,  quhairunto  he  was 
providit  of  befoir,  induce  pluralitie  of  benefices  in 
this  cace;  bot  he  sail  allanerlie  tyne  his  richt 
of  the  benefice  quhairunto  he  was  providit  sen. 
the  said  Coronatioun  allanerlie:  And  unioun  of 
kirkis  to  ane  benefice  not  to  be  jugeit  pluralitie, 
quhill  farder  ordour  be  establissit  and  providit  in 
that  behalf:  Likeas  alswa,  the  personis  being  in 
the  functioun  of  the  ministerie,  that  sail  happin 
to  be  lawfullie  and  ordourlie  convict  befoir  our 
Soverane  Lordis  Justice-Generall,  or  utheris 
thair  Jugeis  competent  of  criminal  causis,  sick  as 
treasoun,  slachter,  mutilatioun,  adultene,  incest, 
thift,  [commoun  oppressioun,  usurie  aganes  the 
lawis  of  this  Realme,]  perjurie,  or  falset :  They 


480 


APPENDIX. 


being  lykewayis  lawfullie  and  ordourlie  deprivit 
fra  their  function  in  the  ministerie,  be  thair  ordi- 
nair,  or  the  Kingie  Commissionaris  in  Ecclesias- 
ticall  causes.  The  benefices  possest  be  the  saidis 
personis  to  vaik,  be  reasoun  of  the  said  convic- 
tioun  and  deprivatioun.  And  this  to  have  effect 
and  execution  onlie  for  crimis,  vicis,  faultis,  and 
offenceis,  that  sail  happin  to  be  committit  efter 
the  dait  hierof. 

[That  important  Act  commonly  designated 
"The  Great  Charter  of  the  Church,"  which 
was  passed  in  the  year  1592,  demands  special  at- 
tention.] 

Actl  592,  ch.  116.  Act  for  abolishing  of  the  Actis 
contrair  the  trew  Religion.  [Ratification  of 
the  libertie  of  the  trew  Kirk :  Of  General  and 
Synodall  Assemblies :  Of  Presbyteries  of  Disci- 
pline. All  laws  for  Idolatrie  ar  abrogate :  Of 
Presentation  to  Benefices.] 

Our  Soverane  Lord  and  Estaittis  of  this  present 
Parliament,  following  the  loveable  and  gude  ex- 
ample of  their  predecessours,  Hes  ratifiet  and  ap- 
previt,  and  be  the  tenour  of  this  present  Act 
ratifies  and  apprevis,  all  liberties,  privileges,  im- 
munities, and  freedomes,  quatsumever,  gevin  and 
grantit  be  his  Hienes,  his  Regentis  in  his  name, 
or  ony  of  his  predecessouris,  to  the  trew  and  haly 
Kirk,  presentlie  establishit  within  this  realme ; 
and  declarit  in  the  first  Act  of  his  Hienes  Parlia- 
ment, the  twcntie  day  of  October,  the  zier  of  God 
ane  thousand,  five  hundreth,  three-scoir  ninetene 
zieres  ;  and  all  and  whatsumevir  Actis  of  Parlia- 
ment, and  statutes  maid  of  befoir,  be  his  Hienes 
and  his  Regentis,  anent  the  libertie  and  freedome 
of  the  said  Kirk :  and  specialie  the  first  Act  of 
the  Parliament,  halden  at  Edinburgh,  the  twen- 
tie-foure  day  of  October,  the  zier  of  God  ane 
thousand,  five  hundreth,  and  foir-scoir  ane  zieres, 
with  the  haill  particulare  Actis  thairin  mentionat, 
quhilk  sail  be  als  sufficient  as  gif  the  samyn  wer 
herin  exprest.  And  all  uther  Actis  of  Parlia- 
ment maid  sensyne,  in  favouris  of  the  trew  Kirk  ; 
and  siklyke,  ratifies  and  apprevis  the  General! 
Assemblies  appointed  be  the  said  Kirk  :  And  de- 
claris,  that  it  sail  be  lauchfull  to  the  Kirk  and 
Ministrie  everilk  zier  at  the  leist,  and  ofter  pro  re 
nata,  as  occasion  and  necessitie  sail  require,  to 
hald  and  keip  Generall  Assemblies :  Providing 
that  the  Kingis  Majestie  or  his  Commissioner 
with  thame,  to  be  appoyntit  be  his  Hienes,  be 
present  at  ilk  Generall  Assemblie,  befoir  the  dis- 
solving thairof  nominal  and  appoint  tyme  and 
place  quhen  and  quhair  the  nixt  Generall  Assem- 
blie sail  be  haldin  :  and  in  caise  nather  his  Ma- 
jestie nor  his  said  Commissioner  beis  present  for 
the  tyme  in  that  toun,  quhair  the  General  Assem- 
blie beis  halden,  Then,  and  in  that  caise,  it  sail 
be  lessum  to  the  said  Generall  Assemblie,  be 
themselffis,  to  nominat  and  appoynt  tyme  and 
place  quhair  the  nixt  Generall  Assemblie  of  the 
Kirk  sail  be  keipit  and  haldin,  as  they  haif  bene 
in  use  to  do  thir  tymes  bypast.  And  als  ratifies 
and  apprevis  the  Sinodall  and  Provinciall  Assem- 
blies, to  be  halden  be  the  said  Kirk  and  Ministrie, 
twyis  ilk  zier,  as  they  haif  bene,  and  are  present- 
lie  in  use  to  do,  within  every  Province  of  this 
realme ;  And  ratifeis  and  apprevis  the  Presbyte- 
ries, and  particulare  Sessionis  appoyntit  be  the 


said  Kirk,  with  the  haill  jurisdictioun  and  disci- 
pline  of  the  same  Kirk,  aggreit  upon  be  his  Ma- 
jestie, in  conference  had  be  his  Hienes  with  cer- 
tane  of  the  Ministrie  convenit  to  that  effect :  of  the 
quhilkis  Articles  the  tenour  followis.  MATKRIS 
to  be  entreated  in  Provincial  Assemblies  :  Thir 
Assemblies  ar  constitute  for  wechtie  materis, 
necessar  to  be  entreatit  be  mutuall  consent,  and 
assistance  of  brethrene,  within  the  Province  as 
neid  reqvyris.  This  Assemblie  hes  power  to 
handle,  ordour,  and  redresse  all  things  omittit  or 
done  amisse  in  the  particulare  Assemblies.  It 
hes  power  to  depose  the  office-beareris  of  that 
Province,  for  gude  and  just  causes,  deserving  de- 
privatioun :  And  generallie,  thir  Assemblies  hes 
the  haill  power  of  the  particulare  Elderschippis, 
quhairof  they  are  collectit.  MATKRIS  to  be  en- 
treated in  the  Presbyteries.  The  power  of  the 
Presbyteries  is  to  give  diligent  labouris  in  the 
boundis  committed  to  their  chairge:  That  the 
Kirkis  be  kepit  in  gude  ordour :  To  inquire  dili- 
gentlie  of  the  naughtie  and  ungodlie  personis : 
And  to  travell  to  bring  them  in  the  way  agane 
be  admonitioun,  or  threatening  of  Goddis  jtige- 
mentis,  or  be  correctioun.  It  appertenis  to  the 
Elderschip,  to  tak  heid  that  the  Word  of  God  be 
puirlie  preachit  within  thair  boundis,  the  Sacra- 
mentis  richtlie  ministrat,  the  Discipline  enter- 
teynit,  And  Ecclesiaslicall  guidis  uncorruptlie 
distributit.  It  belangis  to  this  kynd  of  Assem- 
bleis,  to  caus  the  ordinances  maid  be  the  Assem- 
bleis,  Provinciallis,  Nationallis,  and  Generallis, 
to  be  kepit  and  put  in  executioun,  to  mak  consti- 
tutionis,  quhilkis  concernis  TO  -rrpsTrov  in  the  Kirk, 
for  decent  ordour,  in  the  particulare  kirk  quhair 
they  governe ;  provyding  that  they  alter  na  rewlis 
maid  be  the  Provinciall  or  Generall  Assemblies : 
And  that  they  make  the  Provinciall  Assemblies  foir- 
saidis,  privie  of  the  rewlis  that  they  sail  mak,  and 
to  abolishe  constitutionis  tending  to  the  hurte  of 
the  same.  It  has  power  to  excommunicat  the 
obstinat,  formale  proces  being  led,  and  dew  inter- 
vail  of  tymes  observit.  ANE  NT  particulare  kirkis, 
Gif  they  be  lauchfully  rewlit  be  sufficient  minis- 
teris  and  sessioun,  Thay  haif  power  and  jurisdic- 
tioun in  their  awin  congregation,  in  materis  Ec- 
clesiastical!, And  decernes  and  declaris  the  said 
Assembleis,  Presbyteries,  and  Sessiounes,  Juris- 
dictioun, and  Discipline  thairof  foirsaid,  to  be  in 
all  tymes  cuming  maist  just,  gude,  and  godlie  in 
theselff,  Notwithstanding  of  quhatsumevir  Stat- 
utis,  Actis,  Cannon,  Civile,  or  municipall  Lawes, 
maid  in  the  contrair  :  To  the  quhilkis  and  every 
ane  of  thame,  thir  presentis  sal!  mak  expres  dero- 
gatioun.  And  becaus  thair  ar  divers  Actis  of 
Parliament,  maid  in  favour  of  the  Papistical  Kirk, 
tending  to  the  prejudice  of  the  libertie  of  the  trew 
Kirk  of  God,  presentlie  professit  within  this 
realme,  jurisdictioun,  and  discipline  thairof, 
Quhilk  stands  zit  in  the  buikis  of  the  Actis  of 
Parliament,  not  abrogat  nor  annullit:  Thairfoir 
his  Hienes  and  Estaittis  foirsaidis  hes  abrogat, 
cassit,  and  annullit,  and  be  the  tenor  hierof, 
abrogatis,  cassis,  and  annullis,  all  Actis  of  Parlia- 
ment maid  be  ony  of  his  Hienes  predecessoris,  for 
mantenance  of  superstitioun  and  idolatrie,  with 
all  and  quhatsumevir  Acts,  Laws,  and  Statutes, 
maid  at  ony  tyme,  befair  the  day  and  dait  hierof, 
aganis  the  libertie  of  the  the  trew  Kirk,  jurisdic- 
tioun, and  discipline  thairof,  as  the  samyn  is  usil 
and  exerceisit  within  this  realme.  And  in  special!. 


APPENDIX. 


481 


that  pairt  of  the  sevint  Act  of  Parliament  halden 
at  [Streviling,  the  fourt  day  of  November,  ane 
thousand  four  hundreth,  fourty-three]  zeiris,  com- 
manding obedience  to  be  gevin  to  Eugin,  the 
Pape  for  the  tyme :  the  1 09  Act  made  be  King 
James  the  third,  in  his  Parliament  halden  at  Ed- 
inburgh, the  twenty-fourth  day  of  Februar,  [the 
zcir  of  God]  ane  thousand,  four  hundreth,  four- 
scor  time  zeirs.  And  all  utheris  actis  quhairby 
the  Papis  authoritie  is  establishit.  The  fourty- 
seven  Act  of  King  James  the  third,  in  his  Parlia- 
ment halden  at  Edinburgh,  the  [twenty  day  of 
N'lvmbcr,  ane  thousand,  four  hundreth,  three- 
score nine]  ziers,  anent  the  Satterday  and  uther 
vigilis  to  be  hally  dayes  from  Evin  sang  to  Evin 
sano-.  ITEM,  that  pairt  of  the  thirty-one  Act 
maid  be  the  Queene  Regent,  in  the  Parliament 
halden  at  Edinburgh,  the  first  day  of  Februar,  { 
anc  thousand,  five  hundreth,  fifty-ane  zeirs, 
Geving  speciall  licence  for  haldin  of  Pashe  and 
Zule.  ITEM,  the  Kingis  Majesty  and  Estatis 
foresaidis  declaris,  that  the  secund  Act  of  the 
Parliament  haldin  at  Edinburgh,  the  xxij  day  of 
Maij,  the  zier  of  God  ane  thousand,  five  hun- 
dreth, four  scoir,  four  zeires,  sail  naways  be  pre- 
judiciall,  nor  derogat  any  thing  to  the  privilege 
that  God  hes  givin  to  the  spirituall  office-beareris 
in  the  Kirk,  concerning  heads  of  religioun,  ma- 
teris  of  heresie,  excommunicatioun,  collation  or 
deprivation  of  rninisteris,  or  ony  sik  essential  cen- 
sours,  speciall  groundit,  and  havand  warrand  of 
the  word  of  God.  ITEM,  Our  said  Soverane 
Lord,  and  Estattis  of  Parliament  forsadis,  abro- 
gatis,  cassis,  and  annulis  the  XX  Act  of  the  same 
Parliament,  halden  at  Edinburgh,  the  said  zeir, 
ane  thousand,  five  hundreth,  fourscoir,  four  zeires, 
granting  commission  to  bischoppis  and  utheris 
juges,  constitute  in  ecclesiasticall  causes,  to 
ressaue  his  Hienes  presWitatioun  to  benefices,  to 
gif  collatioun  thairupon,  and  to  put  ordour  in  all 
causes  ecclesiasticall :  quhilk  his  Majesty  and 
Estatis  foresaidis  declaris  to  be  expyrit  in  the  self, 
and  to  be  null  in  tyme  cuming,  and  of  nane 
availl,  force,  nor  effect.  And  thairfoir  ordanis  all 
presentations  to  benefices,  to  be  direct  to  the  par- 
ticular presbyteries,  in  all  tyme  cuming:  with 
full  power  to  thame  to  giff  collationis  thereupon  ; 
and  to  put  ordour  to  all  materis  and  causes  eccle- 
siasticall, within  thair  boundis,  according  to  the 
discipline  of  the  Kirk :  Providing  the  forsaidis 
presbyteries  be  bund  and  astrictit  to  ressaue  and 
admitt  quhatsumeuir  qualifiet  minister  presentit 
DC  his  Majestic,  or  uther  laic  patrounes. 

Act  1592,  ch.  117.  Unqualified  persons  being  de- 
prived, tJie  Benefice  vaikes,  and  the  Patron  not 
prcsentand,  the  right  of  Presentation  pcrtaines 
1o  the  Presbylerie,  but  prejudice  of  the  tackes,  set 
be  the  person  deprived. 

Our  Souerane  Lord,  Considering  the  great 
abuses  quhilkis  ar  laitlie  croppen  in  the  Kirk, 
throw  the  misbehaviour  of  sik  personis  as  ar 
providit  to  ecclesiasticall  functionis:  sic  as  per- 
sonages and  vicarages  within  any  parrochin,  and 
thairefter  neglecting  thair  charge,  ather  levis 
thair  cure,  or  ellis  committis  sik  crymes,  faultis, 
or  enormities  that  they  are  fund  worthy  of  the 
sentence  of  dcprivatioun,  ather  befoir  thair  awin 
presbyterie,  or  ellis  befoir  the  Sinodall  and  Gen- 
erall  AssemHies.  Quhilk  sentence  is  the  less  re- 


gardit  be  thame,  Because,  albeit  they  be  deprivit 
of  their  functioun  and  cure  within  the  Kirk :  zit 
they  thinke  they  may  bruike  lawfully  the  profiles 
and  rentes  of  their  saidis  benefices,  enduring  their 
lyfetymes,  Notwithstanding  the  said  sentence  of 
deprivatioun :  Thairfore,  our  Soverane  Lord,  with 
avice  of  the  Estaitis  of  this  present  Parliament, 
declaris,  that  all  and  quhatsomevir  sentence  of 
deprivatioun,  ather  pronouncit  already,  or  that 
happenis  to  be  pronouncit  hereafter,  be  ony  Pres- 
byterie, Synodall  or  General  Assemblie,  agains 
ony  persone  or  vicare  within  their  jurisdictioun, 
provydit  sen  his  Hienes  coronation :  (All  personis 
provydit  to  personages  and  vicarages,  quha  hes 
voit  in  Parliament,  Secreit  Council,  and  Ses- 
sioun,  or  providit  thairto  of  auld,  befoir  the  Kingis 
coronatioun,  And  Maister  George  Young,  Archi- 
dene  of  Sanct  Androis,  being  specially  exceptit,) 
is  and  sal  be  repute  in  all  jugementis,  ane  just 
cause  to  seclude  the  persone  befoir,  providit,  and 
than  deprivit  from  all  profiles,  commodities,  rentes, 
and  deweties  of  the  said  personage  and  vicarage, 
or  benefice  of  cure :  And  that  ather  be  way  of 
actioun,  exception,  or  reply.  And  that  the  said 
sentence  of  deprivatioun  sal  be  ane  sufficient 
cause  to  mak  the  said  benefice  to  vaike  thereby. 
And  the  said  sentence  being  extractit  and. pre- 
sentit to  the  Patroun,  the  said  Patroun  sal  be 
bund  to  present  ane  qualifiit  persone  of  new  to 
the  Kirk,  within  the  space  of  sex  monethis  thair- 
efter. And  gif  he  failzie  to  do  the  same,  the  said 
Patroun  sal  tyne  the  richt  of  presentation  for  that 
tyme  allanerlie :  And  the  richt  of  presentation  to 
be  devolvit  in  the  handes  of  the  Presbytery  within 
the  quhilk  benefice  lyes ;  to  the  effect  that  they 
may  dispone  the  same,  and  gif  collatioun  thereof, 
to  sik  ane  qualifiit  persone  as  they  sail  think  ex- 
pedient. Providing  allwayes,  in  caise  the  Pres- 
bytery refuises  to  admit  ane  qualifiit  minister, 
presentit  to  thame  be  the  Patroun,  it  sail  be 
lauchful  to  the  Patroun  to  retene  the  haill  fruitis 
of  the  same  benefice  in  his  awin  handes.  And 
forder,  his  Hienes  and  Estatis  foirsaides  declaris, 
that  the  deprivatioun  already  pronouncit,  or  to  be 
pronouncit,  be  ony  Presbytery,  Synodall  or  Gen- 
erall  Assemblies,  agains  ony  of  the  personis  or 
vicaris  afoirsaid,  sail  nawayes  hurte  or  be  preju- 
diciall  to  ony  tackes,  lawchfullie  set  be  that  per 
sone  deprivit,  befoir  his  deprivatioun,  to  quhat- 
sumevir  personis. 

[It  does  not  seem  to  be  generally  known,  that 
the  peculiarities  of  the  act  1592,  c.  116,  are  di- 
rectly favourable  to  the  Church  in  that  very 
respect  in  which  they  have  been  thought  unfa- 
vourable. No  express  mention  is  made  of  the 
Second  Book  of  Discipline,  but  certain  of  its  main 
topics  are  ratified,  while  others  are  apparently 
passed  over.  Hence  it  has  been  argued  that 
nothing  has  been  ratified  to  the  Church  but  what 
is  specifically  mentioned  in  the  act  itself,  and  that 
every  other  topic  in  the  Book  of  Discipline  must 
be  hold  to  have  been  rejected.  It  has  been 
shown  by  Mr.  Dunlop  what  fatal  confusion  such 
a  theory  would  introduce,  and  that,  therefore,  it 
cannot  be  admitted.  But  the  true  reason  of  this 
peculiarity  in  the  act  appears  to  be  the  following. 
It  is  well  known  that  when  the  Second  Book  of 
Discipline  was  laid  before  the  privy  council,  cer- 
tain articles  were  at  once  ratified,  and  others 
j  were  referred  to  further  consideration.  Now,  on 


482 


APPENDIX. 


comparing  the  copy  of  the  Book  of  Discipline  in 
Spotswood,  in  which  the  marginal  comments  of 
the  privy  council  are  given,  with  the  act  1592,  it 
is  remarkable  that  none  of  those  marked  "  agreed" 
are  contained  in  the  act,  while  the  chief  of  those 
marked  ''•  referred"  are.  From  this  the  conclu- 
sion seems  inevitable,  that  having  already  agreed 
to  these  in  the  privy  council,  and  thereby  ratified 
them,  it  was  not  necessary  to  specify  any  but 
those  which  had  been  left  for  future  considera- 
tion, and  consequently,  that  partly  by  the  con- 
currence of  the  privy  council,  and  partly  by  the 
act  of  1592,  thus  combined,  almost  the  whole  of 
the  Second  Book  of  Discipline  was  ratified,  and 
became  the  law  of  the  land,  as  well  as  the  law  of 
the  Church. 

[In  the  year  1649,  the  Scottish  parliament,! 
when  free  from  external  control,  and  at  liberty 
to  legislate  solely  for  the  good  of  the  country, 
and  under  the  influence  of  a  religious  spirit, 
which  taught  them  to  respect  the  freedom  and 
promote  the  purity  of  Christ's  spiritual  kingdom, 
passed  the  following  important  act : — ] 

Ad  of  Parliament  abolishing  the  Patronage  of 
Kirks,  at  Edinburgh,  March  9,  1649. 

The  Estates  of  Parliament  being  sensible  of  the 
great  obligation  that  lies  upon  them  by  the  Na- 
tional Covenant,  and  by  the  Solemn  League  and 
Covenant,  and  by  many  deliverances  and  mer- 
cies from  God,  and  by  the  late  Solemn  Engage- 
ment unto  Duties,  to  preserve  the  doctrine,  and 
maintain  and  vindicate  the  liberties  of  the  Kirk 
of  Scotland,  and  to  advance  the  work  of  reform- 
ation therein  to  the  utmost  of  their  power ;  and, 
considering  that  patronages  and  presentations  of 
kirks  is  an  evil  and  bondage,  under  which  the 
Lord's  people  and  ministers  of  this  land  have 
long  groaned;  and  that  it  hath  no  warrant  in 
God's  Word,  but  is  founded  only  on  the  canon 
law,  and  is  a  custom  popish,  and  brought  into  the 
Kirk  in  time  of  ignorance  and  superstition ;  and 
that  the  same  is  contrary  to  the  Second  Book  of 
Discipline,  in  which,  upon  solid  and  good  ground, 
it  is  reckoned  amongst  abuses  that  are  desired  to 
be  reformed,  and  unto  several  acts  of  General 
Assemblies;  and  that  it  is  prejudicial  to  the 
liberty  of  the  people  and  planting  of  kirks,  and 
unto  the  free  calling  and  entry  of  ministers  unto 
their  charge ;  and  the  said  estates,  being  willing 
and  desirous  to  promote  and  advance  the  Reform- 
ation foresaid,  that  every  thing  in  the  house  of 
God  may  be  ordered  according  to  his  word  and 
commandment,  do  therefore,  from  the  sense  of 
the  former  obligations,  and  upon  the  former 
grounds  and  reasons,  discharge  for  ever  hereafter 
all  patronages  and  presentations  of  kirks,  whether 
belonging  to  the  King,  or  to  any  laick  patron, 
Presbyteries,  or  others  within  this  kingdom,  as 
being  unlawful  and  unwarrantable  by  God's 
Word,  and  contrary  to  the  doctrine  and  liberties 
of  the  Kirk  ;  and  do  repeal,  rescind,  make  void, 
and  annul  all  gifts  and  rights  granted  thereanent, 
and  all  former  acts  made  in  Parliament,  or  in 
any  inferior  judicatory,  in  favours  of  any  patron 
or  patrons  whatsoever,  so  far  as  the  same  doth  or 
may  relate  unto  the  presentation  of  kirks  ;  and 
do  statute  and  ordain,  that  no  person  or  persons 
whatsomever  shall,  at  any  time  hereafter,  take 


upon  them,  under  pretext  of  any  title,  infeftment, 
act  of  Parliament,  possession  or  warrant  whatso- 
ever, which  are  hereby  repealed,  to  give,  sub- 
scribe, or  seal  any  presentation  to  any  kirk, 
within  this  kingdom ;  and  discharges  the  passing 
of  any  infeftment  hereafter,  bearing  a  right  to 
patronages,  to  be  granted  in  favours  of  those  for 
whom  the  infeftments  are  presented;  and  that 
no  person  or  persons  shall,  either  in  the  behalf 
of  themselves  or  others,  procure,  receive,  or  make 
use  of  any  presentation  to  any  kirk  within  this 
kingdom.  And  it  is  further  declared  and  or- 
dained, that  if  any  presentation  shall  hereafter  be 
given,  procured,  or  received,  that  the  same  is 
null,  and  of  none  effect;  and  that  it  is  lawful  for 
Presbyteries  to  reject  the  same,  and  to  refuse  to 
admit  any  to  trials  thereupon;  and,  notwith- 
standing thereof,  to  proceed  to  the  planting  of  the 
kirk,  upon  the  suit  and  calling,  or  with  the  con- 
sent of  the  congregation,  on  whom  none  is  to  be 
obtruded  against  their  will.  And  it  is  decerned, 
statuted,  and  ordained,  that  whosoever  hereafter 
shall  upon  the  suit  and  calling  of  the  congrega- 
tion, after  due  examination  of  their  literature  and 
conversation,  be  admitted  by  the  Presbytery  unto 
the  exercise  and  functioun  of  the  ministry,  in 
any  parish  within  this  kingdom,  that  the  said 
person  or  persons,  without  a  presentation,  by  vir- 
tue of  their  admission,  hath  sufficient  right  and 
title  to  possess  and  enjoy  the  manse  and  glebe, 
and  the  whole  rents,  profits,  and  stipends,  which 
the  ministers  of  that  parish  had  formerly  possess! 
and  enjoyed,  or  that  hereafter  shall  be  modified 
by  the  commission  for  plantation  of  kirks.  .  .  . 
And  because  it  is  needful,  that  the  just  and  pro- 
per interest  of  congregations  and  Presbyteries,  in 
providing  of  Kirks  and  ministers  be  clearly  deter- 
mined by  the  General  Assembly,  and  what  is  to 
be  accounted  the  congregation  having  that  inter- 
est ;  therefore,  it  is  hereby  seriously  recommended 
unto  the  next  General  Assembly,  clearly  to  de- 
termine the  same,  and  to  condescend  upon  a  cer- 
tain standing  way  for  being  a  settled  rule  therein 
for  all  times  coming. 

[It  is  not  necessary  to  insert  the  tyrannical 
acts  passed  in  the  reigns  of  Charles  II.  and  James 
VII.,  as  these  are  sufficiently  specified  in  the 
body  of  the  work,  and  necessarily  perished  at  the 
period  of  the  Revolution.  The  Revolution  Set- 
tlement follows : — ] 

Act  1690,  ch.  5.  Act  Ratifying  the  Confession 
of  Faith,  and  Settling  Presbyterian  Church 
Government. 

Our  Sovereign  Lord  and  Lady,  the  King  and 
Queen's  Majesties,  and  three  Estates  of  Parlia- 
ment, conceiving  it  to  be  their  bound  duty,  after 
the  great  deliverance  that  God  hath  lately  wrought 
for  this  Church  and  Kingdom, — in  the  first  place, 
to  settle  and  secure  therein  the  true  Protestant 
religion,  according  to  the  truth  of  God's  Word, 
as  it  hath  of  a  long  time  been  professed  within 
this  land :  As  also  the  government  of  Christ's 
Church  within  this  nation,  agreeable  to  the  Word 
of  God,  and  most  conducive  to  the  advancement 
of  true  piety  and  godliness,  and  the  establishing 
of  peace  and  tranquility  within  this  realme  :  And 
that,  by  an  article  of  the  Claim  of  Right,  it  is  de- 
clared that  Prelacy,  and  the  superiority  of  any 


APPENDIX. 


483 


office  in  the  Church  above  Presbyteries  is,  and 
hath  been,  a  great  and  unsupportable  grievance 
and  trouble  to  this  nation,  and  contrary  to  the 
inclinations  of  the  generality  of  the  people  ever 
since  the  Reformation, — they  having  reformed 
from  Popery  by  Presbyters, — and  therefore  ought 
to  be  abolished  :  Likeas,  by  an  Act  of  the  last 
Session  of  this  Parliament  Prelacy  is  abolished : 
Therefore  their  Majesties,  with  advice  and  con- 
sent of  the  said  Three  Estates,  do  hereby  revive, 
ratifie,  and  perpetually  confirm,  all  Laws,  Stat- 
utes, and  Acts  of  Parliament  made  against  Popery 
and  Papists,  and  for  the  maintenance  and  preser- 
vation of  the  true  reformed  Protestant  religion, 
and  for  the  true  Church  of  Christ  within  this 
kingdom,  in  so  far  as  they  confirm  the  same,  or 
are  made  in  favours  thereof.  Likeas,  they,  by 
these  presents,  ratifie  and  establish  the  Confes- 
sion of  Faith,  now  read  in  their  presence ;  and 
voted  and  approved  by  them,  as  the  publick  and 
avowed  Confession  of  this  Church,  containing  the 
sum  and  substance  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Re- 
formed Churches,  (which  Confession  of  Faith  is 
subjoined  to  this  present  Act.)  As  also  they  do 
establish,  ratifie,  and  confirm  the  Presbyterian 
Church  government  and  discipline ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  government  of  the  Church,  by  Kirk-Sessions, 
Presbyteries,  Provincial  Synods,  and  General 
Assemblies,  ratified  and  established  by  the  114th 
Act,  Ja.  6,  Parl.  19,  anno  1592,  intituled,  Ratifi- 
cation of  the  Liberty  of  the  true  Kirk,  tf*c.,  and 
thereafter  received  by  the  general  consent  of  this 
nation,  to  be  the  only  government  of  Christ's 
Church  within  this  kingdom  ;  reviving,  renewing, 
and  confirming  the  foresaid  Act  of  Parliament,  in 
the  whole  heads  thereof,  except  that  part  of  it 
relating  to  Patronages,  which  is  hereafter  to  be 
taken  into  consideration :  And  rescinding,  annul- 
ling, and  making  void  the  Acts  of  Parliament 
following,  viz : — Act  anent  Restitution  of  Bishops, 
Ja.  6,  Parl.  18,  cap.  2. ;  Act  Ratifying  the  Acts 
of  Assembly  1610,  Ja.  6,  Parl.  21,  cap.  1 ;  Act 
anent  the  Election  of  Archbishops  and  Bishops, 
Ja.  6,  Parl.  22,  cap.  1 ;  Act  intituled,  Ratification 
of  the  Five  Articles  of  the  General  Assembly  at 
Perth,  Ja.  6,  Parl.  23,  cap.  1 ;  Act  intituled,  For 
the  Restitution  and  Re-establishment  of  the  an- 
cient Government  of  the  Church  by  Archbishops 
and  Bishops,  ch.  2,  Parl.  1,  Sess.  2,  Act  1 ;  anent 
the  constitution  of  a  National  Synod,  ch.  2,  Parl. 

1.  Sess.  3,  Act  5 ;  Act  against  such  as  refuse  to 
depone  against  delinquents,  ch.  2,  Parl.  2,  Sess. 

2,  Act  2 ;  Act  intituled,  Act  acknowleding  and 
asserting  the  right  of  succession  to  the  Imperial 
Crown  of  Scotland,  ch.  2,  Parl.  3,  Act  2 ;  Act 
intituled,  Act  anent  Religion  and  the  Test,  ch.  2, 
Parl.  3,  Act  6;  with  all  other  acts,  laws,  statutes, 
ordinances,  and  proclamations,  and  that  in  so  far 
allenarly  as  the  said  Acts,  and  others  generally 
and  particularly  above-mentioned,  or  contrary  or 
prejudicial  to,  inconsistent  with,  or  derogatory 
from   the  Protestant  religion  and  Presbyterian 
government  now  established ;  and  allowing  and 
declaring  that  the  church  government  be  estab- 
lished inlhe  hands  of,  and  exercised  by,  these  Pres- 
byterian ministers  who  were  outed  since  the  1st 
of  January  1661,  for  non-conformity  to  Prelacy, 
or  not  complying  with  the  courses  of  the  times ; 
and  are  now  restored  by  the  late  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment, and  such  ministers  and  elders  only  as  they 
have  admitted  or  received,  or  shall  hereafter  ad- 


mit or  receive :  And  also,  that  all  the  said  Pres- 
byterian ministers  have,  and  shall  have  right  to 
the  maintenance,  rights,  and  other  privileges,  by 
law  provided  to  the  ministers  of  Christ's  Church 
within  this  kingdom,  as  they  are,  or  shall  be, 
legally  admitted  to  particular  churches.  Likeas, 
in  pursuance  of  the  premises,  their  Majesties  do 
hereby  appoint  the  first  meeting  of  the  General 
Assembly  of  this  Church,  as  above  established,  to 
be  at  Edinburgh,  the  third  Thursday  of  October 
next  to  come,  in  this  instant  year,  1690.  And 
because  many  conform  ministers  either  have  de- 
serted, or  were  removed  from  preaching  in  their 
churches,  preceding  the  thirteenth  day  of  April 
1689,  and  others  were  deprived  for  not  giving 
obedience  to  the  Act  of  the  Estates  made  in  the 
said  thirteenth  of  April  1689,  intituled,  Proclama- 
tion against  the  owning  of  the  late  King  James, 
and  appointing  publick  prayers  for  King  William 
and  Queen  Mary :  Therefore  their  Majesties,  with 
advice  and  consent  foresaid,  do  hereby  declare 
all  the  churches,  either  deserted,  or  from  which 
the  conform  ministers  were  removed  or  deprived, 
as  said  is,  to  be  vacant ;  and  that  the  Presbyte- 
rian ministers  exercising  their  ministry  within 
any  of  these  paroches  (or  where  the  last  incum- 
bent is  dead),  by  the  desire  or  consent  of  the 
paroch,  shall  continue  their  possession,  and  have 
right  to  the  benefices  and  stipends,  according  to 
their  entry  in  the  year  1689,  and  in  time  coming, 
ay,  and  while  the  Church,  as  now  established, 
take  further  course  therewith.  And  to  the  effect 
the  disorders  that  have  happened  in  this  Church 
may  be  redressed,  their  Majesties,  with  advice 
and  consent  foresaid,  do  hereby  allow  the  gen- 
eral meeting,  and  representatives  of  the  foresaid 
Presbyterian  ministers  and  elders,  in  whose  hands 
the  exercise  of  the  Church  government  is  estab- 
lished, either  by  themselves,  or  by  such  ministers 
and  elders  as  shall  be  appointed  and  authorised 
visitors  by  them,  according  to  the  custom  and 
practice  of  Presbyterian  government  throughout 
the  whole  kingdom,  and  several  parts  thereof,  to 
try  and  purge  out  all  insufficient,  negligent, 
scandalous,  and  erroneous  ministers,  by  due 
course  of  ecclesiastical  process  and  censures; 
and,  likewise,  for  redressing  all  other  Church 
disorders.  And  further,  it  is  hereby  provided, 
that  whatsoever  minister,  being  convened  before 
the  said  general  meeting  and  representatives  of 
the  Presbyterian  ministers  and  elders,  or  the  vis- 
itors to  be  appointed  by  them,  shall  either  prove 
contumacious  in  not  appearing,  or  be  found 
guilty,  and  shall  be  therefore  censured,  whether 
by  suspension  or  deposition,  they  shall  ipso  facto 
be  suspended  from  or  deprived  of  their  stipends 
and  benefices. 

Ad  1690,  ch.  23,    Act  concerning  Patronages. 

Our  Sovereign  Lord  and  Lady,  the  King  and 
Queen's  Majesties,  considering,  that  the  power 
of  presenting  ministers  to  vacant  churches,  of 
late  exercised  by  patrons,  hath  been  greatly 
abused,  and  is  inconvenient  to  be  continued  in 
this  realm,  do  therefore,  with  the  advice  and  con- 
sent of  the  Estates  of  Parliament,  hereby  dis- 
charge, cass,  annul,  and  make  void  the  foresaid 
power,  heretofore  exercised  by  any  patron,  of 
presenting  ministers  to  any  kirk  now  vacant,  or 
that  shall  hereafter  happen  to  vaik  within  this 


484 


APPENDIX. 


kingdom,  with  all  exercise  of  the  said  power: 
And  also  all  rights,  gifts,  and  infeftments,  acts, 
statutes,  and  customs,  in  so  far  as  they  may  be 
extended,  or  understood,  to  establish  the  said 
right  of  presentation  ;  but  prejudice  always,  of 
such  ministers  as  are  duly  entered  by  the  foresaid 
presentations  (while  in  use),  their  right  to  the 
manse,  glebe,  benefice,  stipend,  and  other  profits 
of  their  respective  churches,  as  accords :  And  but 
prejudice  to  the  patrons  of  their  right  to  employ 
the  vacant  stipends  on  pious  uses,  within  the 
respective  parodies,  except  where  the  patron  is 
popish,  in  which  case  is  to  employ  the  same  on 
pious  uses,  by  the  advice  and  appointment  of  the 
Presbytery  ;  and  in  case  the  patron  shall  fail  in 
applying  the  vacant  stipend  for  the  uses  foresaid, 
that  he  shall  lose  his  right  of  administration  of  the 
vacant  stipend  for  that  and  the  next  vacancy, 
and  the  same  shall  be  disposed  on  by  the  Presby- 
tery to  the  uses  foresaid  ;  excepting  always  the 
vacant  stipends  within  the  bounds  of  the  Synod 
of  Argyle :  And  to  the  effect,  the  calling  and  en- 
tering ministers,  in  all  time  coming,  may  be 
orderly  and  regularly  performed,  their  Majesties, 
with  consent  of  the  Estates  of  Parliament,  do 
statute  and  declare,  That,  in  case  of  the  vacancy 
of  any  particular  church,  and  for  supplying  the 
same  with  a  minister,  the  heritors  of  the  said 
parish  (being  Protestants)  and  the  elders  are  to 
name  and  propose  the  person  to  the  whole  con- 
gregation, to  be  either  approven  or  disapproven 
by  them  ;  and  if  they  disapprove,  that  the  disap- 
provers  give  in  their  reasons,  to  the  effect  the 
affair  may  be  cognosced  upon  by  the  Presbytery 
of  the  bounds,  at  whose  judgment,  and  by  whose 
determination,  the  calling  and  entry  of  a  particu- 
lar minister  is  to  be  ordered  and  concluded.  And 
it  is  hereby  enacted,  that  if  application  be  not 
made  by  the  eldership,  and  heritors  of  the  paroch, 
to  the  Presbytery,  for  the  call  and  choice  of  a 
minister,  within  the  space  of  six  months  after  the 
vacancy,  that  then  the  Presbytery  may  proceed 
to  provide  the  said  parish,  and  plant  a  minister 
in  the  church,  tanquam  jure  devoluto.  It  is  al- 
ways hereby  declared,  that  this  act  shall  be  but 
prejudice  of  the  calling  of  ministers  to  royal 
burghs  by  the  Magistrates,  Town-Council,  and 
Kirk-Session  of  the  burgh,  where  there  is  no 
landward  parish,  as  they  have  been  in  use  before 
the  year  1660.  And  where  there  is  a  considera- 
ble part  of  the  paroch  in  landward,  that  the  call 
shall  be  by  Magistrates,  Town-Council,  Kirk- 
Session,  and  the  heritors  of  the  landward  paroch. 
And  in  lieu  and  recompense  of  the  said  right  of 
presentation,  hereby  taken  away,  their  Majesties, 
with  advice  and  consent  aforesaid,  statute  and 
ordain  the  heritors  and  liferenters  of  each  paroch, 
and  the  Town-Councils  for  the  burgh,  to  pay  the 
said  patrons,  betwixt  and  Martinmas  next,  the 
sum  of  six  hundred  merks,  &c.,  &c. 

[The  circumstances  connected  with  the  act 
1693,  and  the  objects  it  was  intended  to  subserve, 
have  been  already  mentioned  in  the  body  of  the 
work,  see  pp.  309,  310.] 

Ad  1693.     Ad  for  Settling  the  Quiet  and  Peace 
of  the  Church. 

Our  Sovereign  Lord  and  Lady,  the  King  and 
Queen's  Majesties,  with  advice  and  consent  of 


the  Estates  of  Parliament,  ratifie,  approve,  and 
perpetually  confirm  the  fifth  act  of  the  second 
session  of  this  current  parliament,  entitled,  Act 
ratifying  the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  settling 
Presbyterian  Church  Government,  in  the  whole 
Heads,  Articles,  and  Clauses  thereof;  and  do 
further  statute  and  ordain,  that  no  person  be  ad- 
mitted, or  continued  for  hereafter,  to  be  a  minis- 
ter or  preacher  within  this  Church,  unless  that 
he  having  first  taken  and  subscribed  the  oath  of 
allegiance,  and  subscribed  the  assurance,  in  man- 
ner appointed  by  another  act  of  this  present  ses- 
sion of  parliament,  made  thereanent :  Do  also 
subscribe  the  Confession  of  Faith,  ratified  in  the 
foresaid  fifth  act  of  the  second  session  of  this  par- 
liament, declaring  the  same  to  be  the  confession 
of  his  faith,  and  that  he  owns  the  doctrine  therein 
contained  to  be  the  true  doctrine  which  he  will 
constantly  adhere  to :  As,  likewise,  that  he  owns 
and  acknowledges  Presbyterian  Church  govern- 
ment, as  settled  by  the  foresaid  fifth  act  of  the 
second  session  of  this  parliament,  to  be  the  only 
government  of  this  Church,  and  that  he  will  sub- 
mit thereto,  and  concur  therewith,  and  never  en- 
deavour, directly  or  indirectly,  the  prejudice  or 
subversion  thereof.  And  their  Majesties,  with 
advice  and  consent  foresaid,  statute  and  ordain, 
that  uniformity  of  worship,  and  of  the  administra- 
tion of  all  public  ordinances  within  this  Church,  be 
observed  by  all  the  saids  ministers  and  preachers 
as  the  same  are  at  present  performed  and  allowed 
therein,  or  shall  be  hereafter  declared  by  Jhe  au- 
thority of  the  same;  and  that  no  minister  or 
preacher  be  admitted  or  continued  for  hereafter, 
unless  that  he  subscribe  to  observe,  and  do  actually 
observe,  the  foresaid  uniformity :  And  for  the  more 
effectual  settling  the  quiet  and  peace  of  this  church, 
the  estates  of  parliament  do  hereby  make  a  humble 
address  to  their  Majesties,  that  they  would  be 
pleased  to  call  a  General  Assembly,  for  the  ordering 
the  affairs  of  the  Church,  and  to  the  end  that  all 
the  present  ministers  possessing  churches,  not  yet 
admitted  to  the  exercise  of  the  foresaid  Church 
government,  conform  to  the  said  Act,  and  who 
shall  qualify  themselves  in  manner  foresaid,  and 
shall  apply  to  the  said  Assembly,  or  the  other 
Church  judicatures  competent,  in  an  orderly  way, 
each  man  for  himself,  be  received  to  partake  with 
them  in  the  government  thereof:  Certifying  such 
as  shall  not  qualify  themselves,  and  apply  to  the 
said  Assembly,  or  other  judicatures,  within  the 
space  of  thirty  days  after  meeting  of  the  said  first 
Assembly,  in  manner  foresaid,  that  they  may  be 
deposed  by  the  sentence  of  the  said  Assembly 
and  other  judicatures  tarn  ob  officio  quam  a  bene- 
fitio  (as  from  the  office,  so  also  from  the  bene- 
fice) ;  and  withal  declaring,  that  if  any  of  the 
said  ministers  who  have  not  hitherto  been  re- 
ceived into  the  government  of  the  Church,  shall 
offer  to  qualify  themselves,  and  to  apply  in  man- 
ner foresaid,  they  shall  have  their  Majesties'  full 
protection,  aye  and  until  they  shall  be  admitted 
and  received  in  manner  foresaid  ;  providing  al- 
ways that  this  Act,  and  the  benefit  thereof,  shall 
no  ways  be  extended  to  such  of  the  said  minis- 
ters as  are  scandalous,  erroneous,  negligent,  or 
insufficient,  and  against  whom  the  same  shall  be 
verified,  within  the  space  of  thirty  days  after  the 
said  application :  but  these  and  ail  others  in  like 
manner  guilty,  are  hereby  declared  to  be  liable 
and  subject  to  the  power  and  censure  of  the 


APPENDIX. 


485 


Church,  as  accords :  And  to  the  effect  that  the 
representation  of  this  Church,  in  its  General  As- 
semblies, may  be  the  more  equal  in  all  time  com- 
ing, recommends  it  to  the  tirst  Assembly  that 
shall  be  called,  to  appoint  ministers  to  be  sent  as 
Commissioners  from  every  Presbytery,  not  in 
equal  numbers,  which  is  manifestly  unequal 
where  Presbyteries  are  so  ;  but  in  due  proportion 
to  the  churches  and  parishes  within  every  Pres- 
bytery, as  they  shall  judge  convenient;  and  it  is 
hereby  declared,  that  all  school-masters,  and 
teachers  of  youth  in  schools,  are  and  shall  be 
liable  to  the  trial,  judgment,  and  censure  of  the 
Presbyteries  of  the  bounds,  for  their  sufficiency, 
qualifications,  and  deportment  in  the  said  office. 
And  lastly,  their  Majesties,  with  advice  and  con- 
sent foresaid,  do  hereby  statute  and  ordain,  that 
the  Lords  of  their  Majesties'  privy  council,  and 
all  other  magistrates,  judges,  and  officers  of  justice, 
give  all  due  assistance  for  making  the  sentences 
and  censures  of  the  Church  and  judicatures  thereof 
to  be  obeyed,  or  otherwise  effectual,  as  accords. 

[The  circumstances  preceding  and  accompany- 
ing the  Treaty  of  Union  have  been  already  re- 
lated in  the  body  of  the  work :  no  more  is  ne- 
cessary than  to  insert  here  the  Act  of  Security : — ] 

Act  for  Securing  ike  Protestant  Religion  and 
Presbyterian  Church  Government,  which,  was 
ths  basis  of  the  Treaty  of  Union,  at  Edinburgh. 
January  16,  1707. 

Our  Sovereign  Lady,  and  the  Estates  of  Par- 
liament, considering,  That  by  the  late  Act  of  Par- 
liament for  a  treaty  with  England,  for  an  union 
of  both  kingdoms,  it  is  provided,  that  the  com- 
missioners for  that  treaty  should  not  treat  of  or 
concerning  any  alteration  of  the  worship,  disci- 
pline, and  government  of  the  Church  in  this 
kingdom  as  now  by  law  established:  which 
treaty  being  now  reported  to  the  Parliament,  and 
it  being  reasonable  and  necessary  that,  the  true 
Protestant  religion,  as  presently  professed  within 
this  kingdom,  with  the  worship,  discipline,  and 
government  of  this  Church,  should  be  effectually 
and  unalterably  secured,  therefore,  her  Majesty, 
with  advice  and  consent  of  the  said  Estates  of 
Parliament,  do  thereby  establish  and  confirm  the 
said  true  Protestant  religion,  and  the  worship, 
discipline,  and  government  of  this  Church,  to  con- 
tinue without  any  alteration  to  the  people  of  this 
land  in  all  succeeding  generations :  and  more  es- 
pecially, her  Majesty,  with  advice  and  consent 
aforesaid,  ratifies,  approves,  and  for  ever  confirms 
the  fifth  act  of  the  first  Parliament  of  King  Wil- 
liam and  Queen  Mary,  entitled,  "An  Act  ratify- 
ing the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  settling  Presby- 
terian Church  Government,  with  the  hail  other 
Acts  of  Parliament  relating  thereto,  in  prosecu- 
tion of  the  declaration  of  the  estates  of  this  king- 
dom, containing  the  Claim  of  Right,  bearing  date 
the  1 1th  of  April  1689."  And  her  Majesty,  with 
advice  and  consent  aforesaid,  expressly  provides 
and  declares,  that  the  foresaid  true  Protestant  re- 
ligion, contained  in  the  above  mentioned  Confes- 
sion of  Faith,  with  the  form  and  purity  of  wor- 
ship presently  in  use  within  this  Church,  and  its 
Presbyterian  church  government  and  discipline ; 
that  is  to  say,  the  government  of  the  Church  by 
Kirk-Sessions  Presbyteries,  Provincial  Synods, 


and  General  Assembly,  all  established  by  the  fore- 
said  acts  of  Parliament,  pursuant  to  the  Claim  of 
Right,  shall  remain  and  continue  unalterabk;  and 
that  the  said  Presbyterian  government  shall  be 
the  only  government  of  the  Church  within  the 
kingdom  of  Scotland. 

And  further,  for  the  greater  security  of  the 
foresaid  Protestant  religion,  and  of  the  worship, 
discipline,  and  government  of  this  Church,  as 
above  established,  her  Majesty,  with  advice  and 
consent  foresaid,  statutes  and  ordains,  That  the 
universities  and  colleges  of  St.  Andrews,  Glas- 
gow, Aberdeen,  and  Edinburgh,  as  now  estab- 
lished by  law,  shall  continue  within  this  kingdom 
for  ever :  and  that  in  all  time  coming,  no  profes- 
sors, principals,  regents,  masters,  or  others,  bear- 
ing office  in  any  university,  college,  or  school, 
within  this  kingdom,  be  capable,  or  admitted,  or 
allowed  to  continue  in  the  exercise  of  their  said 
functions,  but  such  as  shall  own  and  acknow- 
ledge the  civil  government  in  manner  prescribed, 
or  to  be  prescribed  by  the  acts  of  Parliament :  as 
also,  that  before  or  at  their  admissions,  they  do 
and  shall  acknowledge,  and  profess,  and  shall 
subscribe  to  the  foresaid  Confession  of  Faith,  as 
the  confession  of  their  faith ;  and  that  they  will 
practise  and  conform  themselves  to  the  worship 
presently  in  use  in  this  Church,  and  submit 
themselves  to  the  government  and  discipline 
thereof;  and  never  endeavour,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, the  prejudice  or  subversion  of  the  same; 
and  that  before  the  respective  Presbyteries  of 
their  bounds,  by  whatsomever  gift,  presentation, 
or  provision  they  may  be  thereto  provided. 

And  further,  her  Majesty,  with  advice  foresaid, 
expressly  declares  and  statutes,  that  none  of  the 
subjects  of  this  kingdom  shall  be  liable  to,  but  all 
and  every  one  of  them,  for  ever  free  of,  any  oath, 
test,  or  subscription  within  this  kingdom,  con- 
trary to  or  inconsistent  with  the  foresaid  true 
Protestant  religion,  and  Presbyterian  church  gov- 
ernment, worship,  and  discipline,  as  above  estab- 
lished :  and  that  the  same  within  the  bounds  of 
this  Church  and  kingdom,  shall  never  be  imposed 
upon  or  required  of  them  in  any  sort. 

And  lastly,  that  after  the  decease  of  her  pres- 
ent Majesty  (whom  God  long  preserve),  the 
sovereign  succeeding  to  her  in  the  royal  govern- 
ment of  the  kingdom  of  Great  Britain,  shall  in 
all  time  coming  at  his  or  her  accession  to  the 
crown,  swear  and  subscribe,  that  they  shall  in- 
violably maintain  and  preserve  the  foresaid  set- 
tlement of  the  true  Protestant  religion,  with 
the  government,  worship,  discipline,  rights  and 
privileges  of  this  Church,  as  above  established  by 
by  the  laws  of  this  kingdom,  in  prosecution  of  the 
Claim  of  Right :  and  it  is  hereby  statute  and  or- 
dained, that  this  act  of  Parliament,  with  the  estab- 
lishment therein  contained,  shall  be  held  and 
observed  in  all  time  coming,  as  a,  fundamental 
and  essential  condition  of  any  treaty  or  union  to  be 
concluded  betwixt  the  two  kingdoms,  without  any  al- 
teration thereof,  or  derogation  thereto,  in  any  sort 
forever:  as  also,  that  this  act  of  Parliament,  and 
settlement  therein  contained,  shall  be  insert  and  re- 
pealed in  any  act  of  Parliament  tJiat  shall  pass  for 
agreeing  and  concluding  the  foresaid  treaty  or 
union  betwixt  the  two  kingdoms ;  and  that  the  same 
shall  be  therein  expressly  declared  to  be  a  fundamen- 
tal and  essential  condition  of  the  said  treaty  or 
union  in  all  time  coming. 


486 


APPENDIX. 


Act  Ratifying  and  Approving  the  Treaty  of 
Union  of  the  two  Kingdoms  of  Scotland  and 
England,  January  16,  1707,  founded  on  the 
foresaid  Act  of  Security. 

The  Estates  of  Parliament  considering  that 
Articles  of  Union  of  the  kingdoms  of  Scotland 
and  England  were  agree*}  on  the  22d  of  July 
1706  years,  &c.  *  *  *  and  sicklike,  her  Ma- 
jesty, with  advice  and  consent  of  the  Estates  of 
Parliament,  resolving  to  establish  the  Protestant 
religion  and  Presbyterian  church  government, 
has  passed  in  this  session  of  Parliament  an  "  Act 
for  securing  of  the  Protestant  Religion  and  Pres- 
byterian Church  Government,"  which,  by  the 
tenor  thereof,  is  appointed  to  be  insert  in  any  act 
ratifying  the  treaty,  and  expressly  declared  to  be 
a  fundamental  and  essential  condition  of  the  said 
treaty  of  union  in  all  time  coming,  &c. 

[After  embodying  the  Act  of  Security,  the  doc- 
ument proceeds  as  follows  : — ] 

Which  Articles  of  Union,  and  act  immediately 
above  written,  her  Majesty,  with  advice  and  corir 
sent  aforesaid,  statutes,  enacts,  and  ordains  to  be 
and  continue  in  all  time  coming  the  sure  and  per- 
petual foundation  of  a  complete  and  entire  union 
of  the  two  kingdoms  of  Scotland  and  England,  un- 
der the  express  condition  and  provision,  That  this 
approbation  and  ratification  of  the  foresaid  articles 
and  act  shall  be  noways  binding  on  this  kingdom, 
until  the  said  articles  and  act  be  ratified,  approved, 
and  confirmed  by  her  Majesty,  with  and  by  the  au- 
thority of  the  Parliament  of  England,  as  they  are 
now  agreed  to,  approved  and  confirmed  by  her  Ma- 
jesty, with  and  by  the  authority  of  the  Parliament 
of  Scotland.  Declaring  nevertheless,  That  the 
Parliament  of  England  may  provide  for  the  security 
of  the  Church  of  England,  as  they  think  it  expe- 
dient, to  take  place  within  the  bounds  of  the  said 
kingdom  of  England,  and  not  derogating  from 
the  security  above  provided  for  establishing  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  within  the  bounds  of  this 
kingdom.  As  also,  the  said  Parliament  of  Eng- 
land may  extend  the  additions  and  other  provis- 
ions contained  in  the  Articles  of  Union,  as  above 
insert,  in  favours  of  the  subjects  of  Scotland,  to 
and  in  favours  of  the  subjects  of  England,  which 
shall  not  suspend  or  derogate  from  the  force  and 
effect  of  this  present  ratification,  but  shall  be  un- 
derstood as  herein  included,  without  the  neces- 
sity of  any  new  ratification  in  the  Parliament  of 
Scotland.  And  lastly,  her  Majesty  enacts  and  de- 
clares, That  all  laws  and  statutes  in  this  kingdom, 
so  far  as  they  are  contrary  to,  or  inconsistent  with, 
the  terms  of  these  articles,  as  above  mentioned,  shall 
from  and  after  the  Union  cease  and  become  void. 

[The  insertion  of  the  perfidious  act  of  Queen 
Anne's  Jacobite  ministry,  immediately  after  the 
Revolution  Settlement  and  the  Act  of  Security, 
is  enough  to  show  how  completely  the  Patronage 
Act  is  a  violation  of  national  faith,  and  contrary 
to  the  inviolable  Act  of  Security.] 

Act  10,  Q.  Anne,  ch.  12, 1711.  An  Act  to  restore 
the  Patrons  to  their  ancient  Rights  of  present- 
ing Ministers  to  the  Churches  vacant  in  that 
part  of  Great  Britain  called  Scotland. 

I.  Whereas,  by  the  antient  laws  and  constitu- 


tions of  that  part  of  Great  Britain  called  Scotland , 
the  presenting  of  ministers  to  vacant  churches 
did  of  right  belong  to  the  patrons,  until,  by  the 
twenty-third  Act  of  the  second  session  of  the  first 
Parliament  of  the  late  King  William  and  Queen 
Mary,  held  in  the  year  one  thousand  six  hundred 
and  ninety,  intituled,  "Act  concerning  Patron- 
ages," the  presentation  was  taken  from  the  pa- 
trons, and  given  to  the  heritors  and  elders  of  the 
respective  parishes;  and,  in  place  of  the  right  of 
presentation,  the  heritors  and  liferenters  of  every 
parish  were  to  pay  to  the  respective  patrons  a 
small  and  inconsiderable  sum  of  money,  for 
which  the  patrons  were  to  renounce  their  right 
of  presentation  in  all  times  thereafter:  And 
whereas  by  the  fifteenth  act  of  the  fifth  session. 
and  by  the  thirteenth  act  of  the  sixth  session,  of 
the  first  Parliament  of  the  said  King  William,  the 
one  intituled  "An  Act  for  encouraging  of  Preach- 
ers at  vacant  Churches  benorth  Forth,"  and  the 
other  intituled,  "  Act  in  favour  of  Preachers  be- 
north  Forth  ;"  there  are  several  burdens  imposed 
upon  vacant  stipends,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  pa- 
tron's right  of  disposing  thereof:  And  whereas 
that  way  of  calling  ministers  has  proved  incon- 
venient, and  has  not  only  occasioned  great  heats 
and  divisions  among  those  who,  by  the  aforesaid 
act,  were  entitled  and  authorised  to  call  minis- 
ters, but  likewise  has  been  a  great  hardship  upon 
the  patrons,  whose  predecessors  had  founded  and 
endowed  those  churches,  and  who  had  not  re- 
ceived payment  or  satisfaction  for  their  right  of 
patronage  from  the  aforesaid  heritors  or  liferent- 
ers of  the  respective  parishes,  nor  have  granted 
renunciation*  of  their  said  rights  on  that  account: 
Be  it  therefore  enacted,  by  the  Queen's  most  ex- 
cellent Majesty,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  con- 
sent of  the  Lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  and 
Commons,  in  this  present  Parliament  assembled, 
and  by  the  authority  of  the  same,  that  the  afore- 
said act,  made  in  the  year  one  thousand  six  hun- 
dred and  ninety,  intituled,  "  Act  concerning  Pa- 
tronages," in  so  far  as  the  same  relates  to  the 
presentation  of  ministers  by  heritors  and  others 
therein  mentioned,  be,  and  is  hereby  repealed 
and  made  void ;  and  that  the  aforesaid  fifteenth 
act  of  the  fifth  session,  and  thirteenth  act  of  the 
sixth  session,  of  the  first  Parliament  of  King  Wil- 
liam, be,  and  are  hereby  likewise  repealed  and 
made  void  :  and  that  in  all  time  coming,  the  rijrhl 
of  all  and  every  patron  or  patrons  to  the  presen- 
tation of  ministers  to  churches  and  benefices,  and 
the  disposing  of  the  vacant  stipends  for  pious 
uses  within  the  parish,  be  restored,  settled,  and 
confirmed  to  them,  the  aforesaid  acts,  or  any 
other  act,  statute,  or  custom  to  the  contrary  in 
any  wise  notwithstanding ;  and  that  from  and 
after  the  first  day  of  May  one  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  twelve,  it  shall  and  may  be  lawful 
for  her  Majesty,  her  heirs  and  successors,  and 
for  every  other  person  or  persons  who  have  right 
to  any  patronage  or  patronages  of  any  church  or 
churches  whatsoever,  in  that  part  of  Great  Bri- 
tain called  Scotland  (and  who  have  not  made 
and  subscribed  a  formal  renunciation  thereof  un- 
der their  hands),  to  present  a  qualified  minister 
or  ministers  to  any  church  or  churches  whereof 
they  are  patrons,  which  shall,  after  the  first  day 
of  May,  happen  to  be  vacant ;  and  the  Presby- 
tery of  the  respective  bounds  shall,  and  is  hereby 
obliged  to  receive  and  admit,  in  the  same  manner 


APPENDIX. 


487 


such  qualified  person  or  persons,  minister  or 
ministers,  as  shall  be  presented  by  the  respective 
patrons,  as  the  persons  or  ministers  presented  be- 
fore the  making  of  this  act  ought  to  have  been 
admitted. 

II.  Provided  always,  that  in  case  any  patron 
or  patrons  have  accepted  of  and  received  any  sum 
or  sums  of  money  from  the  heritors  or  liferenters 
of  any  parish,  or  from  the  Magistrates  or  Town 
Council  of  any  borough,  in  satisfaction  of  their 
right  of  presensation,  and  have  discharged  or  re- 
nounced the  same  under  their  hand,  that  nothing 
herein  shall  be  construed  to  restore  such  patron 
or  patrons  to  their  right  of  presentation  ;  any 
thing  in  this  present  act  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing. 

III.  Provided  also,  and  it  is  hereby  enacted,  by 
the  authority  aforesaid,  that  in  case  the  patron 
of  any  church  aforesaid  shall  neglect  or  refuse  to 
present  any  qualified  minister  to  such  church 
that  shall  be  vacant  the  said  first  day  of  May,  or 
shall  happen  to  be   vacant  at  any  time  there- 
after, for  the  space  of  six  months  after  the  said 
first  day  of  May,  or  after  such  vacancy  shall 
happen,  that  the  right  of  presentation  shall  accrue 
and  belong  for  that  time  to  the  Presbytery  of  the 
bounds  where  such  church  is,  who  are  to  present 
a  qualified  person  for  that  vacancy,  tanquamjure 
devoluto. 

IV.  And  be  it  further  enacted  and  declared  by 
the  authority  aforesaid,  that  the  patronage  and 
right  of  presentations  of  ministers  to  all  churches 
which  belonged  to  archbishops,  bishops,  or  other 
dignified  persons,  in  the  year  one  thousand  six 
hundred  and  eighty-nine,  before  Episcopacy  was 
abolished,  as  well  as  those  which  formerly  be- 
longed to  the  Crown,  shall  and  do  of  right  belong 
to  her  Majesty,  her  heirs  and  successors,  who 
may  present  qualified  ministers  to  such  church  or 
churches,   and   dispose  of  the  vacant   stipends 
thereof  for  pious  uses,  in  the  same  way  and  man- 
ner as  her  Majesty,  her  heirs  and  successors,  may 
do  in  the  case  of  other  patronages  belonging  to 
the  Crown. 

V.  Declaring  always,  that  nothing  in  this  pres- 
ent act  contained  shall  extend,  or  be  construed 
to  extend,  to  repeal  and  make  void  the  aforesaid 
twenty-third  act  of  the  second  session  of  the  first 
parliament  of  the  late  King  William  and  Queen 
Mary,  excepting  so  far  as  relates  to  the  calling 
and  presenting  of  ministers,  and  to  the  disposing 
of  vacant  stipends,  in  prejudice  of  the  patrons 
only. 

[Although  no  real  benefit  arose  from  the  Act 
1719,  yet  it  may  be  inserted  to  show,  that  in  a 
purer  and  more  faithful  state  of  the  Church  it 
might  have  been  of  some  avail.] 

Excerpt,  from  Ad  5th,  Geo.  I.  cap.  29,  1719,  enti- 
tled "  An  Act  for  making  more  effectual  the 
Laws  appointing  the  Oaths  for  Security  of  the 
Government,  to  be  taken  by  Ministers  and 
Preachers  in  Churches  and  Meeting-houses  in 
Scotland." 

VIII.  And  whereas  great  obstructions  have 
been  made  to  the  planting,  supplying,  or  filling 
up  of  vacant  churches  in  Scotland,  with  ministers 
qualified  according  to  law,  patrons  presenting 
persons  to  churches  who  are  not  qualified,  by 


taking  the  oatns  appointed  by  law,  or  who,  being 
settled  in  other  churches,  cannot  or  will  not  ac- 
cept of  such  presentations :  To  the  end  that  such 
inconveniences  may  be  prevented  for  the  future, 
be  it  enacted  by  the  authority  aforesaid,  that  if 
any  patron  shall  present  any  person  to  a  vacant 
church,  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  June,  one 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  nineteen,  who  shall 
not  be  qualified  by  taking  and  subscribing  the 
said  oath  in  manner  aforesaid,  or  shall  present  a 
person  to  any  vacancy  who  is  then  or  shall  be 
pastor  or  minister  of  any  other  church  or  parish, 
or  any  person  who  shall  not  accept,  or  declare  his 
willingness  to  accept,  of  the  presentation  and 
charge  to  which  he  is  presented,  within  the  said 
time,  such  presentation  shall  not  be  accounted 
any  interruption  of  the  course  of  time  allowed  to 
the  patron  for  presenting ;  but  the  jus  devolutum 
shall  take  place,  as  if  no  presentation  had  been 
offered :  any  law  or  custom  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding. 

IX.  And  be  it  also  further  declared  and  enacted, 
that  nothing  herein  contained  shall  prejudice  or 
diminish  the  right  of  the  Church,  as  the  same 
now  stands  by  law  established,  as  to  the  trying 
of  the  qualities  of  any  person  presented  to  any 
church  or  benefice. 

Excerpt  from  Act  4  and  5  William  IV.  c.  41. 

Be  it  enacted,  &c.,  that  where  any  church, 
chapel,  or  other  place  of  worship,  in  that  part  of 
Great  Britain  called  Scotland,  built  or  acquired 
and  endowed  by  voluntary  contribution,  shall  be 
erected  into  a  parochial  church,  either  as  an  ad- 
ditional church  within  a  parish  already  provided 
with  a  parochial  church,  or  as  the  church  of  a 
separate  parish  to  be  erected  out  of  the  part  or 
parts  of  any  existing  parish  or  parishes,  whether 
the  same  be  established  and  erected  quoad  spirit- 
ualia,  by  authority  of  the  church  courts  of  the 
Established  Church  of  Scotland,  or  also  quoad 
temporalia,  by  authority  of  the  Commissioners  of 
Teinds,  neither  the  King's  Majesty,  nor  any  pri- 
vate person,  nor  any  body  politic  or  corporate, 
having  right  to  the  patronage  of  the  parish  or 
parishes  within  which  such  additional  churches 
shall  be  established,  or  out  of  which  such  new  par- 
ishes shall  be  erected,  shall  have  any  claim,  right,  or 
title  whatsoever,  to  the  patronage  of  such  newly 
established  churches,  or  newly  erected  parishes  ; 
but  the  right  of  presenting  ministers  thereto  shall 
be  exercised  according  to  the  manner,  and  sub- 
ject to  the  conditions,  which  shall  be  provided  or 
sanctioned  by  the  church  courts  establishing  the 
said  churches,  or  where  new  parishes  shall  be 
erected,  as  shall  be  prescribed  and  regulated  by 
the  said  church  courts  erecting  such  new  par- 
ishes into  separate  spiritual  jurisdictions,  subject 
always  to  such  alterations  as  shall  be  made  by  the 
said  courts,  according  to  the  laws  of  the  Church 
from  time  to  time. 

[The  object  of  this  act  was  to  relieve  new 
churches  from  a  peculiar  operation  of  the  Patron- 
age Act,  which  had  proved  a  great  obstacle  to 
their  erection.  It  had  been  found,  as  in  the  case 
of  Whitburn,  for  example,  that  when  a  church 
had  been  built  and  endowed  by  voluntary  contri- 
bution, and  a  district  assigned  to  it  as  a  new 
parish,  the  patron  of  the  original  parish  might 


488 


APPENDIX. 


seize  upon  the  patronage  of  the  new  erection, 
even  though  there  had  been  inserted  into  its  con- 
stitution an  article  expressly  excluding  patronage, 
and  restoring  the  original  principle  of  popular 
election.  The  people  would  not  build  churches 
to  be  immediately  seized  by  patrons,  who,  follow- 
ing the  usual  policy  of  patronage  without  its 
usual  fallacious  plea,  usurped  a  supremacy  where 
they  could  not  even  pretend  a  patrimonial  right. 
The  above  act  put  an  end  to  all  such  usurpation, 
and  tended  greatly  to  promote  the  great  Church 
Extension  scheme  of  the  reforming  and  reviving 
Church  of  Scotland.  But  Moderate  policy,  ha- 
ting these  new  churches  because  they  were  popu- 
lar" and  evangelical,  and  free  from  patronage, 
devised  methods  to  crush  them  if  possible.  The 
legality  of  the  admission  into  church  courts  of 
the  ministers  of  such  churches  has  been  strenu- 
ously denied,  and  protested  against;  yet  with 
strange  inconsistency  the  Moderate  party  placed 
one  of  these  ministers  in  the  moderator's  chair. 
In  some  instances  the  heritors  have  claimed 
the  collections  made  at  the  doors  of  these  new 
churches,  as  belonging  to  the  parochial  funds 
for  the  support  of  the  poor,  and  the  Court  of  Ses- 
sion has  sanctioned  the  unjust  claim,  with  the 
perfect  certainty  that  the  attempt  to  enforce  it 
would  put  an  end  to  the  collections,  without  any 
benefit  to  the  heritors.  In  other  instances  the 
heritors  have  applied  to  the  Court  of  Session  for 
an  interdict  to  prevent  the  Presbytery  of  the 
bounds  where  a  new  church  had  been  erected, 
from  assigning  to  it  a  parochial  district  quoad 
spiritualia,  and  have  obtained  the  interdict,  on 
the  strange  plea,  that  every  man  in  the  original 
parish  had  a  right  to  the  religious  services  of  the 
parish  minister,  and  that,  therefore,  to  give  him 
the  additional  services  of  another,  was  an  illegal 
interference  vnth  his  civil  rights!  But  the  most 
formidable  aspect  which  the  fierce  hostility  of 
Moderatism  against  the  new  churches  has  as- 
sumed, is  that  which  asserts  that  church  courts 
are  so  completely  vitiated  by  the  admission  of 
their  ministers,  that  no  measure  in  which  they 
have  taken  a  part  is  legal  and  valid.  This,  too, 
the  Court  of  Session  has  sanctioned,  notwith- 
standing the  legislative  recognition  of  these 
churches  in  the  above  act  of  parliament,  by  grant- 
ing interdicts  to  prevent  the  execution  of  sen- 
tences of  deposition  pronounced  by  Presbyteries, 
Synods,  and  the  General  Assembly  itself,  in  the 
case  of  ministers  convicted  of  heresy  and  theft, 
expressly  on  the  ground  that  these  sentences  are 
invalid  because  pronounced  by  church  courts  in 
which  ministers  of  new  churches  and  quoad  sacra 
parishes  deliberated  and  acted  as  constituent 
members.  If  this  decision  of  the  civil  could  be 
carried  into  full  effect,  it  would  be  equivalent  to 
a  new  act  Rescissory,  as  it  would  nullify  the 
whole  judicial  procedure  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land since  the  year  1834.  In  this,  doubtless, 
Moderatism  would  rejoice,  but  for  one  considera- 
tion :  not  a  few  Moderate  ministers  would  im- 
mediately lose  all  legal  claim  to  their  stipends, 
their  ordination  and  induction  being  rendered 
void,  as  the  illegal  act  of  a  vitiated  church  court. 
They  will,  therefore,  probably  adhere  to  their 
.atest  policy,  and  strive  to  procure  the  ejection 
of  the  whole  Evangelical  party,  that  they  may 
themselves  enjoy  the  civil  emoluments  of  the 
Church,  so  long  as  the  righteous  retribution  of 


Providence  will  permit,  till  their  cup  is  full.    Quo  < 
Deus  vult  perdere,  prius  dementat.] 


No.  III. 

PRINCIPLES,  ACTS,  AND  RESOLUTIONS 
OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND,  RE- 
SPECTING THE  APPOINTMENT  OF 
MINISTERS  AND  PATRONAGE. 

The  principles  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  with 
regard  to  the  proper  method  of  appointing  minis- 
ters to  the  pastoral  office  have  been  much  misrep- 
resented, and  yet  it  appears  absolutely  impossible 
for  any  candid  and  unprejudiced  person  to  read 
her  standards  and  acts  of  Assembly,  and  to  mark 
her  general  procedure,  without  clearly  perceiving 
that  patronage  is  essentially  contrary  to  the  spirit, 
the  fundamental  principles,  and  the  constitution, 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland.  There 
is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  kings,  govern- 
ments, politicians,  and  worldly-minded  men  in 
general,  whether  without  the  Church  or  within 
it,  have  always  striven  to  enact  or  to  enforce  pa- 
tronage because  they  expected  through  its  influ- 
ence to  render  the  Church  subservient  to  their 
purposes  as  a  mere  political  engine ;  but  the  true 
subject  of  inquiry  is,  not  what  rulers  and  poli- 
ticians have  always  striven  to  effect, — that  would 
only  be  an  inquiry  into  their  opinions,  about 
which  there  is  no  doubt, — but  what  the  Church 
has  always  declared,  maintained  in  theory,  and 
striven  to  realize  in  practice,  as  the  scriptural, 
and  therefore  the  best,  method  of  appointing  min- 
isters to  the  pastoral  office. 

Beginning  with  the  great  and  sacred  principle, 
"  That  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  Head 
and  King  of  the  Church,"  the  Presbyterian 
Church  holds  as  self-evident,  that  the  appoint- 
ment of  office-bearers  in  his  spiritual  kingdom 
must  necessarily  belong  exclusively  to  its  Divine 
King,  and  be  regulated  solely  by  his  precepts  and 
commands,  either  as  given  in  his  own  words,  or 
as  embodied  in  the  proceedings  of  his  inspired 
Apostles.  Applying  to  the  Scriptures  to  ascer- 
tain from  them  the  mind  and  will  of  the  King  of 
Zion  in  this  matter,  it  is  found,  that  He  distinctly 
declares  the  responsibility  of  his  people  in  the 
exercise  of  their  private  judgment  what  pastor 
they  are  to  hear  and  follow.  The  Apostles  use 
similar  but  still  more  explicit  language,  and  in 
the  few  instances  of  the  appointment  of  office- 
bearers which  are  recorded  in  the  Scriptures,  this 
at  least  is  evident,  that  they  were  either  directly 
chosen  by  the  people  themselves,  or  with  their 
consent  and  approval.  Hence  the  principle,  that 
there  cannot  be  a  scriptural  appointment  to  the 
pastoral  office  without  the  consent  and  approval 
of  the  Christian  people,  that  is,  of  those  who 
compose  the  true  flock,  having  been  admitted  to 
the  privileges  of  Christian  communion,  and 
thereby  made  citizens  of  Zion  and  members  of 
Christ's  spiritual  body,  the  Church,  of  which  He 
is  the  only  Head.  But  this  principle  may  come 
into  operation  in  either  of  two  different  ways, — 
either  by  the  Christian  flock  directly  choosing 
their  own  pastor,  or  by  expressing  their  consent, 


APPENDIX. 


489 


approval  of,  and  willingness  to  receive  in  that 
relation  the  person  offered  to  them.  The  first  of 
these  modes  the  Church  of  Scotland  has  always 
regarded  as  the  best,  because  the  most  scriptural, 
natural,  and  direct ;  but  when  that  could  not  be 
obtained,  she  has  been  willing  to  act  upon  the 
second,  because  not  unscriptural,  and  capable,  if 
properly  administered,  of  securing  the  important 
objects  in  view,  namely,  the  affectionate  regard 
and  confidence  of  the  Christian  people,  and  the 
appointment  of  an  equally  acceptable  and  efficient 
ministry,  whom  the  Lord  might  bless  in  their  la- 
bours for  the  extension  of  his  kingdom  and  the 
edification  of  his  people.  And  because  the  Church 
has  believed  that  either  of  these  methods  of  ap- 
pointing ministers  might  be  employed,  though 
preferring  the  former,  she  has  in  different  periods 
employed  the  one  or  the  other,  according  to  the 
force  of  circumstances ;  from  which  has  arisen 
the  varying  aspects  which  this  great  principle  has 
from  time  to  time  assumed ;  but  never  has  she 
abandoned  the  principle  itself,  and  never  can  she 
abandon  it  without  ceasing  to  be  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Scotland,  or  rather,  without  ceasing 
to  be  a  Christian  Church,  and  becoming  a  mere 
secular  institution. 

A  few  extracts  will  show  the  truth  of  the  pre- 
ceding statement. 

FIRST  BOOK  OP  DISCIPLINED 

Draivn  up  by  John  Knox  and  others  immediately 
after  the  Reformation  in  1560. 

\r  "It  appertaineth  to  the  people,  and  to  every 
several  congregation  to  elect  their  minister." 
(First  Book  of  Discipline,  Fourth  Head,  chap.  iv. 
sect.  2.) 

"  For  altogether  this  is  to  be  avoided,  that  any 
man  be  violently  intruded  or  thrust  in  upon  any 
congregation  ;  but  this  liberty  with  all  care  must 
be  reserved  to  every  several  church,  to  have  their 
votes  and  suffrages  in  election  of  their  ministers." 
(Ibid.,  sect.  4.) 

"  The  admission  of  ministers  to  their  offices 
must  consist  in  [the]  consent  of  the  people  and 
church  whereto  they  shall  be  appointed,  and  ap- 
probation of  the  learned  ministers  appointed  for 
their  examination."  (Ibid.,  chap.  iv.  sect.  8.) 

SECOND  BOOK  OF  DISCIPLINE, 

Drawn  up  by  Andrew  Melville  and  others,  and 

approved  of  by  the  Church  of  Scotland  as  one 

of  her  Standards,  1581. 

"  This  ordinary  and  outward  calling  has  two 
parts — election  and  ordination.  Election  is  the 
choosing  out  of  a  person  or  persons,  most  able 
for  the  office  that  vaikes,  by  the  judgment  of 
the  eldership,  and  consent  of  the  congregation 
to  whom  the  person  or  persons  are  appointed. 
*  *  *  In  this  ordinary  election  it  is  to 
be  eschewed  that  any  person  be  intruded  into 
any  of  the  offices  of  the  kirk  contrary  to  the  will 
of  the  congregation  to  which  they  are  appointed, 
or  without  the  voice  of  the  eldership."  (Second 
Hook  of  Discipline,  chap.  iii.  sect.  4,  5.) 

"  The  liberty  of  the  election  of  persons  called 
to  the  ecclesiastical  functions,  and  observed  with- 
out interruption,   so  long  as  the  Kirk  was  not 
corrupted  by  antichrist,  we  desired  to  be  restored  f 
and  retained  within  this  realm ;   so  that  none  be  | 
62 


intruded  upon  any  congregation,  either  by  the 
prince  or  any  inferior  person,  without  lawful 
election,  and  the  assent  of  the  people  over  whom 
the  person  is  placed, — as  the  practice  of  the  apos- 
tolic and  primitive  Kirk,  and  good  order,  crave. 

"And  because  this  order,  which  God's  Word 
craves,  cannot  stand  with  patronages  and  presen- 
tations to  benefices  used  in  the  Pope's  Kirk,  we 
desire  all  them  that  truly  fear  God,  earnestly  to 
consider,  that  forasmuch  as  the  names  of  patron- 
ages and  benefices,  together  with  the  effect 
thereof,  have  flowed  from  the  Pope  and  corrup- 
tion of  the  canon  law  only,  in  so  far  as  thereby 
any  person  was  introduced  or  placed  over  kirks 
having  curam  animarum ;  and  forasmuch  as  that 
manner  of  proceeding  hath  no  ground  in  the 
Word  of  God,  but  is  contrary  to  the  same,  and  to 
the  said  liberty  of  election,  they  ought  not  now 
to  have  place  in  this  light  of  reformation ;  and, 
therefore,  whosoever  will  embrace  God's  Word, 
and  desire  the  kingdom  of  his  Son,  Christ  Jesus, 
to  be  advanced,  they  will  also  embrace  that  policy 
and  order  which  the  Word  of  God  and  upright 
estate  of  this  Kirk  crave ;  otherwise  it  is  in  vain 
that  they  have  professed  the  same."  (Ibid.,  chap, 
xii.  pars.  9,  10.) 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  language  of  the 
Second  Book  of  Discipline  varies  a  little  from 
that  of  the  First,  chiefly  in  the  precedence  which 
it  seems  to  give  to  "  the  judgment  of  the  elder- 
ship," or  Presbytery,  in  the  election  of  ministers. 
The  very  slightest  acquaintance  with  the  history 
of  the  period  is  sufficient  to  explain  that  apparent 
difference.  The  people  of  Scotland  were  at  that 
period  little  better  than  serfs  and  bondmen ;  the 
Presbyterian  Church  had  indeed  struck  off  the 
fetters  and  broken  the  yoke  of  Popery,  and  given 
them  religious  liberty  ;  but  they  were  still  groan- 
ing beneath  an  oppressive  civil  despotism.  The 
Church  of  Scotland,  on  the  other  hand,  had  ob- 
tained the  sanction  of  the  legislature  to  its  prin- 
ciples so  far,  that  it  was  rather  perilous  for  the 
king  to  assail  its  recognised  liberties,  which  his 
own  hand  had  ratified.  Holding  fast  her  own 
principle,  that  the  Christian  people  have  a  sacred 
right  to  the  choice  of  their  pastor,  the  Church 
adopted  the  generous  part  of  placing  herself  in 
the  front  of  the  conflict,  throwing  over  the  peo- 
ple the  shield  of  her  own  admitted  rights  and 
privileges,  and  encountering  the  royal  despot's 
hostility,  that  she  might  secure  to  the  Redeemer's 
flock  that  liberty  wherewith  he  had  made  them 
free.  At  that  time  every  article  of  religious  free- 
dom which  was  gained  by  the  office-bearers  of 
the  Church,  was  gained  for  the  people  compos- 
ing, with  the  office-bearers,  the  Church ;  and 
nothing  in  the  whole  conduct  of  our  Scotish  Re- 
formers gives  even  the  least  ground  of  credibility 
to  the  strange  assertion  of  Moderatism,  that  the 
sole  object  for  which  our  reforming  ancestors 
were  then  contending,  was  the  acquisition  of  ec- 
clesiastical power  to  Church  Courts,  regardless 
of  the  people.  This,  indeed,  is  the  system  of 
Moderatism,  but  not  that  of  the  true  Church  of 
Scotland. 

In  the  year  1582,  the  General  Assembly  passed 
an  act  complaining  of  the  "ambition,  covetous- 
ness,  and  indirect  dealing  of  sundry"  who  went 
about  to  enter  into  the  ministry  by  corrupt  collu- 
sion with  patrons,  and  being  in,  employed  un* 
lawful  means  to  avoid  correction  and  punishment 


490 


APPENDIX. 


for  their  offences, — "  seeking  by  the  civil  power 
to  exempt  and  withdraw  themselves  from  the  ju- 
risdiction of  the  Kirk," — "  and  procuring  letters 
or  charges  to  impair,  hurt,  or  stay  the  said  juris- 
diction." Such  conduct  was  forbidden  under  the 
pain  of  excommunication  ;  but  to  avoid  any  un- 
necessary collision  with  the  civil  power,  it  is 
added,  "  and  this  act  to  be  no  ways  prejudicial  to 
the  laic  patrons  and  their  presentations,  unto  the 
time  the  laws  be  reformed  according  to  God's 
Word."  Nothing  could  more  clearly  prove,  that 
our  reformers  did  not  consider  patronage  to  be 
according  to  God's  Word. 

When,  in  the  year  1588,  King  James  was  busily 
prosecuting  his  weak  and  sinful  policy  of  bestow- 
ing Church  property  upon  his  unworthy  favour- 
ites, erecting  titular  lordships,  and  annexing  pa- 
tronages to  the  lands  which  had  been  wrongfully 
seized  and  wickedly  gifted  to  wicked  men,  nay, 
giving  in  some  instances  the  naked  patronage 
without  any  lands,  the  General  Assembly  passed 
an  act,  complaining  of  this  procedure,  remonstrat- 
ing with  his  Majesty,  and  finally  "  inhibiting  in 
the  mean  time  all  Commissioners  and  Presbyte- 
ries, that  they  on  no  ways  give  collation  or  ad- 
mission to  any  persons  presented  by  said  new 
patrons,  as  is  above  specified,  unto  the  next  Gen- 
eral Assembly."  This  is  a  clear  proof,  that  these 
new  patronages  were  not  at  the  time,  and  never 
since  have  been,  recognised  by  the  Church  of 
Scotland  as  lawful  and  valid,  but  complained 
against  as  unlawful,  and  condemned  as  invalid  ; 
and  be  it  remembered,  that  four-fifths  of  the 
whole  patronages  in  Scotland  were  thus  illegally 
and  tyrannically  created.  The  Church  was  spoiled 
of  her  own  patrimony, — that  property  was  given 
to  the  King's  unworthy  minions, — and  then  the 
patronage  was  added  in  virtue  of  the  pillage 
which  these  men  had  received. 

The  last  faithful  Assembly,  as  Calderwood 
terms  that  of  1596,  being  well  aware  that  there 
remained  many  abuses  still  to  be  reformed,  and 
being  desirous  to  reform  the  Church  first,  ap- 
pointed a  Committee  to  point  out  these  abuses. 
In  stating  the  corruptions  in  the  office  of  the 
ministry,  the  following  specification  is  made. 
"  Thirdly,  Because,  by  presentations,  many  forci- 
bly are  thrust  into  the  ministry,  and  upon  congre- 
gations, that  utter  thereafter  that  they  were  not 
called  by  God,  it  would  be  provided,  that  none 
seek  presentations  to  benefices  without  advice  of 
the  Presbytery  within  the  bounds  whereof  the 
benefice  lies,  and  if  any  do  in  the  contrary,  they 
ire  to  be  repelled,  asm  ambitus," — that  is,  guilty 
of  attempting  to  procure  the  office  by  corrupt 
means. 

At  the  era  of  the  Second  Reformation,  1638, 
the  famous  Assembly  of  that  date  passed  an  act 
"  anent  the  presenting  of  either  pastors,  or  read- 
ers, and  school-masters,  to  particular  congrega- 
tions," in  these  words:  "That  there  be  respect 
had  to  the  congregation,  and  that  no  person  be 
intruded  in  any  office  of  the  Kirk  contrary  to  the 
will  of  the  congregation  to  which  they  are  ap- 
pointed. The  Assembly  alloweth  this  article." 

Several  modifications  of  patronage  took  place 
during  the  intervening  period  between  the  Glas- 
gow Assembly  and  the  year  1649,  when  the  Scot- 
tish parliament  passed  an  act  abolishing  patron- 
age altogether,  recommending  the  next  General 
Assembly  to  provide  and  enact  a  standing  rule  for 


the  appointment  of  ministers.  This  was  done  at 
the  next  meeting  of  Assembly,  on  the  4th  of  Au- 
gust 1649,  and  is  as  follows : — 

Directory  for  the  Election  of  Ministers. 

"  When  any  place  of  the  ministry  in  a  congre- 
gation is  vacant,  it  is  incumbent  to  the  Presbytery 
with  all  diligence  to  send  one  of  their  number  to 
preach  to  that  congregation,  who,  in  his  doctrine, 
is  to  represent  to  them  the  necessity  of  providing 
the  place  with  a  qualified  pastor ;  and  to  exhort 
them  to  fervent  prayer  and  supplication  to  the 
Lord,  that  he  would  send  them  a  pastor  accord- 
ing to  his  own  heart ;  as  also  he  is  to  signify,  that 
the  Presbytery,  out  of  their  care  of  that  flock, 
will  send  unto  them  preachers  whom  they  may 
hear ;  and  if  they  have  a  desire  to  hear  any  other, 
they  will  endeavour  to  procure  them  a  hearing  of 
that  person,  or  persons,  upon  the  suit  of  the  eld- 
ers to  the  Presbytery. 

"  Within  some  competent  time  thereafter,  the 
Presbytery  is  again  to  send  one  or  more  of  their 
number  to  the  said  vacant  congregation,  on  a 
certain  day  appointed  before  for  that  effect,  who 
are  to  convene  and  hear  sermon  the  foresaid  day ; 
which  being  ended,  and  intimation  being  made 
by  the  minister,  that  they  are  to  go  about  the 
election  of  a  pastor  for  that  congregation,  the 
Session  of  fhe  congregation  shall  meet  and  pro- 
ceed to  the  election,  the  action  being  moderated 
by  him  that  preached ;  and  if  the  people  shall, 
upon  the  intimation  of  the  person  agreed  upon 
by  the  Session,  acquiesce  and  consent  to  the  said 
person,  that  the  matter  being  reported  to  the 
Presbytery  by  commissioners  sent  from  the  Ses- 
sion, they  are  to  proceed  to  the  trial  of  the  person 
thus  elected ;  and  finding  him  qualified,  to  admit 
him  to  the  ministry  in  the  said  congregation. 

"  But  if  it  happen  that  the  major  part  of  the 
congregation  dissent  from  the  person  agreed  upon 
by  the  Session,  in  that  case  the  matter  shall  be 
brought  unto  the  Presbytery,  who  shall  judge  of 
the  same;  and  if  they  do  not  find  their  dissent  to 
be  grounded  on  causeless  prejudice,  they  are  to 
appoint  a  new  election,  in  manner  above  specified. 

"  But  if  a  lesser  part  of  the  Session  or  congre- 
gation show  their  dissent  from  the  election,  with- 
out exceptions  relevant  and  verified  to  the  Pres- 
bytery ;  notwithstanding  thereof,  the  Presbytery 
shall  go  on  to  the  trials  and  ordination  of  the 
person  elected;  yet  all  possible  diligence  and 
tenderness  must  be  used  to  bring  all  parties  to  an 
harmonious  agreement. 

"  It  is  to  be  understood  that  no  person  under 
the  censure  of  the  Kirk  because  of  any  scanda- 
lous offence,  is  to  be  admitted  to  have  a  hand  in 
the  election  of  a  minister. 

"  Where  the  congregation  is  disaffected  and 
malignant,  in  that  case  the  Presbytery  is  to  pro- 
vide them  with  a  minister." 

When  Charles  II.,  by  an  act  at  once  of  perfidy 
and  of  tyranny,  overthrew  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Scotland,  patronage  was  reintroduced. 
When  the  revolution  drove  the  perfidious  and 
despotic  family  of  Stuart  from  the  throne,  patron- 
age was  abolished,  and  the  rights  and  privileges 
of  the  Church  and  people  restored  and  confirmed 
by  the  Revolution  Settlement  and  the  Act  of  Se- 
curity, as  has  been  fully  shown  in  the  body  of 


APPENDIX. 


491 


the  work,  and  in  these  acts  themselves  in  the 
Appendix.  The  opposition  made  by  the  Church 
of  Scotland  to  the  perfidious  act  of  1712,  which 
violated  the  Union,  if  it  be  considered  valid,  and, 
at  least,  violated  national  faith  in  the  attempt  to 
reimpose  patronage  upon  the  Scottish  Church, 
has  also  been  sufficiently  stated.  A  strong  desire 
to  avoid  prolixitv  alone  prevents  us  from  tran- 
scribing the  Address  of  the  Scottish  Commission- 
ers to  the  House  of  Lords  against  that  bill ;  and 
the  same  reason  causes  us  to  withhold  both  the 
Address  of  the  General  Assembly  to  Queen  Anne, 
and  a  subsequent  memorial  to  King  George  I., 
imploring  redress  from  the  grievance  of  patronage. 
Neither  shall  we  insert  the  Address  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  to  King  George  II.  in  1735,  though 
these  documents  most  strongly  express  the  earn- 
est desire  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  obtain  the 
repeal  of  the  Patronage  Act. 

But  the  Act  of  Assembly  1736  must  be  given, 
for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  view  entertained 
by  that  reforming  Assembly,  during  the  tempo- 
rary ascendancy  of  the  Evangelical  and  Constitu- 
tional body  in  the  Church,  with  regard  to  their 
own  duty  and  in  conformity  with  their  own  prin- 
ciples, even  though  the  desired  redress  had  not 
been  obtained. 

"Act  1736  against  Intrusion  of  Ministers  into 
vacant  Congregations,  and  Recommendations 
to  Presbyteries  concerning  Settlements. 

"  The  General  Assembly,  considering,  from 
Act  of  Assembly  August  6,  1575,  Second  Book 
of  Discipline,  chap.  iii.  pars.  4,  6,  and  8,  registrate 
in  the  Assembly  books,  and  appointed  to  be  sub- 
scribed by  all  ministers,  and  ratified  by  Acts  of 
Parliament ,  and  likewise  by  the  Act  of  Assembly 
1638,  December  17  and  18,  and  Assembly  1715, 
act  9,  that  it  is,  and  has  been  since  the  Reforma- 
tion, the  principle  of  this  Church,  'that  no  min- 
ister be  intruded  into  any  parish  contrary  to  the 
will  of  the  congregation  ;'  do  therefore  seriously 
recommend  to  all  the  judicatories  of  the  Church, 
to  have  a  due  regard  to  the  said  principle  in  plant- 
ing vacant  congregations  ;  and  that  all  Presbyte- 
ries be  at  pains-  to  bring  about  harmony  and 
unanimity  in  congregations,  and  to  avoid  every 
thing  that  may  excite  or  encourage  unreasonable 
exceptions  in  people  against  a  worthy  person  that 
may  be  proposed  to  be  their  minister  in  the  pres- 
ent situation  and  circumstances  of  the  Church, 
so  as  none  be  intruded  into  such  parishes,  as  they 
regard  the  glory  of  God  and  edification  of  the 
body  of  Christ." 

At  the  same  time  the  following  instruction  was 
given  to  the  Commission  of  that  Assembly,  and 
repeated  to  every  succeeding  Commission  till  the 
year  1784:— 

"  And  the  Assembly  do  further  empower  and 
direct  the  said  Commission  to  make  due  applica- 
tion to  the  King  and  Parliament,  for  redress  of 
the  grievance  of  Patronage,  in  case  a  favourable 
opportunity  for  so  doing  shall  occur  during  the 
subsistence  of  this  Commission." 

Extreme  Moderate  policy  having  reduced  the 
constitutional  principles  of  the  Church  and  the 
rights  of  the  people  to  a  mere  form,  proposed  in 
178-2  to  abolish  the  form  itself,  which  still  sur- 
vived in  the  call.  This  attempt,  however,  was 
resisted,  and  the  following  act  was  passed : — 


"  Upon  a  motion  that  the  reso  ution  of  Assem- 
bly respecting  the  moderation  of  calls  sho  lid,  for 
the  satisfaction  of  all  concerned,  be  converted 
into  a  declaratory  act,  and  printed  amongst  the 
Acts  of  Assembly,  the  General  Assembly  agreed 
thereto  without  a  vote ;  and  in  terms  of  said  reso- 
lution did  and  hereby  do  declare,  that  the  moder- 
ation of  a  call,  in  the  settlement  of  ministers,  is 
agreeable  to  the  immemorial  and  constitutional 
practice  of  this  Church,  and  ought  to  be  continued." 

Nothing  further  need  to  be  stated  respecting 
the  proceedings  of  the  Church,  till  the  passing  of 
the  act  on  calls,  commonly  called  the  Veto  Act, 
which  is  as  follows : — 

"Edinburgh,  May  29,  1835.— The  General  As- 
sembly declare,  That  it  is  a  fundamental  law  of 
this  Church,  that  no  pastor  shall  be  intruded  on 
any  congregation  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  and,  in  order  that  this  principle  may  be  car- 
ried into  full  effect,  the  General  Assembly,  with 
the  consent  of  a  majority  of  the  Presbyteries  of 
this  Church,  do  declare,  enact,  and  ordain,  That 
it  shall  be  an  instruction  to  Presbyteries,  that  if, 
at  the  moderating  in  a  call  to  a  vacant  pastoral 
charge,  the  major  part  of  the  male  heads  of  fami- 
lies, members  of  the  vacant  congregation,  and  iu 
full  communion  with  the  Church,  shall  disap- 
prove of  the  person  in  whose  favour  the  call  i£ 
proposed  to  be  moderated  in,  such  disapproval 
shall  be  deemed  sufficient  ground  for  the  Presby- 
tery rejecting  such  person,  and  that  he  shall  be 
rejected  accordingly,  and  due  notice  thereof  forth- 
with given  to  all  concerned ;  but  that,  if  the  ma- 
jor part  of  the  said  heads  of  families  shall  not 
disapprove  of  such  person  to  be  their  pastor,  the 
Presbytery  shall  proceed  with  the  settlement  ac- 
cording to  the  rules  of  the  Church :  And  further 
declare  that  no  person  shall  be  held  to  be  entitled 
to  disapprove  as  aforesaid,  who  shall  refuse,  if 
required,  solemnly  to  declare,  in  presence  of  the 
Presbytery,  that  he  is  actuated  by  no  factious  or 
malicious  motive,  but  solely  by  a  conscientious 
regard  to  the  spiritual  interest  of  himself  or  the 
congregation." 

It  may  be  expedient  to  transcribe  the  usual 
form  of  a  Call. 

"We,  the  Heritors,  Elders,  Heads  of  Families, 

and  Parishioners  of  the  Parish  of ,  within 

the  bounds  of  the  Presbytery  of ,  and 

county  of ,  taking  into  consideration  the 

present  destitute  state  of  the  said  Parish,  through 
the  want  of  a  Gospel  ministry  among  us,  occa- 
sioned by  the  death  of  our  late  pastor,  the  Rev. 
,  being  satisfied  with  the  learning, 


abilities,  and  other  good  qualifications  of  you, 

Mr. ,  Preacher  of  the  Gospel,  and 

having  heard  you  preach  to  our  satisfaction  and 
edification,  do  hereby  invite  and  call  you,  the 
said  Mr. ,  to  take  charge  and  over- 
sight of  this  Parish,  and  to  come  and  labour 
among  us  in  the  work  of  the  Gospel  ministry, 
hereby  promising  to  you  all  due  respect  and  en- 
couragement in  the  Lord.  We  likewise  entreat 

the  Reverend  Presbytery  of  to  approve 

and  concur  with  this  our  most  cordial  call,  and 
to  use  all  the  proper  means  for  making  the  same 
effectual,  by  your  ordination  and  settlement 
among  us,  as  soon  as  the  steps  necessary  thereto 
will  admit.  In  witness  whereof,  we  subscribe 

these  presents,  at  the  Church  of ,  on  the 

day  of , years." 


492 


APPENDIX. 


That  a  document  of  such  a  solemn  character 
should  be  held  to  be  sufficiently  subscribed  by 
the  signatures  of  one  or  two  persons;  and  that  a 
church  court  would  proceed  to  intrude  a  person 
who  cowld  obtain  but  one  or  two  signatures,  upon 
a  whole  parish  and  congregation,  in  spite  of  their 
respectful,  and  finally  of  their  determined  opposi- 
tion, even  at  the  hazard  of  compelling  them  all  to 
quit  forever  the  Church  of  their  fathers,  is  so 
strangely  unnatural,  oppressive,  and  contrary  to 
both  reason  and  religion,  that  it  would  not  readily 
be  thought  possible,  if  it  did  not  stand  recorded 
as  having  actually  taken  place  times  innumerable, 
and  if  Auchterarder,  Lethendy,  and  Marnoch 
could  be  forgotten.  Still  more  portentously 
strange  will  it  be,  if  the  majority  of  the  Evangel- 
ical ministers  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  be  driven 
out  of  the  Church,  because  they  will  not  consent 
to  become  bound  to  perpetrate  such  atrocious 
tyranny  and  profanation  at  the  command  of  a 
civil  court,  although  contrary  to  the  principles  of 
the  Church,  contrary  to  the  law  of  the  land,  con- 
trary to  the  British  Constitution,  and  contrary  to 
the  precepts  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


No.  IV. 

THE  PROTEST. 

We,  the  undersigned  ministers  and  elders, 
chosen  as  commissioners  to  the  General  Assem- 
bly of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  indicted  to  meet 
this  day,  but  precluded  from  holding  the  said  As- 
sembly by  reason  of  the  circumstances  hereinafter 
set  forth,  in  consequence  of  which  a  free  Assem- 
bly of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  and  constitution  of  the  said  Church, 
cannot  at  this. time  be  holden, — considering  that 
the  Legislature,  by  their  rejection  of  the  Claim 
of  Right  adopted  by  the  last  General  Assembly 
of  the  said  Church,  and  their  refusal  to  give  re- 
dress and  protection  against  the  jurisdiction  as- 
sumed, and  the  coercion  of  late  repeatedly  at- 
tempted to  be  exercised  over  the  courts  of  the 
Church  in  matters  spiritual  by  the  civil  courts, 
have  recognised  and  fixed  the  conditions  of  the 
Church  Establishment,  as  henceforward  to  sub- 
sist in  Scotland,  to  be  such  as  these  have  been 
pronounced  and  declared  by  the  said  civil  courts 
in  their  several  recent  decisions,  in  regard  to  mat- 
ters spiritual  arid  ecclesiastical,  whereby  it  has 
Deen  inter  alia  declared, — 

1st,  That  the  courts  of  the  Church  as  now  es- 
tablished, and  members  thereof,  are  liable  to  be 
coerced  by  the  civil  courts  in  the  exercise  of  their 
spiritual  functions ;  and  in  particular,  in  their 
admission  to  the  office  of  the  holy  ministry,  and 
'he  constitution  of  the  pastoral  relation,  and  that 
they  are  subject  to  be  compelled  to  intrude  min- 
isters on  reclaiming  congregations,  in  opposition 
i.o  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Church,  and 
their  views  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  to  the  liber- 
ties of  Christ's  people. 

2  /,  That  the  said  civil  courts  have  power  to  in- 
terfere with,  and  interdict  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel  and  administration  of  ordinances  as  author- 
ised and  enjoined  by  the  Church  courts  of  the 
Establishment. 


3d,  That  the  said  civil  courts  have  power  tc 
suspend  spiritual  censures  pronounced  by  the 
Church  courts  of  the  Establishment  against  min- 
isters and  probationers  of  the  Church,  and  to  in- 
terdict their  execution,  as  to  spiritual  effects, 
functions,  and  privileges. 

4:th,  That  the  said  civil  courts  have  power  to 
reduce  and  set  aside  the  sentences  of  the  Church 
courts  of  the  Establishment,  deposing  ministers 
from  the  office  of  the  holy  ministry,  and  depriv- 
ing probationers  of  their  license  to  preach  the 
gospel,  with  refererence  to  the  spiritual  status, 
functions,  and  privileges  of  such  ministers  and 
probationers, — restoring  them  to  the  spiritual 
office  and  status  of  which  the  Church  courts  had 
deprived  them. 

5th,  That  the  said  civil  courts  have  power  to 
determine  on  the  right  to  sit  as  members  of  the 
supreme  and  other  judicatories  of  the  Church  by 
law  established,  and  to  issue  interdicts  against 
sitting  and  voting  therein,  irrespective  of  the 
judgment  and  determination  of  the  said  judica- 
tories. 

6th,  That  the  said  civil  courts  have  power  to 
supersede  the  majority  of  a  Church  court  of  the 
Establishment,  in  regard  to  the  exercise  of  its 
spiritual  functions  as  a  Church  court,  and  to  au- 
thorise the  minority  to  exercise  the  said  functions, 
in  opposition  to  the  court  itself,  and  to  the  supe- 
rior judicatories  of  the  Establishment. 

1th,  That  the  said  civil  courts  have  power  to 
stay  processes  of  discipline  pending  before  courts 
of  the  Church  bylaw  established,  and  to  interdict 
such  courts  from  proceeding  therein, 

8th,  That  no  pastor  of  a  congregation  can  bo 
admitted  into  the  Church  courts  of  the  Establish- 
ment, and  allowed  to  rule,  as  well  as  to  teach, 
agreeable  to  the  institution  of  the  office  by  the 
Head  of  the  Church,  nor  to  sit  in  any  of  the  judi- 
catories of  the  Church,  inferior  or  supreme,  and 
that  no  additional  provision  can  be  made  for  the 
exercise  of  spiritual  discipline  among  members  of 
the  Church,  though  not  affecting  any  patrimonial 
interests,  and  no  alteration  introduced  in  the 
state  of  pastoral  superintendence  and  spiritual 
discipline  in  any  parish,  without  the  coercion  of 
a  civil  court. 

All  which  jurisdiction  and  power  on  the  part 
of  the  said  civil  courts  severally  above  specified, 
whatever  proceeding  may  have  given  occasion  to 
its  exercise,  is,  in  our  opinion,  in  itself  inconsist- 
ent with  Christian  liberty, — with  the  authority 
which  the  Head  of  the  Church  hath  conferred  on 
the  Church  alone. 

And  further,  considering  that  a  General  As- 
sembly, composed,  in  accordance  with  the  laws 
and  fundamental  principles  of  the  Church,  in 
part  of  commissioners,  themselves  admitted  with- 
out the  sanction  of  the  civil  court,  or  chosen  by 
presbyteries,  composed  in  part  of  members  not 
having  that  sanction,  cannot  be  constituted  as  an 
Assembly  of  the  Establishment,  without  disregard- 
ing the  law  and  the  legal  conditions  of  the  same, 
as  now  fixed  and  declared. 

And  further,  considering  that  such  commis- 
sioners as  aforesaid  would,  as  members  of  an  As- 
sembly of  the  Establishment,  be  liable  to  be  inter- 
dicted from  exercising  their  functions,  and  to  be 
subjected  to  civil  coercion  at  the  instance  of  *ny 
individual  having  interest  who  might  apply  to  the 
civil  courts  for  that  purpose. 


APPENDIX. 


And  considering,  further,  that  civil  coercion 
has  already  been  in  divers  instances  applied  for 
and  used,  whereby  certain  commissioners  re- 
turned to  the  Assembly  this  day  appointed  to  have 
been  holden,  have  been  interdicted  from  claiming 
their  seats,  and  from  sitting  and  voting  therein  ; 
and  certain  presbyteries  have  been,  by  interdicts 
directed  against  the  members,  prevented  from 
freely  choosing  commissioners  to  the  said  Assem- 
bly ;  whereby  the  freedom  of  such  Assembly,  and 
the  liberty  of  election  thereto  has  been  forcibly 
obstructed  and  taken  away. 

And  further,  considering  that,  in  these  circum- 
stances, a  free  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land by  law  established  cannot  at  this  time  be 
holden,  and  that  any  Assembly,  in  accordance 
with  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Church, 
cannot  be  constituted  in  connection  with  the 
State,  without  violating  the  conditions  which 
must  now,  since  the  rejection  by  the  Legislature 
of  the  Church's  Claim  of  Right,  be  held  to  be  the 
conditions  of  the  Establishment. 

And  considering  that,  while  heretofore,  as  mem- 
bers of  Church  judicatories  ratified  by  law,  and 
recognised  by  the  Constitution  of  the  kingdom, 
we  held  ourselves  entitled  and  bound  to  exercise 
and  maintain  the  jurisdiction  vested  in  these  ju- 
dicatories with  the  sanction  of  the  Constitution, 
notwithstanding  the  decrees  as  to  matters  spiritual 
and  ecclesiastical  of  the  civil  courts,  because  we 
could  not  see  that  the  State  had  required  sub- 
mission thereto  as  a  condition  of  the  Establish- 
ment, but,  on*  the  contrary,  were  satisfied  that  the 
State,  by  the  acts  of  the  Parliament  of  Scotland, 
for  ever  and  unalterably  secured  to  this  nation  by 
the  Treaty  of  Union,  had  repudiated  any  power 
in  the  civil  courts  to  pronounce  such  decrees,  we 
are  now  constrained  to  acknowledge  it  to  be  the 
mind  and  will  of  the  State,  as  recently  declared, 
that  such  submissions  should  and  does  form  a 
condition  of  the  Establishment,  and  of  the  pos- 
session of  the  benefits  thereof;  and  that,  as  we 
cannot,  without  committing  what  we  believe  to 
be  sin, — in  opposition  to  God's  law,  in  disregard 
of  the  honour  and  authority  of  Christ's  crown, 
and  in  violation  of  our  own  solemn  vows, — com- 
ply with  this  condition ;  we  cannot  in  conscience 
continue  connected  with,  and  retain  the  benefits 
of,  the  Establishment,  to  which  such  condition  is 
attached. 

We,  therefore,  the  ministers  and  elders  afore- 
said, on  this,  the  first  occasion  since  the  rejection 
by  the  Legislature-  of  the  Church's  Claim  of 
Right,  when  the  commissioners  chosen  from 
throughout  the  bounds  of  the  Church  to  the 
General  Assembly  appointed  to  have  been  this 
day  holden,  are  convened  together,  do  protest 
that  the  conditions  foresaid,  while  we  deem  them 
contrary  to,  and  subversive  of,  the  settlement  of 
Church  government  effected  at  the  Revolution, 
and  solemnly  guaranteed  by  the  Act  of  Security 
and  Treaty  of  Union,  are  also  at  variance  with 
God's  Word,  in  opposition  to  the  doctrines  and 
fundamental  principles  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
inconsistent  with  the  freedom  essential  to  the 
right  constitution  of  a  Church  of  Christ,  and  in- 
compatible with  the  government  which  He,  as 


the  Head  of  His  Church,  hath  therein  appointed 
distinct  from  the  civil  magistrate. 

And  we  further  protest,  that  any  Assembly 
constituted  in  submission  to  the  conditions  now 
declared  to  be  law,  and  under  the  civil  coercion 
which  has  been  brought  to  bear  in  the  election 
of  commissioners  to  the  Assembly  this  day  ap- 
pointed to  have  been  holden,  and  on  the  commis- 
sioners chosen  thereto,  is  not  and  shall  not  be 
deemed  a  free  and  lawful  Assembly  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  according  to  the  original  and  funda- 
mental principles  thereof,  and  that  the  Claim, 
Declaration,  and  Protest,  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly which  convened  at  Edinburgh  in  May  1842, 
as  the  act  of  a  free  and  lawful  Assembly  of  the 
said  Church,  shall  be  holden  as  setting  forth  the 
true  constitution  of  the  said  Church ;  and  that 
the  said  Claim,  along  with  the  laws  of  the  Church 
now  subsisting,  shall  in  nowise  be  affected  by 
whatsoever  acts  and  proceedings  of  any  Assem- 
bly constituted  under  the  conditions  now  declared 
to  be  the  law,  and  in  submission  to  the  coercion 
now  imposed  on  the  Establishment. 

And,  finally,  while  firmly  asserting  the  right 
and  duty  of  the  civil  magistrate,  to  maintain  and 
support  an  establishment  of  religion  in  accord- 
ance with  God's  Word,  and  reserving  to  ourselves 
and  our  successors  to  strive  by  all  lawful  means, 
as  opportunity  shall  in  God's  good  providence  be 
offered  to  secure  the  performance  of  this  duty 
agreeably  to  the  Scriptures,  and  an  implement 
of  the  statutes  of  the  kingdom  of  Scotland,  and 
the  obligations  of  the  Treaty  of  Union,  as  under- 
stood by  us  and  our  ancestors,  but  acknowledg- 
ing that  we  do  not  hold  ourselves  at  liberty  to 
retain  the  benefits  of  the  Establishment  while  we 
cannot  comply  with  the  conditions  now  to  be 
deemed  thereto  attached — we  protest,  that  in  the 
circumstances  in  which  we  are  placed,  it  is  and 
shall  be  lawful  for  us  and  such  other  commis- 
sioners chosen  to  the  Assembly  appointed  to 
have  been  this  day  holden,  as  may  concur  with 
us,  to  withdraw  to  a  separate  place  of  meeting, 
for  the  purpose  of  taking  steps  for  ourselves  and 
all  who  adhere  to  us — maintaining  with  us  the 
Confession  of  Faith  and  Standards  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  as  heretofore  understood — for  sep- 
arating in  an  orderly  way  from  the  Establishment ; 
and  thereupon  adopting  such  measures  as  may 
be  competent  to  us,  in  humble  dependence  on 
God's  grace  and  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  for 
the  advancement  of  His  glory,  the  extension  of 
the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  and  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  affairs  of  Christ's  house,  ac- 
cording to  His  Holy  Word;  and  we  do  now 
withdraw  accordingly,  humbly  and  solemnly 
acknowledging  the  hand  of  the  Lord  in  the 
things  which  have  come  upon  us,  because  of  our 
manifold  sins,  and  the  sins  of  this  Church  and 
nation ;  but  at  the  same  time,  with  an  assured 
conviction,  that  we  are  not  responsible  for  any 
consequences  that  may  follow  from  this  our  en- 
forced separation  from  an  Establishment  which 
we  loved  and  prized — through  interference  with 
conscience,  the  dishonour  done  to  Christ's  Crown, 
and  the  rejection  of  his  sole  and  supreme  author- 
ity as  King  in  his  Church. 


494 


APPENDIX. 


.     No.  V. 

HER  MAJESTY'S  LETTER  TO  THE  GEN- 
ERAL ASSEMBLY. 

VICTORIA  R. 

Right  reverend  and  well-beloved  !  We  greet 
you  well. 

Faithful  to  the  solemn  engagement,  which  binds 
us  to  maintain  inviolate  the  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Scotland  in  all  its  rights  and  privileges,  we 
gladly  renew  the  assurance,  that  we  desire  to  ex- 
tend to  you  the  countenance  and  support  which 
the  General  Assembly  has  long  received  from  our 
royal  ancestors. 

In  other  circumstances  it  might  have  sufficed 
to  adhere  to  the  forms  which  have  been  generally 
observed  in  our  former  communications  to  you, 
and  to  express  our  anxious  hope  that  Christian 
charity  will,  as  heretofore,  abound  among  you 
and  restrain  all  animosities ;  but  in  the  present 
state  of  the  Church,  and  adverting  to  the  discus- 
sions which  of  late  have  so  unhappily  disturbed 
its  peace,  we  desire  to  address  you  with  more 
than  usual  earnestness  and  anxiety. 

It  behoves  you  to  remember,  that  unity  in  the 
Church  is  the  bond  of  peace ;  but  that  schism 
and  its  pernicious  effects  may  tend  seriously  to 
endanger  that  religious  Establishment  from  which 
Scotland  has  derived  inestimable  benefits. 

The  faith  of  our  crown  is  pledged  to  uphold 
you  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  every  privilege 
which  you  can  justly  claim :  but  you  will  bear 
in  mind,  that  the  rights  and  property  of  an  Es- 
tablished Church  are  conferred  by  law  ;  it  is  by 
law  that  the  Church  of  Scotland  is  united  with 
the  State,  and  that  her  endowments  are  secured ; 
and  the  ministers  of  religion,  claiming  the  sanc- 
tion of  law  in  defence  of  their  privileges,  are 
specially  bound  by  their  sacred  calling  to  be  ex- 
amples of  obedience. 

The  act  ratifying  the  Confession  of  Faith,  and 
settling  Presbyterian  Church  government  in 
Scotland  was  adopted  at  the  Union,  and  is  now 
the  act  of  the  British  Parliament.  The  settle- 
ment thus  fixed  cannot  be  annulled  by  the  will 
or  declaration  of  any  number  of  individuals: 
those  who  are  dissatisfied  with  the  terms  of  this 
settlement,  may  renounce  it  for  themselves ;  but 
the  union  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  with  the 
State  is  indissoluble  while  the  statutes  remain 
unrepealed  which  recognise  the  Presbyterian 
Church  as  the  Church  established  bylaw  within 
the  kingdom  of  Scotland. 

We  cannot  doubt,  that  your  anxious  consider- 
ation will  be  given  to  various  important  matters 
connected  with  the  welfare  of  your  Church, 
which  require  immediate  adjustment. 
f  The  Act  of  Assembly  passed  in  the  year  1834, 
on  the  subject  of  calls,  has  come  under  the  re- 
view of  competent  tribunals ;  and  various  pro- 
ceedings taken  in  pursuance  of  this  act  have 
been  pronounced  by  solemn  judgments  to  be  illegal. 
It  has  not  yet  been  rescinded  by  the  Assembly ; 
and  a  conflict  of  authority  between  the  law  of 
the  land  and  an  act  of  the  Church,  in  a  matter 
where  civil  rights  and  civil  jurisdiction  are  con- 
cerned, cannot  be  prolonged  without  injurious 
consequences. 

The  Church  of  Scotland,  occupying  its  true 
position  in  friendly  alliance  with  the  State,  is 


justly  entitled  to  expect  the  aid  of  Parliament  in 
removing  .any  doubts  which  may  have  arisen 
with  respect  to  the  right  construction  of  the  sta- 
tutes relating  to  the  admission  of  ministers.  You 
may  safely  confide  in  the  wisdom  of  Parliament ; 
and  we  shall  readily  give  our  assent  to  any  mea- 
sure which  the  Legislature  may  pass  for  the  pur- 
pose of  securing  to  the  people  the  full  privilege 
of  objection,  and  to  the  Church  judicatories  the 
exclusive  right  of  judgment. 

There  is  another  matter  not  less  important,  the 
present  position  of  ministers  in  unendowed  dis- 
tricts. The  law,  as  confirmed  by  a  recent  judg- 
ment, has  declared  that  new  parishes  cannot  be 
created  by  the  authority  of  the  Church  alone,  and 
that  ministers  placed  in  such  districts  are  not  en- 
titled to  act  in  Church  courts. 

If  it  shall  appear  that  the  efficiency  of  the 
Church  is  thereby  impaired,  and  that  the  means 
of  extending  her  usefulness  are  curtailed,  the  law 
to  which  such  effects  are  ascribed,  may  require 
re-consideration  and  amendment ;  but  until  it  be 
so  considered  by  the  Legislature,  and  while  it 
remains  unaltered,  we  are  persuaded  that  it  will 
be  implicitly  obeyed  by  the  General  Assembly. 

You  will  deliberate  on  such  of  these  matters 
as  fall  within  your  cognizance  attentively  and 
calmly ;  and  we  commend  you  to  the  guidance 
of  Divine  Providence,  praying  that  you  may  b« 
directed  to  the  adoption  of  wise  counsels,  which 
shall  promote  the  permanent  interests  and 
honour  of  the  Church,  and  the  religious  peace 
and  moral  welfare  of  our  people.  * 

We  have  again  constituted  and  appointed  our 
right-trusty  and  entirely  beloved  cousin,  John 
Marquis  of  Bute,  K.  T.,  to  be  the  representative 
of  our  royal  person  in  this  Assembly.  And  we 
are  certain  that  his  prudence  and  approved  merits, 
and  his  tried  attachment  to  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, will  render  him  acceptable  unto  you  in  the 
execution  of  the  duties  of  his  high  office. 

He  possesses  our  full  authority  for  the  exercise 
of  our  royal  prerogative  in  all  matters  relating  ti. 
the  present  Assembly,  in  which,  in  obedience  tc 
our  instructions  to  him,  he  may  be  called  upor; 
to  act  for  us  in  our  behalf. 

We  implore  the  blessing  of  God  on  your  de- 
liberations, trusting  that  He  will  overrule  all 
events  for  the  good  of  his  Church,  and  for  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  people  committed  to  your 
charge  :  and  we  feel  assured  that  divine  grace  will 
not  be  withdrawn  from  the  labours  of  the  minis- 
ters of  the  Church  established  in  this  part  of  the 
United  kingdom. 

And  so  we  bid  you  heartily  farewell. 

Given  at  our  Court  at  St.  James's  the  15th 
day  of  May  1843,  in  the  sixth  year  of  our 
reign. 

By  her  Majesty's  command. 
(Signed)  JAMES  GRAHAM. 


No.  VI. 

ACT   OF    SEPARATION   AND    DEED    OF 
DEMISSION. 

The  ministers  and  elders  subscribing  the  Pro- 
test made  on  Thursday,  the  eighteenth  of  this 


APPENDIX. 


495 


instant  May,  at  the  Meeting  of  the  Commission- 
ers chosen  to  the  General  Assembly,  appointed 
to  have  been  that  day  holden,  against  the  freedom 
and  lawfulness  of  any  Assembly  which  might 
then  be  constituted,  and  against  the  subversion 
recently  effected  in  the  constitution  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  together  with  the  ministers  and  el- 
ders adhering  to  the  said  Protest,  in  this  their 
General  Assembly  convened,  did,  in  prosecution 
of  the  said  Protest,  and  of  the  Claim  of  Right 
adopted  by  the  General  Assembly,  which  met  at 
Edinburgh  in  May  eighteen  hundred  and  forty- 
two  years,  and  on  the  grounds  therein  set  forth, 
and  hereby  do,  for  themselves  and  all  who  adhere 
to  them,  separate  from  and  abandon  the  present 
subsisting  Ecclesiastical  Establishment  in  Scot- 
land, and  did,  and  hereby  do,  abdicate  and  renounce 
the  status  and  privileges  derived  to  them,  or  any 
of  them,  as  parochial  ministers  or  elders,  from  the 
said  Establishment,  through  its  connexion  with 
the  State,  and  all  rights  and  emoluments  pertaining 
to  them,  or  any  of  them,  by  virtue  hereof:  De- 
claring, that  they  hereby  in  no  degree  abandon 
or  impair  the  rights  belonging  to  them  as  minis- 
ters of  Christ's  gospel,  and  pastors  and  elders  of 
particular  congregations,  to  perform  freely  and 
fully  the  functions  of  their  offices  towards  their 
respective  congregations,  or  such  portions  thereof 
as  may  adhere  to  them ;  and  that  they  are  and 
shall  be  free  to  exercise  government  and  discipline 
in  their  several  judicatories,  separate  from  the 
Establishment,  according  to  God's  Word,  and  the 
constitution  and  Standards  of  the  Chnrch  of 
Scotland,  as  heretofore  understood;  and  that 
henceforth  they  are  not,  and  shall  not,  be  subject 
in  any  respect  to  the  ecclesiastical  judicatories 
established  in  Scotland  by  law ;  reserving  always 
the  rights  and  benefits  accruing  to  them,  or  any 
of  them,  under  the  Provision  oT  the  statutes  re- 
specting the  Ministers'  Widows'  Fund :  And  fur- 
ther, declaring  that  this  present  act  shall  noways 
be  held  as  a  renunciation  on  the  part  of  such  of 
the  ministers,  foresaid  as  are  ministers  of  churches 
built  by  private  contribution,  and  not  provided  or 
endowed  by  the  State,  of  any  rights  which  may 
be  found  to  belong  to  them,  or  their  congregations, 
in  regard  to  the  same,  by  virtue  of  the  intentions 
and  destination  of  the  contributors  to  the  erection 
of  the  said  churches,  or  otherwise,  according  to 
It  w ;  all  which  are  fully  reserved  to  the  ministers 


foresaid  and  their  congregations.  And  further, 
the  said  ministers  and  elders  in  this  their  General 
Assembly  convened,  while  they  refuse  to  ac- 
knowledge the  supreme  ecclesiastical  judicatory 
established  by  law  in  Scotland,  and  now  holding 
its  sittings  in  Edinburgh,  to  be  a  free  Assembly 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  or  a  lawful  Assembly 
of  the  said  Church,  according  to  the  true  and 
original  constitution  thereof,  and  disclaim  its  au- 
thority as  to  matters  spiritual ;  yet  in  respect  of 
the  recognition  given  to  it  by  the  State,  and  the 
powers  in  consequence  of  such  recognition  be- 
longing to  it,  with  reference  to  the  temporalities 
of  the  Establishment,  and  the  right  derived 
thereto  from  the  State,  hereby  appoint  a  duplicate 
of  this  act  to  be  subscribed  by  their  moderator, 
and  also  by  the  several  ministers,  members  of  this 
Assembly,  now  present  in  Edinburgh,  for  their 
individual  interests,  to  be  transmitted  to  the 
clerk  of  the  said  ecclesiastical  judicatory  by  law 
established,  for  the  purpose  of  certiorating  them, 
that  the  benefices  held  by  such  of  the  said  min- 
isters, or  others  adhering  to  this  Assembly,  as 
were  incumbents  of  benefices,  are  now  vacant ; 
and  the  said  parties  consent  that  the  said  bene- 
fices shall  be  dealt  with  as  such.  And  they  au- 
thorize the  Rev.  Thomas  Pitcairn  and  the  Rev. 
Patrick  Clason,  conjunct  clerks  to  this  their  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  to  subscribe  the  joinings  of  the 
several  sheets  hereof;  and  they  consent  to  the 
registration  hereof  in  the  Books  of  Council  and 
Session,  or  others  competent,  therein  to  remain 
for  preservation ;  and  for  that  purpose  constitute 

their  procurators, 

&c.  In  testimony  whereof,  these  presents,  writ- 
ten upon  stamped  paper  by  William  Petrie  Couper, 
clerk  to  James  Crawford,  junior,  writer  to  the 
Signet,  are,  with  a  duplicate  thereof,  subscribed 
by  the  whole  parties  in  general  meeting  assem- 
bled, and  the  joinings  of  the  several  sheets  by 
the  saids  Rev.  Thomas  Pitcairn  and  Rev.  Patrick 
Clason,  as  authorised  as  aforesaid,  all  at  Edin- 
burgh, the  twenty-third  day  of  May,  one  thou- 
sand eight  hundred  and  forty-three  years,  before 
these  witnesses, — Mr.  John  Hamilton,  advocate , 
William  Fraser,  writer  to  the  Signet ;  John  Hun- 
ter, junior,  writer  to  the  Signet ;  and  the  Rev. 
John  Jaffray,  preacher  of  the  Gospel,  and  secre- 
tary to  the  Provisional  Committee,  Edinburgh. 


INDEX. 


ABERDEEN,  prorogued  Assembly  of,  p.  120.  Doctors 
of,  oppose  the  Covenant,  157.  The  Covenant  forced 
upon,  by  Montrose,  175.  Synod  of,  indicates  prelatic 
tendencies,  212. 

,  first  Earl  of,  made  Chancellor  by  the  Duke 

of  York,  267. 

,  Earl  of,  his  Bill,  411.  Assertion  at  its  pro- 
posed reintroduction,  461.  Passed  into  law,  467. 

Abjuration  Oath,  329,  336. 

Acts  of  Parliament  and  of  Assembly,  see  Appendix. 
The  Black  Acts,  90. 

Adamson,  Patrick,  his  opinion  of  bishops,  76.  Accepts 
the  Archbishopric  of  St.  Andrews,  79.  Excommuni- 
cated by  the  Synod  of  Fife,  91.  Supported  by  Mel- 
ville, and  dies,  93. 

Allegiance,  Oath  of,  establishing  the  King's  Suprem- 
acy, 209. 

Andrews,  St.  Castle  of,  held  by  the  conspirators  against 
Beaton,  32.  Taken,  35. 

,  town  of,  scene  of  the  martyrdom  of  Wishart, 

32,  Knox  preaches  in,  45. 

Apocrypha  Controversy,  the,  390. 

Apologetical  Declaration,  the,  its  remarkable  language, 
274. 

Argyle,  Earl  of,  supports  the  Reformers,  37.  Sub- 
scribes the  Covenant,  38. 

,  Earl  of,  remains  in  the  Glasgow  Assembly,  169. 

His  imprisonment,  trial,  and  execution,  212,  213. 

,  Earl  of,  takes  the  Test  with  a  qualification,  for 

which  he  is  tried  and  condemned,  264.  But  escapes, 
265.  Returns  and  attempts  a  revolution,  but  is  de- 
feated and  taken,  277.  His  trial  and  death,  278,  279. 

Arminianism  introduced  by  the  Prelates,  137.  Begins 
to  infect  the  Church  after  the  Revolution,  327.  In- 
creasing progress  of,  341.  Degenerates  into  Hocin- 
ianism/367,  378. 

Arran,  Regent  after  the  death  of  James  V,  ,,jt«.  jdrable 
to  the  Reformation,  29.  Enters  into  the-schemes  of 
Cardinal  Beaton,  29. 

,  Earl  of,  son  to  the  Regent,  joins  the  Reform- 
ers, 46. 

Assembly,  General,  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  meet- 
ing of  the  first,  52.  Suppressed  by  King  Jaines,  125. 
Resumes  its  meetings  at  the  Second  Reformation, 
106.  Again  suppressed  by  Cromwell,  202.  Meeting 
of  first,  after  the  Revolution,  303.  Attempt  of  King 
William  to  suppress  it,  308.  Termination  of  the  con- 
test. 311,  312.  Renewed  attempt  to  interfere  with 
its  liberties,  318.  These  liberties  fully  asserted  and 
maintained,  318. 

the  First,  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland, 

464,  465.  The  First,  of  the  Erastianized  Establish- 
ment, its  proceedings,  466. 

Auchterarder  Creed,  340-343. 

Case,  the,  proceedings  in,  401.  Decision 

of  the  Second  Appeal  in,  443.  Its  Effects,  444. 

Ayr,  Dr.  M'Gill  of,  tried  for  Socinianism,  378. 

BAILLIE,  Robert,  joins  the  Covenanters,  150.  One  of 
the  Commissioners  to  the  Westminster  Assembly,  182. 

Baillie  of  Jer  vis  wood,  his  trial  and  execution,  272. 

Balmerino,  Lord,  trial  of,  141. 

Bannatyne,  Sir  William,  the  atrocious  conduct  of,  232. 

Bass,  the  island  or  rock  of  the.  made  a  state  prison,  240. 

Beaton,  Cardinal,  account  of  him,  28.    Assassinated,  33. 

Bishops,  tulchan,  meaning  of  the  word,  and  object  for 
which  they  were  appointed,  76.  The  office  of,  con- 
demned by  the  Assembly,  81.  Restored  by  King 
James,  111,  147.  Their  tyrannical  conduct,  128-131. 
Impetuosity  of  the  young,  137.  Deposed,  170.  Re- 


imposed  upon  the  Church  of  Scotland  by  Charles  II., 
215.  The  order  abolished  in  Scotland  finally,  298. 

Black,  David,  tried  by  the  King,  on  account  of  language 
uttered  in  his  sermons,  107. 

Blackadder,  John,  holds  a  great  field-meeting  at  Beath, 

Blair,  Robert,  obliged  to  retire  to  Ireland,  130.  Goes 
to  London  as  a  Commissioner,  182. 

Dr.  Hugh,  defends  Hume's  infidel  writings,  364. 

"  Bloody  Act,"  the,  275. 

Boston,  Rev.  Thomas,  recommends  the  Marrow  of 
Modern  Divinity,  342.  One  of  the  twelve  Marrow- 
men,  345.  Treatment,  of  him  by  the  growing  Mode- 
rate party,  347.  Protests  alone  against  the  simple 
suspension  of  Professor  Simson,  348. 

Bothwell  Bridge,  battle  of,  255.  Treatment  of  the  pris- 
oners taken  at,  256. 

Breda,  treaty  of,  198. 

Brown,  Rev.  John,  of  Wamphray,  his  works  burned, 
233. 

,  John,  of  Priesthill,  murdered  by  Claverhouse, 


Bruce,  Robert,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh,  ap- 
pointed a  privy  councillor,  93.  The  King's  expres- 
sion of  gratitude  to,  93.  Supports  David  Black,  109 
Banished,  116.  Permitted  to  reside  at  Inverness,  128 
His  influence  among  young  ministers,  136. 

Burnet,  Gilbert,  his  character  of  the  prelatic  party  in 
Scotland,  220.  Assists  Leighton  in  his  attempted  ac- 
commodation, 239. 

Burnet,  Alexander,  procures  the  Act  of  Glasgow,  219. 
Opposes  the  Indulgence,  237. 

Burns,  Robert,  the  poet,  misled  by  the  New  Lights,  378. 

CALDERWOOD,  David,  banished  by  King  James,  124. 

Call,  attempted  to  be  abolished  by  Dr.  Hill,  374.  Dr. 
Cook's  theory  respecting  the,  374. 

Cameron,  the  Rev.  Richard,  acknowledged  and  fol- 
lowed by  the  strict  Covenanters,  who,  from  his 
name,  are  sometimes  called  Cameronians,  257.  Killed 
at  the  skirmish  at  Airdsmoss,  260. 

Cameronians,  their  conduct  at  the  Revolution,  291. 
Their  petition,  296.  Conduct  towards  the  Church.  307. 

Canons,  Book  of,  ordered  to  be  received  in  Scotland,  142. 

Cargill,  the  Rev.  Donald,  becomes  a  leader  of  the  strict 
Covenanters,  254.  Pronounces  the  Torwood  excom- 
munication, 260.  Reasons  with  the  Gibbites,  261. 
His  death,  263. 

Carstares,  the  Rev.  William,  his  trial  and  torture,  271. 
His  character  and  views,  300.  His  advice  to  King 
William,  304.  Remarkable  interview  between  him 
and  the  king,  311. 

Cess,  the,  imposed  on  the  Presbyterians,  248.  Its  con- 
sequences. 248. 

Cessnock,  Sir  Hugh  Campbell  of,  his  trial,  270. 

Chalmers,  Dr.,  his  address  to  the  parishioners  of  Kil- 
many,  388. 

Charles  I.,  succeeds  his  father,  132;  equally  hostile  to 
the  Church.  Attempts  to  resume  the  crown  and 
church  lands,  132.  Visits  Scotland,  138.  Conduct 
there,  139.  Guileful  instructions  of,  to  Hamilton,  168. 
Resolves  to  make  war  upon  the  Covenanters,  172. 
Enters  into  treaty  with  them  at  Dunse  Law,  177. 
Renews  his  preparations  for  war,  179.  His  last  visit 
to  Scotland,  184.  Retires  to  the  army  of  the  Cove- 
nanters, 192.  Correspondence  with  Henderson,  192. 
Returns  to  the  English,  193.  Forms  an  engagement 
with  the  Hamiltons,  193.  His  decapitation,  19 ». 

Charles  II.  proclaimed  King,  196.  Subscribes  the  De- 
claration of  Dunfermline,  198.  Swears  the  National 


INDEX. 


497 


Covenant  and  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  and  is 
crowned  at  Scone.  21)0.  Defeated  at  W\  Tester.  201. 
His  Restoration,  205  Gives  rtrders  for  the  Establish- 
ment of  Prelacy  in  Scotland,  216.  His  remark  upon 
the  conduct  of  Lauderdale,  257.  Death  and  charac- 
ter. 277. 

Christianity,  when  introduced  into  Scotland,  9 
Church  of  Scotland,  maintains  its  independence  against 
the  encroachments  of  England,  17.  Reformation  of, 
recognised  by  Parliament,  50.  First  Confession  of 
Fnith  of  the,  50.  First  General  Assembly  of,  52. 
Patrimony  of  the,  seized  by  the  nobles,  57,  61  Es- 
tablished by  Act  of  Parliament.  69.  Eulogium  pro- 
nounced upon,  by  King  Jarnes,  93.  Great  charter  of, 
granted  by  Parliament,  94.  Contest  between  the 
King  and  the,  in  the  case  of  Black,  107.  State  of, 
during  the  contests  between  the  Resolutioners  and 
the  Protesters.  202.  Overthrown  by  the  Act  Recis- 
sory  and  the  Glasgow  Art.  210,  219.  Re-established 
at  the  Revolution,  298,  302.  Confirmed  by  the  Act 
of  Security,  319.  State  of,  in  1842,  424.  Preparations 
for  a  disruption  of,  459.  State  of.  at  meeting  of  As- 
sembly 1843,  460.  DISRUPTION  of,  463.  THK  FREE, 
464.  Proceedings  of  its  First  General  Assembly,  464, 

Claim  of  Right,  296. 

Claim  of  Rights,  and  Declaration,  431. 

Classes.  Act  of,  passed  by  the  parliament,  195.  Re- 
scinded by  the  parliament,  which  gave  rise  to  the 
dissensions  between  Resolutioners  and  Protesters, 
200. 

Commission  of  the  General  Assembly,  the  first,  184. 
Opposes  the  engagement,  194. 

Commissioners  to  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Di- 
vines, 188.  • 

Commission  of  Assembly,  its  petition  rejected  by  the 
House  of  Commons,  458. 

Committee,  the  Provisional,  its  object  and  arrange- 
ments, 456.  457. 

Comprehension  Scheme,  policy  of  King  William  in  de- 
vising the.  298,  301.  Evil  consequences  produced  by 
it,  305,  308,  323,  383. 

Conformity   of  Church    Government,  argument  for, 

Congregation,  Lords  of  the,  origin  of  the  term,  38. 

Conventicles,  act  Hgainst  the,  226. 

Convocation,  held  in  Edinburgh,  448.  Its  proceedings^ 
449.  Remarks  on,  450.  451. 

Covenant,  the  First,  subscribed  at  Edinburgh.  38. 

,  the  Second,  subscribed  at  Perth"  44. 

.  National,  signed  in  the  Greyfriars'  Church- 
yard, Edinburgh,  155.  Renewed  at  Lanark,  228. 

,  Solemn   League  and,  subscribed,  186.     Its 

character,  187. 188.     Signed  by  Charles  II.,  200     Con- 
demned by  Middleton's  parliament,  210. 
raw,  Piuil.'a  Bohemian,  martyred  at  St.  Andrews,  22, 

Covenanters,  prepare  to  act  on  the  defensive,  173. 
Army  of  the,  at  Dunse  Law,  176.  Resolve  to  cross 
the  Tweed  and  enter  England,  181.  Enter  into 
treaty  with  the  English  parliament.  191.  Receive 
Charles,  192.  Are  obliged  to  abandon  his  defence, 
193.  Remonstrate  against  his  trial,  196.  Proclaim 
Charles  II.  King,  196.  Character  of,  243.  Petition 
of,  296. 

Crais,  William,  rejected  by  the  Presbytery  of  Auchte- 
rarder,  340. 

— ,  Francis,  his  settlement  at  Kinross  opposed,  be- 
cause he  favoured  the  Marrow,  350. 

Cromwell,  defeats  Leslie  at  Dunbar,  199.  Suppresses 
the  Assembly,  202.  Favours  the  Protesters,  202. 

Culdees,  meaning  of  the  name,  11.  Their  Abbey  at 
lona.  12.  Their  form  of  Church  Government,  12. 
Tench  Christianity  to  the  Saxons,  12.  Encountered 
by  Augustine  the  Monk,  13.  Struggle  between  them 
find  Popish  Prelacy,  14.  Their  final  suppression,  15. 
Doctrines  of  the  Culdees,  15. 

Culsalrnond,  case  of,  423. 

DALZIEL,  Sir  James,  of  Binns,  takes  comrrtand  of  the 
army  against  the  insurgents,  227.  Cruelties  perpe- 
trated by  him,  232. 

Darnley,  Lord,  comes  to  Scotland,  65.  Married  to  the 
Queen,  65.  Murdered,  69. 

Davidson.  John,  proposes  National  Confession  in  the 
Assembly  of  1596,  102. 

Debate  on  Christian  missions  to  the  heathen,  singular 
arguments  of  the  Moderates  in  the,  379. 

Demission,  Deed  of,  signed,  465.     See  Appendix. 

Dickson,  David,  Revival  of  religion  under  his  ministry, 
135.  Supports  the  Resolutioners,  200.  His  final 
opinion  of  the  Protesters,  216. 

Discipline,  First  Book  of,  prepared  and  subscribed  by 


the  Privy  Council,  53.    General  outline  of  its  princi- 
ples and  arrangements,  54-57. 

— ,  Second  Book  of,  laid  before  the  King  and 
the  Privy  Council.  80.  Sanctioned  by  the  Genera] 
Assembly,  and  engrossed  in  its  records,  83.  Sum- 
mary of  the,  83-85. 

Doctrine,  Act  for  preserving  purity  of,  326.  Cause  and 
object  of  this  act,  326. 

Douglas,  John,  appointed  to  the  Archbishopric  of  St. 
Andrews  by  Morton,  73,  74. 

,  Robert,  supports  the  Resolutioners, 203.  Cor- 
respondence with  Sharp,  206.  Interview  between 
him  and  Sharp,  215.  His  opinion  of  the  Protesters,  216. 

Drumclog,  Battle  of,  253. 

Dun  not  tar  Castle,  dreadful  state  of  the  prisoners  con- 
fined in,  282. 

ECCLESIASTICAL  Characteristics,  Witherspoon's,  364. 

Eldership,  corruption  of  the,  under  Moderatism,  365. 

Election  of  Ministers,  Directory  for  the,  196.  See  also 
Appendix. 

Engagement,  the,  between  the  King  and  Hamilton,  193. 
Causes  a  division  among  the  Covenanters,  194.  Con- 
demned by  the  Assembly,  194. 

Enterkin,  pass  of,  rescue  of  a  minister  and  prisoners  at 
the,  273. 

Erskine,  John,  of  Dun,  subscribes  the  Covenant,  38. 
Correspondence  with  the  Earl  of  Mnr,  74. 

,  Lord,  joins  the  Covenanters,  169. 

Colonel,  of  Cardross,  memorial  presented  by 


him  to  Government,  343. 

,  Rev.  Ebenezer,  dissents  from  the  innovations 

of  the  Moderates,  351.  His  Synod  Sermon,  351.  Pro- 
tests against  the  conduct  of  the  Assembly,  and  is 
joined  by  other  ministers,  351.  Is  suspended  by  the 
Commission,  and  secedes  from  '•  the  prevailing  party 
in  the  Church,"  352.  Deposed,  354. 

FAITH,  the  Church  of  Scotland's  First  Confession  of, 
50.  Westminster  Assembly's  Confession  of,  received 
and  ratified  by  the  General  Assembly,  193.  Ratified 
and  embodied  in  the  Act  of  Parliament  1690.  re-estab- 
lishing the  Church  of  Scotland,  302.  The  Moderate 
party  wish  the  subscription  of.  abolished,  372.  In- 
stance of  a  minister  ordained  without  signing  the,  377. 

Field-meetings,  the  origin  of,  221.  First  at  which  arms 
for  self-defence  appeared,  238. 

Forrest,  Dean  Thomas,  his  singular  conversation  with 
the  bishop  of  Dunkeld  ;  suffers  martyrdom  along 
with  four  others,  27. 

GIBBITES,  the,  261. 

Gillespie,  George,  his  character,  182.  A  Commissioner 
to  the  Westminster  Assembly,  188.  His  writings, 
193.  His  death,  197. 

,   Patrick,  his  character,   197,  214.    Request* 

-'••*  II.  not  to  subscribe  the  Covenant,  198. 
v»  -  ue  Remonstrance,  200.  Favoured  by  Crom- 
well, 2t  .  Spared,  214. 

,  the  Rev.  Thomas,  of  Carnock,  deposed,  360. 

He  founds  the  Relief  Secession,  367. 

Glasgow,  Assembly  of,  called  the  Angelical  Assembly, 
124.  Reforming  Assembly  at,  167-170. 

— ,  Act  of,  expelled  nearly  four  hundred  minis- 


ters, 219.  Character  of  the  Prelatic  party  introduced 
by  the,  220. 

Glencairn,  Earl  of,  supports  the  Reformers,  38. 

Graham,  James,  of  Claverhouse,  begins  his  cruelties 
against  the  Covenanters,  248.  Defeated  at  Drum- 
clog,  253.  His  conduct  at  and  after  the  battle  of 
Bothwell  Bridge,  255.  His  increased  cruelties,  279. 
His  murder  of  John  Brown,  280;  and  of  Andiew  Hia- 
lop,  280. 

,  Sir  James,  his  Letter,  and  the  Commission's 

Answer,  453,  454.  See  Appendix. 

Greenshield's,  the  Liturgy  reintroduced  by  him,  327. 

Guthrie,  James,  of  Stirling,  deposed  by  the  Resolution- 
ers. 201.  Imprisoned,  208.  His  trial  and  execution, 
213,  214. 

HACKSTON,  David,  of  Rathillet,  present  at  the  assassi- 
nation of  Sharp,  251.  A  leader  of  the  Covenanters  at 
Drumclog,  253:  and  Bothwell  Bridge.  255.  Taken  at 
Airdsnioss.  2(50.  Barbarously  executed,  260. 

Haddow,  Principal,  his  conduct  towards  Hamilton  of 
Airth.  326.  And  in  the  case  of  Professor  Simson, 
337-339.  Assails  the  Marrow,  344. 

Hall,  Henry,  of  Haughhead,  a  leader  of  the  Covenant- 
ers at  Drumrlog,  253.  Killed  at  (iueensferry,  258. 

Hamilton,  Patrick,  the  first  Scottish  martyr,  an  account 
of  him,  24.  Decoyed  to  St.  Andrews  and  tried  for 
heresy,  25.  Burned  at  the  stake,  26. 


198 


INDEX. 


,  Marquis  of,  appointed  Lord  High  Commis- 

missioner,  159.  Guileful  instructions  given  to  him  by 
Charles.  160.  Proceedings  between  him  and  the 
Covenanters,  160—162.  Frames  an  engagement  with 
Charles,  193.  Leads  an  army  into  England,  is  de- 
feated, and  executed,  195. 

,  Robert,  a  leader  among  the  Covenanters,  252. 

Hardy,  Dr.  Thomas,  an  Evangelical  Moderate,  his  pam- 
phlet, 375. 

Harvey,  Marion,  and  Isabel  Alison,  executed  for  atten- 
ding field-preaching,  251.  • 

Henderson,  Alexander,  comes  to  Edinburgh  to  petition 
against  the  Liturgy,  US.  Frames  a  complaint  against 
the  Liturgy  and  Canons,  150.  Assists  in  framing  the 
National  Covenant,  154.  Goes  to  Aberdeen,"  163. 
Commissioner  to  the  Westminster  Assembly,  1<88. 
His  correspondence  with  the  King,  192.  His  death,  192. 

High  Commission,  Court  of,  instituted  ;  its  tyrannical 
character,  123.  Despotic  procedure,  128,  U9  Re- 
newed, 224.  Its  despotic  proceedings,  225. 

Hill,  Dr.  George,  of  St.  Andrews,  succeeds  Principal 
Roberstson  as  Moderate  leader,  373. 

,  Rowland,  his  opinion  ofModeratism,  382. 

Hislop,  Andrew,  murdered  at  the  command  of  Claver- 
house,  280. 

Holland,  resorted  to  by  the  Scottish  ministers  and  stu- 
dents, 241. 

Host,  the  Highland,  246. 

Hume,  of  Hume,  his  trial  and  execution,  268. 

INDIA  Missions,  the  Church  of  Scotland's,  389. 

Indulgence,  the  first,  235.  Its  effects,  236.  The  second, 
241.  Its  effects,  241. 

,  King  James'  first,  236.  Second  and  third, 

286.  Its  objects  and  results,  287. 

Informatory  Vindication,  the,  287. 

Intercpmmuning,  letters  of,  244. 

Intrusion  into  kirks,  act  anent:  cause  and  explanation 
of  the,  312. 

of  ministers  into  vacant  congregations,  act 

against,  353,  and  Appendix. 

Inverkeillor,  case  of,  447. 

Ireland,  Robert  Blair  and  others  retire  to,  130.  Sym- 
pathy with  the  sufferings  of  the  Presbyterians  of, 
manifested  by  the  General  Assembly,  185. 

JAMES  V.,  general  character  of  his  reign,  28. 

VI.  assumes  the  full  sovereignty,  80.     He  and 

his  favourites  begin  a  series  of  intrigues  against,  the 
Church,   85.      Supports    Robert    Montgomery,  J$. 
Passes  the  Black  Acts,  90.     Eulogizes  the  Church\9£; 
Assails   the   Church   in  the  case  of  Blnck,  107.     At- 
tempts to  vitiate  the  Assembly,  110.     Partially  suc- 
ceeds, 110.     Proposes  that  ministers  should  sit  in  Par- 
liament,   112.       Appoints    bishops,    115.      Banishes 
Robert  Bruce,  116.     Succeeds  to  the  Crown  of  Eng- 
land    118.     Prorogues  the  General   Assembly,   119. 
Banishes  Melville,  122.     His  tyrannical  proceedings 
against  the  Church,  122,  123.    His  death  and  charac- 
ter, 131. 

VII.  ascends  the  throne,  277.     His  first  Scottish 

Parliament,  and  its  proceedings,  277.     Grants  tolera- 
tion to  the  Papists  by  his  own  authority,  277.     His 
first  Indulgence  286.     Second  and  third,  286.     Effects 
of  the  third  Indulgence,  287. 

Johnston,  Archibald,  of  Warriston.  assists  in  framing 
the  Covenant,  154.  Suffers  martyrdom.  223. 

Jurisdiction  of  the  Church  in  spiritual  matters,  and  over 
its  own  members,  and  right  to  try  their  conduct,  and 
to  exercise  discipline,  73.  Contested  by  the  King, 
88,  106.  Admitted  by  the  Civil  Courts,  359. 

KENNEDY,  of  Ayr,  suffers  martyrdom,  27. 

Kin;?  and  Kid,  Rev.  Messrs  ,  executed  after  the  Battle 
of  Both  well  Bridge.  256. 

Kingslwrns,  parish  of,  held  by  Dr.  Arnot,  Professor  of 
Theology  in  St.  Andrews,  384. 

Knox,  John,  the  Scottish  Reformer,  accompanies  Wis- 
hart.  30.  Enters  into  the  Castle  of  St.  Andrews,  and 
is  called  to  the  ministry,  34.  Argues  with  the  Pa- 
pists, 34.  Confined  to  the  galleys,  35.  Released  and 
resides  on  the  Continent,  35.  Returns  to  Scotland, 
36.  Departs  again  to  Geneva,  37.  Returns  finally  to 
Scotland.  42.  Preaches  at  St.  Andrews,  45.  Defends 
himself  before  the  Queen  in  Council,  63.  Opposes 
the  Tulchan  Bishops,  76.  His  death,  and  eulogium 
pronounced  1  y  the  Regent  Morton,  77. 

LANARK,  Declaration  of,  265.     Its  tenor,  266. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  his  influence  with  ,Charles,  urging 

the  introduction  of  Prelacy  and   Arminianism  into 

Scotland,  138. 


Lauderdale,  Earl  of,  appointed  Secretary  of  State  for 
Scotland,  208.  Assumes  the  chief  management  of 
affairs  in  Scotland,  222.  His  final  loss  of  power,  and 
the  King's  remark  upon  his  conduct,  257. 

Lawburrows,  writ  of,  247. 

Leighton,  Robert,  made  a  bishop  by  Charles  It,  215. 


eighton,  Robert,  made  a  bishop  b 
Attempts  an  accommodation,  239. 


Leith,  held   by  a  French  garrison,  46.     Besieged,  48. 

Surrendered,  49.    Convention  of,  75. 
Lennox,  Earl  of,  appointed  Regent,  72.     Killed,  74. 
Leslie,  General,  appointed  to  command  the  army  of  the 

Covenanters,  166.     Is  defeated  by  Cromwell,  199 
Lethendy,  case  of,  405.     Action  of  damages,  459. 
Light,  the  New,  or  Socinian  Party,  377.    Their  influ- 

ence on  the  mind  of  Burns,  378. 
Liberum  Arbitrium,  negociations  concerning  the,  422. 

Rejected,  434 
Lindsay,  Secretary,  his  scheme  respecting  the  patri- 

mony of  the  Church,  103. 
Linlithgow,  Assembly  of,  where  bishops  were  made 

constant  Moderators,  122. 
Liturgy,  riot  at  the  attempted  introduction  of  the,  146. 

Re  introduction  by  the  Prelatists,  327. 
Livingstone,  John,  remarkable  religious  revival  accom- 

panying his  preaching,  136.     One  of  the  Commission- 

ers to  Breda,  his  opinion  of  Charles  II.,  198. 
Lockhurt,  George,  of  Carnwath,  his  schemes  to  over- 

throw the  Church,  326,  330. 

Lollards  of  Kyle,  account  of  them,  24.     Persecuted,  24. 
London.  Earl  of,  assists  at  the  framing  of  the  Covenant, 

154.     Committed  to  the  Tower  by  the  King,  179. 

M'CRIE,  Dr.,  publishes  the  Life  of  Knox,  387. 

M'Kail,  Hugh,  his  trial,  torture,  and  execution,  231. 

M-Kenzie,  Sir  George,  Lord  Advocate,  and  a  violent 
persecutor,  249.  Excommunicated  by  Cargill,260. 

Macmillan,  Rev.  John,  joins  the  strict  Covenanters,  and 
becomes  their  minister,  335. 

Maitland,  William,  of  Lethington,  scoffs  at  the  Propo- 
sals of  the  Reformers,  50,  60.  Joins  the  Queen'» 
Party  and  the  Hamiltons,  72. 

Marnoch.  Case  of,  407. 

Marrow  of  Modern  Divinity,  recommended  by  Boston 
and  Hog,  312.  Republished,  342.  Assailed  by  Prin- 
cipal Haddow,  344.  Condemned  by  the  Assembly, 
345.  The  twelve  Marrow  men,  345. 

Mary  of  Guise,  widow  of  James  V.,  becomes  Queen- 
Regent,  35  Hostilities  between  her  and  the  Protest- 
ants. 40.  Has  recourse  to  arms,  44.  Suspended  bj 
the  Convention,  47.  Dies,  49. 

Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  married  to  the  Dauphin  of 
France,  35.  Lands  at  Leith,  58.  Favours  Popery, 
58.  Interview  with  Knox,  59.  Married  to  Darnley, 
65.  Accused  of  his  murder.  69. 

Melville,  Andrew,  comes  to  Scotland,  78.  His  inter- 
view with  Morton,  79.  Interview  with  the  King,  87. 
Assistance  given  by  him  to  the  King  against  the 
Popish  Lords,  102  His  remarkable  address  to  the 
King,  105.  Banished.  122. 

Memorial  against  Patronage,  338. 

Middleton,  Earl  of,  appointed  Commissioner,  208.  Par- 
liament held  by  him,  and  its  acts,  209.  And  charac- 
ter, 210.  His  last  proceedings,  212.  His  loss  of 
power.  222. 

Middle-  Party,  rise  of,  424. 

Mdl,  Walter,  suffers  at  the  stake,  the  last,  martyr  of  the 
Reformation,  39. 

Missions.  Christian,  to  the  Heathen,  condemned  by  the 
Moderates,  3SO. 

Mitchell,  James,  attempts  to  assassinate  Sharp,  234. 
His  trial,  and  torture,  and  execution,  249. 

Moderatism,  its  beginning  traced  to  the  Indulgence, 
285.  Greatly  auLunented  by  the  Comprehension 
Scheme  of  King  William,  305.  Its  tendency  to  Ar- 
minifinism.  327.  Unfaithfulness  in  cases  of  heresy, 
340,348.  '  Opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  free  gra:e, 
345.  Support  of  patronage,  and  disregard  of  the  peo- 
ple, 341,348.  Germ  of  its  policy  in  suppressing  the 
freedom  of  Church  Courts,  349.  Proposes  and  car- 
ries an  innovation  on  the  mode  of  settling  ministers, 
350.  Temporary  loss  of  power,  352.  Recovery  of 
it,  355.  Proposes  an  augmentation  of  stipend,  but  is 
defeated,  359.  Moderate  Manifesto,  361.  Admits  a 
corrupt.  Eldership,  365  Leniency  of,  to  Immorality, 
370.  Favours  pluralities,  371.  Attempts  to  abolish 
the  subscription  of  the  Confession  of  Faith,  372.  At- 
tempts to  abolish  the  Call,  374.  Rise  of  a  tendency 
to  Evangelism  among  the  Moderates,  375.  Defends 
Patronage  absolute  and  unlimited,  and  rescinds  the 
instructions  of  the  Commission  against,  376.  Op- 
poses Missions  to  the  Heathen,  379.  Discourage* 
Chapels  of  Ease,  381.  Puts  an  end  to  Christian  com- 


INDEX. 


499 


tnunion  with  other  Churches,  382.  Discountenances 
•Reli?ious  Societies  and  Sabbath  Schools,  383.  Gene- 
ral view  of  Moderatism  as  a  system,  383.  Symptoms 
of  its  decline,  384.  Defeated  in  the  Leslie  case,  385. 
Internal  disunion,  386.  Recent  conduct  of,  see  the 
Auchterarder,  Lethendy,  and  Marnoch  cases. 

•Monastery  of  the  Carthusian  friars  at  Perth  demolish- 
ed, 43.  General  demolition  of,  45. 

Monmoiith.  Duke  of,  commands  the  King's  army  at 
Both  well  Bridge,  253. 

Montgomery,  Robert,  accepts  a  bishopric.  86.  Contest 
between  him  and  the  Church,  86.  Submits,  88. 

Montrose,  Earl  of,  supports  the  Covenanters.  His  con- 
duct at  Aberdeen,  175.  Joins  the  King,  178.  Is  de- 
feated by  Leslie,  191. 

Wonzie,  Campbell  of,  his  Bill,  discussion  on,  prevented, 
440. 

Merton,  Earl  of,  subscribes  the  Covenant,  38.  Devises 
"  schemes  for  defrauding  the  Church,  73.  Appoints 
John  Douglass  to  the  Archbishopric  of  St.  Andrews, 
73.  Appointed  Regent,  77.  His  eulosium  over  the 
grave  of  Knox,  77.  Enters  into  a  series  of  contests 
•with  the  Church,  77.  His  interview  with  Melville, 
79.  Resigns  the  Regency,  80.  His  fall  and  execu- 
tion, 82. 

Murray,  Earl  of,  favours  the  Reformation,  36.  Nego- 
ciates  between  the  Queen-Regent  and  the  Congrega- 
tion, 44.  Joins  the  Reformers  and  subscribes  the  Se- 
cond Covenant,  44.  Raised  to  the  Regency,  69. 
Assassinated  by  Hamilton  of  Bothwellhaugh  at  Lin- 
lithgow,  72 

NEILSON,  John,  of  Corsack,  tortured  and  executed,  230. 
IVeonomians,  the,  a  party  of  Semi-Arminians,  341. 
T^on-residence,  such  a  plurality  of  offices  as  to  cause, 
prohibited,  387. 

OCHILTREE,  Lord,  subscribes  the  Second  Covenant,  44. 

Opposes  the  Five  Articles  of  Perth,  125. 
Ormiston,  Laird    of,  Wishart    seized  forcibly  in  his 

house,  30. 

PALLADIUS  sent  from  Rome  to  Scotland,  10.  Died  at 
Fordoun,  11. 

iPaton,  Captain  John,  his  trial  and  execution,  271. 

^Patrick,  St.,  form  of  Church  Government  introduced 

by  him  into  Ireland.  11. 

'atronage,  its  introduction  into  Scotland,  23.  Discus- 
sion with  the  Queen  respecting,  67.  Unjustly  given 
•o  the  Titular  Lords,  92.  Abolished  by  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment, 196.  Re-imposed  after  the  Restoration,  210. 
Asain  abolished  at  the  Revolution,  303.  Re-imposed, 
380  Still  invalid,  330.  Professor  Hutcheson's  con- 
siderations on,  370.  Address  by  General  Assembly 
for  its  abolition.  430. 

Peace,  Bond  of,  233. 

iPeden,  Alexander,  confined  in  the  Bass,  242.  His 
death,  285. 

iPentland,  rising  of,  its  origin,  226.  Defeated  at  Rullion 
Green,  229.  "Sufferings  after  the,  229. 

People  of  Scotland,  their  deep  interest  in  religious  mat- 
ters, 357. 

{Persecution  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  beginning  of  the, 
208.  Termination  of  the,  291.  General  summary  of 
the  effects  of,  during  twenty-eight  years,  291. 

iPerth,  tumult  at,  and  destruction  of  the  Carthusian 
Monastery,  43.  The  Second  Covenant  subscribed  at, 
44.  Fiv!  Articles  of.  125. 

(Pluralities  finally  prohibited,  389. 

??olicy  of  the  Stuart  family,  ruling  principles  of  the, 

S?oor,  state  of  the.  in  Scotland  at  the  Revolution,  315. 
Kllorts  of  the  Church  to  relieve  the,  324.  Effectual 
till  the  increase  of  the  Secession,  367. 

Grayer,  private  meetings  for,  opposed  by  Henry  Guth- 
ry,  181.  Permitted  by  Assembly,  183. 

Preamble  of  the  Patronage  Act,  falsehood  of  the, 
proved,  332. 

I?;  elacy  deceptively  introduced  into  the  Scottish  Church 
by  Morton,  "3.  Hy  James,  111.  Abolished  by  the 
General  Assembly,  170.  Re-introduced  by  Charles 
11,215.  Character  of  the  curates.  220.  Thoir  con- 
duct during  the  persecution,  224 — 258.  Abolished  at 
the  Revolution,  293. 

Presbyteries,  first  erection  of,  82. 

}?rec:cntation>the  first,  received  after  the  Patronage 
Act,  repelled,' 337. 

Protest,  the,  of  the  Evangelical  and  Free  Church  of 
Scotland,  462.  See  Appendix. 

protesters  opposed  the  rescinding  of  the  Act  of  Classes, 
206.  Contests  between  them  and  the  Resolutioners, 
2&1.  Injurious  consequences  of  this  schism,  216,  218. 


QUBBNSBERRY,  Earl  of,  one  of  the  Duke  of  York's  ad- 
ministration, 267.  Commissioner  in  the  prelatic  par- 
liament, 277. 

Queensferry  paper,  the,  is  general  tenor,  258. 

RABBLING  Act,  the  first,  314.    The  second,  its  causes, 

337. 
Recissory  Act,  annulling  all  acts  of  parliament  from 

1633  to  1661,  210. 

Reformation  be?un  in  Scotland,  23.  Confirmed  by  par- 
liament, 50.  Finally  ratified,  69. 

,  the  Second,  account  of  it,  171. 

Renwick,  the  Rev.  James,  joins  the  Society  People,  or 

Covenanters,    and    continues    field-preachinff,    269. 

Seized,  288.     His  trial,  death,  and  character,  289. 
Resby,  John,  suffers  martyrdom,  22. 
Resolunoners  support  the  rescinding  of  the  Act  of 

Classes,  199.     Generally  guided  by  expediency,  200. 

Contests  of  the,  with  the  Protesters,  weakening  the 

Church,  201. 
Revivals  of  religion,  103.     At  Stewarton,  135.     Shotts, 

136.     CambuslangandKilsyth,356.     Again  at  Kilsyih 

and  other  places,  410. 
Revolution,  the,  289.     Conduct  of  the  Covenanters  at, 

290. 

--  Settlement,  state  of  the  Cnurch  at  the  time 

of  the,  298.     General  character  of  the,  305. 
Rhyme,  Church  built,  at,  in  one  day,  435. 
Riding  Committee,  first  instance  of  the,  341.    Second 

instance,  349.     Last  instance,  360. 
Rizzio,  David,  assassinated,  68.     Note  respecting  his 

assassination,  Appendix. 
Robertson,  Principal,  his  Manifesto,  361.    His  policy 

and  character,  367. 
Rothes,  Earl  of,  his  opinion  of  the  prelatic  attempts, 

150.     Supports  the  Covenanters,  155. 
,  Etirl  and  Duke  of.  son  of  the  former,  joins  Lau- 

derdale,  222.     His  death,  260. 
Rough,  John,  preaches  in  the  Castle  of  St.  Andrews, 

assisted  by  Knox,  34. 
Rullion  Green,  battle  of,  229. 
Rutherford,  Samuel,  banished  to  Aberdeen,  143.    Hi» 

death.  214. 

Rutherglen  Declaration,  252. 
Ruth  veil.  Raid  of,  88.    Sanctioned,  then  condemned, 

by  the  King,  88. 

SANDILANDP,  Sir  James,  preceptor  of  Torphichen,  joins 
the  Reformers,  36.  Sent  to  France  to  negociate  with 
the  Queen,  51. 

Sanquhnr  Declaration,  the,  its  object  and  tenor,  258. 

Saturday,  Black   126. 

Schism,  Overtures  respecting,  and  debate,  368. 

SchismaMcal  procedure  of  the  Moderate  Party,  450, 
456.  457. 

Schools,  system  of  parochial,  proposed  by  the  Reform- 
ers, 55.  Secured  at  the  Second  Reformation,  170 
Again  after  the  Revolution,  314.  Deficiency  of,  in  the 
Highlands.  366. 

Scotland,  state  of  reliffion  in,  before  the  Reformation,  18. 

Seaton,  Alexander,  a^Domin.^an  Friar,  adopts  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Reformation,  26. 

Secession,  rise  of  the  First,  352.     Rise  of  the  Second,  361. 

Security,  Act  of,  the  basis  of  the  Union,  320.  Violated 
by  the  Patronage  Act,  330.  Remarks  regarding  this 
unconstitutional  violation,  330,  331. 

Session,  Court  of,  first  contest  with  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  93. 

Settlement  of  a  minister  without  the  concurrence  of 
the  people,  the  first,  340.  The  first  against  the  dis- 
sent, 348. 

Sharp,  James,  sent  to  London,  205.  His  character,  205. 
Correspondence  with  Douglass.  206.  Interview  be- 
tween him  and  Douglass,  215.  Assassinnted,  251. 

Shields,  Rev.  Alexander,  joins  Renwick,  285.  Main- 
tains field-preaching  afrer  Ren  wick's  death,  -289. 
Received  into  the  Church  by  the  General  Assembly, 
304. 

Shotts,  Kirk  of.  remarkable  revival  of  religion  at  the, 
136. 

Simson,  Professor,  accused  of  heresy,  337,  340.  Again 
accused,  348.  Suspended.  348. 

Society  People,  a  name  siven  to  the  Covenanters,  266. 

Spence,  William,  his  trial  and  torture,  271. 

Spotswood,  John,  or*  of  the  Reformers,  made  superin- 
tendent of  Lothian,  52. 

,  John,  his  son,  joins  in  the  King's  intrigues 

against  the  Church.  110.  Made  Archbishop  and  a 
Lord  of  Session,  123.  Made  Chancellor.  142.  De- 
spairs when  the'Covenant  is  signed,  and  dies,  158, 

Stnrk,  Helen,  suffers  martyrdom  at  Perth,  30. 

Stewart,  Lord  James;  see  Earl  of  Murray. 


500 


INDEX. 


Stewart,  Captain  James,  created  Earl  of  Arran,  his 
character,  82. 

Stewart,  Major  Ludovick,  his  speech  when  interdicted, 
428. 

Stewarton,  revival  of  religion  at,  135. 

case,  stated,  441.  Plea  of  independent  juris- 
diction, 441.  442.  Decided,  454. 

Strathbogie,  Presbytery  of,  their  conduct  in  the  Mar- 
noch  Case,  407.  Suspended,  409.  Sentence  of  As- 
sembly on  those  who  held  Communion  with  them, 
432,  433,  436. 

Superintendents  appointed  in  consequence  of  the  pau- 
city of  ministers,  51. 

TABLES,  the  Four,  their  construction  and  use,  151. 

Talla-linn,  meeting  at,  its  consequence,  267. 

Teind,  Commissioners  of  the,  320. 

Test  Act,  the,  263.     Its  consequences,  264. 

Thomson,  Dr.  Andrew,  his  character.  386. 

Toleration,  301,  329,  338. 

Torphichen,  last  instance  of  a  Riding  Committee  at,  360. 

Torwood  Excommunication,  the,  260. 

Transportations,  Acts  for  regulating,  cause  and  expla- 
nation of  the,  313. 

Traquair,  Earl  of,  comes  to  Edinburgh  to  support  the 
prelatic  party,  152.  His  deceptive  conduct,  153. 

Turner,  Sir  James,  his  cruelties,  224.  Seized  to  the  in- 
surgents at  Dumfries,  227. 

UNION  between  England  and  Scotland,  proposals  for  a, 
318.  Directions  given  to  the  Scottish  Commissioners 
with  regard  to  the  Church,  318.  The  Act  of  Security 
rendered  the  basis  of  the,  320.  Finally  ratified.  320. 
Reflections  concerning  the  new  position  in  which  the 
Church  of  Scotland  was  placed  by  the,  321.  Violated 
by  the  Patronage  Act,  330-335. 

VIOLENT  Settlements  of  Ministers,  first  instance  of  the, 
348.  Some  of  the  most  remarkable  cases  of ; — Hut- 


ton,  349;  Kinross,  350;   Bowden,  355:  Torphichen, 
360;  Inverkeithing,  360;  Nisg,  364;  Jeclburgh,  3S5  . 
Kilconqu liar,  367;  Shotts,367;  St.  Ninians,869;  Mar' 
noch,  407. 
Visitation  of  Families  recommended  by  the  Assembly, 

Voluntary  Controversy,  the,  392. 

WALLACE,  Adam,  suffers  martyrdom,  35. 

,  Colonel,  takes  command  of  the  Insurgents. 

227. 

Welsh,  John,  son-in-law  of  Knox,  confined  in  Black- 
ness, then  banished,  120.     Death  of,  128. 
,  John,  a  price  set  on  his  head,  242. 

Westminster,  Assembly  of,  its  character  and  proceed- 
ings, 188,  189. 

,  Bicentenary  Commemoration' 

of,  held,  468. 

William,  King,  his  character  and  views,  299.  His  death, 
and  remarks  on  his  policy,  317. 

Willock,  John,  joins  the  Reformers,  36. 

Wilson  Margaret,  drowned  near  Wigton,  by  command 
of  Lagg  and  Windram,  281. 

Winram,  John,  sub-prior  of  St.  Leonard's,  favours  the 
Reformation,  27. 

Wishart,  George,  account  of  him,  30.  Preaches  at 
Montrose,  Ayr,  and  Dundee,  30.  Accompanied  by 
John  Knox  to  Haddington,  30.  Suffers  martyr- 
dom, 32. 

Wodrow,  Robert,  the  historian  of  the  persecution,  hi* 
instructions,  to  Erskine  of  Cardross,  342. 

YORK,  Duke  of,  afterwards  James  VII.,  appointed  tc- 
the  administration  of  affairs  in  Scotland,  after  the  fall 
of  Lauderdale,  257.  Excommunicated  by  Cargillr 
260.  His  cold  cruelty,  261.  Acts  of  ihe  parliament 
held  by  him,  263.  His  last  visit  to  Scotland,  267.  Hi» 
saying  respecting  the  only  method  of  paciticating 
Scotland,  269. 


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